The NHL is littered with high-end players that have been chosen in the second round of the draft, and every team’s dream is to see their prospects grow to those levels. The Buffalo Sabres are no different as they have made a total of five second-round selections from 2021-2023. While their first rounds picks of Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich, and Matt Savoie will garner the most attention from people, they have a lot of high-end talent in their prospect pool stemming outside of those players.
In 2021, the Sabres selected Prokhor Poltapov (33rd overall) and Aleksandr Kisakov (53rd overall) to finally get some Russian prospects back into their system. In 2022, they selected Topias Leinonen (41st overall), who brought some additional depth to their young goaltending chart. Then, in this year’s 2023 Draft, they made two more selections of Anton Wahlberg (39th overall) and Maxim Strbak (45th overall) to further add to their center and defensive depth. The question is, which of these players will make it to the NHL first, and what might their ceiling be?
Sabres Have A Good History of Second-Round NHL Players
Looking all the way back to 2012, the Sabres have made a total of 17 second-round picks including the five players mentioned above. Since then, they have chosen some solid NHL-caliber players in Jake McCabe (2012), JT Compher (2013), Brendan Lemieux (2014), Rasmus Asplund (2016), Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (2017), Mattias Samuelsson (2018), and JJ Peterka (2020). Three of those players still remain on the active roster and will be playing big roles in the coming years, while the rest of them have been parts of different trade deals that have brought in other key assets.
To build a successful roster through the draft, a team really needs to get their development group right. The prospects need to be given a fair amount of time to grow in the right conditions, and then the right opportunities to succeed when they finally make it to the NHL. The Sabres have been spectacular with those conditions in recent years, and it will give them a competitive edge with these young players.
Forwards Are Diverse In Skill
The forward group includes Poltapov, Kisakov, and Wahlberg, and each of them plays a different type of game. Poltapov is a goal-scoring power forward who plays physical in all areas to create chances. On a slightly different spectrum is Kisakov who is a speed-based player that uses his legs to make offensive chances happen. Then there’s 2023 pick Wahlberg who plays a two-way game and creates offense in transition up the ice.
The Sabres do not have a lot of places to break in on the current roster, but none of these forwards are very close to the NHL just yet. Kisakov will be playing his second season with the Rochester Americans in 2023-24, and since Wahlberg recently signed his entry-level deal, he will likely be playing his first season with the Americans as well. Poltapov will be overseas in Russia for another year, so he will not be an option until his contract expires. Since Kisakov and Wahlberg will at least be on the Sabres farm team, they are more likely to be playing an NHL game, but I still do not think either will do so this season. Both still have a lot to work on, but they will be much better call-up candidates in 2024 and 2025.
Strbak and Leinonen Will Take Some Time
Goaltenders and defensemen always take a little more time to make it to the NHL. The learning curve is much steeper for these types of players so prospects like Strbak and Leinonen will be no exception to this. General manager Kevyn Adams has done a great job of picking high-end prospects that will take an extended time to develop into the players he wants in his system. With both being three to five years away from making NHL appearances, they will be given ample time to learn, and then make a smooth transition to the big leagues.
Strbak is a right-handed two-way defender, and the Sabres will need one of those in the next three or four years when they no longer have Ilya Lyubushkin and possibly Connor Clifton, who was signed to a three-year deal in free agency. He fits the player profile of having skill and speed to match the Sabres’ scheme, so he is definitely a prospect to keep an eye on. Leinonen is a bit trickier due to the nature of the current goaltending situation. With Devon Levi and Luukkonen being so young, it will take one of them falling out or being moved to make space for Leinonen on the future roster. He has some great reflexes and will make a run at the NHL in time, so hopefully they have their goaltending situated three or four years from now to figure out where he fits.
Who Stays and Who Goes?
At the end of the day, when a team has as many top prospects as the Sabres do, there are bound to be some players that fizzle out or get moved for other assets. They have a lot of first-round talent still chomping at the bit to get into the NHL right now, so that leaves even smaller openings for these second-round players. For the sake of positivity, if every single one of them reaches their potential, Kisakov will be a middle-six 20-25 goal scorer, Poltapov will be a 25-30 goal scoring top-six forward, Wahlberg will be a 40-45 point shutdown center, Strbak will be a playmaking 30-40 point second pair defender, and Leinonen will be a starter on a decent team.
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The Sabres have a need for two of those types of players on their current roster, so growing them from their farm team makes a lot of sense. Based on this, I believe the two most likely candidates to become full-time NHLers are Wahlberg and Strbak. If these prospects do not hit their full potential, I could also see Poltapov being a reliable middle-six forward that plays a physical scoring role on the third line, while Leinonen eventually plays a backup role to Levi in three to five years. That leaves Kisakov as the one on the outside looking in, and if Buffalo is able to get four out of these five players on their roster full-time, it will be a massive success for the organization. If they continue this trend, and their development system shows more and more progress with their prospects each season, it is safe to say that they can easily produce more NHL players out of the second round in future years as well.