How can I traverse this tree, to get a sequence of vertices {8,4,2,9,5,1,6,3,7}? I've failed to produce it with DepthFirstScan, does this particular order even has a name?
TreeGraph[{1->2,1->3,2->4,2->5,3->6,3->7,4->8,5->9}, VertexLabels -> "Name"] 
DepthFirstScanand the"PostvisitVertex"event - are you sure that's not what you want? Your order seems a bit strange, given that e.g. 2 is visited between visiting the two subbranches $\endgroup${8,4,2,9,5,1,6,3,7}:rubeGoldbergSort[g_] := SortBy[VertexList[g], {PropertyValue[{g, #}, VertexCoordinates] &}]; rubeGoldbergSort@ TreeGraph[{1 -> 2, 1 -> 3, 2 -> 4, 2 -> 5, 3 -> 6, 3 -> 7, 4 -> 8, 5 -> 9}, VertexLabels -> "Name"]:) $\endgroup$