Swords Slicing Roster (buffalo sabres)

buffalo sabres

Swords Slicing Roster

By GARTH'S CORNER

Oct 1, 2018 • 7:38 pm

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Updated:

The Buffalo Sabres have traded forward Nick Baptiste (3rd round 2013) to the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenseman Jack Dougherty.

Baptiste cleared waivers on Sunday and was sent back to AHL Rochester.

Baptiste was drafted by former Sabres GM Tim Murray. Jason Botterill is making critical decisions on some of the prospects he inherited. The Sabres traded former prospect Cliff Pu to Carolina in the Jeff Skinner trade. Sabres prospect winger Hudson Fasching was traded to Arizona in exchange for defenseman Brandon Hickey and minor-league forward Mike Sislo in the deal.

Now, Baptiste is on the move.

Baptiste (6'1", 185 lbs.) is a gritty, fast winger who can add scoring to the bottom six. He has all the tools to play in today's NHL. However, he struggles with consistency while playing bottom six role in the NHL. He's a top six talent that has to accept a bottom six role if he is going to stay in the NHL long term.

Baptiste has scored 45 goals and 42 assists in 157 games with the Rochester Amerks the past three seasons. In 47 career games with the Sabres, Baptiste scored 7 goals and added 3 assists.

Dougherty, 22, has spent each of the last two seasons playing for the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL), where he appeared in 141 career AHL games.

Doughtery, a right shot D, was Nashville's second-round pick (51st overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft, Dougherty also appeared in three playoff games for the Admirals.

Sabres head coach Phil Housley is familar with Dougherty from his days in the Predators organization.

Dougherty is in the final season of his entry level contract.

*****

Monday October 1.

The Buffalo Sabres have made a few roster moves today ahead of the Thursday night season opener against the Boston Bruins.

It's a surprise to me that Alex Nylander was sent down to Rochester along with defensemen Brendan Guhle and Brandon Hickey.

Nylander led the Sabres in scoring during the exhibition season by potting a goal and four assists in five preseason games played. Nylander showed great progress at the Prospects Challenge and against NHLers during the preseason schedule of games. Nylander stood out to me in the five ex-games he played in. In 7 career NHL games, Nylander has scored 1G, 1A. Last season he scored his first career NHL goal after being recalled for the final three games of the season from hell. In 116 total games in Rochester, Nylander has scored 18 goals and 37 assists.

Nylander will be the first forward called up if,and only if he performs the same way in Rochester as he did in Buffalo. In other words, if he takes his demotion personally and not as a business trip, he is going to have problems. He has earned the trust of Housley and Botterill and now is not the time for Nylander to buy back what he sold his bosses during his impressive training camp.

Guhle had himself a solid training camp. He's a slick puck moving D who didn't light things up offensively during the exhibition season. However, Guhle was strong and stout on the defensive side of the puck, a fatal flaw of the Buffalo D corps last season. Guhle scored 26 points in 50 games with the Amerks last season. He also played 18 games for the Sabres in 2017-18.

Nylander is a top six forward. Let hom play 20:00 TOI per night in Rochester in all situations. He's not an NHL role player who can play 6:00 TOI per night on the fourth line. He will get his chance to play in Buffalo. Injuries are a part of the game in the NHL. Nylander has to keep himself mentally sharp as he awaits the call from the "716" area code.

Hickey is a free agent signee who was destined to play in Rochester from the outset.

Also, forward Scott Wilson underwent successful surgery to repair an ankle fracture. Wilson is expected to miss the next two and a half months of the season.

Has Phil Housely finalized his final 23-man roster for opening night?

"It's too early to tell. There's a lot of moving parts right now," Housley said after practice on Monday. Housley and Sabres GM Jason Botterill have until Tuesday 5:00pm EDT to deliberate and augment the final 23-man roster.

On Saturday, Botterill waived forwards Justin Bailey and Nick Baptiste back to Rochester along with defenseman Matt Tennyson. On Sunday, all three players cleared through waivers and are now with the Amerks.

By no means are Housley and Botterill done tinkering with their final roster.

The Sabres braintrust are going to proceed with caution until they know if their injured players are ready for regular season battle.

Housley and Botterill have question marks next to the names of defenseman Zach Bogosian and forward Johan Larsson. Both veterans suffered lower body injuries last week. Both are classified as day-to-day. Neither has practiced since last week.

With the injuries to Wilson and Larsson and the demotions to Rochester, the Sabres now have a bare minimum 12 healthy forwards in their Buffalo training camp.

Here are the forward lines from Monday's practice:

L1: Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart L2: Sheary-Berglund-Thompson L3: Sobotka-Mittelstadt-Okposo L4: Girgensons-Rodrigues-Pominville

Tage Thompson has played well for the Sabres at EV and on the PP. Thompson has impressed me and has earned his roster spot.

From the outset of the Prospect Challenge and training camp that it was going to be a battle between Thompson and Nylander to see which forward would stick and stay in Buffalo and which would drive the I-90 East to the 390 to Rochester.

Monday's defensive duos:

Scandella-Ristolainen McCabe-Dahlin Beaulieu-Nelson Tennyson (cleared through waivers Sunday)

***

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