2021 NHL Draft Lottery: How Past Buffalo Sabres Draft Picks Have Fared And What's Next

The worst team in the National Hockey League was awarded the first overall draft pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.

The 2021 NHL Draft Lottery: The NHL holds a lottery each season to award the draft positions for the next season. The teams are given odds based on their finishing position.

The Sabres had the best odds to win the 2021 Draft Lottery and came away with the No. 1 pick.

The expansion team, the Seattle Kraken, was awarded the second overall pick, moving up one place in the selections after having the third-best odds.

Anaheim Ducks fell to the third overall pick after entering the lottery with the second-best odds. The Ducks have never had the first overall pick in an NHL Draft.

The top seven selections are rounded out by the New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks.

The NHL Draft Lottery was aired on Comcast Corporation CMCSA unit NBCSN and the NHL Network.

Buffalo Sabres Draft History: The Sabres have drafted first overall three previous times in the NHL Draft. The last No. 1 pick for the Sabres was Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin in 2018.

Dahlin had 23 points in 56 games during the 2020-2021 NHL season. Dahlin has 107 points in 197 career NHL games.

Drafted first overall in 1987, Pierre Turgeon played four seasons with the Sabres and helped the team reach the NHL Playoffs. Over his career, Turgeon had 1,327 points in 1,294 NHL games.

Several recent first-round picks by the Sabres were top contributors for the team's 2020-2021 season: Dylan Cozens (2019), Casey Mittlestadt (2017) and Sam Reinhart (2014) posted point totals of 13, 22 and 40, respectively.

The Sabres' No. 2 overall pick in 2015, Jack Eichel, is arguably the best player on the team and suffered a season-ending injury that had him post only 18 points in 21 games in the 2020-2021 season. Over his NHL career of 375 games, Eichel averaged almost a point a game with a total of 355 points.

Related Link: Wayne Gretzky Partners With BetMGM, Could It Help Gain Share In US And Canada

What’s Next: The Sabres finished with a league-worst 15-34-7 record and 37 points. The team set a shootout era record with 18 straight games without a win during the 2020-2021 season. The Sabres are on a streak of 10 straight seasons without making the NHL Playoffs, tieing the longest streak in league history.

The team faces challenges with Eichel, who is rumored to be upset about the way the team handled his injury.

The Sabres face several needs for the team going forward. The team ranked fourth to last in goals scored with 138 and second to last in goals allowed with 199 and led the league with the worst goal differential of 61.

The 2021 NHL Draft will take place on July 23 and 24 following an expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken.

Owen Power from the University of Michigan and William Eklund from the Swedish Hockey League are the top two ranked players for the 2021 NHL Draft.

(Photo: Buffalo Sabres vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Ericcson Globe, 2019,  Egon Eagle via Wikimedia Commons)