Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Radim Mrtka was taken in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2025 NHL Draft this past June.
Friday saw Mrtka play his first game with the Buffalo Sabres at the Sabres Prospects Challenge at Harborcenter. The lumbering right-shot defenseman scored his first goal just 5:06 in to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead over the New Jersey Devils.
However, the lead didn’t hold up in the end, as the Sabres fell, 4-2.
Give the Sabres' 2025 fifth-round pick Noah Laberge a lot of credit on Mrtka's goal, as he picked off a careless pass right up the slot by Devils prospect Shane Lachance. Laberge gained the zone, turned and found the open Mrtka for the goal.
On the official scoresheet, Laberge wasn’t given the assist, as the helpers went to Noah Ostlund and Ryan Rucinski. However, neither of those two touched the puck.
Mrtka felt his game could’ve been better in spots, but Rochester Americans coach Mike Leone liked what he saw.
"He was great. I’ll have to watch the game back, but you could argue he was the best player out there. He was really good," said Leone following the loss.
"He had really good poise for a young defenseman, and plays really hard, moves the puck well. I didn’t realize how well he can move. He just makes good decisions with the puck, and I thought he was really good tonight."
This has to be the year for fourth-year pro Isak Rosen, as he should’ve dominated that game. Quite honestly, though, he only had one good period. He didn’t show much to head coach Lindy Ruff that he wants the Sabres jersey this season.
Buffalo had a college line of Red Savage (Michigan State), Tyler Kopff (Brown) and Mateo Constantini (Western Michigan), as well as a USHL line of Matous Kucharcik (Youngstown), Melvin Novotny (Muskegon) and Rucinski (Youngstown). Olivier Nadeau (Jacksonville) worked into that line, and it was very dangerous throughout.
I thought both lines were quite a bit better than Ostlund’s line, as well as Konsta Helenius' line.
"I thought that our young line that we played, the USHL line, I thought they were our best line. I thought Kucharcik, Melvin, I thought they were great," Leone said.
"For young kids to come into a tournament and never played college, if you were just to watch a game, you would think those were the guys playing pro hockey.
"I wouldn’t say disappointed, but I thought the returning guys, if you asked them, [they] probably have a lot more to give. Not that they were bad, I thought the young kids were really good."
I was very impressed with Kucharcik, who was Buffalo’s fourth-round pick this year. He was fast, and good at both ends of the ice. He generated scoring chances for his line, and even scored a very calm goal.
Rucinski started the play back to the right point and Nikita Novikov. He went cross-ice to Kucharcik, who calmly walked the puck along the blue line and waited until the screen of Jakub Malek was set and beat him clean. Neither Rucinski or Novotny got credit for their assists, as the goal was officially unassisted.
I picked Kucharcik as my second star in the game. I thought he, far-and-away, was Buffalo's best player.
There were parts of Ostlund’s game that were good. I liked that he was always around the puck whether he had it or not.
In this game, he overstayed his shifts for a lot of the game, and it cost the Sabres a goal when the Devils pulled away from him, and Ostlund did not have enough left in the tank to stay with him.
I thought 23-year-old Riley Fiddler-Schultz was pretty good in the game.
The winger earned a contract with Buffalo this offseason after two seasons of minor league contracts. During his 2023-24 season, he played 51 games with the Jacksonville Icemen and scored 23 goals and 20 assists for 43 points. That on top of one goal in six games with the Amerks. Last season with Rochester, Fiddler-Schultz had 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points in 51 games.
Before turning pro, Fiddler-Schultz played five seasons in the WHL with the Calgary Hitmen.
In 2022, Buffalo drafted, who they felt, was the best goalie in the draft class in Topias Leinonen. The second-round pick battled through injuries, but is now in North America for his first pro season.
While he had his moments in net, Leinonen allowed four goals on 27 shots faced. He’s 6-foot-5, and I thought was down way too fast on some of the shots.
The Devils are now 2-0-0 in the tournament, outscoring their opponents 12-4.
The Sabres play the only game of the day on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Join Brian Koziol, Brayton Wilson and myself for all the action starting at 7 p.m. on WGR Sports Radio 550.