The Buffalo Sabres are a promising young team but they still lack a franchise goaltender despite three young prospects in the system.
One of the burning questions regarding the Buffalo Sabres in a conversation between The Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington and Lance Lysowski involved whether the team would draft a goaltender this week. And while Harrington and Lysowski each have their own points of view regarding several potential picks and roster transactions, they shared a common denominator with this one.
Of course, the Sabres will be drafting a goaltender. But with a weaker class, it is hard to expect they will spend their first five picks on a netminder. Instead, look for them to seek out a potential diamond in the rough between rounds four and seven.
Why the Buffalo Sabres will draft a goaltender in the 2022 NHL Draft
Harrington stated the Sabres doing so has not so much to do with the uncertainty in the system as much as it has to do with the fact teams should draft a goaltender each season until they land a franchise player. Fair argument, and one I wholeheartedly agree with.
To me, being an NHL goaltender is akin to being an NFL quarterback. There are 332 million people living in America, and you’d think you could find 32 people to play goaltender in the NHL or quarterback in the NFL. There are also another 39 million in Canada and we still can’t find 32 adequate hockey players to man the net in the NHL.
That shows you just how valuable of a commodity goaltenders are. We don’t know how well Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will pan out, but so far the returns have not been encouraging. Portillo remains unsigned and no one close to the Sabres is confident he will sign.
Devon Levi has been stellar at Northeastern, but will his play translate? We don’t know. So until there is a surefire franchise goaltender in the system, general manager Kevyn Adams needs to draft at least one per season. Especially with 11 draft picks.
Article Source: Sabres roundtable: Answering 5 burning questions ahead of the NHL draft by Lance Lysowski and Mike Harrington.