Buffalo Sabres leading scorer Tage Thompson successfully bounced back with 44 goals last season, and his tournament game-winning goal at the World Championships have him on the radar for Team USA for the Winter Olympics. In their ranking of the league’s top 20 centers, the 27-year-old was ranked 18th by NHL Network.
Thompson, who played a significant portion of the season on the wing with rookie Jiri Kulich playing up the middle, was ranked ahead of Calder Trophy nominee Macklin Celebrini and two-time Stanley Cup winner Sam Bennett. Unsurprisingly, Connor McDavid was ranked as the top center, followed by Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon, Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, Florida’s Aleksander Barkov, and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby. Former Sabre Jack Eichel was ranked sixth on the list, ahead of Toronto’s Auston Matthews.
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The Rochester Americans appear to be adding more forward depth for the upcoming season. Ken Campbell of the Hockey News reported via X on Wednesday that the club will be signing center Red Savage to a two-year AHL deal. The 22-year-old, who played for Team USA at the World Junior in 2022 and 2023, played two seasons at Miami(OH) and his junior and senior seasons at Michigan State with Sabres draftees Maxim Strbak and Patrick Geary.
Savage was a fourth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2021 and was not signed by the Wings before the June deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent. After scoring 27 points with the Spartans in 2024, the 5’11”, 185 lb. center had just 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) in 20 games as a senior.
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