2020-'21 Sabres Prospects

[LGR4GM]

47 minutes ago, dudacek said:

JJ has yet to sign, correct? When are we expecting him to come over?

Also, can't find a DEL NHLe calculator, how does JJ's 20 points in 30 DEL games compare to Quinn's 9 points in 15 AHL games?

How much better is the AHL than the DEL?

(Big fan of what I've seen from both these guys.)

I'd expect him either next year or the one after. 

No idea how it compares to Quinn. You'd need a DEL to NHLe calculator

[Norcal]

I love Peterka for the number alone. Go JJ!

[Gabrielor]

Peterka is ***** exciting. Potential top line winger.

Johnson is a surefire NHL D. Very mobile.

Portillo sounds like a fantastic pick, from people who know goalies better than me.

 

I'd love all 3 to be in Rochester next year if possible.

 

[LGR4GM]

43 minutes ago, Gabrielor said:

Peterka is ***** exciting. Potential top line winger.

Johnson is a surefire NHL D. Very mobile.

Portillo sounds like a fantastic pick, from people who know goalies better than me.

 

I'd love all 3 to be in Rochester next year if possible.

 

I like the enthusiasm but I think JJ Peterka spends another year in Germany. 

Portillo is 100% going to spend next year in college. 

Edited April 20, 2021 by LGR4GM

[Curt]

1 hour ago, Gabrielor said:

Peterka is ***** exciting. Potential top line winger.

Johnson is a surefire NHL D. Very mobile.

Portillo sounds like a fantastic pick, from people who know goalies better than me.

 

I'd love all 3 to be in Rochester next year if possible.

 

Portillo will go back to Michigan to be their starter.

Johnson is confirmed to be returning to college too, correct me if I’m wrong.

[Brawndo]

1 hour ago, Curt said:

Portillo will go back to Michigan to be their starter.

Johnson is confirmed to be returning to college too, correct me if I’m wrong.

Unfortunately it appears Strauss Mann, the Michigan Starting Goalie from this Year, appears to be returning for His Senior Year. That probably makes Portillo the backup next year. 

[Curt]

1 minute ago, Brawndo said:

Unfortunately it appears Strauss Mann, the Michigan Starting Goalie from this Year, appears to be returning for His Senior Year. That probably makes Portillo the backup next year. 

Oh, bummer.  That can’t be a great development situation for a pretty good goalie prospect, spending multiple seasons as a NCAA backup playing only ~10 games.

[tom webster]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I like the enthusiasm but I think JJ Peterka spends another year in Germany. 

Portillo is 100% going to spend next year in college. 

The Sabres love JJ but he will stay overseas another year. Portillo will undoubtedly spend two more years in College.

[dudacek]

Hockey News Future Watch prospect ranking (a poll of real NHL scouts) is out.

The Sabres pool ranks 9th overall, and that counts NHLers Dahlin, Jokiharju and Cozens.

We had 4 prospects in the top 100

• 25 Quinn
• 40 Peterka
• 58 UPL
• 72 Johnson

For those who like to keep track of such things, looks like Quinn is 11 and Peterka 18 out of the guys picked last year.

Top five are Zegras, Byfield, Drysdale, Raymond and Seider

 

[Thorner]

49 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Hockey News Future Watch prospect ranking (a poll of real NHL scouts) is out.

The Sabres pool ranks 9th overall, and that counts NHLers Dahlin, Jokiharju and Cozens.

We had 4 prospects in the top 100

• 25 Quinn
• 40 Peterka
• 58 UPL
• 72 Johnson

For those who like to keep track of such things, looks like Quinn is 11 and Peterka 18 out of the guys picked last year.

Top five are Zegras, Byfield, Drysdale, Raymond and Seider

 

I bet we'd be top 5 if the Dahlin we are seeing in the last month was here (Krueger?) all year

[Thorner]

56 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Hockey News Future Watch prospect ranking (a poll of real NHL scouts) is out.

The Sabres pool ranks 9th overall, and that counts NHLers Dahlin, Jokiharju and Cozens.

We had 4 prospects in the top 100

• 25 Quinn
• 40 Peterka
• 58 UPL
• 72 Johnson

For those who like to keep track of such things, looks like Quinn is 11 and Peterka 18 out of the guys picked last year.

Top five are Zegras, Byfield, Drysdale, Raymond and Seider

 

What did the Jets rank?

[Hoss]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

Hockey News Future Watch prospect ranking (a poll of real NHL scouts) is out.

The Sabres pool ranks 9th overall, and that counts NHLers Dahlin, Jokiharju and Cozens.

We had 4 prospects in the top 100

• 25 Quinn
• 40 Peterka
• 58 UPL
• 72 Johnson

For those who like to keep track of such things, looks like Quinn is 11 and Peterka 18 out of the guys picked last year.

Top five are Zegras, Byfield, Drysdale, Raymond and Seider

 

I can’t imagine that actually counts Dahlin and Joker. They’ve both been in the league for several years. Do you have a link?

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, Hoss said:

I can’t imagine that actually counts Dahlin and Joker. They’ve both been in the league for several years. Do you have a link?

I don't. It's a downloadable magazine format.

It does not count those players as "prospects" and they don't include them in the top 100 prospect rankings. But they definitely count 21-and-under NHLers in the team rankings and have for years.

Those two players and Cozens are specifically identified on the team page.

Edited April 24, 2021 by dudacek

[French Collection]

The Hockey News has a 2020 re-draft.

Quinn is 13 and Peterka is 20. I couldn’t provide a link, it was a story in my Apple News. In case you were wondering I am not a techie.

[#freejame]

45 minutes ago, French Collection said:

The Hockey News has a 2020 re-draft.

Quinn is 13 and Peterka is 20. I couldn’t provide a link, it was a story in my Apple News. In case you were wondering I am not a techie.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.si.com/hockey/.amp/news/future-watch-redoing-the-2020-nhl-draft

[Thwomp!]

Didn't see this posted anywhere, and maybe it's not a surprise, but the Sabres let Davidsson walk.

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/sabres-opt-to-not-sign-center-marcus-davidsson-a-second-round-draft-choice-in-2017/article_58308dd0-c2e1-11eb-9053-3fce292052b5.html

2nd round pick. Down the drain.  Not even signed.

[DarthEbriate]

21 minutes ago, Thwomp! said:

Didn't see this posted anywhere, and maybe it's not a surprise, but the Sabres let Davidsson walk.

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/sabres-opt-to-not-sign-center-marcus-davidsson-a-second-round-draft-choice-in-2017/article_58308dd0-c2e1-11eb-9053-3fce292052b5.html

2nd round pick. Down the drain.  Not even signed.

His career really fell to pieces -- traded a few times, bounced between Sweden's leagues. Wasn't a reach, we picked him right about where he was expected to go, speedy two-way bottom six type guy. A Tobias Rieder with more upside. But that's the game with the draft, many more misses than hits.

[Weave]

Like all 2nd round picks, he had maybe a 25% chance of being a pick that made it.  Shouldn’t be a shock that he was one of the 75% who didn’t.
 

Maybe his game was different enough from what KA wants to build in Roc that he wasn’t worth one of the 53 contracts we are allowed.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Weave

[LabattBlue]

1 minute ago, Weave said:

Like all 2nd round picks, he had maybe a 25% chance of being a pick that made it.  Shouldn’t be a shock that he was one of the 75% who didn’t.
 

Maybe his game was different enough from what KA wants to build in Roc that he wasn’t worth one of the 53 contracts we are allowed.

But it is a shock that he was so bad that they never offered him a contract. 

[Weave]

14 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

But it is a shock that he was so bad that they never offered him a contract. 

Different administration, different organizational goals, “not my guy”.  I’m not surprised he wasn’t given a look.

[Curt]

18 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

But it is a shock that he was so bad that they never offered him a contract. 

 

3 minutes ago, Weave said:

Different administration, different organizational goals, “not my guy”.  I’m not surprised he wasn’t given a look.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s at all a result of different administration.  His play has not warranted a contract any more that any random 22 yr old ECHL player.  He is getting cut from SHL teams and playing in the Swedish 2nd rate men’s league, and not putting up impressive numbers there either.

[Weave]

2 minutes ago, Curt said:

 

Yeah, I don’t think it’s at all a result of different administration.  His play has not warranted a contract any more that any random 22 yr old ECHL player.  He is getting cut from SHL teams and playing in the Swedish 2nd rate men’s league, and not putting up impressive numbers there either.

Agreed, but if the GM that drafted him were still here he’d be much more likely to get a look.  New GM.  New team building vision, no attachment by the current GM, underwhelming performance.  I’d be shocked if he WAS signed.

[Curt]

3 minutes ago, Weave said:

Agreed, but if the GM that drafted him were still here he’d be much more likely to get a look.  New GM.  New team building vision, no attachment by the current GM, underwhelming performance.  I’d be shocked if he WAS signed.

I’d be shocked if he was signed, even if Botterill was still GM.  I just don’t think the GM change plays into.  On the surface level he would seem to be the kind of player that Adams would like actually.

He has been bad enough that there is absolutely no reason to sign him.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Current Sabres prospect pipeline.  My prospect definition is 24 and under, waiver exempt and played in the minors (or lower tiers) of hockey part of last season or are no longer in the NHL.  By that definition, Cozens, Tage, Borgen, Asplund and Mitts all graduated, while R2, Samuelsson, and Bryson all remain prospects.

So given the roster upheaval from last season who are our top prospects prior to this year's draft.

Forwards:  Quinn, JJP, R2, Huglen, Murray, Weissbach, Rousek and Pekar.  IMHO, the first 3 have significant NHL futures, while there is significant question marks about the rest.  I'll be interested to see how Weissbach does in his first pro season and whether Huglen builds on his game now that he is finally healthy.  

Defense: Bryson, Samuelsson, Laaksonen, Johnson, Kukkonen and Fitzgerald.  Obviously the first 4 are future Sabres.  I think the upside for all 4 is 2nd pairing guys with Johnson possibly being a 1st pairing shutdown player.  Bryson and Samuelsson looked they belong in the NHL sooner then later.  I think Bryson is a fulltime Sabres next year.  I also think we shouldn't sleep on Kukkonen.  He was the 2nd youngest fulltime player on his Liiga team and is a solid defensive D.  

Goaltending:  UPL and Portillo.  

Rank:

1 - Quinn - We needed scoring wingers and he can play that role and is already a 200 ft player.

2 - Routsalainen - I was impressed with his 1st NA season.  Looks like a better all around version of VO

3 - JJP - Arguably might actually be the best prospect we have, but need to see him here first.

4 - UPL - following the Ullmark development path (including the injuries) but with more upside

5 - Johnson - see above

6 - Samuelsson - see above

7 - Laaksonen - see above, and was AHL all-star in first NA season

8. - Bryson - proved he is an NHLer last season, just not sure given his size of the upside.  Will the offense come?

9. - Portillo -  Michigan starter next season, but was excellent in a backup role last season

GAP

10 - Weissbach - 41 pts in 31 NCAA games last season.  Lets see how he adjusts to the pro game

11 - Huglen -35 pts in 39 USHL game and 8 pts in 9 playoff games after returning from a 1.5 years off do to injury.  This kid has a ton of upside but we'll see if he can achieve it.

12 - Kukkonen - see above

13 - Rousek - bringing his decent hands and physical game to the AHL next season

14 - Murray - Strange trip to becoming a legit prospect, but made NHL debut this year.  Projects as a depth player with occasional scoring, but has size and is willing to use it

GAP

15 - Biro - college FA was ok in his first AHL season.  Needs to find his NCAA scoring touch.

16 - Pekar - disappointing first pro season.   Thought he would transition easier.  

17 - Costantini - had a solid 1st USHL season with 22 pts in 37 games.

18 - Fitzgerald - Unlikely to make the jump to the NHL.

19 - Worge-Kreu - graduated to the SHL at 21 and has size, but it's likely be a few more years to see if he has a NHL future.  I doubt it

20 - Cronholm - see Kreu but without the size.

Edited June 22, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[GASabresIUFAN]

PS for those that don't think Weissbach is a legit prospect here is some food for thought

Weissbach's 22 year old season 41 pts in 31 Big 10 games - NHLe 36 pts.  5'9" 176 lbs

Routsalainen's 22 year old season 43 pts in 44 SM-Liiga games - NHLe 36 pts.  5'8" 180 lbs

Olofsson's 22 year old season he had 43 pts in 50 SHL games - NHLe 42 pts.  5'11" 182 lbs

Edited June 22, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN