20-year-old Russian defenseman had 69 points this season
The Buffalo Sabres prospect pool was rated one of the best in the NHL on the strength of a group of highly-skilled forwards in Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund, Matthew Savoie, and Anton Wahlberg, but the club may have found another promising youngster in the lower rounds of the 2022 Draft in Vsevolod Komarov.
The 20-year-old Russian was selected in the fifth round (134th overall) at the draft in Montreal out of the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts. The big right-hander scored the game-winning goal for Quebec in the Memorial Cup final last May after scoring 39 points (12 goals, 27 assists) with the Remparts last season.
This year, Komarov was dealt to first-place Drummondville and finished the season leading all QMJHL blueliners with 69 points (14 goals, 55 assists) in 60 games. On Wednesday, he was named the winner of the Émile-Bouchard Trophy as the league’s best defenseman.
Komarov’s Voltigeurs are currently up 3-1 on Victoriaville in the semi-final of the QMJHL Playoffs, with a chance of going to his second straight Memorial Cup. It is expected that once his CHL season is complete, the 20-year-old will join the AHL Rochester Americans for the Calder Cup Playoffs if they are still alive.
The Sabres will likely not rush Komarov, but his size (6'3", 198 lb.), his toughness, and being right-handed could be factors that see him promoted to the NHL quicker. Buffalo's defense corps is primarily left-handed (Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, Mattias Samuelsson, Ryan Johnson), with only two of their defensemen (Connor Clifton and Henri Jokiharju) projected to play in Buffalo being righties.
How Komarov fares with Rochester in the playoffs and early next season will bear watching.
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