At long last, Brendan Guhle's time has come.
Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill recalled Guhle on Monday. Despite several injuries to defensemen that ravaged his team's blue line in October and November, Botterill stuck to his guns and made Guhle cut his teeth in the AHL. Botterill is all about developing prospects in the minors rather than rushing them prematurely to the show. It's hard to argue with Botterill's philosophy. With the Guhle playing a top pair role on the Amerks blue line, Chris Taylor's team is now 22-8-3-3, placing them two points out of first place in their division.
Botterill, a former Amerks player in his playing days, vowed to return his alma mater to it's winning ways when he was hired by the Pegulas last spring. Rather than rush Guhle to the NHL, Botterill opted to play 3-4 AHL defensemen per game during the injured D-man crisis.
This is Guhle's first promotion of the season after appearing in his first three NHL games with the team in December 2016.
Buffalo’s second-round draft pick (51st overall) in the 2015 NHL Draft, Guhle has scored 7 goals and 13 assists and a team-high 91 shots on goal through 35 AHL games with the Rochester Amerks. Guhle is Buffalo's best defenseman prospect and has thrived in his first full season in Rochester.
"I think he's just earned his way up," Phil Housley said Monday. "He's in a good spot. He's in a winning environment down there which is great for the culture of the team. It's just a great opportunity to see what he can bring to practice."
Housley said that he wants to play Guhle in one of the two games this week before his team's NHL mandated bye week.
Guhle is a spitting image stylistically of his head coach Phil Houlsey. Guhle can skate like the wind. He distributed the pucks efficiently, he makes great reads and is very responsible in his end of the rink.
"I really like his mobility obviously, but I like the stick detail that he has defensively and what he does from our goalie working out," Housley told the team's website. "Obviously you look at him and he's joining the rush and he's making things happen back there."
Guhle is ranked second in points among rookie AHL defensemen.