Sabers draft thoughts after NHL recruiting roundup: trade talks, prospect meetings and more

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo has become a comfortable destination for the NHL recruiting class each season. It’s an easy-to-access location for NHL staff, prospects and agents. The installation of the LECOM Harborcenter allows the smooth running of the event for the teams and players. And the weather in Western New York in June is hard to beat.

But Buffalo Sabers fans aren’t exactly excited about going through the list of top prospects available for Buffalo’s No. 11 pick. After 13 years without a playoff and too many years of hoping for the future, prospect fatigue has set in. The team has a loaded prospect pool and an urgency to win now.

With the NHL Draft just weeks away, the Sabers still hold the pick. So, will they trade him? And if not, what type of player can they expect? Here are some Sabers-related notes from the week of the combine.

1. The Sabers are a prime candidate to trade the No. 11 pick. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported this week that the Sabers are looking for a top-six forward, which makes sense. Building the rest of the roster is easier with another player capable of playing on the top two lines. Finding the type of player the Sabers want won’t be easy, however. They may have to include another prospect in the package or settle for a player who only has one year left on his contract.

But as Kevyn Adams enters his fifth season as general manager, the time has come for the Sabers to do something with their NHL roster. The balance Adams must strike is not acting out of desperation. The rest of the league can see the situation in Buffalo right now: the playoff drought, last season’s disappointing results and a general manager who is reaching a pivotal point in his tenure.

So far, Adams has not made a trade of this magnitude that has helped the Sabres. He made high-profile trades sending out disgruntled veterans Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen. An effective hockey rally is another beast. Add in the potential hurdles of no-movement clauses or convincing players to sign extensions in Buffalo and it won’t be an easy task for Adams to get the right value for the pick. New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald also said publicly on NHL.com this week that the No. 10 pick was available, which would add competition to the trade market. Adams is right to put the pick in play, but trading him just for the sake of it would be short-sighted.

2. There’s a chance the Sabers end up holding on to the No. 11 pick, and this week they took a hard look at their options with the pool in town. Berkly Catton, who had 116 points with Spokane in the WHL this season, was among the notable prospects the Sabers encountered. The only concern with Catton is his size. He was 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, which is not tiny but pretty small. During his meeting with the Sabres, he said the team talked about Matt Savoie and Zach Benson, two players of similar size who would enter the draft. One could argue that this would make Catton redundant in Buffalo’s prospect pool, but there’s no doubt that his intelligence and offensive skills would make him an attractive prospect if he fell to 11th overall.

The Buffalo Sabers met with Finnish center Konsta Helenius during the NHL scouting combine. (Joe Hrycych/NHLI via Getty Images)

3. The Sabers also met with Finnish center Konsta Helenius, who showed off his big personality during media interviews on Saturday. He was relaxed and comfortable talking to reporters, then served as an interpreter for one of the other Finnish prospects who wasn’t as comfortable in English. Knowing how much Adams values ​​the person in his evaluation of potential projects, this little detail seemed remarkable. However, Helenius’ play on the ice should put him on Buffalo’s radar at 11th overall. Playing against professionals in Finland, Helenius demonstrated his ability to win puck battles all over the ice and regularly stood out with his forechecking efforts. Considering he was 17 years old in a professional league, this bodes well for his ability to translate his game to the NHL. He may be off the board by the time the Sabers are drafted, but he’s someone to watch.

4. Cole Eiserman will be one of the intriguing stories from the first night of the draft. Once considered one of the top two or three players in this category, Eiserman has fallen out of the top 10 in many rankings. He is a prolific scorer, but scouts have questioned his attention to detail away from the puck. Eiserman, however, came away from the group thinking that his shares might not have fallen as much as public perception suggests. He knows he has a lot of room for improvement, but after the feedback from the teams, he thought he needed to give himself more credit.

“It was cool to be face to face and be personal with them,” Eiserman said. “That’s why I was very excited to get here, and I think they do a great job here with this stuff.”

Eiserman met with the Sabres, and he’s one of my favorite options if they keep the pick. It’s not often that a player with this type of goal-scoring ability is available at No.11. The concerns about his game are valid, but he’s also 17 and has time to grow. You’re not going to land a perfect prospect at No. 11. The Sabers are also in a unique position, given the depth of their prospect pool, to take a chance on someone like Eiserman and give him time to grow.

5. If the Sabers are looking for a defenseman at 11th, Sam Dickinson and Carter Yakemchuk would be two names to watch if they fall out of the top 10. Both have the size the Sabers are looking for on the blue line, although Yakemchuk is the meaner . of both at this stage of their careers. Yakemchuk met with the Sabers during the game, and Dickinson stood out during the off-ice testing portion of the event.

6. Artyom Levshunov is one of the top prospects available and has ties to new Rochester Americans coach Michael Leone. Leone coached Levshunov with the Green Bay Gamblers when Levshunov first arrived in the United States from Belarus. The transition was overwhelming for Levshunov, and he said Leone helped a lot in making him feel comfortable right away.

“He actually helped me a lot when I first came to America,” he said. “I mean, it was all new to me. I arrived in a new country and didn’t speak much English. I didn’t talk much. But I still think he helped me on the ice. He helped me off the ice and we’re still in touch.

Leone is only 36 years old and is already taking his first steps into a head coaching position at the professional level. He’ll likely have a roster full of top prospects next season, as the Americans could have first-rounders Savoie, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen on the team unless one of them makes the roster. from the NHL roster. Leone has plenty of experience working with younger players and also played for Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper when he was in the NAHL. A bonus is that, given that Leone spent the last two seasons with the Gamblers in the USHL and also spent time with the United States National Team Development Program, he observed closely many players in this draft class. Every pair of eyes is a bonus this time of year. But the Sabers are taking a risk with a young coach to replace Seth Appert, who has led Rochester to the playoffs in three of the last four years and will join Lindy Ruff’s NHL staff.

(Top photo of Kevyn Adams speaking with team scouts at the 2024 NHL Scouting Pool: Joe Hrycych/NHLI via Getty Images)