Ashton Schultz gives the Sabres another long-view center to track, and Buffalo’s front office clearly didn’t mind waiting on the payoff when it used the 2025 NHL Draft to take him in the sixth round, 167th overall, in the first decentralized draft in Los Angeles.
The 19-year-old split his season between Chicago and Sioux City in the USHL, and now he’s set to head to the University of North Dakota this fall. At 5’11” and 181 pounds, Schultz fits the profile of a player the Sabres have leaned into in recent drafts: a prospect with time on his side and room to grow before anyone starts asking for NHL answers.
The organization’s track record in the prospect pipeline is part of why this selection stands out. Buffalo has built one of the deeper systems in the league, helped in part by picking high in recent drafts after missing the playoffs. That approach has already started to show through, with 2023 first-rounder Zach Benson making an impact in the playoffs and 2024 top pick Konsta Helenius emerging as one of the AHL’s top prospects over the last two seasons.
Schultz, though, is very much in the development stage. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has changed the timing a bit on how long the Sabres can evaluate a player like him, but GM Jarmo Kkealainen and his scouting staff still have a lot of runway to see what he becomes.
Elite Prospects describes him as a center who “always gives his teammates an option, whether that’s offensively, defensively, or along the walls. Sturdy inside contact with play-killing skills, he breaks up the opposition’s cycle, diffuses their rushes, and retrieves pucks at top rates.” That’s the kind of profile Buffalo is banking on: a reliable, detail-oriented center who can support the puck in a lot of different ways and keep plays alive or snuff them out.
Schultz may not be the loudest name in the Sabres’ system, but he’s another piece in a prospect pool that keeps getting deeper.
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