By Warren Kozireski — (photo of goalie Luukkonen) — The Buffalo Sabres had a definite European slant to their selections on day two of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft in Chicago. Four of their five picks came from either Sweden or Finland.
“We’re happy with it; I thought we got some good balance and we obviously got the goaltender we desired and a couple of defensemen along with forwards,” Sabres General Manager Jason Botterill said. “
“Maybe there’s not as much fanfare and excitement as the first round, but we felt we got some picks that will help our organization in the future.”
They selected forward Marcus Davidsson (6’0”, 191 lbs. with their first of two second round picks. Ranked 12th among draft-eligible European skaters by NHL Central Scouting, the Sweden native recorded nine points (5+4) in 45 games with Djurgardens in Sweden’s top professional league last season. He added 10 points (6+4) in nine games with Djurgardens’ junior team in 2016-17, one year after earning the league’s playoff MVP honors while helping lead the club to a championship.
Their other second-round pick (54th overall) was used to select the second goaltender of the draft in Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The 6’4”, 198 lbs. started the season dealing with mononucleosis, but finished the season as NHL Central Scouting’s top-ranked European goaltender after backstopping HPK (Finland Jr.) to a championship with the league’s best goals-against average in both the regular season (1.78) and the postseason (2.01).
“Of course I’m real excited; it is a great organization,” Luukkonen said to the media after being drafted. “I heard I might be (taken) in the second round—of course the first round would be great—but I’m just going to be a second round story.”
“The first thing that jumps out you is his size and something we talked about a lot at the meetings is that there is always the lasting impression of the evaluation of the U-18’s this year, but he’s had some success even the previous year at the U-18’s and you try to look over, instead of just the last couple of months, you look at a 24-month period and how he’s performed,” Botterill summarized.
Buffalo went defense with their next two picks with Finnish junior league product Oskari Laaksonen (6’1”, 165 lbs.) in the third round and Providence College blueliner Jacob Bryson in the fourth.
Laaksonen appeared in his first season in Finland’s top junior league in 2016-17, recording nine points (6+3) and a plus-9 rating in 27 games for Ilves. He added 10 assists in 10 games during his second campaign with the Ilves Jr. B team.
The 5’8”, 178 lbs. Bryson ranked third among all Hockey East rookie defenseman with 20 points as a freshman and ranked sixth among all NCAA rookie defensemen with 17 assists.
The Sabres rounded out the draft with forward Linus Weissbach from the Tri-City Storm (USHL) where he led the squad in goals (19), assists (28) and points (47) in his first North American season in 2016-17, one year after ranking third in Sweden’s top junior league with 31 assists and 48 points as a member of Frölunda. He will be a traditional freshman at the University of Wisconsin this fall
