Individual player development in Rochsester and were to go from here

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


This is the second of a two-part series reviewing the Rochester Americans season

In deciding Rochester Americans head coach Chadd Cassidy's fate, the black and white of an AHL won/loss record isn't the only factor to be taken into consideration. Buffalo GM Tim Murray will be looking at how the young players developed in Rochester, from stars down to rookie free agents.

With a 27th place finish by the Amerks and the opportunity for Murray to have a fresh start in Rochester, the odds looked to be stacked against Cassidy at this point. Yet the Amerks bench boss, who was in his second full season as head coach, had his share success stories in player development. "If development is what matters most to Sabres general manager Tim Murray," wrote Amerks beat writer Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, "then Cassidy and his staff seemingly will be back. The kids got better. They grew, they didn't repeat mistakes and they were, in most cases, effective when called up to the NHL."

Forward Johan Larsson is a prime example.

Larsson finally broke through at the NHL-level last month after strong year over year development in Rochester. He took his pesky two-way game from top-six to top-line for the Amerks and was able to up his production as well. After fits and starts to his NHL career, and despite a tinge of self-pity after being sent down back in January, Larsson, with the help of the coaching staff, worked through some deficiencies (mostly mental) and he was finally able to take his game to, and succeed at, the NHL level


Defenseman Mark Pysyk has been NHL-ready for over a year, but really grew into the #1 defenseman role in Rochester this season. His understated game is well known, but one of the things Murray wanted to see him improve upon was jumping into the play. Murray would end up getting a taste of what he was looking for during a game at Ottawa in December. Pysyk anticipated a breakout pass from the Senators Erik Karlsson, then jumped on it after he misfired. Pysyk grabbed the puck at the red line and streaked in on net past Karlsson eventually following up on his own shot that pinballed to him on the far side where he buried the rebound.

That kind of progress is more of the highlight variety, but what we've seen from Pysyk, according to Oklobzija, is "a subtle improvement in his already-strong game over the past three seasons."

Chad Ruhwedel's another d-man who's been plying his trade in Rochester and has developed rather nicely. This season he's added "minute-eater" to his repertoire after logging huge minutes at the end of the season. "He's logged lots of minutes," chuckled Stevens. "I said to him, 'You've got to be in the best shape you've ever been with all the minutes you played.'"

The 24 yr. old free agent signee (2013) finished with 10 goals and 26 assists good for 15th in the league in scoring amongst defensemen. He was also voted team MVP by his teammates.

Although they entered the pro ranks via different routes--Pysyk a first round draft pick in 2010 (23rd overall) and Ruhwedel a college free agent signing--they're essentially cut from the same cloth. Both players aren't large in stature, but they are both very smart and steady, have good mobility, are sure with the puck and accurate with their passes. Where they differentiate a bit is in their offensive focus. Ruhwedel is more adept at jumping into the play and is a fixture on the powerplay whereas Pysyk, having always been a defensive-defenseman, has been working to expand his role. In both instances this season, it was tough for either of them to focus more on the offensive aspects of their games.

"The situation wasn't necessarily right for those guys to show their offensive abilities because they had to cover up so much in their own end of the rink," mentioned Stevens. "Because Bagnall was injured, and Petrecki was injured there was really no one there to take care of the back end. Nothing against the other guys, because a guy like (rookie) Brady Austin played outstanding, but [Pysyk and Ruhwedel] still had to take a little more care of their own end and didn't feel free and loose to step up into the offensive play."

Another defenseman, Jake McCabe, is a bit bigger and bulkier and has a little more bite to his game than those two, but he can also contribute offensively. He's shown marked improvement throughout the season, finishing his rookie campaign with five goals, 24 assists and a minus-3 rating playing in an all situations role. Although he only played in two games for Buffalo this season, he didn't look out of place. Said Oklobzija of McCabe's first full season, "[he] no longer looks anything like a rookie."

Through the chaos of a changing lineup, sometimes daily, a young player still needs to learn to play the game at the professional level and fully develop into the players he can be. Each player progresses at his own pace and everyone from star players like Joel Armia and Mikhail Grigorenko to AHL'ers like Daniel Catenacci and Jerome Leduc need to show improvement.

Grigorenko's trials and tribulations have been well documented, but he showed strong improvement in Rochester and took some definitive steps at the NHL-level. He will either be with the Sabres or another team next season as he'll need to be exposed to waivers should he be sent down. Armia is in the Winnipeg organization after beginning his second full season in North America with the Amerks.

The speedy Catenacci had been struggling for a while but he finally seemed to break through the AHL threshold. Leduc was bouncing between the Amerks and the ECHL's Elmira Jackals in his second pro season before finally getting it this past season, the last year of his entry-level contract. In both their cases, injuries and player movement helped the,m as they were afforded more ice time with more of an opportunity to work on their professional games.

All the players mentioned above showed improvement, albeit in different ways and on different levels, which is big for the organization and, according to Stevens, every player showed individual progress. Most disconcerting, though, was the won/loss record.

As mentioned in Part 1 yesterday, the Amerks were done in by a number of factors, one of them being there were too many perimeter players. "It's been my contention all along that there was not enough grit on this team especially up front," he said. "They weren't in the face of the goalie, they weren't creating havoc in front of the other net. There was a lot of skill up front but not necessarily any big, bruiser types."

It's something that's already changing as Murray's begun to bring in players of his liking. He's already brought in some "heavies" that he's partial to with forwards William Carrier and Jordan Samuels-Thomas, both of whom were acquired via trades. Murray also added some edginess and skill with the signing of RIT standout center, Matt Garbowsky and he tapped into more skill and scoring with the recent signing of Boston University winger Evan Rodrigues who always seems to be in attack-mode.

Regardless of whether they were drafted or traded for, or whether they were junior or college players, Stevens is of the firm belief that nearly every player should come through Rochester. And that would include 2nd overall pick Sam Reinhart.

The knock on Reinhart has been that he was a tad undersized during his nine-game stint with Buffalo and that he'll need to bulk up a bit to allow his skills to blossom. "I don't know if size-wise he needs to bulk up, maybe strength-wise," remarked Stevens, "but he's one of those types of players that will find a way to stay with the top players despite any inadequacies. He'll figure out what he needs to do to get himself to the next level or above."

What Stevens cautions against is the perception that maybe these 18 and 19 yr. olds who are high draft picks are looked upon as a "savior" for a team, and that  "too much pressure, too early" on a player like Reinhart would compromise long-term development, like it did in the case of Grigorenko. "Maybe [people] look at the player the wrong way," said Stevens, "They look at a high draft pick as the savior of the future, but with very few exceptions like a [Wayne] Gretzky, a [Mario] Lemieux or a [Sidney] Crosby you're not going to get that kind of player that comes in and immediately turns a whole franchise around.

"They really need to be part of a team."

Which is why Stevens is and always has been a firm believer in development at the AHL-level for most players, including high draft picks. "Players, with very few exceptions, should come through the AHL because in the long run they'll become better players. They're going to learn to be pros both on and off the ice. They'll know what's expected of them, their confidence level will be a lot higher and they won't go to the top club and get into a bad situation (like Grigorenko.)

"They just need to go through the steps, as far as I'm concerned."

It's something that the Detroit Red Wings have done for decades. Their formula for success, which is defined by 24 consecutive playoff appearances and four Stanley Cups since 1997, is player development. They won't bring a player into the NHL on a full time basis unless they're ready. Recent examples include Gustav Nyquist (2008) and Tomas Tatar (2009) who paid their dues in Grand Rapids for the better part of three seasons while being eased into the NHL. This year both have had an impact scoring 27 and 29 goals, respectively, while playing in their first full season in Detroit.

Prior to that incredible stretch, Detroit was slowly pulling itself out of the "Dead Wings" era. New owner Mike Illitch reset the entire organization and he hired a general manager in Jimmy Devellano who was committed to building through the draft. Throughout the 80's and early 90's they had their share of successes and failures but with some good drafting and shrewd maneuvering they managed to breaka 42-year Stanley Cup drought in 1997.

Perhaps the Sabres Phil Varone and his tenure in Rochester may fit into that mold. He continually worked on his game in the AHL, progressed well while leading the team in scoring three of four seasons, and has not looked out of place on an NHL roster. He may have been slotted a little high for what his talent-level is, but a top-nine, NHL-role with star players getting most of the attention, like Nyquist and Tatar in Detroit, could prove to be a recipe for success for him.

Both Sabres and Amerks fans have gone through plenty of change and disappointment during the two worst seasons in franchise history. Not only has there been an immense turnover of personnel in Buffalo that filtered down to Rochester, but there's also been a radical change in philosophies concerning the players and their individual makeups. This is a complete purge of nearly everything pre-Murray and short-term it's taken it's toll.

A bad year in Buffalo yielded the second overall pick in the upcoming draft for the Sabres. A bad year in Rochester meant the Amerks missing the playoffs and extending a 10-year streak of not making it past the first round of the playoffs. A philosophy of drafting and signing players and allowing them to develop at the AHL-level should equate to long-term success in Buffalo and a more cohesive, competitive team in Rochester beginning next season.

Next year the Amerks will benefit from relative stability in Buffalo as well as an influx of talent acquired by the team through the draft and free agent signings. Even with all the positives, the organization is still in a deep hole from the rebuild and it will take a little time to get out of it. Playoff talk in Buffalo is a bit premature at this stage of he game (although we shouldn't dismiss playoff-caliber moves from Murray) and despite the optimism concerning the new core that's forming, it's still a very young group.

The key moving forward, even if it means one more season of a poor record in Buffalo, is player development. The Nick Baptistes, JT Comphers, and Garbowskys will all come through Rochester as a part of their developmental process, but difficult decisions may be coming with players like Reinhart and even defenseman Nikita Zadorov.

Even with his draft stature, unless a player like Reinhart has a stellar camp and preseason, there's no reason why he shouldn't at least start in Rochester. If it takes him a month or two to find his way at the pro-level, it can't hurt to have him do in the AHL. Even a player like Zadorov who's had all kinds of maturity issues could probably use some time in Rochseter. Said Stevens, "If they're having problems with Zadorov they should put him with Bagnall [in Rochester] because I don't think there's a better player to show him how to be a professional."

That's what it's all about for prospects, becoming professionals. And that's a big part of what the Amerks are all about, developing professionals.