By Warren Kozireski — The Buffalo Sabres selected five players on the second day of the 2018 NHL Draft at American Airlines Center in Dallas. They opened the second round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by selecting 6’4”, 216 lb. defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, the son of former NHL defenseman and Stanley Cup champ Kjell Samuelsson.
The U.S National Development team product finished second among the team’s defensemen with 11 goals, 20 assists and 113 penalty minutes in 58 games this past season and served as Team USA’s captain during the 2018 IIHF World U18 Championship helping to lead his team earn a silver medal.
“Everyone wants to be a first rounder, so it was a little upsetting but coming into this (the second day) I knew I was going to be called pretty quick and then got here and realized that Buffalo had the first one and was so excited knowing that I can be a part of a great organization like Buffalo,” the Western Michigan University commit said in the media room.
Samuelsson had the advantage of an NHL father to teach him a few tricks. “He was a pretty bit defenseman, so has definitely taught me to stick up for myself and how to use my body to my advantage.”
With the first of two fourth-round picks, the Sabres selected 6’0”, 170 lb. center and USHL Rookie of the Year Matej Pekar 94th overall. The Czech Republic native tied for the rookie league lead with 54 points for the Muskegon Lumberjacks. His 40 assists led his team and ranked fourth among all USHL players.
“I was nervous, but once my name was called—I just can’t describe it,” the University of Miami (Ohio) commit said. “It all starts right now; this is a beginning. I thought I grew a lot (this year in the USHL). Coach gave me so much confidence. After the first game he put me on the first line and I stayed with those guys for the next maybe 50 games and my teammates taught me a lot.
“I was motivated even more to do something (this year) because honestly before this year I got traded by another USHL team before the season even started, so maybe that kind of motivated me and I had to look in the mirror and say you can do it, but you have to work harder I guess. Opportunity came…and it worked out. Definitely a wake-up call.”
Buffalo went back to defense with their second fourth rounder—117th overall—with Linus Lindstrand Cronholm. The 6’1”, 172 lbs. spent most of last season with the Malmo U-20 team in Sweden’s SuperElit League, where he posted six assists in 37 games. He also appeared in 18 games for Malmo’s U-18 team and recorded 16 points.
Defense again was the choice in the fifth round as they selected Miska Kukkonen (6’0”, 198 lbs., 6/19/2000) with the 125th overall selection. The 6’0”, 198 lb. native of Jokioinen, Finland recorded 12 points in 36 games for Ilves of Finland’s junior league during the last two seasons.
And to complete the theme, it was defense and Sweden again with their final selection in the seventh round with William Worge Kreu 187th overall. At 6’6”, 172 lb. Kreu spent most of his 2017-18 campaign playing for Linkoping’s U-20 team in Sweden’s SuperElit League, where he recorded 14 points in 38 games. He also scored two goals in nine games for Linkoping’s U-18 squad.
“We don’t draft by region, we don’t draft by country, we scour the world for the best players that we can find that play the style that we want to play going forward and then we work very diligently to learn about them as human beings so that they map to our character criteria,” Buffalo Sabres Assistant General Manager Randy Sexton said after the draft. “This year it just happened to fall that there were a lot of Swedes.
“There were certainly a few forwards today that we hoped would drop to us that didn’t, and as a result the next player on our list happened to be a defenseman.”
“The way we want to play, you look at our pipeline right now and I think it’s a scenario where we had to have more defensemen in our group, so we are very happy with the way the day turned out,” General Manager Jason Botterill added.
In addition to Buffalo’s selections, the team also acquired a sixth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Buffalo’s sixth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
