Buffalo Sabres Draft Pick Scenarios 2014-2016

I love professional sports drafts. I think the reason is because between the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres and the Houston Astros, their seasons are usually over halfway through and all I have to look forward to is the draft. Anyways, this article is about the NHL draft specifically, focusing on our beloved Buffalo Sabres and all of the draft picks they have stockpiled for the next three years.

Between the flurry of picks we've received, the picks we've traded and some of the conditions attached to those picks, I wanted to make a  master list of those picks so I had a reference point going into this years draft. I hope you find as much use out of this article as I do because some of these conditional picks are pretty confusing.

The Sabres have acquired two conditional picks from two separate teams in two separate trades. One with the Islanders and one with the Blues. This leads to four possible scenarios on how the Sabres picks will shake up over the next three years. Here goes nothing, bear with me:

Conditional Pick #1 from the New York Islanders - The Islanders can protect their 2014 1st Round Pick if it's in the top 10, which it will be. If they decide to protect their 2014 pick, the Sabres automatically get the Islanders 2015 1st Round Pick regardless of where the pick is in the draft.

Conditional Pick #2 from the St. Louis Blues - The Sabres have acquired a 2016 3rd Round Pick from the Blues in the Miller deal. If the St. Louis Blues make the Western Conference Finals OR (this is not an and, this is an or) sign Ryan Miller before the 2014 NHL draft, the 2016 3rd Round Pick becomes a 2014 1st Round Pick. The kicker here is that if one of the two above happen and the 2016 3rd becomes a 2014 1st, the Sabres have to send the Blues their 2014 2nd and their 2014 3rd.

Wow, that's confusing. To make things easier on us, I'll do a breakdown of all four possible scenarios and how the Sabres draft picks in the first three rounds would look if each were to happen.

SCENARIO ONE - Islanders give the Sabres their 2014 1st Round Pick & St. Louis either makes Western Conference Finals or signs Ryan Miller before the draft.

2014 (5)
1st Round - BUF, NYI, STL (3)
2nd Round - BUF, WPG (2)
3rd Round - (0)

2015 (4)
1st Round - BUF, STL (2)
2nd Round - BUF, NYI (2)
3rd Round - (0)

2016 (4)
1st Round - BUF (1)
2nd Round - BUF, MIN (2)
3rd Round - BUF (1)

SCENARIO TWO - Islanders give the Sabres their 2014 1st Round Pick & St. Louis does not make Western Conference Finals nor do they sign Ryan Miller before the draft.

2014 (6)
1st Round - BUF, NYI (2)
2nd Round - BUF, WPG, MIN (3)
3rd Round - BUF (1)

2015 (4)
1st Round - BUF, STL (2)
2nd Round - BUF, NYI (2)
3rd Round - (0)

2016 (5)
1st Round - BUF (1)
2nd Round - BUF, MIN (2)
3rd Round - BUF, STL (2)

SCENARIO THREE - Islanders protect their 2014 1st Round Pick, give the Sabres their 2015 1st Round Pick & St. Louis either makes Western Conference Finals or signs Ryan Miller before the draft.

2014 (4)
1st Round - BUF, STL (2)
2nd Round - BUF, WPG (2)
3rd Round - (0)

2015 (5)
1st Round - BUF, NYI, STL (3)
2nd Round - BUF, NYI (2)
3rd Round - (0)

2016 (4)
1st Round - BUF (1)
2nd Round - BUF, MIN (2)
3rd Round - BUF (1)

SCENARIO FOUR - Islanders protect their 2014 1st Round Pick, give the Sabres their 2015 1st Round Pick & St. Louis does not make Western Conference Finals nor do they sign Ryan Miller before the draft.

2014 (5)
1st Round - BUF (1)
2nd Round - BUF, WPG, MIN (3)
3rd Round - BUF (1)

2015 (5)
1st Round - BUF, NYI, STL (3)
2nd Round - BUF, NYI (2)
3rd Round - (0)

2016 (5)
1st Round - BUF (1)
2nd Round - BUF, MIN (2)
3rd Round - BUF, STL (2)

With the 2015 NHL draft being the Connor McDavid sweepstakes, I would love as much ammunition as possible and that would be either Scenario 3 or 4 where the Sabres get three first round picks. The common denominator would be the New York Islanders holding on to their draft pick this year and giving us their 2015 draft pick instead. With the Sabres and Islanders set to be pretty bad, this puts the Sabres in a great position to win the Connor McDavid sweepstakes.

With that being said, the Islanders would be crazy to take themselves out of the running for Mr. McDavid so I expect them to give us their 2014 pick and hold on to their 2015 pick. With that being said, it should give the Sabres two picks within the top five of this years draft which should help speed up the rebuilding process as these two players could very much be NHL ready prospects.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Save it for future use and use it as a reference going forward for this years draft and the two that will follow. Hopefully Silver Lining Sports is still going strong in 2016! Go Sabres,