After a year that saw the Buffalo Sabres debut the rookie dream team of Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, make ten draft picks in the 2016 NHL Draft, and let some other players go, their organizational prospect depth chart looks much different than it did last season.
By using information from the Sabres own In The System page, General Fanager, and Sabres Prospects, here’s the list of all Sabres prospects age 23 and under at each position. The order the prospects are listed in is a general estimate of both talent level and how close they are to the NHL, but feel free to debate the order however you’d like.
| Buffalo Sabres Prospect Depth Chart – July 2016 | ||
| Forwards | ||
| Left Wing | Center | Right Wing |
| Alexander Nylander* | Rasmus Asplund* | Justin Bailey |
| William Carrier | Giorgio Estephan | Hudson Fasching |
| Daniel Catenacci | Jean Dupuy | Nicholas Baptiste |
| Gustav Possler | Connor Hurley | Evan Rodrigues |
| Brett Murray* | Sean Malone | Eric Cornel |
| Brandon Hagel* | Judd Peterson | Cliff Pu* |
| Maxwell Willman | Christopher Brown | Victor Olofsson |
| Justin Kea | Vaclav Karabacek | |
| Vasily Glotov* | ||
| Defense/Goal | ||
| LH Defense | Goalie | RH Defense |
| Brendan Guhle | Cal Petersen | William Borgen |
| Brycen Martin | Linus Ullmark | Anthony Florentino |
| Devante Stephens | Jason Kasdorf | Casey Fitzgerald* |
| Brady Austin | Jonas Johansson | Philip Nyberg* |
| Vojtech Budik* | ||
| Ivan Chukarov | ||
| Austin Osmanski* | ||
* 2016 Draft class
The biggest takeaway from this list for me is how loaded the Sabres are on the wing. Alex Nylander, Justin Bailey, Hudson Fasching, William Carrier, and Nick Baptiste are all players who could potentially see some NHL time this year, and other players such as Evan Rodrigues, Cliff Pu, and Eric Cornel give this group some nice depth as well.
Of course, this glut of talent on the wing comes at the expense of some other positions. Rasmus Asplund helps give the team’s prospects at center some NHL-caliber talent, but the group behind him is pretty weak. Georgio Estephan had a nice development camp and could take a step this year, but the other players are all a good few years away.
On defense, Brendan Guhle is the only player who could make noise in training camp this year, but Will Borgen, Brycen Martin, and Anthony Florentino are players to keep your eye on this season. The Sabres have two strong prospects in net with Cal Peteresen and Linus Ullmark, but Johansson and Kasdorf aren’t bad either.
The Sabres refreshed their prospect pipeline this year with ten draft picks, and have a much different looking depth chart than last season. Give us your thoughts on Buffalo’s prospect depth in the comments.