Daxon Rudolph got the hometown hero’s welcome Friday night.
Rudolph, who will be a freshman at the University of Denver next season, was the No. 4 pick in the 2026 NHL draft. Even better, he was selected by the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Arena in downtown Buffalo.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Rudolph told reporters after being drafted. “To be selected by Buffalo in Buffalo, it means a lot. Just hearing the applause was a really cool moment.”
He also made history for the Pioneers in multiple ways. Rudolph is now the highest draft selection in DU program history. He and Ryan Lin, who went with the No. 21 pick to the San Jose Sharks, are now the first pair of first-round picks to be on the DU roster at the same time.
Rudolph, a 6-foot-2 defenseman, had 28 goals and 78 points in 68 games for Prince Albert in the WHL this past season. He also had nine goals and 27 points in 19 playoff games.
Lin, a 5-foot-11 defenseman, had 14 goals and 57 points in 53 games for Vancouver in the WHL. He’s also played for Canada at the U-18 world championships in each of the past two years.
Rudolph and Lin are part of the most anticipated recruiting class in Pios program history. The defending champions lost four defensemen from their title-winning team, but Rudolph, Lin, 2025 second-round pick Blake Fiddler and Ben MacBeath, a projected second-round choice in this draft will arrive to replace them this fall.
The landscape of college hockey has changed dramatically in recent years. The 2026-27 season will be the second year in which players from the CHL — a combination of Canada’s three top major junior leagues — will be eligible to play NCAA hockey. This Pios freshman class has seven CHL players (six from the WHL, one from the OHL) plus center Mikey Berchild, who spent the past two years at the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
“I think itap exciting for our fans. There’s a notoriety that comes with (multiple first-round picks),” DU coach David Carle told The Denver Post earlier this week. “I think our challenge is not change at all who we are or the people we’re bringing in. Thatap what we’re most excited about. This has more to do with the CHL rule change than anything else.”
Denver has built itself into a college hockey powerhouse without the benefit of multiple first-round picks. The Pios have only had five in program history before this. There’s been plenty of future NHL talent, but not at the same levels of the sportap other traditional powers.
“They’re not picking Denver because we’re the fastest road to the NHL, or we’re offering the most money or we have the shiniest stuff,” Carle said. “They’re coming here because they want to be part of something bigger than themselves and they want to add to what we’ve already been able to do on this historic run.”
