Buffalo Sabres Sign Jack Quinn

Welcome to Buffalo, Jack. The Sabres have signed their top draft pick, inking Jack Quinn to a three-year entry-level contract. Quinn was selected eighth overall in last month’s draft and plays for the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL. Today, he’s headed to the World Junior selection camp for Team Canada where he’ll compete over the next month against the country’s top players. Sabres GM Kevyn Adams released a statement on the pick:

…You see the ability for him to keep getting better. His athleticism is high. Just a lot of the metrics that we look at when we’re scouting, he met and some. This was just a player that, the more work we did, the more excited we got.

Quinn, 19, was one of the best goal-scorers in the draft this year after lighting the lamp 52 times in 2018-19. That put him second in the entire OHL behind only Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nick Robertson, who had 55. There were some questions about how much was because of Quinn’s development jump and how much was due to playing beside the league’s top-scorer, Marco Rossi, but those concerns obviously didn’t slow down Buffalo. Quinn was actually taken just ahead of the 5’9″ Rossi, who Minnesota snapped up at ninth overall.

Of course when you think of the way the Sabres are built, it makes a lot of sense to bring in an elite right winger that is expected to play in the top-six relatively quickly. The team doesn’t have a ton of talent on that side behind Sam Reinhart, even if Dylan Cozens starts his career on the wall before eventually moving to the middle of the ice. Quinn shouldn’t have a ton of resistance if he continues to score at the rate he showed last season.

Even though he dominated OHL competition, it will be a fight for Quinn at the upcoming selection camp. The Canadian roster is absolutely loaded with forward talent this year, meaning there will be some surprising cuts before the tournament gets underway.