The Buffalo Sabres are considered one of the best deepest prospect pools in the NHL, not only because of their selecting high in recent drafts but also due to their eye for talent and their organizational choices of either leaving players to develop in their home countries or bringing them to North America. Leading up to the opening of training camp in mid-September, we will look at the club’s top 40 prospects. All are 25 years old or younger, whose rights are currently held by the Sabres or are on AHL or NHL deals and have played less than 40 NHL games.
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READ ABOUT OTHER SABRES PROSPECTS
25. ETHAN MIEDEMA
24. STIVEN SARDARIAN
23. Topias Leinonen – Goaltender (KeuPa / JyP – Finland)
The Sabres selected Leinonen in the second round after picking three centers (Matthew Savoie, Noah Ostlund, and Jiri Kulich) in the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft.
Similar to his countryman and fellow second-rounder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the 6’4″, 214 lb. Leinonen is the physical package that NHL clubs are looking for in a goaltender. After putting up excellent numbers in Junior (2.28 GAA and .916 save percentage), he played internationally for Finland at the World Junior Under-18’s in 2022, but the last two seasons at the junior, second-level pro Mestis, and pro-level SM-Liiga, the 20-year-old has been plagued by injury and the results have been mixed at best.
Sabres goalie prospect Topias Leinonen is back in Buffalo. The 2022 second-round pick looks leaner and healthy.
Big development year ahead for him. pic.twitter.com/V3XnWY7NIN
— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) July 2, 2024
Hockey Prospect.com’s Black Book compared Leinonen to Pekka Rinne, indicating that “he is extremely fluid in certain movements and can stop almost any puck with his legs due to his extension rates and reflexes”.
Leinonen will play in Sweden for Mora IK this season, and the Sabres will be looking for him to put together a consistent season with a heavy workload in the second-level Allsvenskan. Buffalo is deep in young goaltending talent with Luukkonen, Devon Levi, and 2023 draftee Scott Ratzlaff. His success or failure in 2024-25 will determine whether the big Finn will continue to be in the conversation.
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