Draft Preview | Forton discusses pre-Draft process

Jerry Forton and his fellow members of the Buffalo Sabres front office have met with potential draftees, weighed insights from 100-plus viewings of each prospect, and scoured the analytical data.
All that remains between now and the NHL Draft - which will be held on July 7 and 8 in Montreal - is internal discussion as the Sabres finalize their list.
"At this point, we're fine-tuning things," Forton, Buffalo's director of amateur scouting, said.
The Sabres enter the Draft with 11 picks. In addition to their own selection at ninth overall, they hold picks Nos. 16 (from Vegas) and 28 (from Florida) in the first round.
Buffalo also holds one pick in each of the second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds and two picks in each of the sixth and seventh rounds.
Sabres.com caught up with Forton earlier this month to discuss the organization's pre-Draft process, the return toward normalcy after two years of virtual drafts, and more.

The first round

The Sabres spend ample time ordering their top 32 prospects regardless of where they stand in the first round in a given year. The opportunity for a surprise always exists; last summer, for example, they added a second pick in the first round on the day of the Draft and took Isak Rosen at 14th overall.
So, while having three first-round picks does not alter Buffalo's preparation, it does heighten the reality that the team must be prepared for all potential outcomes.
The fact that the Sabres' picks are so evenly spread out - one in the top 10, one in the middle, and one towards the end of the round - accentuates that fact.
"Any time you're talking about a player at any range in the first round … every one of those players is in play for us, is how we're looking at it," Forton said. "You're looking at it that way anyways, but it's a little more heightened obviously this year."

Return to normalcy

Forton estimates the process of preparing for an NHL Draft has returned to 95-percent normalcy.
While COVID-19 did postpone the World Junior Championship to August, the major junior Canadian leagues all had full seasons for the first time since 2018-19. The NHL Scouting Combine was held for the first time since before the pandemic.
Even the Draft itself will experience a return to the status quo, with 32 clubs convening on the floor of Bell Center in Montreal as opposed to the virtual settings of the last two summers.
"Certainly, during the course of the year there were a lot of uncertain times and a lot of adjustments to travel and surprises when all of us were on the road that made life challenging," he said.
"There were a couple somewhat significant international tournaments and other events that were cancelled and never rescheduled. But we had 95 percent of what you would consider an ordinary season viewing workload."
The Russian invasion of Ukraine does present one area of uncertainty for teams both in terms of evaluation opportunities and future international relations. The IIHF suspended Russian and Belarusian teams from its tournaments, for example, in February.
"That made some of those players a little more challenging because you didn't get to see best on best," Forton said. "But we were able to make a determination that I'm very comfortable with between the data and live viewings."

The analytics

The Sabres hired Sam Ventura as vice president of hockey strategy and research on July 5 of last summer, less than a month before the Draft. The organization has since added Domenic Galamini Jr. as a data scientist and Matt Barlowe as a data engineer.
Forton credited the analytics department with not only providing alternative insights on players, but pointing the organization in the right direction in terms of its scouting coverage.
"They have access to every single game that's played, pretty much by every prospect we're looking at," Forton said. "So, if we don't have enough coverage on players that are popping for them analytically, they've been extremely helpful in steering us early on in the season and certainly by the midpoint of the season that we need more coverage of certain players that they are flagging."