GDT: Sabres Prospect Camp: 3v3 Tournament, Sabres.com, July 6, 2023

[DarthEbriate]

Overall a good showing by all involved.

@Flashsabre just beat me to calling out that they did scratch an entire Team Hasek as a reward for extended postseasons. That led to a lot of kids getting tons of touches and also looking pretty gassed at times. All these guys would've looked like puck possession studs out there today: Kozak, Kulich, Rosen, Savoie (the Matthew pronunciation), Weissbach, Komarov, and Metsa.

Leinonen has now missed both Dev Camps with injury so it's difficult to get excited about him. Ratzlaff looked very good after overplaying the first shot of the tourney. But we didn't get to see a Levi v. Portillo Event like last year to get the excitement going.

[JustOneParade]

There is some impressive young talent in this organization. And yes, I fully understand the probabilities of guys becoming NHL players who were selected across the various rounds. But I'm wondering if this scouting/analytics crew hasn't busted the curve in more than a few places. Particularly taking advantage of the lack of exposure for our Russian prospects during COVID.  

[Pimlach]

I was there as well. Got a pat on the back from Sabretooth upon entry to the rink (wise guy).  
 

Fun to watch the 3v3 skill game. 

The best  players were Benson and Novikov.  Benson is a non stop player that will be fun to watch and a pain to play against.    
Novikov has size and skill.  Hope he can project to top 4 someday. 

Next tier that stood out to me: Nuechev, Wahlberg and Kisakov.  Especially Nuechev. Wahlberg looks like a high ceiling guy if he develops.  

Next tier: Johnson, Richard and Huglen.  Johnson was quietly good, a steady player that does not flash but has good tools. The other two, Richard and Huglen, played like it was the final cuts and just kept working. 
 

It was fun for all.  I was sitting behind Stiven Sardarian’s father and little brother for awhile.  They were fun, especially after he scored. He played good as well.  
 

Great event and a beautiful, warm summer day.  Downtown Buffalo was buzzing. Coach McDermott made the event and was introduced by Kevyn Adams after the game along with Don Granato. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Pimlach

[LGR4GM]

 

 

[Flashsabre]

3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

 

 

That was the sequence of the tournament and summed up Benson’s game perfectly in one single clip.

[Thorner]

12 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

 

 

Wow who the heck is 54?

Glorified shinny I get it but damn son lol 

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

Wow who the heck is 54?

Nadeau, I believe

[Night Train]

Sounds like a lot of you folks were there. 

Did you get together or suspiciously eyeball the crowd while wearing sunglasses and a trenchcoat ? 

[Pimlach]

2 minutes ago, Night Train said:

Sounds like a lot of you folks were there. 

Did you get together or suspiciously eyeball the crowd while wearing sunglasses and a trenchcoat ? 

I knew I could be near a Sabre Spacer at any time.  I as looking nervously looking over my shoulder, kind of worried that @PASabreFan might be stalking.  

[PromoTheRobot]

40 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Nadeau, I believe

And now his opinion of Nadeau is made.

[Mustache of God]

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

And now his opinion of Nadeau is made.

More like not doing anything to make this team, right?

[PromoTheRobot]

27 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

More like not doing anything to make this team, right?

This team...as in Sabres or Amerks? 

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

And now his opinion of Nadeau is made.

This board sucks lol 

Literally policing 

[Malazan]

I tried to say joel ratkovic berndtsson 3 times fast and blacked out. 

[Flashsabre]

2 hours ago, JustOneParade said:

There is some impressive young talent in this organization. And yes, I fully understand the probabilities of guys becoming NHL players who were selected across the various rounds. But I'm wondering if this scouting/analytics crew hasn't busted the curve in more than a few places. Particularly taking advantage of the lack of exposure for our Russian prospects during COVID.  

The Sabres drafting has jumped by leaps and bounds the past 3 or 4 years. Finding talent down the draft board has been their biggest improvement. Finding Novikov in the 6th and Kozak in the 7th of the same draft is huge.

We will see how the Russians develop but Poltapov looks like a bull, Kisakov and Neuchev looked like high end skill wingers and Novikov has a great package of size, skating and enough skill to be a player. Komarov has been impressive the past wo year’s in Quebec.

Richard needs to improve his feet but there is a pro player there. Same as Nadeau.

Lindgren putting on 11 pounds and not losing his elite skating is impressive.

Lindgren, Komarov, Novikov, Strabek, McCarthy, Metsa gives them a pipeline on the backend. Panoacha looks interesting for a 7th pick as well.

Ratzliff was a good pick. Kid was a winner for Team Canada and was a good tandem goalie with Milic in Seattle.

[French Collection]

That was fun to watch, even on YouTube. 3v3 development camp hockey is not where I base an opinion but gives me an idea of what some guys look like and can do.

Guys that stood out to me:

Benson is a dog on a bone when he doesn’t have the puck and is really creative with it. Doesn’t have the speed to blow by anyone but his edge work is fantastic and he handles the puck extremely well. He is a possession beast and has a defensive conscience at 18.

Novikov is big and is a good player. He looks kind of a lumbering skater but he gets there and he was smart with jumping into the play. He could have crunched guys defensively but without hitting he just got in the way or angled them off. He is not yet 20 so will gain size, power and coordination. I think he will be an NHLer.

Neuchev is highly skilled. He showed some good stick handling and created some offense. He had a few shots that were stopped with good saves.

Marjala looked very good with the puck and went to the net. He may shy away from that with hitting but he has good offensive instincts.

Richard has good size, a good shot and looked nifty around the net. Just starting his NCAA career so he can slow cook some more.

Kisakov looked decent offensively, he seems faster than most.

Ratzlaff was good, these goalies face a lot of high danger chances in this format but he was solid. All the goalies were decent.

Johnson showed a few bursts of good skating and seem to be a Dman first.

N.Savoie was a good all round Dman.

 

[Rasmus_]

9 hours ago, K-9 said:

From top to bottom, this seems like the deepest group of prospects I’ve seen at a development camp in a while. 

And what's crazy is there are still 6-7 other under 23's that didn't participate. lol

[LGR4GM]

Not to rain on parades but, it is just a summer scrimmage. Half these guys will never make the NHL.

[Night Train]

10 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Not to rain on parades but, it is just a summer scrimmage. Half these guys will never make the NHL.

 

 But can be used as trade chips while there's still perceived upside. Strength in numbers is a good thing. 

[FrenchConnection44]

Looking forward to watching several Hockey East games this year with 3 prospects at BU, UConn, and New Hampshire. 

[Zamboni]

18 hours ago, Pimlach said:

I was there as well. Got a pat on the back from Sabretooth upon entry to the rink (wise guy).  
 

Fun to watch the 3v3 skill game. 

The best  players were Benson and Novikov.  Benson is a non stop player that will be fun to watch and a pain to play against.    
Novikov has size and skill.  Hope he can project to top 4 someday. 

Next tier that stood out to me: Nuechev, Wahlberg and Kisakov.  Especially Nuechev. Wahlberg looks like a high ceiling guy if he develops.  

Next tier: Johnson, Richard and Huglen.  Johnson was quietly good, a steady player that does not flash but has good tools. The other two, Richard and Huglen, played like it was the final cuts and just kept working. 
 

It was fun for all.  I was sitting behind Stiven Sardarian’s father and little brother for awhile.  They were fun, especially after he scored. He played good as well.  
 

Great event and a beautiful, warm summer day.  Downtown Buffalo was buzzing. Coach McDermott made the event and was introduced by Kevyn Adams after the game along with Don Granato. 

I wish you would have said you were there. I was sitting like 5 feet away from you. The reason I know this is because I was sitting 7 feet away from  Sardarians father and little brother too. It was obvious they were his family by the way they reacted when he was on the ice.

[Pimlach]

12 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Not to rain on parades but, it is just a summer scrimmage. Half these guys will never make the NHL.

 It’s more likely that 75% won’t make but it’s fun to see the level of talent that Adams and his henchman have compiled.  Maybe 6 of these guys make in the NHL someday.  
 

I saw young fans up against the glass calling for Bensons attention after the games.  I see hockey coming back to life in Buffalo.  

[Pimlach]

36 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

I wish you would have said you were there. I was sitting like 5 feet away from you. The reason I know this is because I was sitting 7 feet away from  Sardarians father and little brother too. It was obvious they were his family by the way they reacted when he was on the ice.

I was right behind the Dad.   I was there when the blue team won the shoot out, and they cheered wildly.  It was awesome to see.  The little guy fist bumped me. 
 

Then I moved to talk to some old friends and I ended up on the other side behind the bench of the white team.  

Edited July 7, 2023 by Pimlach

[Eleven]

18 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

they did scratch an entire Team Hasek as a reward for extended postseasons

I was wondering why there were only three teams.  Thanks for the explanation.

[JustOneParade]

53 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

 It’s more likely that 75% won’t make but it’s fun to see the level of talent that Adams and his henchman have compiled.  Maybe 6 of these guys make in the NHL someday.  
 

I saw young fans up against the glass calling for Bensons attention after the games.  I see hockey coming back to life in Buffalo.  

Whether its 75% that won't make it or the 50% that @LGR4GMsuggests, that number can now be applied to 15 or so legitimate prospects vs. maybe a half dozen in years past. That's what is particularly encouraging for the future.