The Sabres Prospect Pool 2024 Edition

[Flashsabre]

29 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

Per PuckPedia, the Sabres retain signing rights on Leinonen until June 1, 2026. Leinonen has had a solid year in SWE1, including two strong playoff wins recently. If his contract status in Sweden allows it, I think it would make sense for him to come over to North America next year and play for the Amerks or, if not quite ready, for Jacksonville.  

Also, per PuckPedia, these are the players who the Sabres will lose signing rights on this spring or summer: Matteo Costantini, Viljami Marjala, William von Barnekow, and Ethan Miedema.

I admit I have not seen any of these players play. Costantini seems like a potential minor league player. I will be slightly disappointed if we don't sign Marjala or Miedema. My guess is that, at this point, we won't sign Marjala for certain.  The reason I would be disappointed is that I think they have outperformed their draft positions, particularly Marjala.

Marjala was taken in round 5 in 2021. He just turned 22 and has 51 points in 53 games in Liiga (though only 8 goals).  He is 14th in scoring in the league, with no player his age or younger having a better offensive year (thus far).

Miedema was drafted in rd 4 in 2023.  He will be 20 in a week. He has 54 points in 62 OHL games (20 goals).  He's big at 6'4" and 210 lbs.  He has 69 PMs.

To me it just begs the question: why acquire extra picks and why bother with 4th and 5th rd picks if you aren't even going to sign the ones who out perform their draft position?  It's not that I expect either player to make the NHL. But we have so many prospects (and so many forward prospects in particular), and we have been so reluctant to trade any of the higher ranked ones (Savoie the exception), that we have, in my view, deprived many of them of oxygen. 

I think both Marjala and Miedama should be signed. Marjala is like Östlund in that he is slight but very talented and the Sabres are desperate for good setup men in their system.

Miedama has the size, grit they don’t have in so many prospects up front. Neither may turnout to be more than AHL players but finding the next Brett Murray is important to keep the farm team competitive while kids develop.

[Pimlach]

41 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

Per PuckPedia, the Sabres retain signing rights on Leinonen until June 1, 2026. Leinonen has had a solid year in SWE1, including two strong playoff wins recently. If his contract status in Sweden allows it, I think it would make sense for him to come over to North America next year and play for the Amerks or, if not quite ready, for Jacksonville.  

Also, per PuckPedia, these are the players who the Sabres will lose signing rights on this spring or summer: Matteo Costantini, Viljami Marjala, William von Barnekow, and Ethan Miedema.

I admit I have not seen any of these players play. Costantini seems like a potential minor league player. I will be slightly disappointed if we don't sign Marjala or Miedema. My guess is that, at this point, we won't sign Marjala for certain.  The reason I would be disappointed is that I think they have outperformed their draft positions, particularly Marjala.

Marjala was taken in round 5 in 2021. He just turned 22 and has 51 points in 53 games in Liiga (though only 8 goals).  He is 14th in scoring in the league, with no player his age or younger having a better offensive year (thus far).

Miedema was drafted in rd 4 in 2023.  He will be 20 in a week. He has 54 points in 62 OHL games (20 goals).  He's big at 6'4" and 210 lbs.  He has 69 PMs.

To me it just begs the question: why acquire extra picks and why bother with 4th and 5th rd picks if you aren't even going to sign the ones who out perform their draft position?  It's not that I expect either player to make the NHL. But we have so many prospects (and so many forward prospects in particular), and we have been so reluctant to trade any of the higher ranked ones (Savoie the exception), that we have, in my view, deprived many of them of oxygen. 

Is there a Hagel in that group?  

[Flashsabre]

Östlund keeps on rolling which is great. He has bulked up and has really taken off as the 1C in Rochester. He has the exact skill set they are in desperate need of. Unfortunately he’s not ready to step in next year and be that player in the NHL yet. 
 

Rosen has really made Rochester  go. He is their go to forward. He is NHL ready next year but what do they do? Trade another body to make room or trade Rosen to bring in another piece.

Brannstrom is an AHL superstar. I think at worst next year he is Buffalo’s 7th dman but can probably play in the lineup 

Levi has gone through a bit of a rough patch but that’s part of development. He bounced back last night to shut the door down the stretch.

Novikov and Komarov played together finally as the Russian twin towers.

Wahlberg continues to chug along. He has a unique size-skill combo the Sabres desperately need.

Helenuis is holding his own as an 18 year old in the AHL.

3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Is there a Hagel in that group?  

No. Hagel was a unique example of incompetence on Botts part.

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Archie Lee said:

Per PuckPedia, the Sabres retain signing rights on Leinonen until June 1, 2026. Leinonen has had a solid year in SWE1, including two strong playoff wins recently. If his contract status in Sweden allows it, I think it would make sense for him to come over to North America next year and play for the Amerks or, if not quite ready, for Jacksonville.  

Also, per PuckPedia, these are the players who the Sabres will lose signing rights on this spring or summer: Matteo Costantini, Viljami Marjala, William von Barnekow, and Ethan Miedema.

I admit I have not seen any of these players play. Costantini seems like a potential minor league player. I will be slightly disappointed if we don't sign Marjala or Miedema. My guess is that, at this point, we won't sign Marjala for certain.  The reason I would be disappointed is that I think they have outperformed their draft positions, particularly Marjala.

Marjala was taken in round 5 in 2021. He just turned 22 and has 51 points in 53 games in Liiga (though only 8 goals).  He is 14th in scoring in the league, with no player his age or younger having a better offensive year (thus far).

Miedema was drafted in rd 4 in 2023.  He will be 20 in a week. He has 54 points in 62 OHL games (20 goals).  He's big at 6'4" and 210 lbs.  He has 69 PMs.

To me it just begs the question: why acquire extra picks and why bother with 4th and 5th rd picks if you aren't even going to sign the ones who out perform their draft position?  It's not that I expect either player to make the NHL. But we have so many prospects (and so many forward prospects in particular), and we have been so reluctant to trade any of the higher ranked ones (Savoie the exception), that we have, in my view, deprived many of them of oxygen. 

Leinonen plays in the Allveskan, no reason to A. Bring him over to play in the echl of B. Not let him have a shot at the Liiga level. 

[dudacek]

Von Barnekow, Meidema and Costantini are very much longshots to even be good AHLers, Marjala is only slightly better.

The proper context to regard any player picked below the 2nd round is that ^^^ is the most likely outcome.

You hope a few Kozaks and Novikov surface and accept most won’t do that.

They’re raffle tickets and having multiple picks in that range is the same as having multiple tickets.

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

3 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

Miedema was drafted in rd 4 in 2023.  He will be 20 in a week. He has 54 points in 62 OHL games (20 goals).  He's big at 6'4" and 210 lbs.  He has 69 PMs.

Why wouldn’t they sign Miedema this off-season? The Sabres need more players upfront with size.  The only prospect in the A with similar size is Wahlberg.

[Crusader1969]

3 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

Östlund keeps on rolling which is great. He has bulked up and has really taken off as the 1C in Rochester. He has the exact skill set they are in desperate need of. Unfortunately he’s not ready to step in next year and be that player in the NHL yet. 
 

Rosen has really made Rochester  go. He is their go to forward. He is NHL ready next year but what do they do? Trade another body to make room or trade Rosen to bring in another piece.

Brannstrom is an AHL superstar. I think at worst next year he is Buffalo’s 7th dman but can probably play in the lineup 

Levi has gone through a bit of a rough patch but that’s part of development. He bounced back last night to shut the door down the stretch.

Novikov and Komarov played together finally as the Russian twin towers.

Wahlberg continues to chug along. He has a unique size-skill combo the Sabres desperately need.

Helenuis is holding his own as an 18 year old in the AHL.

No. Hagel was a unique example of incompetence on Botts part.

If Quinn had any trade value, that would be a good slot for Rosen next season.  
JJP would be the only other guy you could trade out and bring in Rosen 

this won't go over well, but the only other option would be Tuch, especially if you can't extend him past next season, he would have good trade value as well.  Rosen for Tuch saves you around $3.5 million 

 

[North Buffalo]

41 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

If Quinn had any trade value, that would be a good slot for Rosen next season.  
JJP would be the only other guy you could trade out and bring in Rosen 

this won't go over well, but the only other option would be Tuch, especially if you can't extend him past next season, he would have good trade value as well.  Rosen for Tuch saves you around $3.5 million 

 

Id give Quinn part of 1 year to heal literally and gain strength and confidence if not part of deal at trade deadline.

[SabreFinn]

35 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

If Quinn had any trade value, that would be a good slot for Rosen next season.  
JJP would be the only other guy you could trade out and bring in Rosen 

this won't go over well, but the only other option would be Tuch, especially if you can't extend him past next season, he would have good trade value as well.  Rosen for Tuch saves you around $3.5 million 

 

Rosen can play in Rochester next year too. He might be too good for that but it is not something to worry about now. If we can't find a spot in the line-up by next trade deadline he will be traded couse he will probably not sign for another year. And the left side is a bit crowded, can't see him fit anywhere, even If I would like to see him get a ten game top six role for him to really show what he is.

[Crusader1969]

1 minute ago, North Buffalo said:

Id give Quinn part of 1 year to heal literally and gain strength and confidence if not part of deal at trade deadline.

Yes. His value would be so low at the moment.  Just not worth trading 

it wasn't that long ago we saw a path for him to be the best winger on the team 

[SabreFinn]

4 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

Yes. His value would be so low at the moment.  Just not worth trading 

it wasn't that long ago we saw a path for him to be the best winger on the team 

I really hope Quinn can fix whatever is wrong during the summer. He is so far from what I think his ceiling is now that there has to be some sort of injury. If he comes back next season looking the same the only option is to trade him. Noticed that it seems like Bryan Rust lacks trade protection next season. Quinn and Rosen for Rust?

[shrader]

4 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Is there a Hagel in that group?  

No one knows that a Hagel is a Hagel until 3-4 years later. 

[spndnchz]

Ok I’ll post in a couple minutes 2011 De Camp

quess or tell who made it

 

BTW Pominvile beat Max

[spndnchz]

 

[shrader]

1 hour ago, spndnchz said:

 

I’m not entirely sure what I’m watching here, but it’s so blatantly obvious the difference between the guys who skate through the line and the ones who pull up before they get there. 

[spndnchz]

15 minutes ago, shrader said:

I’m not entirely sure what I’m watching here, but it’s so blatantly obvious the difference between the guys who skate through the line and the ones who pull up before they get there. 

There’s a bunch of vids there. I wonder what happened to Catanachi (sic) he seemed to be good. 

[Ctaeth]

On 3/15/2025 at 2:16 PM, dudacek said:

Von Barnekow, Meidema and Costantini are very much longshots to even be good AHLers, Marjala is only slightly better.

The proper context to regard any player picked below the 2nd round is that ^^^ is the most likely outcome.

You hope a few Kozaks and Novikov surface and accept most won’t do that.

They’re raffle tickets and having multiple picks in that range is the same as having multiple tickets.

 

agree with the other three, but pretty strongly disagree on marjala.  he's likely already capable of being a good ahl player.  point per game player this year in finland's top league and rookie of the year in liiga the year before.  i would be extremely surprised if the sabres don't offer him a contract.  however, given that his success has been primarily in europe and he is already a top player on his team, i wouldn't be surprised if he wants to stay in europe

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, Ctaeth said:

agree with the other three, but pretty strongly disagree on marjala.  he's likely already capable of being a good ahl player.  point per game player this year in finland's top league and rookie of the year in liiga the year before.  i would be extremely surprised if the sabres don't offer him a contract.  however, given that his success has been primarily in europe and he is already a top player on his team, i wouldn't be surprised if he wants to stay in europe

We need to see Viljami in NA first. The Liiga suffers from a the problem of pace. It is the biggest concern with taking Helenius. They simply transition up ice slower and play a more deliberate counter attacking game than the NHL which is very much based on setting up 2v1s in rapid succession. All that said, I think bringing in Marjala is a good idea. He's 10th in Liiga in ppg. He's first in u25 for ppg. He has a lot of assists and I would want to know how many points he gets on the PP. 

[Ctaeth]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

We need to see Viljami in NA first. The Liiga suffers from a the problem of pace. It is the biggest concern with taking Helenius. They simply transition up ice slower and play a more deliberate counter attacking game than the NHL which is very much based on setting up 2v1s in rapid succession. All that said, I think bringing in Marjala is a good idea. He's 10th in Liiga in ppg. He's first in u25 for ppg. He has a lot of assists and I would want to know how many points he gets on the PP. 

I agree completely.  He didn't light the qmjhl on fire, so there is definitely still a question of whether he can play over here.  But he looks like someone that has taken some big steps since then and warrants an offer of a contract.  Obviously, it's hard to translate these things from league to league, but I'm guessing his floor is decent AHL player at this point.  

[dudacek]

Has Topias Leinonen shown the most improvement of any prospect this y3ar?

13/10/1 with a 2.31 average and a .910 save percentage and 4 shutouts (5, 6, and 2 among starters) splitting the starts this year is pretty solid.

But he seems to have grabbed the reins entirely down the stretch and into the playoffs.

eliteprospects has him with a .929 S% over his past 10 games and .946 over his past 5.

To be clear, these are Swedish D2 numbers, but Sweden seems to have been good for him after being absolutely brutal in Finland the 2 years since he was drafted.

[Brawndo]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

Has Topias Leinonen shown the most improvement of any prospect this y3ar?

13/10/1 with a 2.31 average and a .910 save percentage and 4 shutouts (5, 6, and 2 among starters) splitting the starts this year is pretty solid.

But he seems to have grabbed the reins entirely down the stretch and into the playoffs.

eliteprospects has him with a .929 S% over his past 10 games and .946 over his past 5.

To be clear, these are Swedish D2 numbers, but Sweden seems to have been good for him after being absolutely brutal in Finland the 2 years since he was drafted.

Kris Baker mentioned on His Podcast earlier this year that the organization wanted Leinonen to come over to North America this season and he refused wanting to stay in Sweden. That’s a red flag in my book 

[Freeezo]

On 3/15/2025 at 10:21 AM, Flashsabre said:

Östlund keeps on rolling which is great. He has bulked up and has really taken off as the 1C in Rochester. He has the exact skill set they are in desperate need of. Unfortunately he’s not ready to step in next year and be that player in the NHL yet. 
 

Rosen has really made Rochester  go. He is their go to forward. He is NHL ready next year but what do they do? Trade another body to make room or trade Rosen to bring in another piece.

Brannstrom is an AHL superstar. I think at worst next year he is Buffalo’s 7th dman but can probably play in the lineup 

Levi has gone through a bit of a rough patch but that’s part of development. He bounced back last night to shut the door down the stretch.

Novikov and Komarov played together finally as the Russian twin towers.

Wahlberg continues to chug along. He has a unique size-skill combo the Sabres desperately need.

Helenuis is holding his own as an 18 year old in the AHL.

No. Hagel was a unique example of incompetence on Botts part.

Any guess on when Helenuis could be nhl ready? I like how he skates with and controls the puck. Perfect for the p.p

[Flashsabre]

6 hours ago, Freeezo said:

Any guess on when Helenuis could be nhl ready? I like how he skates with and controls the puck. Perfect for the p.p

He’s holding his own in the AHL at 18. He’s not dominating so I would guess another year in Rochester anyway Östlund probably one more year too. But it is nice to have 2 legit centre prospects in the system.

[Drag0nDan]

On 3/15/2025 at 2:24 PM, Crusader1969 said:

If Quinn had any trade value, that would be a good slot for Rosen next season.  
JJP would be the only other guy you could trade out and bring in Rosen 

this won't go over well, but the only other option would be Tuch, especially if you can't extend him past next season, he would have good trade value as well.  Rosen for Tuch saves you around $3.5 million 

 

Instead of having a "shutdown 4th line" that doesn't shut anyone down, why not have a young player line of skill players?  Kulich rosen and quinn for example.  

[LGR4GM]

8 hours ago, Freeezo said:

Any guess on when Helenuis could be nhl ready? I like how he skates with and controls the puck. Perfect for the p.p

2027 is the most likely. He'll need some time to really understand the NA game and get up to speed. Good news is that he's so young, waiting another 2-4 years doesn't matter much as long as he grows into a good player.