theathleticuk
In the weeks leading up to the 2026 NHL Draft, Buffalo Sabres general manager Jarmo Keklinen repeatedly told assistant GM Jerry Forton that anything could happen. The Sabres had just ended a 15-year playoff drought, but the roster was poised for changes. One move came when Keklinen sent defenseman Michael Kesselring to the San Jose Sharks to move up from No. 27 to No. 20 in the first round. However, a more significant trade was in the works.
Keklinen aimed to sign defenseman Bowen Byram to a long-term extension, but Byram made it clear he would not re-sign. Interest in Byram was substantial, with several teams picking early in the draft expressing interest. About ten days before the draft, Forton told The Athletic that it was becoming increasingly likely the Sabres would end up with a top-10 pick. Three days before the draft, Forton received a call from Keklinen: the trade was complete. Byram was headed to the Chicago Blackhawks in a package that included the No. 4 pick.
Suddenly, the Sabres' draft night carried higher stakes, even though Forton knew Keklinen might still trade the pick. Part of Buffalo's pre-draft process involves meetings in the final days to finalize their draft list. Forton estimated that 95 percent of the list is completed by the May meetings ahead of the NHL Scouting Combine, but the last few days can clarify final debates, especially when a top-five pick unexpectedly lands in your lap. "I can tell you in our May meeting we spent way more time on the top 10 than we spent on any other part of the draft by far," Forton said. "And at that time we certainly didn't know we were going to have a top 10 pick. Having said that, once you pick up the fourth-overall pick, it becomes a lot more real and you want to revisit some of those conversations."
If asked a week before the draft, Daxon Rudolph would not have expected to be a top-five selection. At that point, the Sabres did not hold a top-five pick. Once they did, Rudolph told The Athletic he still wasn't expecting it, but he had started to consider it an outside possibility. "I felt I peaked at the right time. In the playoffs I think I'm one of those players who steps up in those moments and kind of separated myself a little bit," he said.
The NHL requests that teams not picking at the top of the draft refrain from interviewing the highest-ranked prospects at the combine to manage their week. Consequently, the Sabres had not interviewed Rudolph there. On the morning of draft day, he met with Sabres staff in Buffalo, and they told him they were talking to a few players and liked his game. "They didn't really give me a sense if they were going to take me or not, but when they were on the clock I knew I had a chance if the interview went well," Rudolph said.
Three years earlier, Rudolph had a similar meeting at his home in the small Alberta town of LaCombe with Prince Albert Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt. Prince Albert held the first pick in the 2023 WHL Bantam Draft, and Rudolph had just been named the CSSHL's top defenseman after leading his Northern Alberta Extreme (NAX) Prep team to the U15 title. "He was the leader of those teams back then. He controlled the whole ice. He's one step ahead at all times," then-teammate Brek Liske, a 2026 Flyers draft pick, said. The Raiders selected Rudolph at No. 1, and by the end of his 16-year-old season in the WHL, he was already a leader for them, too.
While the first half of that year was a huge transition, according to Hunt, his game really took off after Christmas. In large part because of his play down the stretch as a rookie, the Raiders won their division on the last weekend of the season. They then came back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Edmonton Oil Kings, and he was a huge part of that with his partner of both of his WHL seasons, Justice Christensen. A year later, when his 37-goal, 105-point draft year was over, Hunt compared him to Golden Knights star Shea Theodore. "He just became a better all-around player. He has always had the great vision. He has always had a heavy shot," Hunt said. "(But) when he and Christensen jumped on the ice, you kind of knew there was a calming team effect to our group."
Key Analysis
The Sabres' front office is aligned in its philosophy of drafting the player with the best long-term potential, especially with high picks. Forton doesn't get wrapped up in the current roster or which player might be the best now. Heading into the draft, Forton was 90 percent sure the best player available was going to be a defenseman. The real work was distinguishing between a cluster of them available atop the class. The Sabres' scouting and analytics departments thought Rudolph was the best overall player in the WHL playoffs, when the hockey got toughest. His game improved throughout the season, and he had nine goals and 27 points in 19 playoff games. Every scout that came back from one game against Everett in the WHL championship raved about Rudolph. "He elevated his compete, he elevated his toughness, and then the hockey sense just stood out because his panic threshold is so high," Forton said. "That doesn't mean he's complicating the game. We view him as an exceptional game manager. He just knows the right play to make at the right time. I just think in the NHL, your best players are always going to want to be on the ice with those type of defensemen. They'll get them the puck in the right spot at the right time."
The Sabres had years of notes on Rudolph from area scouts Graham Beamish and Lukas Sutter, both of whom have strong connections in the area. Kevin Devine's Hockey Canada connections helped paint a fuller picture, too. "In very simple terms, I think all of the scouts and the analytics staff had him as the best D-man in the draft," Forton said.
After the WHL playoffs, NHL Scouting Combine and draft day, Rudolph's first summer as an NHL prospect was a blur that included training in Calgary, a trip to Windsor for the summer showcase, and then a quick turnaround to his next destination: the reigning NCAA champions at the University of Denver. Zac Whitby, who trains defensemen like Cale Makar and Josh Morrissey at DASH in Calgary, has seen that since Rudolph moved from LaCombe to train and skate with them two summers ago. To prepare for this season, he worked with Whitby on one of the areas of his game scouts felt he needed to improve: his skating. "He has a pro-ready body. He's got the size (6-foot-2 and 208 pounds) – he's really powerful. He's got a good base of strength. He's actually a really quick individual off the ice," Whitby said. "It's one of those qualities that he has, and it's just more so transferring that over into the mechanics of his stride and making it a little bit more efficient."
On Aug. 8, Rudolph arrived on Denver's campus for the first time since his commitment, which was announced on June 4 while he was attending the combine. He was drawn to Denver because of head coach David Carle, because they win (three of the last five national championships), for their track record developing defensemen (from Zeev Buium to Eric Pohlkamp), and because of his connections to a bunch of western guys, including his best friend Ben Macbeath (who he has billeted with the last two summers while training at DASH). "My game works with Denver's very pro style," he said. "The ultimate goal is the NHL. They've progressed guys to that level and won, and I think being in those moments will be big for me."
His goal in his post-draft season is to be more connected and involved with the play both defensively and offensively. "I think I can close quicker on guys defensively and support the puck and get it to good areas more," he said. "The biggest thing that separates me is my IQ. That allows me to be a complete player, whether it's moving the puck quick in transition or skating it to the neutral zone. I have a quick game."
After losing three defensemen on the right side and four who played in last year's championship game, Carle knew he was going to be asking a lot of Rudolph. Though he anticipated having to get him up to speed with the college game and making decisions quicker, he felt that because he's such a smart player, he's going to make a lot of the transition pretty seamless. Through eight games, no Pioneer has played more than Rudolph's 23:38 per game, and he has registered a team-high nine points and 31 shots. "This year we're more veteran up front and young on the back end. So he's going to get pushed to a really high level," Carle said. "The hockey sense, the shot is lethal, there's a ton to love in his game."
As an organization, the Sabres spent a long time focusing on the future. Finally making the playoffs put more emphasis on the present. Forton always says he and the rest of the staff would be just as excited if the team traded the first-round pick for a player that made them better. But despite some interest in the pick and some draft-weekend trade talk about then-Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, Keklinen decided to stay put and add another elite prospect to the organization's already stacked blue line. Drafting Rudolph may not have provided the same instant gratification, but what Forton has seen from Rudolph at Denver has him just as convinced he's on the trajectory to be the best defenseman from the 2026 class. "A big part of our evaluation is we know he is going to max out his potential, and everything in the short sample size at Denver already is telling us he's going to get everything out of that experience," Forton said.
Originally reported by theathleticuk.