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2022 NHL Draft: Buffalo Sabres select Mats Lindgren with the 106th pick

Left-handed offensive blueliner from Kamloops joins the Sabres.

With the 106th pick in the 2022 NHL Draft the Buffalo Sabres selected Mats Lindgren, a left handed defensemen from the Kamloops Blazers in the WHL.

I love this pick for the Buffalo Sabres. Lindgren is an extremely skilled defensemen who excels at moving pucks in transition and facilitating offensive zone chances through activation from the blue line.

When Lindgren is on his game I think he’s one of the better defensemen in this class. However, there are times where he can take his foot off the pedal and get lost in the defensive zone or is a step too late reacting to a play that happens too often for him to be considered a top-end defenseman in this class.

However, at this point in the draft taking a swing on what he does well and hoping that keeps developing is a great pick by the Buffalo Sabres.

My colleague Matt Somma sums it up best in his report on Mats Lindgren over at Smaht

Lindgren may take more time to develop than some of the other defensemen in this draft class. He’ll likely spend two more years in the WHL and two to three years in the AHL before carving out a permanent NHL role for himself. It doesn’t matter how you get there, though, and if that’s the path that gives Lindgren the highest chance of NHL success, I’m taking it. Given enough time, Lindgren could be a mainstay on a team’s back end and provide offense mixed with some reliable defense once those kinks are worked out of his game. Over the past few weeks, I’ve wondered where I would rank Lindgren in our rankings. His skill and upside alone make me feel comfortable with ranking him anywhere from the early to mid second round, and I feel that his upside outweighs the concerns I have with his game. Again, it’ll all come down to who is drafting him. If a team feels confident that they can mold Lindgren into an NHL player, they’ll jump at the chance to draft him.

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