No. 1 overall pick Owen Power will return to the University of Michigan for the 2021-22 season
Owen Power’s NHL debut with the Buffalo Sabres is going to have to wait.
According to the Buffalo News, the No. 1 overall pick from the 2021 draft will be returning to play another season at the University of Michigan.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as Power said weeks before the draft that he was leaning towards playing another season at the NCAA level, as the COVID-affected 2020-21 season didn’t offer the true college experience he was looking for.
“I think right now I’m probably leaning more toward going back to school,” Power said. “It’s something I’d like to do, trying to get the true experience of playing college hockey. At the end of the day, it obviously depends on what the team wants and what everyone around me thinks is best. I don’t think there’s really a bad option, but I’d say I’m leaning a bit more toward going back to school right now.”
Power scored three goals and 16 points over 26 games for the Wolverines in his freshman season in 2020-21. The 2021-22 Wolverines will be loaded with talent, as Power will join fellow top draft picks Matthew Beniers and Luke Hughes in Ann Arbour.
The Wolverines’ players are set to return to campus on Aug. 30 and the team’s season will begin on Oct. 8. The NCAA’s Frozen Four is scheduled for early April while the Sabres’ schedule goes on until the end of April, so Power could sign his entry-level deal and join the big league club after his college season ends.
Power will be just the third player selected No. 1 overall not to immediately jump to the NHL since 2000. @Erik Johnson spent one season at the University of Minnesota after being selected first by the Blues in 2006. @Alex Ovechkin was a different case as the NHL was locked out in what would have been his first season in 2004-05, and he didn’t debut until the following year.