Sabres select Mississauga defenseman Owen Power 1st in NHL draft

The Buffalo Sabres have picked defenceman Owen Power first overall in the NHL entry draft.

The six-foot-six, 213-pound blueliner from Mississauga, Ont., played at the University of Michigan last season, scoring three goals and adding 13 assists in 26 games during his freshman season before being selected to Team Canada for the men’s world hockey championships in May. He was the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau’s top-ranked North American prospect.

On a day the Sabres traded Rasmus Ristolainen to the Philadelphia Flyers, general manager Kevyn Adams continued his offseason bid to overhaul a struggling franchise by choosing the stalwart defenseman’s heir apparent.

Power was the third player drafted first directly out of college, joining Michigan State forward Joe Murphy in 1986 and Boston University goalie Rick DiPietro in 2000. And he became the 16th defenseman to go No. 1 since 1970, and first since the Sabres chose Rasmus Dahlin at No. 1 in 2018.

Power and Dahlin have similar two-way, play-making skills, and will have the opportunity to form the backbone of a retooled defensive unit for years to come.

The Sabres made a splash earlier by adding a second first-round pick, 14th overall, and defenseman Robert Hagg in dealing Ristolainen to Philadelphia.

The trade is part of Adams’ bid to rebuild through youth after Buffalo finished last in the overall standings for a fourth time in eight seasons and extended its playoff drought to an NHL record-matching 10th year.

The league’s newest franchise, the Seattle Kraken, chose Power’s Michigan teammate centre Matthew Beniers with the No. 2 selection.

Mason McTavish, a centre from the Ontario Hockey League’s Peterborough Petes, was selected third by the Anaheim Ducks.

The Vancouver Canucks were scheduled to be the first Canadian team on the board but earlier in the day sent the No. 9 pick to the Arizona Coyotes in a blockbuster trade.

The deal gives Arizona the first-round selection while Vancouver acquires defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forward Conor Garland. The Coyotes also receive Canucks forwards Jay Beagle, Loui Eriksson and Antoine Roussel, plus the club’s second-round pick in 2022 and its seventh-round selection in 2023.

The Ottawa Senators will choose 10th, followed by the Calgary Flames (No. 13), the Winnipeg Jets (No. 18), the Edmonton Oilers (No. 20) and the Montreal Canadiens (No. 31).

The Toronto Maple Leafs dealt their first-round selection to the Columbus Blue Jackets in April for forward Nick Foligno and won’t pick until midway through the second-round (No. 57 overall) on Saturday.

The draft was held remotely for a second consecutive year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with commissioner Gary Bettman announcing the selections from the NHL Network studios in New Jersey.