2025 Sabres Draft Guide: 6th Round Options

Welcome to the 2025 xB Buffalo Sabres Draft Guide! The draft guide has been broken down into seven parts so that it can be loaded on your mobile device and consumed in multiple readings, without taking an hour to complete.

Each player has a BlueSky link with three clips that summarize their projection.

If this is the first time you’ve read my draft guide, let me break down how each section will go:

– Each draft pick the Sabres have will be given five players, which I think are reasonable selections for the Sabres. They are broken down as Dream Scenarios (two given for each draft pick), Realistic Selections (two given for each draft pick), and a Wildcard Selection (one given for each draft pick)

– Dream Scenarios are based on my evaluation of the player, and where I believe they are most likely going to go in the draft. They are based on my draft philosophies and don’t take into account the Sabres’ past draft philosophies. They will usually consist of one forward and one defenseman, but depending on the round or players I think might be available, they could deviate from that structure.

– Realistic Scenarios are based on studying the Sabres’ previous draft philosophies, current prospect pool depth, needs, and players that I think the organization may go with the draft pick, and not necessarily who I would pick.

– The Wildcard Scenario is a draft pick that doesn’t fall directly into the two categories above and is a player that I think would go slightly later than the current selection (or undrafted in the later rounds), but I believe would make an interesting selection for the Sabres.

– First-time draft-eligible players will just have their names displayed in bold. Every asterisk after the players’ name will denote if they are D+1 or D+2 draft-eligible players. For instance, Richard Baran was eligible for the draft last year but was not drafted. He will appear in the draft guide as ‘Richard Baran*’.

Last year, this draft guide included Luke Osburn in a Dream Scenario, Adam Kleber in the Realistic Scenarios, and Konsta Helenius in a Wildcard Scenario. Hopefully, this guide will get lucky again and provide insight for some of the players the Sabres draft. If not, then I encourage you to go to my draft rankings article to see if I had any notes about the player in that article before the recap article I will write.

The Sabres currently have one pick in the 6th round.

Dream Scenarios

1. Jacob Kvasnicka, RW, USNTDP

DOB: 8/10/07

5’11, 172 lbs

57gp, 14g, 32pts (7gp, 3g, 5pts in the u18s for USA)

The USNTDP program was disappointing to watch this season. There were so many players that I had higher hopes for and ended up slipping down the draft board or off my rankings list altogether. However, there was one forward who managed to impress me almost every time I saw the NTDP play, and that was Jacob Kvasnicka.

The part of Kvasnicka’s game that made him a late-round target for me was his tenacity as a forechecker and his ability to be a chameleon depending on who his linemates were. He has good pace and decent lateral mobility, but his ability to be an off-puck passenger when playing with LJ Mooney and then to having to be the engine of transition when put further down the line-up, Kvasnicka was able to adapt to different roles and be very good at each.

While he impressed me with his motor and skill, there were a couple of games where he couldn’t get his skill going, and his passes would be erratic, or he’d struggle to create plays. This happened mostly when he played with Mooney, and his puck touches were limited, but it was something that pushed him from a mid-round player to a player I’d be thinking about in the 6th/7th round.

Kvasnicka will head to the University of Minnesota next year, where I think in a few years he could develop into an offensive threat in the NCAA ranks and, if all things go right, could end up being a third-line line winger in the Connor Brown mold.

2. Alex Huang, RHD, QMJHL

DOB: 7/30/07

6’0, 161 lbs

64gp, 7g, 40pts (6gp, 0g, 4pts in the u18s for Canada)

Alex Huang is a player who is going to be a difficult read as to where he will exactly fall in the draft. There are certain aspects of his game that I truly am enamored with. He’s one of the best passers in my dataset, and he is one of the smartest defensemen in this entire class. He is always looking to find opportunities to jump up into the play and does so without costing his team odd-man rushes from being over-aggressive. The best part of his defensive game is his off-puck reads in transition, as he’s able to see the breakout happen and take away passing options or intercept passes/get a stick on them before they can ever receive the puck.

Offensively, he is dangerous with the puck on his stick. He’s not the greatest four-way skater, but he has enough puck skill and mobility that he’s able to dance around defenders if they give him a space to get to. His shot is surprisingly hard given his smaller frame, and he’s very good at using his skill to create pockets of space when under pressure to complete outlet passes or move pucks to the middle of the ice in the offensive zone.

My biggest concern is going to be his lack of foot speed, especially as a rush defender with his backward skating, and his lack of physicality to separate players from the puck. Those two things combined mean that if he ever had a forward who came at him with pace, he was in trouble, as he couldn’t drive the player to the boards and separate the puck from the opponent. When he’s able to surf (get on the forward hip and pivot to skate forward) during the transition, he’s much more effective and prefers to play transitions that way.

He’s a player who has very good skill but not elite-level offensive production, and enough worries with his defensive game that I can see teams not being able to pigeonhole the exact role they’d want him to play in their system. I would bet on the talent and hope that as the 161-pound defenseman gets stronger that the physicality comes along with it.

Realistic Scenarios

1. Maxim Schafer, F, DEL

DOB: 5/17/07

6’4, 187 lbs

31gp, 1g, 3pts (5gp, 2g, 3pts in the World Juniors for Germany)

Maxim Schafer came onto my radar during the World Juniors in December as a draft-eligible who was able to establish net-front position and had a productive tournament for a pretty overmatched Germany squad. I was excited to see what he would look like against his peers at the U18s, and the results were mixed.

On one hand, he’s still a net-front monster. He was able to set up camp in front of the net at even-strength and the power play, and his hands are good enough to be able to roof pucks from up close and make small-area plays in traffic in front of the net. He has a good pace and decent skating mechanics for a 17/18 year old at that size and used his body well in establishing a physical presence as well as protecting the puck with his length and strength.

He was a passenger on his line in all my viewings. He was rarely utilized in transition in either tournament and instead was a one-touch passer if he wasn’t receiving the puck in a scoring position. If he wasn’t able to get on top of defensemen in retrievals, they were able to easily get around him because he was not able to shift and move with their lateral moves and fakes.

There’s enough skill, motor, and size for a late-round pick by the Sabres.

2. Oliver Turner, RHD, St. Andrew’s College (PHC)

DOB: 3/18/07

6’5, 194 lbs

14gp, 1g, 9pts (2gp, 0g, 0pts for Erie in the OHL)

This late in the draft, you’re not going to find a defenseman who has the size of Turner and isn’t going to be a developmental project. I happened to come across Turner while watching Aidan Lane, and I thought that he might fit the bill of a late-round defenseman who the Sabres could let develop for a few years, whether through the CHL or the NCAA, to round out his offensive game.

Turner caught my eye with his physicality and playmaking at the high school level. He was able to erase almost all transitions that came to the outside and isn’t afraid to throw the big hit to separate players from the puck. His offensive game was based more on moving up in the zone to take a shot or to swing a pass to a winger on the half-wall, and his skating has a good fundamental base but needs a lot of work in terms of his backwards crossovers and pivots as he plays against faster competition.

He played a few games for Erie in the OHL to close out the year, and hopefully, a permanent spot in the top four at Erie next year will earn him an NCAA offer.

Wildcard Scenario

1. Connor Davis, RW, USHS-Prep

DOB: 11/9/06

6’1, 174 lbs

31gp, 21g, 44pts (1gp, 0g, 0pts for Cedar Rapids in the USHL)

While scouting the Prep schools for the junior team I scout for, I kept coming back to Connor Davis as a possible NHL selection for the 2025 draft. He has great pace and above-average skating ability for the 2025 NHL draft and has a motor that continues to work throughout all three zones. He was highly skilled at the Prep level and the smartest player at that level I saw all year. He’s always moving to the right areas of the ice off-puck to support his teammates and finding pockets of open ice in the offensive zone, so that he’s a constant outlet for his teammates.

He only played one game in the USHL against the USNTDP, and he didn’t look out of place. His speed translated well, and his motor was noticeable throughout the game. He had a couple of bad puck touches, but I would attribute that more to nerves than to his skill level, given the multiple viewings I had of him throughout the year. The most impressive aspect of his game will be the first clip below. He separates the forward from the puck in the offensive zone, and then I want you to watch how he navigates the rest of the shift, moving space to space and always an option for whoever has the puck. It was an errant, off-balanced shot that culminated the shift, but it’s the type of play to put on tape that shows me he could be something in the NCAA when he gets there.

He played the entire year playing prep hockey, and he’ll be lucky to be picked in the draft, but he’s one of the better skaters at his size and has all the details to project to higher levels of hockey. My only hesitancy, if I were on an NHL scouting team, would be seeing the skill translate to higher levels. Davis is a lottery ticket, but he’s a lottery ticket that could play in an offensive or defensive role. I’d love to roll the dice on him.