Top 5 defensemen prospects for Sabres fans to know about in the 2024 NHL Draft
The Buffalo Sabres need more high-end blueliners in their prospects pool, and the 2024 NHL Draft will be a great place to find them.
One of the biggest needs for the Buffalo Sabres is a right-handed defenseman, and it’s been that way for a while. Luckily, general manager Kevyn Adams could get his hands on a few of these players in late June when the 2024 NHL Draft commences, as there is a lot of talent there and also at LHD.
But the former must take top priority, as the top blueliners in the Sabres prospect pool are LHDs Ryan Johnson and Nikita Novikov. The former is one you won’t call a prospect in 2024-25. Johnson will surely see himself in a role with the Blue and Gold all season, especially if his performance in Buffalo this past year serves as an indicator.
Novikov could be a top call-up this season following what was a strong debut campaign with the Rochester Americans, where he had 23 points and three goals in 65 contests. He also recently made his AHL playoff debut and picked up an assist in that game, and you can expect even more production from the 20-year-old.
Buffalo Sabres must strongly consider defense early in 2024 NHL Draft
RHD Vsevolod Komarov will join Novikov for 2024-25, and while he excelled in the QMJHL this past season, expect a learning curve for the 20-year-old when he gets his first taste of competitive professional hockey action. At this point, Komarov is the one notable RHD who will be playing for the Amerks, and Maxim Strbak is the only other RHD worth mentioning.
It will be a while before we see Strbak in Rochester, but he wasn’t bad in his first season at Michigan State, with a pair of goals and nine points throughout 32 contests. Strbak also represented Slovakia in the World Juniors, where he logged another goal and seven points in five games.
Just because we’re prioritizing RHDs in the following slides, take note that there will be two LHDs listed; as if the latter is the best position on the board when the Sabres pick, it wouldn’t be wise to pass on them.
Zayne Parekh, RHD/London
If Kevyn Adams wanted to make a splash AND if the Sabres drew a top 10 pick, Zayne Parekh is the ideal selection among all right-handed defensemen. His overall size of 6’0, 181 lbs isn’t bad for an 18-year-old, and he still has time to grow further into his frame.
Parekh has also shown time and again that he can score like a forward. He found the net 21 times in 50 games in 2022-23 while putting up 37 points before he parlayed that into a 33-goal, 96-point performance this past season in 66 regular season matchups. Doing the math it shows us that Parekh put up 1.45 points for every game he played, and this isn’t counting the postseason in which he registered another eight, plus two goals in nine playoff games.
Corey Pronman of The Athletic compared Parekh to John Klingberg, and while the latter disappeared this past season, there is no denying that Klingberg was one of the better blueliners in the league for a while. Earlier in his career, Klingberg took sixth place for the Norris Trophy twice, and it implies what kind of player Parekh could become.
Finally, since the Sabres should no longer see the need to rush prospects, they will be more than okay with Parekh playing another two seasons with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit before he makes a jump to the AHL. Give him between three and four years, and Parekh will be ready to become an NHLer full-time.
Anton Silayev, LHD/Torpedo
When I first saw Anton Silayev’s name listed highly in rankings like Pronman’s and those over at Tankathon, Mattias Samuelsson and Nikita Novikov first came to mind regarding his build, but Silayev is even bigger, currently clocking in at 6’7, 207 lbs. Silayev is also so good, he’s seeing better-than-expected ice time with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, having put up 11 points and three goals in 63 regular season contests.
Silayev also put up another two assists in five playoff games, and he’s most recently joined the MHL’s Chaika Nizhny Novgorod, logging another trio of helpers in 10 playoff contests. While I was thinking about potential comparisons within the organization, Corey Pronman had his own comparison to make: Zdeno Chara.
Yeah, Sabres fans are more than familiar with Chara, who spent 14 seasons with the Boston Bruins and, before that, four years with the Ottawa Senators. Known for a surprising two-way game that saw him log 39 points or more for nine seasons in a row, Chara knew how to use his size and strength.
Expect Silayev to do the same when he eventually arrives in North America, even if he doesn’t become a serviceable points-producer in the NHL. But as Sabres fans have learned since the Kevyn Adams era began, you can never have too many physical players in your prospects pool, just waiting to be unleashed in the NHL - and Silayev will be that player.
Carter Yakemchuk, RHD/Calgary
Like Anton Silayev, Carter Yakemchuk also displays good size, even if his 6’3, 194 lbs frame isn’t quite as imposing as the former’s. That said, Yakemchuk makes up for it thanks to his stellar two-way play, something he displayed with the Calgary Hitmen when he recorded 47 points and 19 goals in 67 games in 2022-23.
This season, he exceeded the point-per-game threshold with 71 points and 30 goals in 66 contests, and it’s not far-fetched to believe he will put up 90-plus points in what will be his final season with the Hitmen in 2024-25.
Thanks to his productivity and an early birthday - September 2005 - Yakemchuk is someone who could make a seamless transition to the professional level. That said, Sabres fans wouldn’t need to wait long for Yakemchuk to debut in Rochester if he was available, and Adams snagged him somewhere around the 11th overall pick.
In his rankings, Pronman has Yakemchuk listed third overall, so if there is a chance for Adams to draft him, he and the rest of the Blue and Gold need to hope for another Zach Benson situation, in which the winger fell right into their lap at 13th overall last year.
There are a few ideal selections in this slideshow, but given Yakemchuk’s age, his productivity, and ultra-high ranking on most draft boards, he could be the most ideal RHD candidate in the draft next to Artyom Levshunov.
Zeev Buium, LHD/Denver
Shai Buium is one of the better LHD prospects in the Detroit Red Wings pipeline, but the younger Buium could possess even more upside. Considering how much Shai improved throughout his three seasons at the University of Denver but still amassed under a point per game, Zeev could end up registering forward numbers as a blueliner.
This past season, he had 50 points and 11 goals in 42 contests, already eclipsing the point-per-game mark. As a result, he’s fourth overall in Pronman’s rankings and 10th at Tankathon - so if the latter proves to be the more accurate of the two on draft day, there is a very good chance Buium ends up in the Sabres system.
At 6’0, 183 lbs, Buium also possesses decent size, and the only real knock is that he’s not fulfilling that immediate need for an RHD. But if Kevyn Adams wants to add another potential big-time scorer who could, in time, transform into something reminiscent of Rasmus Dahlin, Zeev Buium may be that player.
This isn’t saying Buium has more upside than the Blue and Gold’s premier player - let’s not get too ambitious just yet - but his ceiling could eventually be a shade under Dahlin’s. Buium won’t play in the NHL right away as Dahlin did, or perhaps even directly following his next collegiate season, as in Owen Power’s case, but he would be worth waiting for.
Henry Mews, RHD/Ottawa
Unlike the other names on this list, Henry Mews is more likely to be taken toward the bottom half of Round 1, and his ceiling is more likely around the middle of the defensive rotation. But these are all just projections at this point, as so-called elite talents have faltered in the past, and those considered solid yet unspectacular have surprised, so let’s not underestimate Mews just yet.
His 6’0, 185 lbs frame is intriguing, and Mews can stick around with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s for another two seasons, giving him more room to grow and develop his game. Like most of the other defensemen on this list, Mews has shown he can both score and contribute to his team’s scoring efforts, with 12 goals and 31 points in 55 games last year before he scored another 15 goals and recorded 61 points in 65 matchups this past season.
Mews also appeared in 21 postseason games with the 67’s, with nine points and three goals to show for it. Overall, he would be a more ideal pick if the Sabres landed lower than 11th overall and if his stock increased in the weeks leading up to the draft.
Mews won’t make his pro debut at the AHL level any time soon, but if he ended up with the Sabres, he could still nonetheless factor in as their top RHD prospect.
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(Statistics provided by Elite Prospects)