The Sabres added another young goalie to a pipeline that’s already been a point of emphasis, and Samuel Meloche is now right in the middle of a bigger national-team conversation, too.
Buffalo used one of its two fourth-round picks at the 2025 NHL Draft on the 19-year-old netminder from Rouyn-Noranda of the QMJHL, continuing a recent run of goalie selections that also included Topias Leinonen in 2022, Scott Ratzlaff in 2023 and Ryerson Leenders in 2024. The club also took Belarusian Yevgeni Prokhorov in the seventh round, giving the organization another long-term project in goal.
Meloche has been on the radar for a while. He joined Rouyn-Noranda as a 16-year-old and was already a regular for the Huskies by the time he reached his draft year. In 51 games that season, he put together a 30-14-6 record, then helped push Rouyn-Noranda to the QMJHL semifinal with an 8-5-0 playoff run before Moncton swept them in four games.
He followed that up with another heavy workload last season, getting to the 50-game mark again and finishing 33-13-3 with a 2.75 GAA and .897 save %. That performance earned him an invite from Team Canada for the World Junior Summer Showcase in Windsor earlier this month.
Meloche is in the mix with Lucas Beckman and William Lacelle for the backup job behind likely starter Jack Ivankovic, and he’ll head back to the QMJHL this season with the Saint John Sea Dogs. His path eventually leads to Northeastern in 2027, where he has committed to play.
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