Sabres pushing to serve as host of 2026 NHL draft
Unlike previous drafts in Buffalo, this one would be a "decentralized" format with teams staying home to make their picks remotely out of draft war rooms. Prospects would be on site to receive their jerseys and meet NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Is the NHL draft coming back to Buffalo? It might happen in June, although it won't be as big as its previous visits.
The Buffalo Sabres are deep into the process of serving as the host of the first round of this year's draft, The Buffalo News has confirmed.
ESPN play-by-play man John Buccigross, one of the top NHL voices at the rightsholder network, first mentioned the possibility Thursday afternoon in a cryptic tweet that paid tribute to his love of the chicken parmesan at Mulberry Ristorante in Lackawanna. It came with a picture of him and analyst A.J. Mleczko admiring the 2-foot "Big Parm Thompson" sandwich sold at KeyBank Center in honor of Sabres star Tage Thompson.
The team had no comment on the tweet or on its prospects of being the draft host, but an NHL source told The News the Sabres have serious interest. It's unclear how many other teams would be in the running and whether the event would be held in KeyBank Center or some other locale. The first round is expected to be held on June 26.
Auston Matthews is drafted No. 1 overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2016 NHL draft in Buffalo.
Harry Scull Jr., News file photo
The Sabres previously hosted the draft in 1991 at Memorial Auditorium, and in 1998 and 2016 at KeyBank Center. Those three events were "centralized" drafts, meaning all league and team officials were on-site in the draft city doing all their work.
NHL general managers voted to have last year's draft in a "decentralized" format, meaning they stayed in their cities and built war rooms to make their picks remotely. The Sabres opted to use the Buffalo Bills' draft facilities in Orchard Park for the weekend.
Players expected to go in the first round were on-site at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, and they got their moment on stage with their new team and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. But the event was widely panned as a television flop because the players then spoke live on the air to their drafting team, and there were technical problems with several of the hookups.
NHL media members also ridiculed the format because it eliminated the league-convention style of drafts that had been held for decades. With no media, far fewer players and families are traveling to the host city, and the economic benefit is more muted than previous drafts.
An overall view of the draft floor at the NHL draft in then-First Niagara Center on June 24, 2016.
Buffalo News file photo
The GMs approved the same format again for this year, although large revisions are expected to be made on the television presentation. Sportsnet reported last month there is some thought of having Rounds 1 and 2 on the first night before teams do Rounds 3 to 7 the next day.
Sabres/Bills owner Terry Pegula is widely known for wanting as many marquee events as he can get. The Sabres, for example, have played in three outdoor games (two since Pegula became owner) and made two overseas trips in the Pegula years. They also are pushing to host an outdoor game in 2028 at the new Highmark Stadium to mark the 20th anniversary of the iconic 2008 game in Ralph Wilson Stadium that they lost in a shootout to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Bills, meanwhile, submitted a bid in August to host the NFL draft in 2028 or 2029, with the new Highmark being a focal point of the activities.
Two of Buffalo's three previous NHL drafts were major moments on the league's landscape. The first, on June 22, 1991, marked the selection of Canadian junior superstar Eric Lindros as the No. 1 overall pick by the Quebec Nordiques, but he followed through on a pre-draft promise to not don the team's jersey and demand a trade. It took a year for that to happen as Lindros was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers on June 30, 1992.
The No. 2 selection in Buffalo's ’91 draft was winger Pat Falloon of the Spokane Chiefs, and he got a huge ovation from the Aud crowd when he donned the jersey of the San Jose Sharks and became the new franchise's first draft choice.
The 2016 draft is most remembered for the Toronto Maple Leafs drafting Arizonan Auston Matthews at No. 1 overall out of the Swiss League, and Matthews just became Toronto's all-time goal leader last week. The Sabres had the No. 8 pick in the draft, and then-GM Tim Murray blew the selection by taking Swedish winger Alex Nylander ahead of prominent NHL defensemen like Mikhail Sergachev of Utah, Charlie McAvoy of Boston and Jakob Chychrun of Washington. Nylander played only 19 games with the Sabres.
Stanley Cup champion Matthew Tkachuk went No. 6 to Calgary in 2016, and Buffalo's Thompson was taken here at No. 26 overall by the St. Louis Blues out of the University of Connecticut before being traded to the Sabres three years later.
The 1998 draft in Buffalo was not remotely close to either of those two in terms of star power. Future Tampa Bay captain and Stanley Cup champion Vincent Lecavalier was the No. 1 overall pick and Plymouth, Ont., center David Legwand went No. 2 to Nashville as the Predators made their first pick in franchise history in Buffalo; Legwand played with Nashville through 2014 and closed an 1,136-game NHL career by playing 79 games for the Sabres in 2015-16.