NHL Draft: Rasmus Dahlin Will Love Buffalo's Swedish Weather

Published on 22-Jun-2018 by Alan Adamsson

NHL    NHL Daily Update

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NHL Draft: Rasmus Dahlin Will Love Buffalo's Swedish Weather

It was clear two years ago that Rasmus Dahlin was gonna be the first name called in the NHL's 2018 draft.

Dude was turning heads as a 16-year-old in the 2017 World Junior Championships, to the point that superlatives weren't considered hype.

They were accepted as obvious.

And nothing has happened since to keep them from being a foregone conclusion.

 

Long-suffering Buffalo Sabres fans got their first direct look at the precocious defenseman when their city hosted the 2018 World Juniors this past winter.

Now, they get to see what Dahlin can do on a regular basis:

 

One of the biggest jokes in sports -- not just hockey, sports -- is Buffalo's version of The Process.

It's hard to imagine any club botching a rebuild worse than the Philadelphia 76ers did, but the Sabres' seem to have devoted all their time to the task.

Alex Ovechkin may have thought his Washington Capitals were the suck all this time, but they never were. It was Buffalo, and now, the Sabres want to be where the Caps are.

 

Maybe the addition of this budding Swedish megastar will accelerate their progress.

As predestined as Dahlin's selection was, the rest of the first round was close to being just as vanilla.

Carolina's pick in the No 2 spot -- moving up from No 11, thanks to the lottery -- was a virtual no-brainer, too. Andrei Svechnikov had to be Rod Brind'Amour's wet dream from the moment their number came up.

 

It won't be long before dudeski is centering their first line.

As to Montréal at No 3, does Jesperi Kotkaniemi deserve the welp a minimum of one fan was giving?

 

The kid probably already knows the three most popular teams in Montréal, and it isn't even close:

  • The Canadiens,
  • The Habs, and
  • Les Glorieux.

Well, there hasn't been much glorieux in La Métropole for some time now. The trend looks to continue. Maybe in a couple of seasons, Kotkaniemi will make a difference. Until then, let them wallow.

 

And so the night went.

As in the rest of North American sports, now that this draft's in the books, it's speculation-as-clickbait season because hope springs eternal in the souls of hardcore -- and even medium-well -- fans.

 

How eternal is up to much more than the draft.

Any draft.