Later, in the second period, Rucinski sped after a puck into the offensive zone, creating an odd-man situation and drawing a penalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a seventh-round pick, he\u2019s just like a ball of energy,\u201d said Rochester Americans and Prospects Challenge head coach Michael Leone. \u201cHe just skates, he works, he competes really hard, he\u2019s really smart, he makes plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Rucinski, who\u2019s about to begin his third season with the USHL\u2019s Youngstown Phantoms before heading to Ohio State University in 2026-27, this weekend offered a glimpse of the physicality and preparation needed to play professional hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome just to be around here, meet everyone, just really see how everyone goes about the day-by-day and how professional everything is,\u201d the 18-year-old said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really cool experience.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 Obviously, it\u2019s a big step up; a lot of guys are bigger, stronger, faster, but I think I held my own out there. It\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
This Sabres squad featured several established AHLers, including two forwards with NHL experience in Isak Rosen and Noah Ostlund. But on multiple occasions during the tournament, Leone identified that fourth line, comprised of 2025 draftees Rucinski, Novotny and Matous Kucharcik, as his best.<\/p>\n
Kucharcik, a fourth rounder who scored a goal of his own Friday versus New Jersey, will be joining Rucinski in Youngstown this season for his USHL debut. Those two, plus the Muskegon-bound Novotny, have built a friendship Rucinski feels benefitted their chemistry during the Prospects Challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just playing in the USHL, we kind of all play a similar game, and it was good \u2013 it was easy to read off reach other,\u201d Rucinski said. \u201cWe\u2019re close off the ice, and I think that helped translate on the ice, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, with an NHL organization to call home and this educational experience under his belt, Rucinski will look to build upon his 42-point performance from 2024-25, which ranked fifth on the first-place Phantoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be a really good junior hockey player, a really good college hockey player,\u201d Leone said. \u201cEspecially with the late-round picks, even if they play pro hockey one day in the American League, that\u2019s a really good draft pick. He has all the tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s more from the Sabres\u2019 Prospects Challenge finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Later, in the second period, Rucinski sped after a puck into the offensive zone, creating an odd-man situation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-159643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}