Buffalo Sabres Draft Myers, Ennis

Buffalo took two players in the first round, trading down one spot to get Tyler Myers, a 6′7″ defenseman most recently with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL. He had 19 points (6 goals, 13 assists) and 97 penalty minutes last season. Tyler Ennis, a center most recently with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. He’s a little guy, but check out what the NHL Director of Scouting had to say about him. I’ve put up some highlights from Sabres.com and the NHL Director of Scouting below.

On Tyler Myers:

He is not often burned by the small, quick players and because of the emphasis in today’s NHL on a lack of restraining type of play, I think Tyler has adjusted well to that and is more ready to play in the new NHL than a lot of the other smaller players.

Improvements can be made with his continued maturity. I don’t know that he needs to work on anything other than continuing to work on foot speed, continuing to work on coordination. He’s got a rocket shot from the point on the power-play and that is never going to leave him.

And Tyler Ennis:

Tyler is a quick, ‘water-bug’-type player. He scoots up and down the ice and can turn on a dime. He can drive wide on a defenseman who is unaware or a little slow. Tyler may be one of the best pure offensive players in the entire draft.

Getting bigger is not something within his control, he’s done everything as far as his quickness and offensive development and now I think that it is just ready for him to show it at the next level

The bold is from me. Some really sound choices here, I think. The rest of the draft picks are at that Sabres.com link. Three more defensemen were taken, along with a big, power forward type center and two wingers. I like what they did, though of course much depends on how the players develop. And there are still potential trades out there.

Throwing some youtube linkage below. Myers:

and Ennis: