Published by hockeybuzz.com, 6-2-2017
There's been an uproar in Sabreland over the Sabres cutting ties with two of their draft picks as RW, Gustav Possler (2013, 130th-overall) and C, Giorgio Estephan (2015, 152nd) were not offered rookie contracts by Buffalo. Possler becomes a free agent while Estephan can re-enter the draft this year.
Possler had some promise as the heady Swede displayed good skating ability and offensive upside. After attending Sabres Development Camp after the draft, the 5'11" 185 lb. Possler began the 2013-14 season with MODO of the top-tier Swedish Hockey League. In 18 games he scored eight goals and added seven assists before he was felled by an ACL injury. The Sabres drafted him as skilled shooter with a quick first step and a shoot-first mentality but that injury wreaked havoc on his career and he's been relegated to a bottom nine role pretty much ever since.
The Estephan story is interesting in that the first half of his draft season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes was full of turmoil. After a mid-season coaching change the Hurricanes improved and Estephan was able to put up a stat line of 23 goals and 28 assists in 64 games. Estephan had a tremendous follow-up season with 74 points (30+44) and a plus-26 rating in 59 games and he even improved upon those stats this past season--89 points (35+54) in 69 games. But in what often can be the case, the Sabres projected that those junior numbers wouldn't transfer to the pros. Those who routinely watched his play pointed to his skating and quickness which never improved.
A case could have been made that the Sabres have 29 out of 50 Standard Player Contract filled right now and with 21 open spots, they could've signed Estephan, but they elected to pass. As for Possler, there was word out of Sweden last year that he was contented staying and playing in the homeland.
*****
As mentioned, according to CapFriendly the Sabres have 29 players signed to pro contracts with the NHL allowing a total of 50. Buffalo just inked restricted free agent goalie Jonas Johansson to his entry-level deal and have nine more to make decisions on:
F, Marcus Foligno
F, Johan Larsson
F, Zemgus Girgensons
F, Evan Rodrigues
LW, Jean Dupuy
C, Justin Kea
D, Brady Austin
G, Robin Lehner
G, Linus Ullmark
They have 10 unrestricted free agents to decide upon as well with only a handful as possible re-signs--D, Taylor Fedun, W, Cole Schneider and C, Derek Grant.
Signing all of the above would put them at 41 pro contract and when you take away the one player they'll lose to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, new GM Jason Botterill will be looking at about 10 SPC's left available, seven or eight if he wants to leave himself some wiggle room during the season.
In looking at it that way, every spot should be judiciously used.
*****
One way to get rid of a couple contracts is to send a package deal to the Washington Capitals for soon to be 32 yr. old superstar winger, Alex Ovechkin. Word on the street is that the Caps may be interested in moving on from their captain as well as the remainder of his contract which is four years at a $9.5 million annual cap-hit.
Any trade involving "The Great 8" is a big one and of course, somehow Buffalo is in the mix despite the fact that his no-trade clause has a 10-team list that probably has the Sabres on it.
Despite the negatives that come to the fore concerning aspects of his game and the fact that he looks like he's slowing down a bit, an opportunity to grab a player of his ilk is always worth considering. It should also be noted that whoever trades for Ovechkin would be doing the Capitals a favor cap-wise.
Any talks involving the Sabres would need to involve a bad contract headed the other way or Washington retaining some of Ovie's salary. We all know the contracts the Sabres will be looking at in that regard so any trade proposal should include one of Tyler Ennis, Matt Moulson, Zach Bogosian or Josh Gorges.
Having said that, methinks Botterill might be more inclined to put together a package deal for a top-four defenseman.
Showing posts with label Giorgio Estephan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giorgio Estephan. Show all posts
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Saturday, September 17, 2016
The 2nd annual Buffalo Sabres Prospects Challenge starts today with practices
Although the 2016 World Cup of Hockey is garnering most of the attention of these days, including those of us Buffalo Sabres fans with a keen eye on participants Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake Eichel and Ryan O'Reilly, the NHL hockey season is just around the corner. Training camps around the league begin next week while in Buffalo, the warm-up act begins with the 2nd annual Buffalo Sabres Prospect Challenge as three teams--Buffalo, the Boston Bruins and the New Jersey--ready themselves for an extended weekend of round-robin play to crown this year's champion.
Buffalo won the inaugural tournament last year.
The Prospects Challenge is an event in which youngins from the participating teams have the opportunity to face off against their peers In a live game setting. The Sabres had previously participated in the eight-team Traverse City Tournament hosted by the Detroit Red Wings, but last year they decided to strike out on their own by hosting their own tournament. All Games will be played on HARBORCENTER ice with the cost of admission at $10.
Today teams will hold practice sessions with games beginning tomorrow. The schedule, courtesy of Sabres PR:
Friday, Sept. 16
Buffalo won the inaugural tournament last year.
The Prospects Challenge is an event in which youngins from the participating teams have the opportunity to face off against their peers In a live game setting. The Sabres had previously participated in the eight-team Traverse City Tournament hosted by the Detroit Red Wings, but last year they decided to strike out on their own by hosting their own tournament. All Games will be played on HARBORCENTER ice with the cost of admission at $10.
Today teams will hold practice sessions with games beginning tomorrow. The schedule, courtesy of Sabres PR:
Friday, Sept. 16
- Buffalo practice: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- New Jersey practice: 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
- Boston practice: 3 – 5 p.m.
- Buffalo morning skate: 10 – 11 a.m.
- Boston practice: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- New Jersey morning skate: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Buffalo vs. New Jersey, 7 p.m.
- Buffalo practice: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Boston morning skate: 10 – 11 a.m.
- New Jersey morning skate: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Boston vs. New Jersey, 7 p.m.
- Buffalo morning skate: 10 – 11 a.m.
- Boston morning skate: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Buffalo vs. Boston, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Buffalo Sabres top-three prospects by position--Center
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
We had previously mentioned that the defense-corps had taken a huge hit over the past couple of seasons as GM Tim Murray traded depth on the blueline for quality up front. After trading away two NHL d-men and a top prospect on the back end, the Sabres pool on defense got mighty thin. Yet Murray was able to land Brendan Guhle in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft last year and as of right now he has at least top-four potential. Murray was also able to bolster the ranks with another 2015 pick in Will Borgen (92nd-overall) who's on track to hit the NHL, had possible top-sixer Brycen Martin (2014, 74th) in the stable and added Casey Nelson in the fold as a free agent out of the NCAA.
Did they replace the ones that left? Only time will tell, but it sure looks like they're not too far away from doing so.
The center positon is way different as the prospect pool took a different kind of hit yet it's also an area that they won't need to tap into for years to come. For a bit of perspective we go back to the Darcy Regier regime.
After a quality top-two center tandem of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury, the Sabres had both of them walk out the door in 2007. Their spots were filled by Tim Connolly and Derek Roy and despite the fact that Regier touted them as two of the top-20 centers in the league back in 2010, they weren't close and even worse, the pipeline didn't have much in it either. After Connolly was allowed to leave the Sabres had one center in Roy then tried to fill the other top-two spot with converted winger, Ville Lieno, which really didn't work out all that well.
Buffalo began addressing the extremely weak center position at the 2012 NHL Draft when they selected Mikhail Grigorenko (12th) and Girgensons (14th) then really added quality when they tabbed Reinhart with the second-overall pick in the 2014 draft. In 2015 they used the second-overall pick to take an American-born phenom in Eichel then quickly announced that they'd just traded for O'Reilly minutes after the Eichel selection.
Boom! Within minutes at the 2015 draft the Sabres had themselves their top-two centers while Reinhart, Girgensons, and Johan Larsson (who was acquired from Minnesota in 2013)
represented young players who could hold down a third line center spot at the very least. Or they could be moved to the wing.
We had previously mentioned that the defense-corps had taken a huge hit over the past couple of seasons as GM Tim Murray traded depth on the blueline for quality up front. After trading away two NHL d-men and a top prospect on the back end, the Sabres pool on defense got mighty thin. Yet Murray was able to land Brendan Guhle in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft last year and as of right now he has at least top-four potential. Murray was also able to bolster the ranks with another 2015 pick in Will Borgen (92nd-overall) who's on track to hit the NHL, had possible top-sixer Brycen Martin (2014, 74th) in the stable and added Casey Nelson in the fold as a free agent out of the NCAA.
Did they replace the ones that left? Only time will tell, but it sure looks like they're not too far away from doing so.
The center positon is way different as the prospect pool took a different kind of hit yet it's also an area that they won't need to tap into for years to come. For a bit of perspective we go back to the Darcy Regier regime.
After a quality top-two center tandem of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury, the Sabres had both of them walk out the door in 2007. Their spots were filled by Tim Connolly and Derek Roy and despite the fact that Regier touted them as two of the top-20 centers in the league back in 2010, they weren't close and even worse, the pipeline didn't have much in it either. After Connolly was allowed to leave the Sabres had one center in Roy then tried to fill the other top-two spot with converted winger, Ville Lieno, which really didn't work out all that well.
Buffalo began addressing the extremely weak center position at the 2012 NHL Draft when they selected Mikhail Grigorenko (12th) and Girgensons (14th) then really added quality when they tabbed Reinhart with the second-overall pick in the 2014 draft. In 2015 they used the second-overall pick to take an American-born phenom in Eichel then quickly announced that they'd just traded for O'Reilly minutes after the Eichel selection.
Boom! Within minutes at the 2015 draft the Sabres had themselves their top-two centers while Reinhart, Girgensons, and Johan Larsson (who was acquired from Minnesota in 2013)
represented young players who could hold down a third line center spot at the very least. Or they could be moved to the wing.
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