Buffalo Sabres prospect pool is still one of NHL’s best for 2023

Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has built the Blue and Gold into a competitive hockey team without sacrificing the prospects pool.

It’s becoming a yearly affair these days, but the NHL universe is still excited about the Buffalo Sabres strong prospect pool, even as the Blue and Gold put a more competitive product onto the ice. And this became even more apparent in The Hockey News’ Tony Ferrari’s take on the pool in their recent breakdown when they went over its respective strengths and weaknesses.

Of course, Ferrari easily saw the Sabres strengths, having cited how deep they were at center. So deep, they stressed the fact that a few prospects like Matt Savoie and Jiri Kulich would likely be playing winger at the NHL level. Here is a snippet of how Ferrari summed up the Sabres biggest strength.

"“Center is the strength of the Sabres prospect pool, but because of how deep they are, their forward depth as a whole is stellar.” – via The Hockey News"

I’ve always looked at positional logjams as a good thing, and it’s a bonus when that logjam includes high-end first round picks who will eventually enter and make their respective marks in the NHL. But even the best prospect pools have weaknesses, and the Sabres are no exception, right? Per Ferrari, this may or may not be the case, since they had some interesting words for the Sabres weaknesses in the pool:

"“Picking a weakness for the Sabres is nitpicking a bit, if we’re being honest. Their right-wing depth is the most obvious weakness, but with the possibility of Savoie and Kulich moving to the wing, they could have the two right wingers they lack.” – via The Hockey News"

Buffalo Sabres weakness in the prospects pool is literally its strength

It’s always refreshing when a respected analyst states that you can just move a couple of players to potentially strengthen a weakness without having to wheel and deal too much in the process. Further, it’s also refreshing to see Ferrari listing a position that I didn’t anticipate, as I was sure they would be citing how shallow the Buffalo Sabres were at goaltender, or that they still needed to get more work done defensively.

But the defensive side of things shifted some in the Sabres favor over the past few months with Ryan Johnson, Nikita Novikov, and Vsevolod Komarov signing. Further, Buffalo drafted blueliners Maxime Strbak, Gavin McCarthy, Sean Keohane, and Norwin Panocha last month, further solidifying its blue line.

While Devon Levi is still technically a prospect, he will remove that label this season, leaving the Buffalo Sabres down to just two goaltenders in Scott Ratzlaff and Topias Leinonen. However, I can also see Adams making it a habit of drafting at least one goaltender per season, which, in time, will provide much-needed depth to the position.

Source: 2023-24 PROSPECT POOL OVERVIEW: BUFFALO SABRES by Tony Ferrari, TheHockeyNews.com