The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Die By The Blade community. 92 readers ranked Buffalo Sabres players under the age of 25 as of August 1, 2026. Each participant used their own metric of current ability and production to rank each player.
Thanks to all 92 people who responded to Die By The Blade’s annual voting for the Buffalo Sabres’ Top 25 Under 25 list. Before we get into the list, let’s take a moment for the honorable mentions – aka, the players who didn’t make the top 25.
There were 42 eligible players this year. Several players on last year’s top 25 list aged out while others are no longer with the organization.
Let’s kick things off with a few players who just missed the cut for making the top 25. The scoring in the lower ranks is very close, and in some cases flawed too since a number of voters only ranked their top 10-20 players, and left the remainder of the names in the alphabetical order they were originally placed in. This means by default a Simon-Pier Brunet got more voting points than a Vasily Zelenov, whether or not one is better than the other.
30. Scott Ratzlaff (G)
The goaltender will turn 21 in a month, and sees himself drop from 25th to 30th not because of waning performance, but more so the quality of prospects in the Sabres’ stable. Ratzlaff went 15GP, 3.10 GAA, .913 sv% and a 5-7-2 record for the Jacksonville Icemen in the ECHL, and 13GP, 3.44 GAA, .878 sv% and a 4-6-2 record for the Rochester Americans.
29. Jake Richard (RW/LW)
The forward was drafted 170th overall by the Sabres in 2022, but after a breakthrough second season for Connecticut with 43 points and 16 PIM in 34 games, his performance dipped with 10G and 17A in 38 games, while racking up 42 PIM. He was in the honorable mentions last summer too. UConn lost to the Spartans (and their two Sabres, see below) in the first round of the playoffs, with Richard accumulating eight shots out of his team’s 42 in the 2-1 loss.
28. Patrick Geary (D)
St. Francis grad Geary was drafted 172nd in 2024, and had a solid year at Michigan State University, where he wore the ‘A’ on his sweater. He had 2G and 9A in 35 games, with 70 PIM on the blue line leading MSU to the #3 seeding along with fellow Sabre blueliner prospect Maxim Strbak. Geary even scored in the regional final where they lost to Wisconsin, he’s definitely one to watch.
27. Dylan Dumont (RW)
The 2026 188th pick is an intriguing prospect, scoring 28G and 16A in 62 games in the QMJHL. A scoring winger who attacks the center of the ice, Dumont was his team’s leading goal scorer last year. Drummondville coach Sylvain Favreau spoke in glowing terms of the youngster who turns 18 in a couple of weeks, saying he scored many of those goals off the rush and in front of the net by utilizing his best assets, his skating and soft hands.
26. Zac Funk (LW/RW)
The Sabres acquired the forward in an ECHL trade this summer, sending Tyler Kopf to Washington for him. Funk, 22, scored 19 points (9+10) in 23 games last season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. He also had two assists in 10 contests with Washington’s AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears. The 6-foot-0, 210-pound winger has split his two professional campaigns between the ECHL and AHL after signing with Washington as an undrafted free agent at the end of the 2023-24 season, having led the WHL with 67 goals that year in 68 games for the Prince George Cougars.
Stay tuned as we break into the top 25 in a couple of days!