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
20. OLIVIER NADEAU
19. ALEKSANDR KISAKOV
18. GAVIN McCARTHY
17. VILJAMI MARJALA
16. LUKE OSBURN
15. JAKE RICHARD
14. VIKTOR NEUCHEV
13. LUKA ROUSEK
12. – ADAM KLEBER – D (LINCOLN – USHL)
Kleber was the Sabres second-round pick at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas. The Chaska, MN native played his amateur hockey in Minnesota and two years in the USHL with Lincoln before being selected 42nd overall with a pick obtained from the San Jose Sharks when Buffalo traded down from 11th to 14th overall.
The 18-year-old is large (6’6”, 214 lb.), right-handed, and defensive-minded, something that will be a good fit down the road with a Sabres blueline that is predominantly left-handed and offensive-minded. The young blueliner possesses above-average skating ability, and good awareness and habits in his own zone, skills that project him to be an effective penalty killer down the line.
The Hockey Prospect Black Book says Kleber is “trying to do a little too much, while also playing way deep (usually) and he ends up screening his goalie a lot, He still has a ways to go in terms of the structure of his game and his mental processing.”
These are traits that he may grow out of, as the young blueliner will play as a freshman at Minnesota-Duluth this season and was an invitee for Team USA at the summer camp for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championships in Ottawa.
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