So, I told you earlier today about Buffalo kid,
Justin Bailey, and his quest to make a bigger name for himself in the Sabres universe. The Justin Bailey brand will appreciate and earn more equity as a result of his inclusion in the Team USA World Junior Championships camp.
Justin and I have been chatting back and forth the past couple of days. We've talked about his impressions of his first Sabres Prospects camp, as well as his desire to get back to work as power right winger with his Kitchener Rangers squad.
Needless to say, he's been a busy man the past three months. The moment his Kitchener Rangers season ended, he began the process of working out to get ready for the NHL Entry Draft. His boyhood dreams were realized when his hometown Buffalo Sabres selected him with the 52nd overall pick in the second round. Since then, he's been floating on a cloud in Hockey Heaven.
Bailey performed very well at the three day prospects camp that the Sabres staged at First Niagara Center in early July. He played very well and made a positive impression during the camp, which culminated in the annual Blue and Gold scrimmage. He made plays and skated well for his Yellow team against a Blue team D corps that boasted of Rasmus Ristoalinen, Jake McCabe and Nikita Zadorov. Not an easy task to play against these three maulers. Bailey more than held his own in the scrimmage.
Bailey is in the process of packing his skates and his equipment for a jaunt down the I-90 this weekend. He has been invited to participate in the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp which will run from 8/3-8/10 in historic Lake Placid.
"Yeah, I'm nervous and excited", Bailey told me earlier today about the honor of representing his country. He'll perform just fine at this camp, thank you very much. He patterns his game after that of Carolina Hurricane Eric Staal. he's big, strong, can skate and can finish from the face off circles and the hash marks down. He goes to the dirty areas on the ice and isn't afraid to mix it up to win loose pucks.
Bailey and Team USA will be joined in Lake Placid by Canada, Finland and Sweden. The four teams will practice, scrimmage, and play exhibition games against one another in an effort to identify and select their 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship. Bailey will earn excellent insights and experience from this training camp, ones that he can take back with him to Kitchener when the camp ends.
Bailey and his fellow 2013 2nd rounder J.T. Compher will represent the Sabres for the American squad. "Captain America" Jake McCabe led his squad to 2013 WJC gold medal at Ufa, Russia) is too old to participate at the 2014 WJCs so he's instead staying home in Madison, Wisconsin right now. He's preparing to win an NCAA Men's College Hockey National Championship with his university of Wisconsin badgers teammates.
I had occasion to speak with Compher at the Buffalo camp and I have to say, I really like this kid's moxy and jam. he's not the biggest dog in the fight, however, he battles, hacks and slashes to win pucks and to gain position on opponents. Watching him play up close, Compher reminds me of NYR captain Ryan Callahan. Tough to knock off pucks and not afraid to spear a guy in the gut to prove a point. Compher had a few epic faceoff battles against Zemgus Girgensons at Sabres prospects camp. He plays wing and center very well.
Sabres 2013 5th rounder Gustav Possler is the other Buffalo prospect who is attempting to represent his country at the 2014 IIHF WJCs. Oddly enough, the 2014 event will be held in Possler's home country and will be played at Malmo, Sweden.
I really like what I saw of Gustav Possler earlier this month at Sabres Prospects Camp.
The kid can flat out fly and he has a lightning fast release on his accurate shot. He plays an aggressive game, too.
The Södertälje, Sweden native has been invited to team Sweden's World Junior Hockey Championships training camp. The 6 foot, 185 lb. MODO Hockey product was selected by Buffalo in the 5th round (130th overall) of the June 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
Glaring omissions from Sweden's training camp roster are talented wingers Elias Lindholm ( 2013 1st rounder Carolina) and Filip Forsberg ( 2013 1st rounder Washington).
Their loss is Possler's gain.
Here's wishing good luck and great hockey to Bailey, Compher, and Possler.
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As I told you on Tuesday in this space, Rasmus Ristolainen will not be playing for Team Finland at the IIHF WJCs in Malmo. He is not participating with Finland in Lake Placid 8/3-8/10.
Rasmus was the third D selected in the June entry draft. Seth Jones and Darnell Nurse were taken ahead of Ristolainen. He's plug-n-play, NHL ready.
Are sure fire sign that the kid will be playing in one of two places:
Buffalo or Rochester.
Why would Finland select for the team knowing that he'll be playing in North America and not for his hometown squad, TPS Turku?
On Thursday, Ristolainen was officially taken off the Finland roster.
Repeat after me:
No Rasmus-tazz for Finland.
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While you were at work, I write about Bailey and his Kitchener linemate, Radek Faksa. Read it now.
The Dallas Stars weren't kidding about wanting to re-build and re-purpose their organization. The Stars, like the Colorado Avalanche, are positive role models for the Buffalo Sabres to follow in that they aggressively re-tooled their teams via the draft and trade route, while on the fly. They seemingly said goodbye to the old, and hello to the new paradigm without missing a beat. Impressive turnaround. It proves that re-building a roster doesn't have to take 3-4 years. It can be a short-term, successful under taking, when done properly. The proof will be in the pudding for Ruff and the Stars because the only measure of success in the NHL is winning more games than the previous season. I like Ruff's chances to do so immediately, if not sooner.
The first of many moves came when ownership parted ways with former GM Joe Nieiwendyk. They quickly replaced him with longtime Detroit Red Wings AGM Jim Nill.
The goal was simple: Make Jame Benn the center piece of the Stars team and surround the young power forward and the other Stars' kids with skilled, battle-tested veteran players.
So, far, so good.
Nill wasted very little time hiring his friend Lindy Ruff to coach the Stars, who invested their first round draft choice in outstanding Russian winger Valeri Nichuskin.
Nill then executed a masterful trade when he shipped power winger Louii Eriksson to Boston for centers Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley. Nill further solidified his center corps by adding Edmonton Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff.
Earlier this week, the Stars announced that they will be sending their star center of the future , Radek Faksa ( 2012 1st round pick, 13th overall, one pick behind Mikhail Grigorenko) back to his OHL junior club, the Kitchener Rangers.
Before Nill and Ruff arrived in Big D, Faksa was a shoe-in to make the Stars' opening night roster. one month later, he's headed back to junior where he will be wheeling and dealing with Sabres prospect ( 2013 2nd rounder), Justin Bailey.
On Wednesday, I asked Bailey about the possibility of him playing alongside the 6'3 210 lb. super-skilled Faksa.
"He's pretty good. He was injured most of the year".
Faksa was sidelined by a sickness early on in the 2012 season. Later in the season, a serious knee injury kept Faksa off the ice for six weeks. In the end, he played in only 39 regular season games. However, he had great production for an abbreviated season. He collected 31 points on 9 goals and 22 assists. A healthy Faksa created six points ( 4 goals,2 assists) in 10 playoff games for the Rangers.
“He had all sorts of injuries and that hurt his goal production,” said Stars assistant GM Les Jackson. “But his game is pretty solid.”
Jackson told starsinsideedge.com that its in Faksa's best interest to go back to Kitchener, where he will get a ton if ice time and touches on the first line. He'll play PP and will be able to grow his game the old fashioned way: by playing huge minutes.
“He’ll spend the summer here with us (training), go to Traverse City (for the NHL Prospects Tournament), go to training camp and then go back to Kitchener, which is good because that’s where he should be,” said Jackson.
“He’s going to get a lot of ice there, he and the coach have a good relationship and I suspect he will take a big step next year.”
Justin Bailey is one happy man right now. The 18 year old power forward is about to begin his sophomore season in "The O". All signs are pointing towards the skilled big man (6'3 195) playing the role of Faksa's right hand man. Bailey will see a lot of scoring opportunities come his way by have a supremely skilled center like Faksa feeding him pucks. Imagine a Faksa as being a 19 year old Patrice Bergeron: big, fast, great vision, hands of a jewel thief. Faksa is a faceoff winning machine. He starts with the puck at a high rate. For Team czech Republic at the 2013 IIHF WJC tourney in Ufa, Russia, Faksa won 53 of 97 draws. That's a 54.6% win percentage. Bailey knows this, and is excited for the chance to play with such a skilled big man. Like Faksa, Bailey's 2012-13 season in Kitchener was marred by injuries. The Williamsville native suffered a concussion at the beginning of his rookie season at Kitchener. When he recovered and fully healed, he rebounded nicely to score 17 goals. He added 19 assists. 36 points in just 57 games is great production. He added a goal and two assists in the playoffs, too.
I asked Bailey if he felt that playing with Faksa could get him to the 25+ goal plateau.
"Yeah, I hope so. That's the plan", he told me.
\
Bailey's been working out all summer. He had a great prospects camp and was a standout in the Sabres Blue and Gold scrimmage. He's now ready to light the wick on a dynamite sophomore season.
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Oh, boy!
The fourth Sabres jersey clue...
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TSNs Aaron Ward tweeted Thursday afternoon that former Sabres Dman Toni Lydman is considering retiring at age 35.
Lydman suffered a serious head injury at the hands of Detroit's Justin Abdelkader in last spring's playoffs.
Leaving money on the table is admirable. Good for him, if this report is true.
Bummer. I always admired "Chainsaw's" passion to block shots and to hammer enemy attackers.He played 847 NHL games in his NHL career, starting with Calgary, then moving to Buffalo, and ending in Anaheim.
Solid metal head and even better man.
Here's to you, Toni Lydman.
***
Finally, Pat Kane has had his share of ups and downs in his NHL career.
He's won two Stanley Cups in his six seasons in Chicago. An amazing feat that very few NHLers can boast of. However, his off-ice escapades have created a buzz of their own over the years, too.
He will never be able to escape taxi cab driver jokes. He was caught on cell phone photo in compromising situations in Madison, Wisconsin.
Kane recently sat down with CSN Chicago to speak from the heart about his appreciation for the Blackhawks organization for sticking with him when he was at his rock bottom moments.
He also expressed remorse for causing his family embarrassment by his actions.
“It was tough to kind of let them down,” said Kane.
Thanks, CSN Chicago
I like Pat's message. He's humble and contrite. His words come straight from the heart.
This is maturity. Good on you, Pat Kane.
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Please. Remind. Me. Again. Why. Was. There. A Lockout?
The St. Louis Blues have inked defenseman Jay Bouwmeester to a new five-year contract extension that will pay him $27 million GUARANTEED. His AAV will be b$5.4M per season.
If I'm Blues RFA and #1 D, Alex Pietrangelo, I'm asking foir $7.5-$8 million per season, for 10 seasons.
Bouwmeester had one year left on his current deal, making him a Blue through the 2018-19 season.
The Edmonton, Alberta native was acquired by the Blues in a trade with the Calgary Flames on April 1, 2013. He played for Team Canada in the 2006 Winter Olympics and is a two-time NHL All-Star (2007 and 2009).
Bouwmeester had seven points (one goal, six assists) in 14 regular season appearances with the Blues following the trade. Last season overall, he played in 47 games, tallying seven goals and 15 assists (22 points).
Can you say grotesque contract?
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