College coach says surging Buffalo Sabres prospect is 'just wired differently'

The University of Wisconsin was on the ropes in the regional final of the 2026 NCAA men's hockey tournament, down 3-1 late in the third period against top-seeded Michigan State, until Buffalo Sabres prospect Luke Osburn sparked a comeback.

Osburn continued his breakthrough freshman season with the Badgers by scoring his sixth goal of the campaign with just under five minutes remaining. Gavin Morrissey tied the game a short time later and Ben Dexheimer scored in overtime to punch Wisconsin's ticket to the Frozen Four.

As the Badgers prepare to face North Dakota in the tournament semifinals Thursday night, assistant coach Nick Oliver spoke with Scott Wheeler of The Athletic about the defenseman's rapid development.

"He's just wired differently," Oliver said. "From the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed, he's trying to find any possible way to get better. He's one of the first ones into the rink most days, he's one of the last ones to leave most days, and I think as the years have progressed, you've just seen his all-around game continue to round out because of it."

Osburn has been on an impressive ascent since the Sabres selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft.

The 19-year-old Michigan native scored 41 points (10 goals and 31 assists) in 55 games during his final season with the USHL's Youngstown Phantoms in 2024-25. He parlayed that into a strong debut campaign with the Badgers, adding 15 assists to his six goals across 31 appearances.

Osburn's confidence with the puck on his stick is rare for a first-year college player, and he's made legitimate strides defensively throughout Wisconsin's push toward a national championship.

Playing in the Frozen Four will be tremendous big-game experience for the 6-foot-1 defender, and he's hoping the team is peaking at the right moment.

"We've had a ton of ups and downs," Osburn told Wheeler. "We've had some valleys that we've had to get through. But just overall, the feeling being with this team and being able to be rewarded for all the hard work and the hardship we went through would be meaningful for me."

If the Badgers can take down North Dakota, they would face either Michigan, which just captured the men's college basketball national title, or Denver in the championship game on Saturday.

Luke Osburn continues to look like a massive NHL Draft steal for the Buffalo Sabres

Osburn slid to the No. 108 overall pick in the draft two years ago because, while he displayed some projectable traits during his first USHL season, he didn't look like a high-impact contributor.

The left-shot defenseman didn't score at a high rate (23 points in 60 games), took avoidable penalties as part of a steep learning curve defensively and wasn't an imposing physical force.

His work ethic was the most overlooked factor, though. He's tireless in his pursuit of eventually reaching the NHL. In each of the past two years, first with Youngstown and then at Wisconsin, he's been a tangibly better player at season's end than he was when it began.

That's not to say there hasn't been some struggles along the way. Most notably, he was a non-factor for Team USA at the 2026 World Juniors, failing to record a point across five games in the tournament.

To Osburn's credit, he played some of his best hockey of the college season immediately after his return to the Badgers, scoring 11 points over his next 10 outings.

Now, after coming up short on the World Junior stage, he'll get another chance to steal the spotlight in a marquee event at the Frozen Four.

It's something for Sabres fans to keep tabs on while also watching Buffalo attempt to hunt down the Atlantic Division title as the NHL regular season nears its conclusion.

Looking ahead, Osburn is likely ticketed for at least one more season of college hockey. Dexheimer, Wisconsin's top defenseman, is a senior and should land a contract with an NHL organization following the NCAA tournament after going undrafted.

That'll open up an opportunity for the Sabres prospect to log massive minutes for the Badgers next season, which will ideally include both power-play and penalty-killing roles.

How he handles that high-pressure deployment will determine whether he's ready to make the jump to pro hockey in 2027. If he does, he'll probably spend a full campaign (and potentially more) with the AHL's Rochester Americans before entering the Buffalo roster conversation.

Osburn continues to check every box at each stop of his development journey, and he's trending toward possibly becoming a full-time member of the Sabres by the end of the decade.