Games Below From 10/20/2019 – 10/27/2019

Prospect of the Week:  Lawrence Pilut (Rochester)

Pilut led all prospects this week with 1 goal and 3 assists in 3 games played.  Most notably, he scored the overtime winner for Rochester in a wild 7-6 victory earlier this week with a beautiful top shelf wrist shot.  With some injuries to Buffalo’s defensive group and inconsistent play for a majority of them lately, I believe Pilut should be getting a call up very soon.  Not without defensive flaws as we saw last year, the upside Pilut offers is immense from an offensive and possession standpoint.

• Matej Pekar put up 3 points in 2 games and is 5th in the OHL in goals with 12 in 13 GP. After a promising season last year with Barrie that was shortened by an injury, Pekar continues to trend upward in his development.
• A common word that will be used to summarize Dylan Cozens this year will be consistency.  He’s not lighting up the score sheet at the pace I expected but he is contributing on a nightly basis.  His one goal (video below) was a highlight reel move that was required a lot of skill and coordination to pull off given the speed he came in on the defender with.  2 goals and 1 assist in 3 games this past week is perfectly fine but Cozens is due for a few blow up games that will see his points per game average jump up a bit higher than the 1.31 he’s currently at.
• Linus Weissbach really cooled off this past weekend as he was held pointless in both games for Wisconsin vs. non conference opponent Clarkson.  With Alex Turcotte sidelined, the Badgers changed their lineup a bit and showed what I emphasized this year that we can expect Weissbach’s numbers to be a bit inflated due to the quality of his linemates.  He can still produce without them but the rate is going to be much lower without Turcotte/Caufield on his line as evidenced in the 2 most recent games.
• Rasmus Asplund quietly put up 3 assists in 3 games and continues to pick up where left off at the end of last season. The Sabres have been very patient with his development and it is really paying off for a player who appears on track to slot into a bottom 6 role in the near future.
• There were a few firsts this weekend for prospects Casey Fitzgerald and William Worge Kreu, as both scored their first career goals in the AHL and SHL respectively.  Fitzgerald had showed some offensive upside early on in his career at B.C. but trended down in his sophomore through senior seasons there.  As a right handed defender, continuing to put points up at this level is only going to deepen the Sabres defensive pipeline and elevate his value to the franchise for depth or trade purposes.
• Erik Portillo started 1 game this past week and his lone start was a forgettable one.  The volume of shots he’s facing remains very low which doesn’t help a goaltender get into a rhythm. From a development standpoint he has a long way to go so bad games are expected and it’s not the end of the world.
• Mattias Samuelsson re-aggravated an injury that saw him miss the first few games for Western Michigan.  His timeline for recovery is unknown at this point in time but he remains a lower profile prospect to track for the time being.

NOTE:  For recaps below, we are highlighting any prospects who contributed on the score sheet over the past week or did anything notable.  For an overall view of Sabres Prospects and their stats, be sure to check The Charging Buffalo’s Prospect Stat Tracker which is updated daily here —-> TCB Sabres Prospect Stat Tracker 

WHL

C Dylan Cozens – Lethbridge Hurricanes

3GP 2G 1A 3PTS

OHL

C Matej Pekar – Barrie Colts

2GP 1G 2A 3PTS

AHL – Rochester Americans

RW Tage Thompson

3GP 1G 1A 2PTS

LW Brett Murray

3GP 1G 0A 1PTS

C Rasmus Asplund

3GP 0G 3A 3PTS

RW Andrew Oglevie

3GP 0G 2A 2PTS

LD Lawrence Pilut

3GP 1G 3A 4PTS

RD Casey Fitzgerald

2GP 1G 1A 2PTS

Liiga

LW Arttu Ruotsalainen – Ilves

2GP 0G 1A 1PTS

SHL

C Marcus Davidsson – Vaxjo

2GP 0G 1A 1PTS

LD William Worge Kreu – Linkoping

2GP 1G 0A 1PTS

Czech

LW Lukas Rousek – Praha

3GP 2G 0A 2PTS

VHL

LW Vasily Glotov – St. Petersberg

2GP 1G 1A 2PTS

USHL

G Erik Portillo – Dubuque

1GP – 0W – 4.80 GAA – .828 SV%

Week Ahead Schedule

Not Active – Injured

• Aaron Huglen – Fargo (USHL)
• Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen – Rochester (AHL)
• Mattias Samuelsson – Western Michigan (NCAA)
• Oskari Laaksonen – Ilves (Liiga)

Continue to check in every Monday for a weekly prospect update from The Charging Buffalo Crew.

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