Buffalo Sabres
Sabres Mock Draft Tracker; Americans Hope To Force Game 7
The Rochester Americans rebounded from a disastrous collapse in the final 10 minutes in a Game 4 loss with a 4-1 victory over the Hershey Bears on Wednesday, their second win on the road in the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final. The Americans now have to win Game 6 on home ice to force a seventh and deciding game.
CAN'T STOP JIRI KULICH‼️ pic.twitter.com/0XIAPqNR4U
— x-Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) May 31, 2023
Rochester scored early and maintained the lead throughout at the Giant Center, getting an early goal by rookie Jiri Kulich, then pulling away with an even-strength, power-play, and empty-net goal in the third period, and got 32 saves from Malcolm Subban.
“As a team, I think that we have some carryover similar to the Syracuse series. (We had our) backs against the wall, guys delivered for each other, guys stepped up big offensively and defensively.” Appert said.
Kulich has seven goals in 11 games for Rochester, and in each game that the 19-year-old has scored, they have been victorious.
Sabres Mock Draft Update
Earlier in the week, Sportsology’s Russ Cohen’s mock draft had the Sabres selecting Sudbury Wolves winger and Western New York native Quentin Musty with the 13th pick in the first round of the NHL Draft later this month in Nashville. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler had Buffalo selecting winger Gabriel Perreault, the son of former NHLer Yanic Perreault.
In his mock, the Athletic’s Corey Pronman has the Sabres passing on both Musty and Perreault and picking Russian winger Daniil But. The lanky 18-year-old is 6’5″, 203 lb, and split time between Yaroslavl Lokomotiv of the KHL and the junior-level MHL affiliate, where he averaged a point-per-game last season. Pronman rightly indicates that the Sabres have shown a willingness to draft Russians (six over the last two drafts) and believes that But “would complement their group of young forwards very well with the degree of offensive talent he has in a 6-foot-5 frame.
WHAT A PASS FROM ROGOVSKY
🚨 #2023NHLDraft Daniil But PP
3-0 Russia U20 pic.twitter.com/sxz3DGo5CF— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) May 28, 2023
The Sabres selected winger Viktor Neuchev in the third round and big defenseman Vsevolod Komarov last July in Montreal and both 19-year-olds to entry-level contracts last month. 2021 second-rounder Aleksander Kisakov played 48 AHL games last season with Rochester, while another big blueliner Nikita Novikov was signed to an ELC in May. Two other Russians from the ’21 Draft class, wingers Prokhor Poltapov (playing with CSKA Moscow) and Stiven Sardarian (completed his freshman year at the University of New Hampshire) are unsigned.