Buffalo Sabres will be well-represented at the 2024 IIHF World Juniors
The Buffalo Sabres may be struggling in the NHL, but their respective prospects all over the world will widely represent the franchise.
The Buffalo Sabres prospect pool has been one of the best if not the best in the NHL for a while, and they are showing no signs of slowing down. Several names like Jiri Kulich and Matt Savoie have already made their respective NHL debuts, and they are now dominating in the AHL and WHL, respectively.
Their efforts have been rewarded, as Kulich will represent Czechia and Savoie will play for Team Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Juniors. Kulich suited up for one game of NHL action, but he’s mostly dominated in the AHL this season for the Rochester Americans, where he has 19 points and 13 goals in 20 games.
Savoie has been quite the journeyman, seeing six games in the AHL with Rochester while scoring five points and two goals in the process. Predictably, Savoie has been on another level with the WHL’s Wenatchee Wild, with 24 points and 11 goals in 11 contests.
Kulich, Savoie among notable Buffalo Sabres prospects to play in 2024 World Juniors
Scott Ratzlaff will join Savoie on Team Canada despite his rather up and down season with the Seattle Thunderbirds. In 20 appearances, the 18-year-old has one shutout, an 8-10-1 record, a 3.39 GAA, and a 0.889 save percentage.
Noah Ostlund and Anton Wahlberg will join Team Sweden, and the former has seven points and four goals in 17 contests for the SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers. Wahlberg has seen 23 games with the Malmo Redhawks and has put up seven points and three goals in that frame.
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Overall, the Buffalo Sabres prospects pool is still getting sound representation, and the jury remains out on a pair of prospects in Norwin Panocha (Germany) and Maxim Strbak (Slovakia) as of the time of this writing. Therefore, the Blue and Gold could see even more names from its pool added to the list of rosters for the World Juniors shortly.
Source: Savoie, Ratzlaff named to Canada’s roster for WJC by Sabres.com
(Statistics provided by Elite Prospects)