Kulich feeling benefits of added strength entering 3rd Sabres camp

Rochester Americans assistant coach Vinny Prospal knows a thing or two about patience.

The 16-year NHL veteran had to wait his turn to get his chance in the league – four seasons and 255 games in the AHL to be exact.

So, with his fellow Czech, 2022 first-round pick Jiri Kulich, Prospal is imploring him to remain patient.

“It’s a process, it takes time,” Prospal said. “It’s very beneficial in my mind for each prospect to start in the American Hockey League because it’s a man’s game, it’s a fast league, it’s a heavy league.”

While Kulich has shown off his skills at the AHL level, leading the Amerks in goals in 2022-23 and 2023-24 with 24 and 27, he’s also been required to rely on more than just being able to put pucks in the back of the net.

A two-month goal drought during January and February forced him to diversify his game to help Rochester, a part of that being his physicality. Former Rochester head coach, and now Buffalo assistant coach, Seth Appert helped him with this process, being hard on the forward and forcing him to be more than just a shooter.

“If he wasn’t that hard on me, I’m really not the player that I am now,” Kulich said. “That was the thing when I came to North America. I thought that I can only shoot, and I didn’t care about the other things. He helped me so much and I really appreciate what he did for me.”

Along with a trip to Dubai and training with friends in Switzerland this summer, Kulich trained with his strength coach to help make him a more all-around player, citing becoming more physical as being one of his goals.

“We had the best workout this summer,” Kulich said. “I was working on the net-front and those things, what I need to do, because I thought I could just shoot [from] the [one-timer] spot. But I need to improve on these things, and I think I improved a lot from the summer to now.

With all the work he put in last season and this offseason, Kulich feels stronger than ever, already making an impression on Amerks head coach Michael Leone on the first day of practice.

The first-year coach praised Kulich’s skills, saying that the Buffalo hopeful had “a really good day today.”

“He can really shoot it, and just to be on the ice level, his compete, just the way he can protect pucks,” Leone said. “He’s got a really quick release and obviously, what he’s done in his first two years, he’s right there.”

With three games upcoming in the Prospects Challenge for Kulich, along with fellow first-round picks Isak Rosen, Konsta Helenius, Noah Ostlund and Ryan Johnson, Leone has stressed the players can only “control what they can control.”

“You can’t control lineup decisions and things like that,” Leone said. “All they can control is have a really good day at practice tomorrow and try to be the best players in the tournament. Obviously, those guys have done it before, and I think that’s the biggest thing. Just focus on what you can control, and things play out the way they’re supposed to.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s practice.

1) Kulich spent the second day in row skating alongside Rosen, someone he noted has been important to his growth as a player.

The two former first-round picks have spent plenty of time together in the past two years as teammates on the Amerks as well as roommates.

“It was really important that we meet each other,” Kulich said. “We try to push each other to be better players and we’re roomies again and it’s great. The relationship is better and better, and we just want to (play in the NHL).”

2) The Prospects Challenge will be Leone’s first coaching experience as a part of the Sabres organization after being hired as coach of the Amerks in June.

Leone met with his team before practice Wednesday to discuss how he wanted them to play, trying to give the group a single identity of how they will be expected play across the organization with both teams having new head coaches in Lindy Ruff and Leone.

The three qualities that Leone highlighted in how he wants his team to play were hard, smart and fast.

This was showcased at the beginning of both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practice as Leone put his squad of 22 players right into physical play, getting bodies on bodies early on and forcing them to be physical and smart about their play, all while going at a fast pace.

3) In Thursday’s post-practice press conference, Prospal shared that the Sabres’ 2021 seventh-round pick Tyson Kozak reminds him of Tampa Bay Lightning center Anthony Cirelli when he is playing at his best.

He described Kozak as a “hard skating, forechecking, center iceman. A two-way player that "hopefully will discover a scoring touch.”

“He’s just flying around right now,” Prospal said. “(Kozak) is just coming in, he’s flying in. He’s playing a competitive, heavy game. I think he’s just waiting for the games to start so he can go out there and be himself.”

4) While no lines have been set in stone for tomorrow’s opening game against Columbus, forward Viktor Neuchev frequently skated alongside Kulich and Rosen while 2024 first-round pick Konsta Helenius spent time alongside Ostlund and Anton Wahlberg.

5) Just a reminder, here is the trio of games that Buffalo will play in the 2024 Prospects Challenge, which kicks off tomorrow at 12 p.m. with a game between Boston and Pittsburgh:

- Friday, Sept. 13 vs. Columbus – 7 p.m.

- Saturday, Sept. 14 vs. New Jersey – 7 p.m.

- Monday, Sept. 16 vs. Pittsburgh – 5 p.m.