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Sabres Announce Six-Team Prospects Challenge

Published

10 months ago

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The Buffalo Sabres will be hosting the 2023 Prospects Challenge at the LECOM Harborcenter from September 15 – 18.

The Sabres will be joined by the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins for the second consecutive year to compete in a round-robin challenge featuring prospects from each team. Each club will play three games over the course of the event. The Prospects Challenge will mark the eighth edition of the tournament, which began in 2015 with Buffalo, Boston and New Jersey.

Tickets will go on sale in August and will cost $10 per ticket. Sabres season ticket members will have priority access and a preferred rate for any ticket they purchase for the event.

The Canadiens, Sabres and Penguins each had first-round picks in the 2023 NHL Draft last month. Montreal took defenseman David Reinbacher fifth overall, Buffalo chose forward Zach Benson 13th and Pittsburgh selected Brayden Yager 14th.

Buffalo’s roster for last year’s Prospects Challenge featured first-round draft selections Matt Savoie, Isak Rosen and Jiri Kulich. All three are expected to participate along with Benson (who will likely be returning to Wenatchee of the Western Hockey League after training camp), and defenseman Ryan Johnson (2019 first-rounder signed in May after his senior season at the University of Minnesota).

It is unlikely that 2022 first-rounder Noah Ostlund and 2023 second-rounder Anton Wahlberg will be in attendance since they are playing in Sweden this season and the SHL schedule begins on September 14, as well as Russian prospects playing in the KHL ( Prokhot Poltaapov, Aleksandr Kisakov, Stiven Sardarian) who attended the Sabres Development Camp earlier this month, since the KHL season begins in August.

NCAA products such as 2023 selections Maxim Strbak and Gavin McCarthy are also unlikely to attend.

Here is the full game schedule for the 2023 Prospects Challenge:

Friday, September 15 

  • Ottawa vs. New Jersey, 12 p.m.
  • Pittsburgh vs. Boston, 3:30 p.m.
  • Buffalo vs. Montreal, 7 p.m.

Saturday, September 16

  • Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh, 12 p.m.
  • Boston vs. Montreal, 3:30 p.m.
  • Buffalo vs. New Jersey, 7 p.m.

Monday, September 18 

  • New Jersey vs. Boston, 10 a.m.
  • Montreal vs. Ottawa, 1:30 p.m.
  • Buffalo vs. Pittsburgh, 5 p.m.

 

 

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