Sabres Were Impressed With Top Pick Rudolph's Upside

The Buffalo Sabres selection of defenseman Daxon Rudolph fourth overall at the 2026 NHL Draft last month came as a slight surprise amongst draft analysts, as most of them had the young righty being selected later in the top 10 and after other prospects like Chase Reid, Albert Smits, Carson Carels, or Keaton Verhoeff, but based on the analysis revealed by the club in a YouTube video last week, there was not much doubt who to pick. When asked which of the top defensemen could quarterback a power play in the NHL, Sabres assistant GM Jerry Forton and a number of scouts uttered the name of Rudolph.

“These guys are all close, you could put it in a blender and come up with a different list every day,” Sabres scout Kevin DeVine said, “but if you want to go with the upside, you probably take Rudolph.”

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). 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.

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"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," GM Jarmo Kekalainen said after the selection. "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."

Rudolph is bound for the University of Denver this fall, a program under head coach David Carle that has won three NCAA Championships in the last five years, and based on the analysis of other in the room before the draft, they believe that the youngster is the total package; capable of matching up against the other team’s top offensive players and has the hockey sense at both ends of the ice, which could mean that his stint in the NCAA will be short.

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