The Buffalo Sabres are considered one of the best deepest prospect pools in the NHL, not only because of their selecting high in recent drafts but also due to their eye for talent and their organizational choices of either leaving players to develop in their home countries or bringing them to North America. Leading up to the opening of training camp in mid-September, we will look at the club’s top 40 prospects. All are 25 years old or younger, whose rights are currently held by the Sabres or are on AHL or NHL deals and have played less than 40 NHL games.
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READ ABOUT OTHER SABRES PROSPECTS
30. VASILI ZELENOV
29. AARON HUGLEN
28. MATTEO COSTANTINI
27. RYERSON LEENDERS
26. PATRICK GEARY
25. ETHAN MIEDEMA
24. STIVEN SARDARIAN
23. TOPIAS LEINONEN
22. PROKHOR POLTAPOV
21. SIMON-PIER BRUNET – DEFENSE (DRUMMONDVILLE – QMJHL)
Brunet was the Sabres fourth-round pick at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas. A teammate of Buffalo blueline prospect Vsevolod Komarov, the 6’2” 196 lb. defenseman has not shown much of an offensive side thus far in his junior career (14 points in 52 games last season with Drummondville), but does have the size and skating ability that could have develop into a matchup shutdown defender down the line.
According to the Elite Prospects Draft Guide, the right-handed Brunet had “motors up and down the ice with a sound skating posture for a player of his 6-foot-2 size. With his skating and reach, he denies space from the opposition, closes on them in transition, and guards the front of the net. Attackers can’t go through him. He
walls them off from high-danger areas.”
The Sabres obviously recognize the organizational need for right-handed blueliners with their top four defenders in Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Bowen Byram, and Owen Power all left-handed, and veteran Henri Jokiharju a pending unrestricted free agent. That is why they have drafted predominantly righties (Adam Kleber, Brunet, Maxim Strbak, Gavin McCarthy, and Komarov) in the last three drafts.
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