Giant Minnesota-Duluth commit added to the blue line prospects stable
With their first pick of the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Buffalo Sabres selected defenseman Adam Kleber. Given the Sabres’ shortage of right-handed Dmen, the Lincoln Stars prospect should fit right in. The USHL player is committed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth next season.
Here’s an in-depth profile on the player from DK Pittsburgh Sports –
Kleber, 18, is a 6-foot-6, 215-pound blue liner from the USHL’s Lincoln Stars. He describes himself as a “two-way defenseman. I defend the rush, I have an active stick. I like to break the puck out quickly and join the rush.”
The Elite Prospects draft guide compared him to Ryan Graves, calling Kleber “a towering, but nimble defenseman with a shutdown defensive game likely to play in the NHL. Flashes of activation and open-ice skill give him upside.”
Kleber said that he’s always been on the bigger size for his age, but his big growth spurt came fairly recently, after his sophomore year of high school. While he tended to be more of an offensive defenseman before he was quite so huge, now he aims to make use of that big frame and long reach and focus more on his two-way game.
Even with that focus, Kleber is still finding ways to contribute offensively. In his rookie USHL season in 2022-23, he didn’t find the scoresheet so often — just eight assists, no goals in 56 games. This past season? Five goals, 21 assists in 56 games.
“I think it was just my mentality,” Kleber told me at the NHL’s Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y. earlier this month of those steps offensively. “Going into the year I wanted to produce more, and I think the work I put in over the summer gave me more confidence to do that and trust my abilities.”
Kleber looks to be a mid- to late- second-round pick on Saturday’s Day 2 of the draft. Some projections have him going right about where the Penguins pick at 44th and 46th: Elite Prospects has him right in the middle at 45, and so does Draft Prospects Hockey. Some have him a little higher in the second round: 33rd (Flo Hockey), and some have him lower: 51st (Dobber Prospects) and 73rd (FC Hockey).
One Western Conference scout told Elite Prospects that he’d anticipate Kleber going pretty high in the second round.
“This guy’s got a chance to run shotgun on a top-four pair,” the scout said. “He can skate. He can defend. He’s someone who can handle tough matchups. He’s got range and plays a tight gap. There’s a lot to like there. He’ll be gone by 40. No doubt.”