PITTSBURGH -- With just more than seven hours to go until the start of the NHL draft, Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier believes his team is more likely to make its four early picks than trade them.
"Right now, this draft is based on using the four picks," Regier told Sabres.com. "Based on the current information, we will be picking players with those four picks versus making a trade."
The trade talk is quiet in Pittsburgh, with teams seemingly waiting for one move to ignite others.
"I think there will be a domino effect," Regier told the team website. "It is quiet. I thought Tuesday, Wednesday, those days were busier. Thursday, Friday, we’re pretty quiet."
Regier anticipates a weekend full of jockeying for draft position. The Sabres are scheduled to pick 12th and 21st in the first round, and 12th and 14th in the second.
"I just had an offer now to go from 21 to further back in the draft," Regier said on Sabres.com. "There’s a lot of movement amongst teams trying to figure out how they can get their player.
"There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of uncertainty about where players are going to go. I think teams have a sense of who they want, but they’re not sure where those players are going to. There’s a lot of conversations about do you want to move up, do you want to move back in the draft?"
---John Vogl
