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Sabres 2024 Prospects Challenge Preview

by Chad DeDominicis - 0

The 2024 Prospects Challenge gets underway today. The Buffalo Sabres play their first game tonight, but the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins play the tournament’s first game at noon.

It’ll be an Amerks-heavy lineup for the Sabres. In years past, they’ve brought in a few invites. This year they decided to bring their projected AHL roster to the event with a few exceptions.

Players to Watch

Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen

This tournament is the first stepping stone for two Sabres prospects looking to make the opening night roster. Both Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen are veterans of this and need to start hot to catch the organization’s attention. Zach Benson put together a strong Prospects Challenge performance last year and he carried it into training camp to earn a roster spot.

According to reports from the last few days at practice, the two of them will start on a line together with Viktor Neuchev. They have good chemistry from their time playing together in the AHL which should give them an advantage in a short tournament like this.

Vsevolod Komarov

Komarov is one of the prospects that fans are looking forward to seeing this season in the AHL. The 2022 fifth-round pick is coming off of two strong QMJHL seasons. He’s a big kid and has offensive upside. The questionable part of his game has been the skating.

I’m looking forward to seeing how much that improved to get an idea of what we might see from him this season in the AHL. Signs of improved skating will move my interest in him up a few notches as a right-shot defender.

Jack Bodin

Bodin is the one invite on the roster for the Sabres. He’s a big right-shot defenseman from Sweden. He’ll come over to North America this season to play for the Sarnia Sting in the OHL.

The 18-year-old is a defensive defenseman. From the few people I’ve chatted with in Sweden, the report on him is that he’s good positionally in the defensive zone. There’s not much offensive upside in his game, but he’s not afraid to use his size. Fans may latch on to him during this tournament with his potential to throw a few big hits.

He’ll be someone to keep an eye on after the Prospects Challenge because it shouldn’t go unnoticed that he is the only invite.

Ryerson Leenders

I mentioned earlier this week that Leenders is one of the Sabres prospects I’ll be focused on in the OHL. This weekend will be a good opportunity for him to start his season strong. It’ll give fans the chance to see arguably the top goaltender prospect in the system.

I’d imagine that Leenders and Scott Ratzlaff will each get time in the net through the three games.

Game 1 Columbus Blue Jackets – 9/13 | 7 PM

The Blue Jackets are bringing a roster to Buffalo that has a few interesting players to watch.

Gavin Brindley, Corson Ceulemans, Denton Mateychuk, and Luca Del Bel Belluz are four big prospects in their system that will play this weekend. Ceulemans and Mateychuk are former first-round picks. Brindley and Del Bel Belluz are high second-round picks.

Del Bel Belluz had a good rookie season in the AHL with nine goals and 31 points in 58 games for the Lake Erie Monsters. He was close to becoming a Sabres prospect, but they went with goaltender Topias Leinonen instead.

Game 2 New Jersey Devils – 9/14 | 7 PM

The Devils are not bringing a lot of well-known prospects to this tournament. They do have one in 2022 second-round pick, Seamus Casey. The defenseman had a good sophomore season at the University of Michigan and signed with the Devils at the end of the year. Scoring 45 points in 40 games is an impressive stat line from a collegiate defenseman.

Former Sabres Prospects Challenge legend Spencer Sova will be playing for the Devils this time around. He has put together a good performance in the tournament in the past. We’ll see if he does the same for this team.

Game 3 Pittsburgh Penguins – 9/16 – 5 PM

The Penguins usually don’t have a lot of high-profile prospects to bring to this event. This year, however, they have a few worth watching. The top one is the newly acquired Rutger McGroarty. He’s looking to make the Penguins opening night roster like Kulich and Rosen in Buffalo. This will be a big three games for him to set the tone for that.

Another one that I like is Ville Koivunen. The Penguins acquired him as part of the Jake Guentzel trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Finnish forward is playing his first season in North America. He scored 22 goals and 56 points in 59 games in Liiga last season.

If his game can translate, they got themselves a good player there.

Photo Credit: Micheline Veluvolu/ Rochester Americans
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