BUFFALO, N.Y. — Kevyn Adams, then the general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, was furiously working the phone. And Jerry Forton, Buffalo’s director of amateur scouting, was sitting nearby hoping he was right.
It was the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft, and the Sabres had already made two of their three first-round picks in a draft that would start to shape the future of the franchise. At No. 9, the Sabres selected Winnipeg Ice center Matt Savoie. At No. 16, Forton had a more difficult choice. Two players, Swedish center Noah Östlund and Czech center Jiri Kulich, were neck and neck on the team’s list. Forton thought Kulich had a better chance of falling to the Sabres’ next pick at No. 28 because of the role Östlund played in Sweden’s gold-medal-winning team at the under-18 tournament.
But Forton was far from certain about his educated guess. Even if Kulich was more likely to fall than Östlund, he and Adams weren’t comfortable taking the chance. So after drafting Östlund, Adams tried to find a trade partner to move up from No. 28. He started at pick 17 and tried to trade with six different teams in front of them in the order. Nobody wanted to make the deal.
So the wait from pick No. 16 to pick No. 28 was an agonizing one.
“I was sick to my stomach every pick that went by, as were other members of our staff, that Kulich was not going to be there at 28,” Forton said.
Those sitting at the Sabres’ draft table were finally able to exhale when the San Jose Sharks selected Swedish forward Filip Bystedt at No. 27. Without making a trade, the Sabres were able to get both Östlund and Kulich.
The irony is that Forton’s reason for thinking Östlund would go earlier was because of Sweden’s performance at the U18 tournament. But Kulich was the MVP of that tournament, scoring nine goals and adding two assists in six games for Czechia. While the Czechs didn’t have team success, Kulich’s goal-scoring output was the 14th-best goal total in that tournament’s history. From a goals per game perspective, it was 12th.
“On the power play, he was just … he had five or six goals on the power play at the under-18s,” Forton said. “I remember (Sabres scout) Frank Musil and I joking the one game that he looked like (Alex) Ovechkin out there.”
That’s why it’s still tough for Forton to figure out why Kulich lasted until No. 28.
“Maybe maybe he was viewed a little bit more as a shooter and not a playmaker,” Forton said. “But the athleticism was very evident back then. The skating, the compete. But he was more of a shooter at that level, and he was playing with the men in Czechia and didn’t produce much there. At the end of the day, we made the right decision flipping those guys. Because I had plenty of teams that came up to me and said they were going to take Östlund at like 11, 12, 13, 14. So I think we were right in that assessment, but I’m stunned it worked out. A lot of teams I’m sure are happy with their players but probably wondering the same thing. How did Kulich drop that low? It didn’t make any sense to us, but I’m happy it fell that way.”
When Forton and his staff watched Kulich, they saw a player who was among the best in the draft at shooting off the pass. The production at international tournaments made them believe he had a chance to become a high-end goal scorer. But they also saw a player who was more than just a shooter. He was competitive and had the skating ability to command the middle of the ice as a center.
“That was always a debate for us. Is he a center or more of a scoring winger?” Forton said. “That’s where I give the player and the coaches all the credit in the world. We all view him as a two-way center now.”
The Sabres’ staff started to see that right away when he got to development camp and again at the prospects tournament. Kulich said his goal was to be in the NHL right away. And while that didn’t happen, he did make the jump to the AHL as an 18-year-old. He managed to put up the second-best point total for any 18-year-old in the history of the AHL. But that season also started to solidify the team’s belief that he was a center. Then-Amerks coach Seth Appert would have Kulich be the first in line when they were doing drills on defensive angling. He was hard on him when it came to the defensive details of the game. At one point early in the season, with Kulich still struggling with the language barrier, Appert printed out a message that he had translated into Czech to explain to Kulich he was being that hard on him because of how good he thought he could become. That seemed to resonate with Kulich.
Appert thought then that playing center helped Kulich get into the game more. Lindy Ruff saw the same thing when Kulich got to the NHL. He started the 2025-26 season as Buffalo’s No. 1 center. But then his season ended suddenly due to a blood clot issue. That scary development put a pause to his on-ice development but, in a way, accelerated his off-ice development. With the help of the team and his agents, he had to navigate a tricky medical situation. He gained life perspective not a lot of 22-year-olds have. And his English improved a lot because of all the appointments. He had the blood clot fully removed in a procedure at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He put on some weight while being off the ice, but he’s been skating since April and expects to be ready for the start of the season.
Kulich had to sit and watch while the Sabres had a dream season in 2025-26. He saw the other young prospects break into the NHL and impact the team in the playoffs. And it made him even more eager to get back in the mix in September.
“I can’t even describe how excited I am for next season,” Kulich said. “Just watching those guys is just awesome. I watch every single shift. I’m so glad I can be part of this team even though I’m not playing, so I can see the guys working hard and having fun. So, yeah, it was really nice to see them doing really well.”
Four years ago, Kulich was overlooked. It feels that way now again. Because he missed so much time, there are questions about how he’ll return and where he’ll fit into the Sabres’ crowded forward picture. But as was the case in 2022, Kulich has a lot of believers in Buffalo.
“The center utility now and the commitment to a two-way game has the potential to be a game-changer for our organization,” Forton said. “That’s been something that was a bonus for us and maybe something we didn’t see coming at quite that level.”