The 2016 NAHL Draft was held on June 24-25 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York, and hosted NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. The two cities are about a two-hour dirve away from each other and their respective hockey teams have been rivals for years. Ironically, Alexander’s brother William was also selected at #8, going to Toronto in the 2014 Draft.
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One player who will not contribute to that success is Taro Tsujimoto….a player so great he didn’t exist.
Who do the Devils take at 11?
Some of the things to watch on Day 2 include when some of the players previously projected as first-round picks goes. Following a disappointing playoff-free season, the Habs took the first step in getting back.
Rumors swirled prior to the draft that Buffalo was interested in acquiring Anaheim Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler for the eighth pick, but any potential deal never came to fruition.
A ton of credit should be given to the St. Louis AAA Blues youth hockey program, which developed all five of the players who were selected on Friday. And it showed. While Sabres Taco and I were discussing why he’d be an 18th round pick in Mrs. Taco’s dude draft, the young prospects made their way in and around 716 and Sergachev stood out not only for his size, but he looked like a man amongst the many boyish faces we’d seen come through.
“I was pretty impressed (with the ranking), I had a big jump of 42 spots”, Salinitri said.
This season marked the first time in modern draft history where two CHL clubs (Windsor and London) each had three players chosen in the first round. Burgess also played for the NAHL Selects team at the 2016 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament.
Nylander brings another element to the Sabres/Maple Leafs rivalry. They’re looking really good, and they’re going to have a really good team for next year. “For example, I fully expect Edmonton to be in play for one of their top forwards in order to improve their defence”. They’re hoping that this year’s pick of Nylander, as well as last year’s #2 pick of Jack Eichel, will be enough to lead them out of the abyss of National Hockey League purgatory.
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As is always the case, trade chatter exploded on the day before the draft.
