Building the 2017-18 Buffalo Sabres roster--The Reserves

It was a big weekend for cuts as the Buffalo Sabres sent forward Cliff Pu back to his junior club and 14 players to the Rochester Americans. Pu had an excellent training camp and Prospects Challenge tournament while also impressing the Sabres brass to the point where he stuck with the team for Friday's game in Toronto. Although he missed his London Knights opener, he would come back the next night to record two primary assists, including one in overtime, as the Knights won 3-2.

With the Rochester Americans set to open camp today, 14 players were sent east on I-90:

Forwards: Kevin Porter (subject to waivers), Stevie Moses, Eric Cornel, Vaclav Karabacek, Kyle Criscuolo, Hudson Fasching, C.J. Smith

Defensemen Casey Nelson, Brycen Martin, Devante Stephens, Brendan Guhle

Goaltenders Adam Wilcox, Jonas Johansson, Jason Kasdorf

The Amerks open up their preseason schedule with a back-to-back with the Toronto Marlies this Friday and Saturday.

The Sabres have two more preseason games before they begin the regular season on Thursday, October 5 when the Montreal Canadiens visit KeyBank Center. This weekend wasn't kind to the club as they suffered back-to-back losses at the hands of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. With the team still adapting to coach Phil Housley's system and Housley himself still adjusting to being an NHL head coach, the Leafs came away with 3-0 and 3-1 victories against Buffalo with three of Toronto's goals coming in the form of empty-netters.

Amongst the positives for Buffalo was the goaltending of Linus Ullmark who stopped 32 of 33 shots in the first game and Robin Lehner who stopped 30 of 32 in the second game. Buffalo's penalty kill also did some yeoman's work as they went 11/13 (84%) while being shorthanded.

Bubble roster players only have two more games to make an impression with the final preseason game normally used as a tune-up for the opening night roster. With a new system being put in place for both clubs, and GM Jason Botterill's commitment to not only proper seasoning for his young players, but also making Rochester more competitive, it's not surprising to see players like Guhle and Hudson Fasching get sent down. And it also may be an indication of who amongst the remaining 12 skaters will stick with Buffalo in a reserve role when the season opens.


Nicolas Deslauriers
26 yrs. old
6'1" 215 lbs.
2009 third-round (84th-overall, LAK)
Acquired from the LA Kings in a trade on March 5, 2104

Career stats:  211 games  |  12 goals  |  18 assists  |  30 points  |  -54

When former Sabres GM Tim Murray took the reigns of the club in January, 2014, it would seem as if he wanted to build a club in the mold of the LA Kings. The two-time Cup-winning Kings played a physical, heavy Western Conference style of play and Murray went right to the source to snag two "heavies" in Nicolas Deslauriers and Hudson Fasching in a trade with Los Angeles.

Deslauriers was a converted defenseman playing wing in a bottom-six role. At 215 lbs. he has the heft, wasn't afraid to through that weight around, would drop the gloves and could skate pretty well too. He had a solid first full NHL season in Buffalo registering 15 points (5+10) in a fourth-line role while playing in all 82 games for the Sabres in 2015-16.

However, despite scoring one more goal in 12 less games for Buffalo last season, Deslauriers looked like he took a step back. The big powerforward seemed slow to react to what was transpiring on the ice and as the speed of the game went up, his ice-time went down from 10:20 to 7:25.

Deslauriers has had a good training camp and may have done enough to warrant a spot on the roster in a reserve role.


Justin Bailey
22 yrs. old
6'4" 214 lbs.
2013, 52nd-overall

Career stats:  40 games  |  2 goals  |  2 assists  |  4 points  |  -2

This might go against what was laid out earlier, but there are a few factors involved in Bailey making the Sabres opening night roster.

The first one is the injury to Evan Rodrigues. The forward was hit hard into the boards over the weekend and his status is up in the air. Although the 24 yr. old Rodrigues wasn't a shoe-in to make the roster, he was having an extremely strong camp and was getting noticed for all the right reasons by the Sabres brass. If he's out there's room for Justin Bailey in the bottom-six in Buffalo.

Second in is Bailey's maturity and his success at the AHL-level. Although only 22 yrs. old, the big powerforward with impressive skating ability he seems to have learned about all he can from the minors with 81 points (43+38) in 122 AHL games.

Thirdly, he's made an impression on the penalty kill during preseason which is something that helped separate him  from other roster-bubble players. It's a change in philosophy short-handed that may have given him an in to the Sabres roster. According to Bailey, the coaches want more aggressiveness on the kill. "I'm a big guy and I have a long reach with my stick," he told the gathered media this weekend, "and one of my best assets is my legs, so whether it's a loose puck or a rebound or anything like that they want us to be going hard and physical at the guy."

He's smart enough to realize that if the PK is his ticket to the big club, than so be it.


Josh Gorges
33 yrs. old
6'1" 204 lbs.
Undrafted FA
Acquired from the Montreal Canadiens July 1, 2014

Career stats:  749 games  |  17 goals  |  105 assists  |  122 points  |  -2

Gorges was part of a veteran trio that Murray brought in on July 1, 2014 to help guide the youngins through what was about to become a very difficult transition. He, Brian Gionta and Matt Moulson all wore letters for the abysmal 2014-15 season and the transitional 2015-16 season.

As a defensive defenseman with some sandpaper to his game, Gorges was a good compliment to young defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen through those years. Although he struggled to keep pace with the best the opposition had to offer as a top-pairing defenseman, he held his own and was especially adept on the penalty kill. In Buffalo's first season out of the basement, the Sabres finished ninth in the league on the kill with a 82.6% success rate.

Gorges slowly moved down the depth-chart last season, and rightfully so, as the speed of the game began to pass him by. At 33 yrs. old and with a lot of wear and tear on his body after playing years as a rugged defenseman, playing on the third-pairing while also playing key minutes short-handed was an ideal situation for him. He's always been dependable but the game has changed and with Botterill bringing in three mobile defenseman who are more to what Housley is looking for, Gorges looks to be the odd man out.

When injuries hit, he'll get the call and there's a possibility that he could end up on the trade block at the trade-deadline next year as he's in the final year of his contract.


Building the 2017-18 Buffalo Sabres roster:

LW, Evander Kane / C, Jack Eichel / RW, Sam Reinhart
LW, Benoit Pouliot / C, Ryan O'Reilly / RW, Kyle Okposo
LW, Evan Rodrigues / C, Johan Larsson / RW, Jason Pominville
LW, Zemgus Girgensons / C, Jacob Josefson / RW, Matt Moulson

Nicolas Deslauriers /  Justin Bailey

D, Marco Scandella / D, Rasmus Ristolainen
D, Jake McCabe / D, Zach Bogosian
D, Nathan Beaulieu / D, Victor Antipin

Josh Gorges


G, Robin Lehner
G, Chad Johnson

Sabres do hometown fans a solid

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 3-12-2017


Individually there's a lot of pride in Buffalo Sabres players. Some are simply hockey players motivated 100% of the time, others fall into the trappings of riding emotional waves while still others need someone or something to shake themselves out of the cocoon that they've built around them. During the course of a game it all can contribute to a full performance when they're aligned positively or they it can amount to an absolutely dismal performance 180 degrees to the negative.

Inconsistency represents all the points in between.

For the Sabres inconsistency was the key word in defining this team up until the Chicago game just before their bye week. Beginning with the 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks late last month and coming off of Friday night's 4-3 loss in Columbus, the needle ended up fluctuating on the negative side from meh to disastrous, hence Buffalo's 1-6-2 record prior to their game last night vs. the Blue Jackets.

And as we've seen all season, said inconsistencies are not only game-to-game, but quite often are found period to period and even shift to shift with this edition of the Buffalo Sabres. Countless times throughout the season, players and coaches lamented after a loss that the team needs to play a 60-minute game.

Last night it looked as if that needle was going as far to the negative side as possible for the second time in three games. On Tuesday, with their playoff hopes vanquished for all intents and purposes, the Sabres laid their biggest egg of the season in front of their fans as they dropped a 6-3 game vs. the Philadelphia Flyers. There have been bad performances by this club all season but to allow six even-strength goals to a team that's worse than them at scoring 5v5 was a bottom they'd yet to hit all year.

When Columbus upped their lead to 3-0 late in the first period last night, it looked as if the Sabres were going to reach a new low. Yet they somehow managed a comeback the likes of which we haven't seen since December, 2009 when Buffalo overcame a three-goal deficit to win in regulation vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins who, ironically enough, were coached by present Sabres bench boss Dan Bylsma at the time.

Drew Stafford (2 goals, the first on a penalty shot) Paul Gaustad and Jason Pominville (on the powerplay) scored for Buffalo that night and Patrick Lalime (wearing #40) relieved Ryan Miller 1:28 into the second period and stopped all 27 shots he faced on the way to a 4-3 Buffalo victory in front of the home crowd who left the arena ecstatic.

Last night it was another #40 coming into the game in relief as starter Robin Lehner took over for Anders Nilsson to begin the second period. Lehner stopped all 24 shots he faced, including some fine stops to keep it 3-2 and one incredible stop on Cam Atkinson with just over 30 seconds left in the third and Buffalo up 4-3.

For the second night in a row special teams was the difference. On Friday in Columbus the Jackets went 2/3 on the power play in their win. Last night they went 0/3. For their part the Sabres went 0/1 at Columbus in the loss then went 2/5 in last night's win.

The positives kept coming in the second period as much maligned (deservedly so) Nicolas Deslauriers provided the spark that the Sabres needed as he set up defenseman Jake McCabe for the Sabres first goal just 18 seconds into the second period. "D-lo," who's the lowest forward on the totem pole, snagged a point for the second straight night which happen to be his first two points of the season. He went was placed by Bylsma on the top line to give the team a spark but when no willing pugilist was to be found on the ice, he got on the forecheck and fed a pass right into a pinching McCabe's wheelhouse.

McCabe's goal was his third of the season and the third by a Buffalo defenseman in the last two games and he almost had another as he rifled one off the post less than three minutes later. Also on the positive side, there was a Matt Moulson sighting. He lit the lamp for the first time in 11 games as he scored his team-leading 10th powerplay goal. Sam "The Quiet One" Reinhart bookended McCabe's early second period goal with one of his own and only :03 seconds left on the clock in the second period.

From there it was some solid goaltending at both ends of the ice until Jack Eichel, with Buffalo on the powerplay, took advantage of a broken Columbus stick and sent a cross-ice rocket to Evander Kane who promptly buried the feed into a gaping net for the lead. Eichel would add the empty-netter with a few seconds left, after a nifty pass to himself in his own zone, for the 5-3 final score.

This edition of the Sabres has seen it's fair share of difficulties this season and they could've easily packed it in last night and methinks the Blue Jackets, who had such an easy time through the first 20 minutes, were expecting that as well. But in a league where parity is the norm and almost any team can come back against a complacent opposition, the best teams step on the throat of a downed opposition and Columbus just couldn't do that last night.

For today, we'll refrain from the obvious short-comings of the Sabres and allow for a little sunshine as the Sabres are set to embark on a three-game West Coast swing beginning Tuesday against the San Jose' Sharks. They'll travel to Los Angeles to take on the Kings Thursday before heading down I-5 to meet the Anaheim Ducks for yet another back-to-back on Friday.

Out of gas and steamrolled by the Hawks. Sabres now on their bye week

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 2-20-2017


The Buffalo Sabres were able to hang with the Chicago Blackhawks for at least one period last night. Actually we should say that goalie Robin Lehner was instrumental in keeping things from getting out of hand in the first period as he allowed only one goal on 17 Chicago shots in the first 16 minutes of the game. The only thing that stemmed the flow of Hawks buzzing around in the Buffalo end was a series of penalties by Chicago that put Buffalo on the powerplay later in the first.

After Buffalo's Dmitry Kulikov went off for hooking at the 14:28 mark, the Blackhawks took consecutive high sticking penalties that had Buffalo on a 4-on-3 then a 5-on-3 for the nearly a full two minutes. That could have been the elixir for the Sabres' ailments but they came up short. All was not lost for Buffalo in the first period as Evander Kane scored his 21st goal of the season with :05 seconds left in the period, however, that 5-on-3 could have turned the tide.

"I thought our opportunity was that 5-on-3, to get not just one goal, maybe two," said coach Dan Bylsma to the gathered media post game. "We gave them too much. That's a good team."

Sure is.

The Blackhawks came on a like a storm in the second period and added two more goals to push the lead to 3-1 as two talented vets worked hard and worked a little bit of magic to put the choke-hold on the Sabres. Marian Hossa schooled rookie Evan Rodrigues on the half-wall and sent a precision shot through a small crack in Lehner's pads to put Chicago ahead then Johnathan Toews broke free of Jack Eichel along the goal line and caught the 20 yr. old off guard as he went to the net to bury a rebound to put the Hawks up by two goals late in the second period.

Early in the third period the Sabres were out of gas and were steamrolled as Buffalo-native Patrick Kane set up goal No. 4 for Chicago early in the third then scored the final tally a few minutes later as the Hawks left Buffalo with a 5-1 win.

Despite the lone fan that was booing near the end of the game, the Sabres had a massive challenge ahead of them heading into the contest and just didn't have nearly enough in the tank. It was their seventh game in the last 11 days the second game of a back-to-back, and their second set of back-to-backs during that stretch. Although Chicago was playing a back-to-back as well, theirs came after their bye week and they used a 3-1 loss vs. Edmonton to get their hockey legs back.

Chicago also has pure talent in their core but unlike the Sabres, they're deep and have good talent up and down the lineup. Every line scored a goal last night for Chicago while Bylsma, once again was forced to double shift centers to give the fourth line some ice-time. Winger Nicolas Deslauriers, who was forced into the fourth-line center role, had 3:41 of ice-time last night and was a minus-1 after four shifts covering 2:02 in the first half of the game. He was on the ice for 54 seconds in the second period and 45 seconds of the third.

His linemates Tyler Ennis and Matt Moulson didn't fare much better as the line was exploited on Chicago's first goal. Ennis didn't have the speed or the defensive acumen to keep up with Chicago fourth-liner Ryan Hartman as he circled the zone and sent a laser past Lehner while Deslauriers looked lead-footed and lost. Ennis and Moulson were a combined minus-2 in 15:36 total even-strength ice-time and had one shot on goal which came from Moulson on the 5-on-3 powerplay. Who covered most of their even strength ice-time with Deslauriers on the bench? Eichel, and he's been doing that for the a lot lately.

Bylsma has been double shifting Eichel because he has no choice. Third line center Zemgus Girgensons has been out the last seven games with a mid-body injury while fourth-line center Derek Grant has missed the last two games because of a shoulder injury and probably shouldn't even be there in the first place. Rodrigues has performed admirably on the third line replacing Girgensons but the team was stuck with Deslauriers on the fourth line.

Eichel has averaged nearly 22 minutes of ice time over the last five games and anyone who's watched him play knows that his shifts are full of quick sprints and lots of skating covering much of the ice. And last night he had a very difficult task battling with Toews who's compete-level is amongst the best the NHL has to offer. It didn't turn out well as Toews eventually beat him and by the third period Eichel was gassed as Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane put the nails in the coffin with him on the ice.

In the end, the Hawks looked like a three-time Stanley Cup Champion as they were rested and hitting on all cylinders while the Sabres looked the part of a team with too many holes and not enough gas in the tank.

So it goes.


*****

To the guy who was booing late in the third. Really?

Of all the things to boo, last night's game was not one of them and it was proven as his lone voice was largely ignored by the remaining fans in the building.


*****

A lot of attention was paid to a compressed schedule because of the bye week and the Sabres having it in the shortest month of the year made it even worse. Reactions from players and the coach varied somewhat when WGR550's Paul Hamilton asked about the compressed schedule and the upcoming bye week. The Sabres will be away from the ice for five days beginning today after playing 11 games in 18 days (6-4-1 record) and will play three games in four nights to end the month, beginning with a back-to-back on the road.

"Having played the amount of games we've played, I think you need a break," said Bylsma to the media. "At the same time, five games is an eternity in the hockey season. It's a long time and it's a break you don't want at this point [with] the way we're playing and the wins we've put together.

"You maybe want to forgo the five games and keep playing."

Evander Kane, who's been on a tear since December 3 with 21 goals in 36 games is welcoming the break. "Hopefully we can get some good rest, get some relaxation, get our minds away from hockey, kind of refocus and regroup," said Kane rather surprisingly considering how hot he is right now. But he seemed to look at it as a way to get revitalized for the final stretch of 21 post-break games. He called it "a much needed break" and followed it up by saying that "a little rest can go a long way."

"Stepping away for a couple of days can help individual and a group and hopefully it will be positive," he concluded.

Sabres captain Brian Gionta, a veteran of 984 regular season games told Hamilton post-game, via WGR550 radio, that the six-game pre-break stretch "seems like a lot" and that it was "a tough push" up to the bye. He also said he wished it was more spread out.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of the bye week and the schedule, which was compressed even more because the World Cup of Hockey lopped off a week at the beginning of the season, it's here and the Sabres, like every other team, need to deal with it.

With five days off GM Tim Murray will have plenty of time to examine where his team is and which direction he intends to take it for the stretch run as the March 1 NHL Trade Deadline is coming fast.

Building the 2016-17 Buffalo Sabres roster--The forward reserves

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 10-03-2016


In building the third line of the Buffalo's roster just before the Sabres hit camp on September 22nd, we eschewed the "safe bet" of slotting in 37 yr. old Brian Gionta on the third line and opted to place up-and-coming 21 yr. old right wing Justin Bailey in that slot. It didn't exactly work out that way, however, as Bailey was among 17 players sent to Rochester.

Moving Bailey out and Gionta up opens up a slot on the fourth line that should come down to two players--Nicolas Deslauriers and upstart Derek Grant. Two young forwards, Hudson Fasching and Alexander Nylander, are in camp and will make their case for a roster spot as the week progresses. The Sabres have three more preseason games--tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday--before their regular season opener vs. Montreal on Thursday, October 13th.

The safe bet for the 12th and 13th forwards spots once again is on the vets beginning with a known quantity in Deslauriers.

There's a shiny new toy in Buffalo thanks to Sabres GM Tim Murray signing Grant in the off season and he's having himself a whale of a preseason. But as we found out when it came to the Buffalo Bills, "winning the preseason" might be great, but it's the regular season that counts and Deslauriers might get the nod on the fourth line when the season starts.

Buffalo's free agent list. Re-sign or not to re-sign? If so, how much? Pt.2

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


Yesterday we went through a large yet rather unimpressive group of unrestricted free agents whom the Buffalo Sabres will need to make decisions on. The nature of the beast at this stage of the rebuild showed a list of UFA's who were amongst the lower-ranked roster players, borderline NHL'ers, AHL'ers with a chance and career AHL'ers.

Today's list gets much more interesting as we go through the restricted free agents GM Tim Murray and AGM Mark Jakubowski will be negotiating with. These are "the youngins," with some regarded as foundational pieces, some organizational pieces with upside and some considered long-term projects.

Here's the list of Buffalo's restricted free agent roster players from the end of last season, their current cap-hit, an opinion as to whether or not Buffalo should re-sign said player and a gander as to how much they might be re-signed for if all sides put ink to paper.

Impressions of, and questions concerning--LW, Nicolas Deslauriers

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


Left Wing--Nicolas Deslauriers
DOB:  February 22, 1991 (age, 25)
Draft:  2009, 3rd round (84th,) LAK
How acquired:  Trade with Los Angeles, March 5, 2014
Last contract signed:  2014--2yr./$1.275M
Final year of contract:  2015-16, RFA

2015-16 Stats:  70 games, 6 goals, 6 assists, 12 points, -14


What we wrote preseason:  "Deslauriers was drafted by Los Angeles in the third round (2009, 84th) as an offensive-minded defenseman" who was moved to wing because "[he] had all the physical attributes of an NHL'er while [the Kings] said,  'there’s also a good deal of inherent talent.'

"Deslauriers packs a punch while playing an aggressive game with a crazed look on his face. He can work the wall and outwork an opponent. He can drive the net and wreak havoc in the crease while also having enough finish and puck skills to be a regular contributor. He's fearless in his game and fearless when he drops the gloves, but he's not a goon. Last year was his first full season in the NHL and he gathered 15 points (5+10) in 82 games while playing third and fourth line minutes."
What we wrote mid-season:  "has a motor that's non-stop and a crazed look in his eye that says he's ready to get it on at any time. Deslauriers is in his second full season and is another one who knows his role and gives it everything he's got when on the ice."

Impressions on his play this year:  In 2014, new Sabres GM Tim Murray wanted to put his stamp on the team and in one of his first trades he brought in a couple of "heavies," as he called them. One of them was Deslauriers, a converted defenseman, and things looked very promising during Deslauriers' first year-and-a-half.

Deslauriers has all the tools to be a solid fourth-line winger who packs a punch. Quite often during his first 100+ NHL games we saw aggressiveness and a crazed look on his face when he hit the ice. Not so much through the latter part of this season. He had decent numbers for a fourth-liner in his second full NHL season, but his minus-14 was troublesome as it tied for fourth-last on the team. Those below and right around him in plus/minus all logged many more minutes and had that stat brought down by quite a few empty net goals with them on the ice. Not so with Deslauriers.

Questions moving forward:  It's one thing to have a motor and a 6'1" 212 lb. frame, but how are those traits used? Can he get back to the level of aggressiveness we saw in 2014-15? Is he still adapting to a move from defense, one that began in 2012? Will he adequately fill the role of an enforcer-type who's a legitimate fourth-liner? Will he get more than a one-year extension?

Notes on a Friday featuring Nic, Goose and PK

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The Buffalo Sabres dropped a 3-2 decision at Montreal last night. After getting the lead 1-0 on a goal by forward Nicolas Deslauriers, a mere nine seconds later the Canadiens tied the score thus completely wasting a brilliant moment in the spotlight for Deslauriers who was born in LaSalle, Quebec a borough of Montreal.

Deslauriers followed that goal, his fifth of the season, with a spirited bout against the Candiens' Mike Brown that featured more wrestling that punches thrown and it left him just an assist shy of the Gordie Howe hattrick. His stat-line read one goal on two shots, six hits and five penalty minutes. Do you think he was fired up playing in front of family and friends in his hometown?

You betcha.

Alas. Not that put too much emphasis on the three stars of the game, as homerism usually wins out, but if you're gonna give the visiting the third star in their one-goal loss, wouldn't Deslauriers' performance be worthy of that?

Nope. No love from the hometown. The third star of the game was awarded to Jack Eichel who registered four shots in 22:12 of ice-time.

Notes for tonight--Amerks at F'N Center, Gus gets his shot on PP

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The Rochester Americans are hosting the St. Johns Sea Dogs (MTL) tonight at First Niagara Center and two local players will be hitting the ice.

For the first time ever in a pro game situation, Justin Bailey, son of former Buffalo Bills linebacker Carlton Bailey will make his debut in downtown Buffalo for the Amerks. The former 2013 second-round pick (52nd-overall) has 10 points (3+7) in 30 games for Rochester this season, but the big (6'4", 206 lb.) powerforward has been making real solid progress in his first pro season.

While on Sabres Hockey Hotline this morning he told co-host Andrew Peters that he was tentative early on in his rookie season but in the last 10 games or so he said his game has "changed a lot" and that he's been able to play his game. "I think the way I've been playing," said Bailey on the Hotline, "is the way I want to play. For me, when I'm skating and using my speed that's when I'm playing my best hockey."

That was something that wasn't lost on long-time Amerks broadcaster, Don Stevens.  "For a guy his size," said Stevens, "he's got outstanding speed. Now he's going hard to the net and he's getting in front and mixing it up. He's a big boy, that's the way he's got to play, and now he's figuring out how to play that way."

Also skating on the First Niagara Ice tonight is old friend Patrick Kaleta.

Buffalo not quite ready for primetime. Caps blank Sabres

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


I found it rather interesting that Fox Sports Live tapped into the Washington Capitals/Buffalo Sabres game with a lead-in of Alexander Ovechkin vs. Jack Eichel. "The present and the future" is how they presented it.

I'm sure Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Edmonton's Connor McDavid would have something to say about it. That is if Crosby and his Penguins were playing at the extremely high level the Capitals are right now and McDavid was off of the injured list and on the ice with Oilers teammates.

Washington rolled into First Niagara Center last night on a 14-1-1 streak with head coach Barry Trotz having his club dialed in. You remember Trotz, a fine coach who was tabbed as the Nashville Predators first head coach and proceeded to spend the next 15 seasons there. His teams in Nashville were noted for lock-down defense and mediocre offense which lead to seven playoff appearances but no advances past the second round.

After a mutual agreement to part ways in 2014, Trotz and his highly structured systems came to a Washington Capitals team that was floundering. Trotz was the third coach hired by the Caps since Bruce Boudreau was fired in November of 2011 and nobody knew how to get a team to play up to it's skill-level. Washington boasted the most prolific goal-scorer of the 2000's lockout-era and had loads of talented skaters, not to mention an up-and-coming stud in net in Braden Holtby, yet couldn't put it all together.

After one-and-a-half seasons under Trotz, they seemed to have gotten it together nicely.

Building the 2015-16 Buffalo Sabres roster--The fourth line

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The cool thing about the Buffalo Sabres adding top-six forwards in Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel is that not only does it immediately legitimize the Sabres top two lines, but it also pushes the other forwards down to a level more in line with their individual capabilities. And the depth Buffalo is beginning to develop is especially evident on the fourth line.

In the past few years the Sabres lacked true top-line talent and in turn were really thin at the lower levels of the depth chart to the point where the last two seasons, especially the last one, Buffalo relied upon borderline NHL’ers to play fourth-line minutes. Last night's 6-1 shellacking at the hands of the Minnesota Wild was a microcosm of the last two seasons.

While the Buffalo Sabres were dressing a lineup that featured as many as 10 players ticketed for Rochester of the AHL, the Wild were gearing up for the regular season and dressed most of their opening night roster in their final preseason game. "It was two teams at two different levels," said head coach Dan Bylsma after the game.

This huge discrepancy in talent trickled down to the Amerks as well. They opened up their preseason by getting walloped by the Binghamton Senators 8-2. The baby Sens had a team that was also fortified by having a parent club playing most of their opening night roster.

Tonight's home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets will be the Sabres last of the preseason and what hits the ice will constitute much of their opening night roster, injuries not withstanding.

Which brings us to the fourth line.

New Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma with some thoughts on his top forwards

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


New Buffalo Sabres bench boss Dan Bylsma made his rounds with the media just after his hire, landing on Sportsnet's, Hockey Central. The  interview, which lasted over seven minutes ended up becoming the basis for one of Elliot Friedman's 30 Thoughts.

Friedman, like everyone else, is focused upon a Sabres' future featuring presumed second-overall draft pick Jack Eichel. And when he brought Evander Kane into the mix as playing on a line with Eichel, Friedman opened up a world of unicorns, rainbows and jujus to Sabres fans.

In his 30 Thoughts, Friedman quoted Bylsma as saying "(Eichel’s) power numbers are extremely good. His vertical, again from what we know, would be the second-best among the entire Sabres team. He generates is an enormous amount of power. The way he can accelerate, you don’t see someone do that every day.”

Kaleta's back. Deslauriers is (kind of) sorry, and the Sabres "Twin Towers"

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


One year ago today, after starting the 2013-14 season with an NHL-worst 4-15-1 record, the Buffalo Sabres fired long-time general manager Darcy Regier and head coach Ron Rolston.

Owner Terry Pegula made the announcement and said of the decision, "[Regier] didn't do what he did by himself. There was input from many people, prior owners, myself.

"Why now? I just decided, and that's the only answer I can give you. We work together, and sometimes you get to the point where a change was needed."

Over the summer Regier told the fans to be prepared for some "suffering" as he was close to fully dismantling the team he constructed. Amongst his remaining core players, only goalie Ryan Miller remained as forward Thomas Vanek was shipped to the NY Islanders on October 27. Regier's core, or "The Rochester Guys" as team President Ted Black called them, also included Paul Gaustad, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville.

Building the 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres roster--The 4th Line

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


On the heels of the Sabres two-goal outburst last night in a shutout win over the Carolina Hurricanes, we'll add three fourth-line players to fill out the starting group of forwards.

The running joke with the Buffalo Sabres over the last few years is that they had too many third and fourth-liners on the team and this year is no different. The top seven players on the team--Matt Moulson, Tyler Ennis, Drew Stafford, Brian Gionta, Zemgus Girgensons, Cody Hodgson, and Chris Stewart--are legitimate top-nine players in the least with all but Girgensons being considered legit top-six.

Barring the inclusion of Sam Reinhart, the rest of the Buffalo Sabres forward roster this season will be populated by bottom-six players, fourth-line players and borderline NHL'ers. The dozen or so players battling it out for bottom-six/reserve roles offer an array of sizes, shapes and styles and two of them--Marcus Foligno and Brian Flynn have already been included.

Two players now in the fold. The Sabres at 34 pro contracts

The Buffalo Sabres got some contract work done over the holiday weekend inking two players to contracts.

On Monday the team announced that they had re-signed Nic Deslauriers to a 2-yr/$1.275m contract.

Deslauriers came from the LA Kings along with Hudson Fasching for D, Brayden McNabb, F Jonathan Parker and two 2nd round picks. The picks in 2014 and 2015 were originally acquired in the trade of D, Robyn Regehr to LA on April 2, 2013.

Deslauriers is a  big (6'2" 215 lb.) defenseman turned winger who appeared in 17 games for the Sabres scoring one goal and logging a minus-10 plus/minus. He joined the Rochester Americans for the playoffs scoring a goal and adding an assist in five games as the Amerks were bounced in the first round.

Buffalo then followed up with the signing of G Linus Ullmark to a three year entry-level contract on Tuesday. They needed to sign him by June 1 or they would have lost his rights.

Ullmark was a Sabres 6th round pick (#163) in 2012 and just finished his first full season with MODO of the Swedish Elite League. The rookie finished with a 2.08 GAA and a .931 sv. % while winning the league's Goalie of the Year honors.

According to Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com, he had previously opted to stick in Sweden for another year before planning to arrive in North America for the 2015-16 season.

With Ullmark's signing, the Sabres goaltending pipeline is full right now. It's expected that Jhonas Enroth and Mical Neuvirth will be in Buffalo this season.

Nathan Lieuwen will be entering the 3rd year of his entry-level contract and is expected to be the #1 goalie headed into Amerks camp.

Upstart Andrey Makarov had a strong performance for Rochester in the playoffs and it all but secured him a spot with the Amerks.

Big Connor Knapp is a restricted free agent and looks to be a casualty of his poor performance. It's unlikely the Sabres will re-sign Knapp to a pro contract and the team may end up tucking him away in Elmira with their ECHL affiliate, the Jackals.

Another RFA goalie for the Sabres is 24 year old Matt Hackett.

Hackett was a part of the return from Minnesota for Jason Pominville. He lost his starting AHL job to Lieuwen this past season, but performed well in Buffalo during his call-up.

Sabres GM Tim Murray may opt to keep Hackett in Buffalo with Enroth and Neuvirth creating a three-headed monster. If not, one of the three will probably be on the move.

Also in the pipeline is 2013 5th round pick (#129) Cal Peterson. The USHL product will be headed to Notre Dame this fall to begin his college career.

The signings of Deslauriers and Ullmark bring the number of pro contracts in the organization to 33 so far. The league max is 50 for a team.




reprinted by hockeybuzz, may 28,2014 http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=60291

Murray adds depth on the wing. A look at his three new forward additions

The Buffalo Sabres acquired three big wingers leading up to and at the 2014 trade deadline--William Carrier, Hudson Fasching and Nicolas Deslauriers.

All three are power forwards at least 6' tall and weigh in at about 200 lbs. or more.

Hockey's future slots Carrier and Deslauriers as the Nos. 2 and 3 LW behind 5'10" 180 lb. Daniel Catenacci (2011, #77.)

Fasching, the youngest of the three, has the most upside. He's #4 on the right side behind Joel Armia (2011, #16,) who just came over from Finland and has been with Rochester this season, Justin Bailey (2013, #52) and Nicolas Baptiste (2013, #69.)