21-year-old split time between Jacksonville and Rochester in his first professional season
The Buffalo Sabres have been considered to have one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL, which is in part due to them selecting high in recent drafts because of their not qualifying for the playoffs. The Sabres have displayed an eye for talent, and the organization’s developmental model has begun to yield results, with 2023 first rounder Zach Benson making an impact in the playoffs, and 2024 top pick Konsta Helenius appearing as one of the AHL’s top prospects the last two seasons.
Leading up to the opening of training camp in mid-September, we will look at the club's top 40 prospects. These players are all 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 82 NHL games.
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13. Scott Ratzlaff – Goalie (Jacksonville - ECHL, Rochester - AHL)
Ratzlaff was the Sabres fifth-round pick at the 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville. The young netminder was a tandem goalie in his second season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, posting an impressive 25-8-1 record, 2.15 GAA, .918 save percentage and played for Canada in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in his draft year.
The Irma, Alberta native became the primary starter for a rebuilding Thunderbirds squad in 2023-24 and put up more pedestrian numbers (21-26-2, 3.33 GAA, .905 save percentage) and was the third goalie for Team Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championships in Sweden, but did not see action.
In his final season in junior, Ratzlaff finished 23-19-4, with a 3.16 GAA and .910 save%, and in March, the Sabres signed the 21-year-old to a three-year ELC. Last season, the youngster split time with Topias Leinonen as the back to Devon Levi, splitting time almost equally between ECHL Jacksonville and the AHL Amerks.
With Levi dealt to Edmonton, the Sabres added veteran AHLer Matt Villalta in free agency, but it is expected that Leinonen and Ratzlaff will get the lion’s share of the starts in Rochester next season.
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