Buffalo had five picks at the draft at KeyBank Center
The Buffalo Sabres, in spite of significant speculation that they were going to trade one or both of their first round picks at the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday, chose to stand pat and select one of the top young defensive prospects in Daxon Rudolph fourth overall, and a big two-way center in Ilia Morozov 20th overall.
The 18–year-old righty exploded offensively in his second season with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders (28 goals, 50 assists in 68 games), but was projected in most mock drafts to go later in the top 10, behind Chase Reid, Keaton Verhoeff, and Albert Smits. The Sabres did not speak to Rudolph at the NHL Scouting Combine earlier in the month, but GM Jarmo Kekalainen explained that they did not expect to be selecting at the top of the draft to be able to pick him.
"The situation changed a lot from the combine, because we were thinking of picking at 27, and then we were picking 4, so rather than wasting time with some of the people that were running from interview to interview, and we're so far down that we know that we're not going to get to them. That interview is 15 minutes," Kekalainen said on Friday "Our area scouts are doing the interviews throughout the season to know the background of the player, they know him inside and out. The 15 minutes (is) just a chance for the whole staff to get to know and put a face to a name. So that's why we called him and had him come to our office this morning, because now the situation is different, and we had the fourth overall pick."
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The youngster is headed to the University of Denver, a program under David Carle that has won three NCAA Championships in the last five years, but he has hopes of turning pro after one season and joining the Sabres.
“This year I’ll be in Denver, but my goal is to be here next year,” Rudolph said. “I don’t think there is necessarily a rush, (and if) for whatever reason I’m not ready, I can go back for another year. But one or two years, i’ll be ready to make the jump into the NHL.
At #20, the Sabres selected Morozov, one of the youngest players in the draft, who graduated from Tri-City in the USHL to Miami (OH), where he scored 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists) in 36 NCAA games as a 17-year-old. The 6’3”, 201 lb. Russian is an imposing physical specimen and projects as a two-way center.
Unlike previous seasons, the Sabres did not have a boatload of draft capital and had only three picks after the first round. In the fourth round, Buffalo selected center Olivers Mūrnieks of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. The 18-year-old played for Latvia at the World Junior Under-18’s and Under-20’s last season and will be shifting to Boston College this fall.
In the fifth, the Sabres selected Budapest-born center Doman Szongoth, who scored 28 points in the junior levels in Finland, as well as playing internationally for Hungary. Their final pick was Dylan Dumont, a 17-year-old winger from QMJHL Drummondville, who scored 28 goals in 62 games for the Voltigeurs last season.
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