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Sabres draft Casey Mittelstadt 8th overall

Elsa / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The Buffalo Sabres drafted Casey Mittelstadt with the eighth overall pick at the 2017 NHL Draft on Friday.

Casey Mittelstadt

Position: Center/Left Wing
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 201 lbs
Age: 18
Club: Green Bay Gamblers (USHL)
Nationality: American

GP G A P ES GP GES PPG ES GF%
24 13 17 30 0.29 0.64 55.56

(Even-strength stats courtesy: prospect-stats.com)

Mittelstadt entered the draft as the third-ranked North American skater, according to NHL Central Scouting.

Along with his time spent with the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers, he played 25 games for Eden Prairie High in Minnesota this past season, registering 21 goals and 43 assists in 25 games, winning his second straight USHS All-USA Hockey Player of the Year award.

Able to play both center and wing, Mittelstadt is seen as having the kind of all-around game that every team covets.

From Curtis Joe of Elite Prospects:

An electric offensive presence on the ice, Casey Mittelstadt brings the complete package of speed, skill, and hockey sense. He competes hard with every shift, and has the dynamic puck skills to keep up with his creativity, which is a hallmark of his game.

His awareness is all-encompassing, and he never puts his teammates in positions where their time and space will be bottlenecked. Bigger players don't phase him, as he thinks the game analytically and will find chinks in the opposition's armor on the fly. As a result, Mittelstadt is often seen forcing more complicated plays that the opposition won't be able to read in time

Some may question Mittelstadt's strength after he completed just one bench press and failed to do a single pull-up at the scouting combine in June, but his skill set is right up there with the best prospects in the draft.

Highlights can be seen here.

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