Sabres Announce Prospects Challenge Roster

The Buffalo Sabres announced Tuesday the team’s roster for the 2018 Prospects Challenge, which will be held later this week at HARBORCENTER in downtown Buffalo.

Among the notable names on the roster, of course, are first-overall draft pick Rasmus Dahlin, promising prospect Rasmus Asplund, and a small handful of players with NHL experience, including Casey Mittelstadt and Brendan Guhle.

Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen, who will be heading to the OHL for his first North American season this year, will also be in town for the challenge.

Dahlin is the youngest player on the Sabres’ roster for the Prospects Challenge.

Here is the full Sabres Prospects Challenge roster. Many - but not all - of these players also participated in the team’s development camp earlier this summer.

Forwards

Pascal Aquin (signed AHL contract w/ ROC)

Rasmus Asplund

Eric Cornel

Cole Coskey (invitee)

Shane Eiserman (2014 draft | OTT | played @ UNH)

Vasily Glotov

Kevin Hancock (invitee)

Casey Mittelstadt

Alexander Nylander

Andrew Oglevie

Victor Olofsson

Matej Pekar

Judd Peterson

Myles Powell (signed AHL contract w/ ROC)

Tage Thompson

Defense

Arvin Atwal

Tobie Bisson (signed AHL contract w/ ROC)

William Borgen

Rasmus Dahlin

Brendan Guhle

Brandon Hickey

Oskari Laaksonen

Lawrence Pilut

Devante Stephens

Nicholas Welsh (invitee)

Goaltenders

Jonas Johansson

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

The inclusion of Matej Pekar on the roster is especially intriguing, given the fact that generally, players from the USHL and NCAA don’t participate in these sorts of things.

Pekar has previously been quoted in interviews as saying that he would be returning to the USHL (Muskegon) while he finishes his final year of high school. He was not on the initial 30-man roster released by Muskegon ahead of their preseason, due to his attendance at the Sabres challenge; he’ll be back in the USHL for regular season.

These Sabres prospects and invitees will face off against prospects from the Penguins, Bruins and Devils between Friday, September 7 and Monday, September 10.

Here are the other teams’ rosters: Pittsburgh | New Jersey | Boston

The Devils’ roster includes two Western New York natives: Ryan Schmelzer, who recently graduated from Canisius College and played with the Golden Griffins; and Dylan Seitz, who spent last season with the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL. Both have previously played for the Buffalo Jr. Sabres and other local youth hockey organizations.

Here is the full schedule for the Prospects Challenge. All games are held at the Keybank Rink at HARBORCENTER.

Friday, September 7

3:30 pm - Pittsburgh vs. Boston

7:00 pm - Buffalo vs. New Jersey

Saturday, September 8

3:30 pm - New Jersey vs. Pittsburgh

7:00 pm - Buffalo vs. Boston

Monday, September 10

9:30 am - Boston vs. New Jersey

12:30 pm - Buffalo vs. Pittsburgh

Tickets for each game are $10 and are available here.

No streaming information has been released yet, but it is likely that at least some of these games will be streamed online.