BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Sabres held the eighth overall pick in Tuesday’s NHL Draft and took maybe the best goal scorer in the 2020 draft. Right winger Jack Quinn is considered a late bloomer. Quinn netted 52 goals and 37 assists for 89 points in 62 games with Ottawa in the OHL.
The year before, Quinn played one less game and only had 12 goals and 32 points.
When you talk to scouts one of their biggest takeaways was Quinn seems to always be in the right place at the right time. You often wonder how natural scorers are always wide open and it’s just a sense that they posses. It’s not a skill that can be taught.
Quinn is 5 feet 11 inches tall, but he’s not afraid to go to battle and is very good along the wall. If there’s a negative about him, Quinn isn’t the best skater in the world, but many top goal scorers in the NHL have been slow.
When the Sabres pick came up, many thought they’d take eight LW Cole Perfetti or center Marco Rossi. Rossi went ninth to Minnesota and Perfetti was drafted 10th by Winnipeg. In a very classy move, the Jets had Dale Hawerchuk’s widow Crystal announce the pick.
I had both Rossi and Perfetti in my head as good picks for Kevyn Adams and the Sabres, but I don’t think Quinn is a bad pick at all because the Sabres desperately need goal scorers in the organization. The Hockey News had Quinn ranked 12th.
The draft continues Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Buffalo has a second round pick (38th overall), fourth round pick (100th overall), fifth round pick (131st overall) and two picks in the seventh round (193rd overall and 216th overall) the last pick came from Dallas for Taylor Fedun. The Sabres third and sixth round picks were part of the Jeff Skinner trade with Carolina.
