With the beginning of the season right around the corner, teams are preparing to get back to regular season hockey. Part of that preparation process for the Buffalo Sabres includes two Prospect Challenge games.
Buffalo will play one game on Friday, September 17th at 7 p.m. and another game the following day at 3 p.m. The first game is against the prospects of the New Jersey Devils, and the second is against Boston Bruins prospects. Each of these games will take place at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo.
Sabres Prospect Challenge Schedule:
— The Charging Buffalo (@TheChargingBUF) September 14, 2021
• FRI vs NJ | 7 PM
• SAT vs BOS | 3 PM
Who are you most excited to watch? pic.twitter.com/ijTLsEqiNy
Numerous familiar names are on the Sabres Prospect Challenge roster. Some of which have NHL experience and some who have yet to make their NHL debut. Names like Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Mattias Samuelsson, and Arttu Ruotsalainen should all be familiar to Sabres fans as all of these players had stints in Buffalo at some point last season.
Ruotsalainen made his first NHL stint count last season and made a very noticeable positive impact in the 17 games he played in. Arttu had five goals and one assist. He is definitely one of the bright young players the Sabres have on their roster. Samuelsson played in 12 games and posted two assists. And UPL started four games in net and had a .906 save percentage and a 3.88 goals allowed average before his season ended early due to injury.
Some of Buffalo’s top prospects that have not been called up to the Sabres yet are also included on the roster. Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka are two of the bigger names in that category. Quinn and Peterka are two players that could very likely make their NHL debuts this season for Buffalo.
The Sabres are a young team that is in a rebuild, so their prospect pool is incredibly important. It will be interesting to see which prospects make their NHL debuts this upcoming season.