We’ve completed our Buffalo Sabres prospect rankings for 2026. It’s time to see where the Expected Buffalo staff and fans landed this year. There were some differences between the two rankings once we got outside the top five.

As a reminder, here is the criteria for which players were considered for this prospect ranking:

• Under 24 years old
• Played less than 41 NHL games

Graduating Players and Out of the System

Based on the above criteria, two players graduated out of the “prospect” level:

• Noah Ostlund (2)
• Tyson Kozak (14)

The following prospects were ranked last year but are not part of this year’s list due to either a trade or expired rights, and include some top-rated prospects from 2025.

• Devon Levi (3)
• Isak Rosen (4)
• Anton Wahlberg (6)
• Nikita Novikov (15)
• Viktor Neuchev (17)
• Ryerson Leenders (22)
• Olivier Nadeau (24)

In total, nine spots opened in the top 25 rankings for new players to be mentioned this year.

Fan Rank

Based on fan voting, below is how the 2026 Sabres prospect rankings took shape.

Both 2026 first-round picks, Daxon Rudolph and Ilia Morozov, debuted in the top four, according to the vote. Radim Mrtka stayed in the top five, and Konsta Helenius took the top spot for the second year in a row.

Staff Consensus Rankings

Below is how Austin, Eddy, and I ranked the prospects this year.

As you can see, outside of the top four, our consensus rankings varied from the fans. The rankings also varied among the three of us outside that group.

Maxim Strbak was the only player who dropped in our rankings. All others either improved with the nine departures from last year’s rankings or made debuts on the list.

Photo Credit: Micheline V/Rochester Amerks