William Borgen, D/Moorhead-Spuds HS
Original Pick: William Borgen, D/Moorhead-Spuds HS
This is the one pick I actually thought the Buffalo Sabres did a good job with. Yeah, he only gave them 14 games, and the front office was so impressed with Borgen‘s play, they left him exposed in the 2022 NHL Expansion Draft. This prompted the Seattle Kraken to scoop him up and the Sabres may have thought he was someone else’s problem.
But Borgen’s 36 games in Seattle looked promising. He scored eight points (two goals), which put him on pace for 18 points. But the real show came on defense, where he recorded 33 blocks and an astounding 89 hits. Over 82 games, that would equal 75 blocks and 203 hits.
Borgen’s physicality and size puts him onto the same boat as Mattias Samuelsson. And given Samuelsson’s performance this season, the Sabres may have gotten a better consolation prize. But if they kept Borgen, they may have had a slightly more productive sledgehammer in the making. But we’ll still take our chances with the budding Samuelsson.