Buffalo Sabres Sign Three Draft Picks

The Sabres have gotten down to business today, earlier finalizing a deal with free agent defenseman Lawrence Pilut and now finishing up entry-level deals for their three first-round picks: Matthew Savoie, Jiri Kulich, and Noah Ostlund.

While all three deals were announced simultaneously, the development paths for each of the players is likely to be very different. Savoie, the first pick of the three, was drafted ninth overall after a brilliant season for the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL. Savoie, who plays center in Winnipeg, will in all likelihood return to the Ice for 2022-23 and spend another season starring on a contending WHL club.

Ostlund, the second pick, was picked 16th overall out of Djurgardens in the SHL. He’s perhaps best known for being the playmaking center on Djurgardens’ line of 2022 first-rounders, often sharing the ice with Minnesota Wild prospect Liam Ohgren and Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki. Ostlund signs his entry-level deal and can potentially be sent to the AHL’s Rochester Americans if he doesn’t make the Sabres out of training camp. The new NHL-SHL agreement would stipulate that Ostlund returns to Sweden, but both his status as a first-rounder and Djurgardens’ relegation to HockeyAllsvenskan means Ostlund is a candidate to play in the AHL next season. Ostlund could also take the route of fellow Djurgarden product Alexander Holtz, who spent most of the year after he was drafted in the SHL while also getting 10 AHL games under his belt to familiarize himself with the North American game.

The last of the three first-rounders the Sabres’ signed today, Kulich, was selected 28th overall. Kulich, who spent his draft season with Karlovy Vary HC of the Czech Extraliga, has a few options to choose from for where he wants to play next season. Kulich said in his media availability after the draft that he hoped to play in the NHL next season, but the track record of 18-year-old late first-rounders making an immediate jump to the NHL is thin. Kulich will have the opportunity to play in Rochester if that’s where the Sabres choose to send him, or he could always return to Czechia and get another season of European pro hockey under his belt. One other option for him would be going to the CHL, where his rights are owned by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the QMJHL, although that is not the likeliest option, despite the fact that he was selected third overall at the 2022 Import Draft.

All three players are extremely talented forwards, and two of them have experience playing against men already. With their entry-level deals signed, the Sabres will be able to help each player along their development paths so that they can reach Buffalo and become difference-makers as efficiently as possible.