Sabres play familiar tune in Nashville

By Ken McKenna

If you study the draft history of NHL teams, you’ll find the scouting staffs of many clubs exhibit certain tendencies. Teams favor a certain league or country, or they may rank the prospects according to certain attributes.

In the case of the Buffalo Sabres, their drafts in recent years have favored players from the WHL and OHL of the Canadian Hockey League, as well as players from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia, with the odd college or college-bound player thrown in. In terms of abilities, Director of Player Personnel Don Luce and his scouts seem to favor players with a slight build and some offensive ability, and, when lacking the offensive ability, substitute players with some grit to their game.

With those criteria in mind, the Sabres’ performance at the 2003 NHL Draft offered few surprises. The only deviation from the script was the team’s first selection, Austrian Tomas Vanek, but even he has bloodlines to the Czech Republic.

The selection of Vanek with the fifth overall pick seemed a foregone conclusion following the University of Minnesota left winger’s MVP performance at the 2003 NCAA Frozen Four Tournament held in Buffalo in April. The move should work on two fronts for the Sabres, with the gangly Austrian providing bona fide scoring talent, while giving the Sabres a marketable commodity courtesy of a recognized name amongst the fan base.

The book on Vanek is that he is a scoring winger with a flair for the dramatic, as evidenced by the big goals he scored at the Frozen Four. His skating ability could best be described as adequate, while his defensive game could use some work. As with all top goal-scorers, though, the puck seems to follow Vanek around, and he is not shy about taking a shot when the game is on the line. There is little doubt that Vanek will be the first Sabres’ first-round pick in quite some time to generate some fan interest.

In the second round the Sabres stayed with the European theme by drafting right wing Branislav Fabry. Fabry, a native of Bratislava, Slovakia, starred at the junior level for his hometown team, while also seeing time in Slovakia’s top league. The 18-year-old has some scoring ability, but needs to add some bulk to his slight frame (six feet, 185 pounds) to handle the tighter confines of the NHL rinks.

The Sabres finished the first day of the draft with another offensively skilled selection, left wing Clarke MacArthur of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. MacArthur opened some eyes last fall when he showed up four inches taller than he was after the 2001-02 season. The added height seemed to give the Alberta native some confidence, as he turned in a solid offensive season (70 GP, 23G, 52A) for the Tigers. The knock on MacArthur is that he has virtually no defensive ability, so turning him into a full-fledged NHL player will be a challenge for Lindy Ruff and his coaching staff.

Day two began with the Sabres having two picks in the fourth round. The team drafted Czech defenseman Jan Hejda (pronounced hey-duh), a 25-year-old who plays for Slavia in the Czech Republic’s top league. Hejda has good size (six feet-three, 209 pounds) and some offensive ability, but his primary role is that of a defensive defenseman.

The Sabres chose another defenseman with their second fourth round pick: 5-foot-11, 200 pound Denis Ezhov from Togliatti of the Russian Superleague. Ezhov was rated to go much higher by various publications, but the reviews were generally mixed on how good a player he could be.

Perhaps the most intriguing Sabre pick was their fifth round choice, defenseman Thomas Morrow of the USHL’s Des Moines (IA) Buccaneers. Morrow may be the tallest defenseman the team has drafted (6 foot 6), but he is not as awkward as some 18-year-olds his size. The St. Paul MN native was heavily recruited by several NCAA schools before choosing Boston University.

The Sabres sixth selection was defenseman Pavel Voroshnin of the Mississauga Ice Dogs. The Chelyabinsk, Russian native is a skinny (six foot-two, 175 pounds), offensive defenseman with good skating skills and a desire to have the puck on his stick.

In the final three rounds, the Sabres chose another defenseman, a goalie, and a right winger. Seventh rounder Nathan Paetsch of the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Paetsch is an offensive defenseman whose overall skill is lacking. Goaltender Jeff Weber of the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers was Buffalo’s eighth round selection. Weber played in just 19 games for the Whalers in the 2002-03 season, posting a 2.49 goals-against average and a save percentage of .925.

The Sabres final selection, right wing Louis Phillipe Martin of the QMJHL’s Baie Comeau Drakkar.

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