During the Buffalo Sabres' playoff drought, they found themselves picking regularly in the top half of the NHL Draft. They were also desperate to get back to the playoffs, and that usually meant rushing prospects to the NHL, sometimes before they were ready.
While it is great to get them NHL experience, it can also be counter-productive if they stay too long or have to struggle through it. It can slow their development or force them to take a step backwards to move forward.
For the Sabres, these are three players who unfortunately had to work through that as they were rushed to the NHL before they were ready.
Casey Mittelstadt
Casey Mittelstadt was the eighth overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, and after one more season at the University of Minnesota, he would sign his entry-level contract with the Sabres. He would play in six games and had some immediate success with one goal and four assists in those six games.
The way he played in those six games could have given the Sabres some unrealistic expectations and he would begin the 2018-19 season with the Sabres and skip the AHL. However, he really struggled through that season with 25 points in 77 games but a career low in faceoff win percentage of 39.7%.
The following season, the Sabres tried to course-correct with Mittelstadt, and after he began the season in Buffalo but was still struggling, he would go down to Rochester. That certainly helped him as he had 25 points in 36 games at the AHL level.
Mittelstadt eventually had that breakout season in 2022-23 with what would end up being his career-best with 59 points. The Sabres would then trade him the next year before the trade deadline in the trade for Bowen Byram.
That final full season with Buffalo showed he could be productive, and with more time in the AHL, he might have gotten to that career season a little sooner.
Devon Levi
Another player who might have been set back by a fast start immediately was goalie Devon Levi. The Sabres would bring Levi up to the NHL shortly after his final season at Northeastern University. He would play in seven games, go 5-2-0 with a save percentage of .905 and a goals against average of 2.94.
The following season, the Sabres made it clear that they wanted Levi to be their starter and he started the first four games that season. However, he went 1-3-0 and gave up three or more goals in three of those starts.
With two other goalies on the roster in Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Eric Comrie, the Sabres sent Levi down to the AHL and began bouncing back and forth between the two teams. That season, he would end up playing 23 games with the Sabres and 26 with Rochester, and then in 2024-25, he played only seven with Buffalo and 42 in Rochester.
Last season, the Sabres had Levi play the entire season with Rochester and he seemed to play better as he went 23-20-12 with a save percentage of .904 and got better in the playoffs with a save percentage of .919 in three games.
Even with the improvements, the Sabres didn't have a spot on the roster for Levi this upcoming season, and the best path forward was to trade him, which they did with the Edmonton Oilers for a third-round pick. If he had gotten that full season in Rochester earlier in his career, he might have been able to stay in Buffalo longer.
Nikita Zadorov
The Buffalo Sabres drafted Nikita Zadorov with the 16th overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, and he would play in seven games the following season. He would make the jump to the NHL full-time after that and played in 60 games, skipping the AHL entirely due to the CHL-NHL rule in the CBA.
Since he was 19 years old, even if the Sabres wanted to send him down to the AHL, they wouldn't be able to due to the CBA, and he would have to return to the OHL. They ultimately decided to keep him in Buffalo, and unfortunately, Zadorov struggled. He was a healthy scratch for several games, and even suspended twice for breaking team rules, finishing with 15 points and a +/- of -10.
Zadorov would be traded after the 2014-15 season as part of the Ryan O'Reilly trade with the Colorado Avalanche. He would go on to have a productive career in Colorado, Chicago, Calgary, Vancouver, and now recently Boston.
However, fans will wonder if the Sabres had remained patient and let him follow a traditional path through the AHL, if he would have had more success in Buffalo.
Even with all the mis-steps along the way, the Sabres still have a promising prospect pipeline but these are three players that they would probably like a do-over with.
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