Breaking down the Sabres' roster for the 2022 Prospects Challenge

First-round draft selections Matt Savoie, Isak Rosen, and Jiri Kulich will be among the players suiting up for the Buffalo Sabres at the annual Prospects Challenge, a six-team tournament at LECOM Harborcenter beginning Thursday, Sept. 15.
The Sabres released their roster for the event, comprising of 17 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders. Find the roster in its entirety here.
The Prospects Challenge adds two new teams in 2022, with the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators joining the Sabres, Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Tickets are on sale now and cost $10 per ticket.
Below is breakdown of the future Sabres competing in the event.

The 1st-round picks (Kulich, Rosen, Savoie)

Savoie, the ninth-overall pick this summer, will skate in a Sabres uniform for the first time after missing the on-ice portion of development camp due to an injury. He will be joined by 28th-overall pick Kulich, a standout performer at the July camp.
Savoie, Kulich, and 16th-overall pick Noah Ostlund all signed entry-level deals in July. Ostlund will spend this season in his native Sweden and thus will not be at the Prospects Challenge. Savoie will return to WHL Winnipeg if he does not make the NHL club; Kulich is eligible to spend this season with Rochester.
Savoie scored 90 points for Winnipeg last season, most among WHL rookies. He is touted for his combination of speed, work ethic, and playmaking ability, drawing pre-draft comparisons to Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point.
Kulich also plays a workmanlike game while possessing an elite shot. He put that on display ahead of the draft with his nine-goal performance at the U-18 World Championship and more recently at the World Junior Championship in August, where he tallied eight points in seven games.
"He has an elite shot," Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said at the draft. "Elite. One of the top-end that we've seen in a while at his age."

Rosen, the 14th-overall pick in 2021, signed his entry-level contract this summer after spending last season in his native Sweden. He will seek to build on a productive World Junior Championship, where he tallied four goals and five points in seven contests.
"He can really shoot the puck," Sabres director of player development Adam Mair said last season. "He can skate, and he's got offensive abilities. So, when I think about how he can impact games, he can do that with his shot and with his offensive skills. That's the kind of player he is."

Recent signees (Josh Bloom, Filip Cederqvist, Aleksander Kisakov, Tyson Kozak)

This quartet of forwards all signed their entry-level deals in the past six months, a testament to the promise they have shown since their draft selections.
The Prospects Challenge will offer a first look at Kisakov, a second-round pick last summer, after the forward was unable to skate at development camp while he awaited visa clearance. He is eligible to play in Rochester after averaging over a point per game in Russia's junior league last season.
Bloom(third round, 2021) and Kozak(seventh round, 2021) both signed deals after productive seasons in Canadian junior hockey. Bloom had 61 points in 67 games for OHL Saginaw; Kozak had 69 points in 66 games with WHL Portland.
Cederqvist, a fifth-round pick in 2019, is preparing for his first North American season after amassing SHL career highs in goals (18), points (32), and games played (49) last season.
Olivier Nadeau, the 2021 fourth-round pick who also signed his entry-level contract after a productive QMJHL season, is included on the Prospects Challenge roster but is not expected to play after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery.

New kids on the blue line (Mats Lindgren, Vsevolod Komarov)

Lindgren, Buffalo's fourth-round pick this summer, was another standout at development camp. The defenseman's skating especially popped during the 3-on-3 French Connection Tournament, which included a between-the-legs goal in a shootout.

The Sabres selected Komarov, a Russian native who currently plays junior hockey for Quebec of the QMJHL, during the fifth round in July. He had 19 points (2+17) in 60 games as a rookie last season.

Returning vets (Oskari Laaksonen, Lukas Rousek, Linus Weissbach)

This trio returns after spending last season with Rochester. Laaksonen, 23, ranked second among Amerks defensemen with 34 points (5+29) in 71 games.
Weissbach, a 24-year-old winger, tallied 37 points (16+21) in 67 games as a rookie out of the University of Wisconsin.
Rousekmissed the majority of his rookie season in North America due to an injury but was a consistent presence in the playoffs. The 23-year-old forward tied for third on the team with six points (2+4) in 10 postseason contests.