Buffalo Sabres: Top 3 defining moves of Jason Botterill’s tenure as GM

3. Drafting Dahlin

Not everything about Botterill’s time with the Buffalo Sabres was poor. In 2018, the Sabres finally got some draft lottery luck, as they got the first overall pick. With that pick Botterill drafted defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who was the consensus top pick.

Now, he’s probably not looking like that right now, but Dahlin should be a future building block for the Sabres blueline. He took some encouraging steps under head coach Ralph Kreuger after a rough start.

In his first two NHL seasons, Dahlin has picked up at least 40 points in each season, including 40 points in 59 games during the 2019-20 season. This came after an impressive rookie season, during which he had 44 points in 82 games.

Dahlin’s rookie season saw him get named as a Calder Trophy finalist, though he eventually lost out to Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues and the eventual winner, Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks.

With how great Andrei Svechnikov is looking with the Carolina Hurricanes, it might be easy to be a little bit disappointed in Dahlin. But Botterill made a good move by drafting him, even if it was an extremely easy move. Unfortunately, Botterill botched his first-round pick in 2017. But he sure nailed it in 2018.