Ah, the 2006 NHL Draft – also known as the draft in which half of the world forgets that defenseman Erik Johnson went first-overall.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since that NHL Draft. Jordan Staal and Jonathan Toews rounded out the top three, with Nicklas Backstrom and Phil Kessel finishing off the top five.
Ten years later, it’s time to look back on that 2006 NHL Draft and see how some of those selections, particularly those by the Buffalo Sabres, panned out.
The Buffalo Sabres made six selections in the 2006 NHL Draft – and none of them are with the organization anymore.
That list includes several players who never appeared in an NHL game, as well as several who never played for the Buffalo Sabres.
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Let’s begin with Dennis Persson, selected 24th overall by the Sabres in the 2006 NHL Draft.
After the draft, he continued to play overseas, with Nykoping Hockey, Djurgardens IF Stockholm, and Timra IK. He finally came to North America and played for the Buffalo Sabres’ AHL affiliates in Portland, and then Rochester, from 2009 until 2012.
Following the 2011-12 season, he returned to Sweden. After two seasons with Brynas IF Gavle, he played a year and a half for MODO Hockey Ornskoldsvik. Persson ended this season with Bjorkloven IF.
He’s never played an NHL game.
Next up, the Buffalo Sabres chose goaltender Jhonas Enroth with the 46th overall selection in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Enroth, of course, came up through the AHL and eventually made it to the NHL with the Sabres. After some six seasons with the Sabres organization, he went to Dallas and is now playing with the Los Angeles Kings.
Third: Mike Weber, picked 57th overall, in the second round in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Weber played for both Rochester and Buffalo before finding his way to the NHL. After eight and a half seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, he was traded to Washington, where he’s currently playing.
Now, we move on to the perhaps lesser-known guys, starting with center Felix Schutz, picked 117th overall in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Schutz played for the Portland Pirates from 2008 until 2010, but that was it for his time in North America. Since then, he’s played in the DEL (Ingolstadt, Cologne), the KHL (Vladivostok, Omsk, Riga, Nizhny) and the SweHL (Rogle).
Thirty picks later, the Sabres got defenseman Alex Biega in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Biega never made it to the NHL with the Sabres, but has been with the Vancouver Canucks organization since 2013 and has found some success there. He’s played mostly in the AHL but has appeared in 58 NHL games.
Finally, the Sabres picked up center Benjamin Breault with the 207th pick in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Breault never made it to the NHL or even the AHL, but played four seasons with Dalhousie University through 2012-13.
According to his Twitter, he’s signed with the Perth Thunder of the AIHL and has previously spent time in Belarus, Poland and France.
We’ll continue looking at some historic Buffalo Sabres NHL Draft selections and see where they are now, as we grow ever closer to the 2016 NHL Draft.