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Dylan Cozens among four Sabres prospects at world junior championships
The Sabres have 4 prospects playing at the WJC. They'll all be in action on Thursday 12/26/19)
Russia vs. Czech Republic, 9:00 AM (NHL Network) (Pekar, C)
Switzerland vs. Kazakhstan, 9:00 AM
Finland vs. Sweden, 1:00 PM (Portillo, G)
Canada vs. United States, 1:00 PM (NHL Network) (Cozens, C, Samuelsson, D)
Assistant GM Randy Sexton thinks it says a lot about the Sabres scouting model that they had 4 players selected with only one being a first round pick. Portillo and Pekar look like steals.
"It’s great. First of all, it’s rewarding to our amateur staff because those guys work very hard, they pound a lot of miles, a lot of lonesome nights and to see our players – it’s great for Dylan Cozens. That’s exciting, but hey, we’ve got Matej Pekar that’s a fourth-round pick, and we’ve got Erik Portillo, who’s a third-round pick. That’s really exciting because what I believe that tells our guys is, hey, the model we’ve asked you to scout to and the model we work to from a scouting, drafting and development perspective is working. There’s no greater positive reinforcement than players getting picked to play in world juniors.
For our kids, we’re delighted and our advice to them is all the same: Go embrace the experience, don’t waste one second of your time there, to learn and take it all in, be a great teammate and whatever happens, happens. Make sure you’re focused on absorbing everything you can out of that tournament."
The Sabres have 4 prospects playing at the WJC. They'll all be in action on Thursday 12/26/19)
Russia vs. Czech Republic, 9:00 AM (NHL Network) (Pekar, C)
Switzerland vs. Kazakhstan, 9:00 AM
Finland vs. Sweden, 1:00 PM (Portillo, G)
Canada vs. United States, 1:00 PM (NHL Network) (Cozens, C, Samuelsson, D)
Assistant GM Randy Sexton thinks it says a lot about the Sabres scouting model that they had 4 players selected with only one being a first round pick. Portillo and Pekar look like steals.
"It’s great. First of all, it’s rewarding to our amateur staff because those guys work very hard, they pound a lot of miles, a lot of lonesome nights and to see our players – it’s great for Dylan Cozens. That’s exciting, but hey, we’ve got Matej Pekar that’s a fourth-round pick, and we’ve got Erik Portillo, who’s a third-round pick. That’s really exciting because what I believe that tells our guys is, hey, the model we’ve asked you to scout to and the model we work to from a scouting, drafting and development perspective is working. There’s no greater positive reinforcement than players getting picked to play in world juniors.
For our kids, we’re delighted and our advice to them is all the same: Go embrace the experience, don’t waste one second of your time there, to learn and take it all in, be a great teammate and whatever happens, happens. Make sure you’re focused on absorbing everything you can out of that tournament."
