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
40. LINUS SJODIN
39. RILEY FIDDLER-SCHULTZ
38. SEAN KEOHANE
37. TYSON KOZAK
36. JOEL RATKOVIC-BERNDTSSON
35. NORWIN PANOCHA
34. ZACH METSA
33. GUSTAV KARLSSON
32. WILLIAM VON BARNEKOW
31. Brett Murray – Left Wing ( Rochester – AHL, Buffalo – NHL)
Murray turned 26 this summer, so he will age out of the Sabres prospect list next season. The big winger was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo after the Sabres selected Alex Nylander eighth overall and Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel in the sixth.
After a year in the USHL, Murray played two seasons at Penn State but did not thrive in the NCAA with only one goal in 33 NCAA games and returned to the Youngstown Phantoms as a 20-year-old, where he scored 76 points (41 goals, 35 assists) in 62 games. The Bolton, ON native signed an AHL deal with Rochester in 2019 and had 24 points in his rookie season before the league was shut down due to the pandemic.
Earning an NHL contract in 2020, he scored 20 points in 27 games and made his NHL debut. Over the last three seasons, Murray has scored 55 goals with the Amerks and had 10 points in Rochester’s 2023 playoff run to the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final. Time may be running out for the big winger in the Sabres organization, who has played 21 career NHL games but has been unable to lock down a permanent job as a bottom-six forward.
The Sabres made a concerted effort to add size in free agency, but the likes of Ryan McLeod and Beck Malenstyn are excellent skaters. A lack of speed is likely what will limit Murray to being an excellent AHL player.
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