On Monday morning inside First Niagara Center, the bench gates opened and through them the future arrived in Buffalo. The opening of rookie development camp coincided with the arrival of the stars of tomorrow.
Out with the old. In with the new. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are beginning to come together nicely for Tim Murray.
His vision is coming to fruition.
Days such as these, I tip my bucket to former GM Darcy Regier who began this re-building process before he was turfed last November. Regier began the process of stocking the cupboards with top picks and a premium draft choices. Murray has artfully acquired character players who possess skill and talent.
The future is bright in Pegulaville.
Mikhail Grigorenko posted a selfie on his Facebook page on Sunday night of he and fellow prospects, including Russian bro Andrey Makarov, Brenden Lemieux, Eric Cornel, and Nick Baptiste, in an X-Box tourney at their hotel. I laughed when I saw the picture because it reminds me of Squirt or Bantam players bonding at an out of town hockey tournament.
Bonding. Togetherness. Trust. All for one, one for all.
Those are the ingredients that great teams are made of.
Sam Reinhart, 2014 end overall pick, talked afterwards about the great bonding experience and how cool it is to get to play with guys that he's competed against since he was a youngster.
Brenden Lemieux, 2014 second rounder (31st overall) spoke about the realization of his boyhood dream to someday play in the NHL. He's not in the show. Yet. However, he is humbled by the rookie development camp experience.
Lemieux: "There's a lot of talent out there, a lot of great players. Great to be surrounded by that. Great to be here. Just trying to keep things simple, play hard & play my game".
Then, there is recently acquired and signed power forward Jordan Samuels-Thomas. The Quinnipiac University product who appeared to be deeply moved and appreciative of his opportunity to be a part of the changing culture in the hockey-crazed Buffalo market.
JST:
"The sincere passion from everyone here has really excited me and inspired me."
"I'm excited... a lot of new things going on in Buffalo. Happy to be part of it.
BLUE GROUP
65 Jordan Samuels-Thomas - 28 Zemgus Girgensons - 10 William Carrier
47 Daniel Catenacci - 25 Mikhail Grigorenko - 24 Hudson Fasching
21 Jonathon Martin - 38 Sean Malone - 15 Justin Bailey
41 Liam Pecararo - 37 Colin Jacobs - 44 Victor Olofsson
72 Brycen Martin - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
29 Jake McCabe - 4 Anthony Florentino
5 Andrew Prochno
35 Andrey Makarov
31 Calvin Petersen
WHITE GROUP
78 Brendan Lemieux - 23 Sam Reinhart - 33 Joel Armia
45 Eric Cornel - 17 JT Compher - 20 Nicholas Baptiste
22 Drake Caggiula - 27 Tim Schaller - 13 Kevin Sundher
46 Maxwell Willman - 32 Justin Kea - 12 Patrick Russell
The 2014 Stanley Cup Champions didn't habve to look far for a replacement for veteran D Willie Mitchell. The Kings have agreed to terms on a new, two-year contract with RFA D-man and former Buffalo Sabre Brayden McNabb .
The 23-year-old McNabb is a 6'4" and 210-pound native of Davidson, Saskatchewan who has appeared in 37 career NHL regular season games – all with the Buffalo Sabres – over the past three seasons, totaling eight points (1-7=8) and 21 penalty minutes. He appeared in 12 regular season games (0-0=0; 6 PIM; +1) with the Sabres in 2013-14 before he was acquired by the Kings along with a pair of second round selections in the NHL Draft – one in 2014 (used by the Kings to select defenseman Alex Lintuniemi) and one in 2015 – from Buffalo in exchange for forward/defenseman Nic Deslauriers and right wing Hudson Fasching on March 5 of this year.
McNabb played in 52 regular season American Hockey League games with both the Manchester Monarchs and the Rochester Americans this past season, totaling 36 points (10G, 26A), 63 PIMs and +14 rating. He also saw action in four postseason games with the Monarchs (0-1=1, 2 PIM; Plus-1) before joining the Kings as a Black Ace for much of the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs. McNabb was originally selected by the Sabres in the third round (66th overall) at the 2009 NHL Draft.
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