Sardarian reboots at Michigan Tech

It has been a somewhat eventful offseason for Sabres 2021 third-rounder Stiven Sardarian.

After spending his freshman and sophomore campaigns at the University of New Hampshire, Sardarian entered the NCAA transfer portal while completing his spring semester course work. In mid-April, it was announced that Sardarian was transferring to Northern Michigan University.

Apparently that was merely a placeholder, though.

When the calendar flipped to June, NMU received a notice of resignation from head coach Grant Potulny, putting the future of several commits, including Sardarian, in question. With Potulny moving on to become head coach of the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack, Sardarian escaped the turbulence and moved two hours west on the Upper Peninsula to play his third season of collegiate hockey at Michigan Tech.

Sardarian moves west as a compelling prospect to follow in 2024-25. There is no debating his high-end skill and ability to read and anticipate the offensive flow, and that same brain allowed him to understand the areas where he needed to improve. He scored seven goals and 14 points last season, but you could see the progress in his overall game in the second half of the year. His compete level increased and you could see the extra work he was doing in the weight room with the UNH staff paying off.

The Sabres player development staff has provided Sardarian with his work agenda, and he’s landed in a stable program that provides him with good opportunity to succeed. Expectations are that he will continue to adapt his skill set and elevate his game when he takes the ice for a Tech squad that has finished in second place in all three seasons of the revived Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA).