The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Die By The Blade community. It was a combination of staff writers and over 200 readers that ranked Buffalo Sabres players under the age of 25 as of August 1, 2024. Each participant used their own metric of current ability and production to rank each player. Staff votes counted equally with reader votes.
Thanks to all 200+ of you who submitted thoughtful ballots in our annual Top 25 Under 25 voting! The results have been tabulated and over the next few weeks, we’ll be revealing the full list. There were 49 eligible players this year (including Peyton Krebs, who is as of yet still unsigned for next season).
Let’s kick things off with a few players who just missed the cut for making the top 25.
Brodie Ziemer (RW)
“Captain America” was drafted by the Sabres earlier this summer with the 71st overall selection. The Carver, Minnesota native just finished an impressive showing at the World Junior Summer Showcase and had the game-winning shootout goal in the final matchup between the United States and Canada.
FloHockey’s Chris Peters says Ziemer “made a lot of good plays, showed great effort down low, won some pucks and turned them into dangerous chances and sometimes goals. He is not flashy, but he is effective and has enough skill to score. I think he’s a Swiss Army Knife of a player, which dramatically helps his cause.”
Ziemer is set to join the University of Minnesota this fall. He spent last year with the NTDP, where he had 70 points (27-43) in 61 games with the U-18 team and another 24 points (8-16) in 27 USHL games with the juniors team. He also captained the US U-18 team at the U-18 Worlds and had 12 points in seven games.
Scott Ratzlaff (G)
Ratzlaff, a 19-year-old Irma, Alberta native, was drafted by the Sabres with the 141st overall pick in 2023. He spent this past season as the top goaltender for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, where he appeared in 52 games and had a 21-26-1 record with a .905 save percentage and 3.33 GAA.
He did join the Rochester Americans for practice on an amateur tryout at the end of this past season, but Ratzlaff will be back for another WHL season in Seattle before presumably making the jump to the AHL.
For now, he’s expected to be a contender for Canada’s World Juniors team. He faced just seven shots in 29 minutes of action in Canada Red’s 4-3 win over Canada White at the World Junior Summer Showcase, splitting the net with Carter George. He went on to allow one goal on 13 shots faced in 34 minutes against Sweden, returning to the net for the shootout. Sweden won 3-2 when all was said & done.
Topias Leinonen (G)
Leinonen, a 2022 second-round draft pick of the Sabres, split this past season between JYP, JYP’s U-20 team and was briefly on loan with KeuPa HT in a season where he faced multiple small injuries. He played six games with JYP’s Liiga team, going 0-4-1 with a .844 save percentage and 4.14 GAA. With the U-20 team, he went 1-3-0 with a .871 save percentage and 3.28 GAA in the regular season, then went 3-4-0 in the playoffs with a .892 save percentage and 2.78 GAA in seven games.
He’s expected to play this season for Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan. Check out Lance Lysowki’s recent article for The Buffalo News on Leinonen’s tough season and how the prospect hopes to bounce back.