It was news that wouldn’t surprise anyone in Hockeytown North, but surprised a lot of people across the hockey world when the Buffalo Sabres took Daxon Rudolph with the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Rudolph was the first defenceman off the board after the Toronto Maple Leafs (Gavin McKenna), San Jose Sharks (Ivar Stenberg) and Vancouver Canucks (Caleb Malholtra) were taken with the first three picks of the draft.
Coming into the draft, it was expected that Chase Reid (Sault Ste. Marie) or Carson Carels (Prince George) would be the first defenceman off the board. Other candidates to be the first defenceman off the board included Keaton Verhoeff (University of North Dakota) or Alberts Smits (Latvia).
Rudolph is the fourth highest draft pick from the Raiders at the NHL Draft behind Mike Modano (1st overall, 1988), Chris Phillips (1st overall, 1996) and Leon Draisaitl (3rd overall, 2014). He is the first Raider selected by Buffalo since Vojtech Budik in the fifth round in 2016.
Rudolph was the first overall selection by the Raiders in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft and was an all-situation player for Prince Albert. In 132 regular season games as a Raider, Rudolph registered 35 goals and 84 assists along with 105 penalty minutes.
In 30 career playoff games, Rudolph was a strong performer with 10 goals and 29 assists across two playoff runs for the Raiders, leading Prince Albert to the WHL Final this past season.
Rudolph is committed to play college hockey for the University of Denver next season.
