NHL.com projects Buffalo selecting Yakemchuk, Catton at #11
The 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas on Friday could see the Buffalo Sabres move the 11th overall pick for more immediate help, but GM Kevyn Adams did not rule out keeping the pick to add to the club’s bevy of promising prospects
In their final mock draft, NHL.com’s draft analysts Adam Kimelman and Mike Morreale split on who they believe the Sabres will select. Kimelman agreed with the Athletic’s projection of big blueliner Carter Yakemchuk at #11, but Morreale believes that Buffalo will once again go the Western Hockey League route for another skilled forward in Spokane Chiefs center Berkly Catton.
Yakemchuk would make sense for the Sabres as a right-handed complement to their predominantly left-handed blueline of Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, and Bowen Byram, while the offensively talented Catton would seem to fall into the same category as smallish but highly skilled WHL products Zach Benson and Matthew Savoie.
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The 18-year-old Catton exploded in his second full WHL season with the Chiefs, more than doubling his offensive output from last season with 116 points (54 goals, 62 assists) in 68 games. Morreale points to Catton’s compete level as "too good to ignore", and that he plays “a hard-driving game, and that he "is relentless in puck pursuit.”
Tony Ferrari of the Hockey News had Catton going to the Calgary Flames at 9th overall in his mock draft, saying that he would give the Flames “a scoring center to build around” with “the raw skill and offensive upside they don’t currently have.
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