Show of hands. Who remembers Joel Armia?
It seems like forever ago that Darcy Regier was grinning ear to ear after choosing the young Finn 16th overall at the 2011 NHL Draft.
Armia projected to be a bigger version of then-Sabres sniper Thomas Vanek. Some said that Armia would surpass Vanek’s production because of his size and skill set. The jury is still out on that scouting report. However, the 6’3… 190 lb. winger showed a lot of promise while playing with his Assat Pori club team in his hometown. Like fellow Sabres drafted Finn Rasmus Ristolainen, the 18 year old version of Armia played competitively against men in the Finnish Elite League. Armia didn’t move to the AHL until he fulfilled his military commitment at home in Finland.
When asked about Armia, NHL scouts and talent evaluators would say things like: “high ceiling…, “soft hands…, “excellent skater…, “great vision…, “excellent potential…, “NHL size and skill….
Armia struggled to make the transition from the 200 by 100 ice surfaces in Europe to the 200 by 85 foot sheet in the U.S. and Canada. He wasn’t the first nor the last promising European talent to need additional time to adapt to the North American game. For the past two summers at Sabres prospects camp, you’d hear scouting reports like “lacks NHL strength right now…, “needs to play with more jam and determination…, “needs to work on his compete level in the AHL….
Armia was making progress and succeeding at honing his craft while working out the kinks in his overall game in Rochester. Last season, he popped in 10 goals and added 15 assists for 25 points in just 33 games played with the Amerks. It appeared that Armia was on his way to better things when he received the phone call. In February, Sabres GM Tim Murray shocked the hockey world when he traded for Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian. Ever the aggressor, Murray traded Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, Armia, Brendan Lemieux, and the 2015 draft choice that morphed into Jack Roslovic the U.S. Development Program center ice man. Armia admits now that the trade to Winnipeg knocked him off his skates.
"Of course it was probably hard for me," Armia told the Winnipeg Free Press on Saturday.
"A little bit harder because it was my first trade and that doesn’t happen in Europe a lot." Armia had just gotten settled in and comfortable with his surroundings in Rochester. He was comfortable in his role on the Amerks. He was one of the guys in the room and off the ice. He was one his way to perhaps a call-up to the struggling Sabres. Then, the boom got lowered on him.
"You have all your teammates in Rochester and then you go to a whole new team, new staff," he said. "Everything was new. I think that takes a little bit of time…, he said.
So, Armia did what all traded players do. He packed his gear and sticks, said his goodbyes to his former teammates, and headed to the airport for the long flight. He wasn’t being sent to Winnipeg but instead to their AHL club in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Poor kid must have been freaking out at his circumstances. For the second time in a two year span, Armia was the stranger in the strange town. Joel Come Lately. New Kid In Town.
"But everybody in St. John’s, that was a good group of guys and it made things easy to come there."
Armia struggled to find his scoring touch once situated in St. John’s. He scored just two goals and added only 6 assists in his 21 games played there. "Not much else to say there," he said.
"You have all your teammates and you’ve been traded after being many years in their (Rochester) camps. It was two years. You have friends there. That was maybe the hardest part. The teammates, we had a great group there. Leaving those teammates was maybe the hardest part."
Thankfully, Armia was greeted by a fellow Finn in goalie Jussi Olkinuora, who showed the kid the ropes.
St. John’s IceCaps head coach Keith McCambridge understood why Armia struggled to find his way after being involved in the Evander Kane blockbuster trade.
"When I look at Joel, you have to remember he’s still a really young player."
"He came into us in St. John’s and I believe the trade affected him in the way you’d expect for a young man. "It took him a real period of time to feel comfortable and fit in with the rest of the players on the team."
McCambridge took note of Armia’s skill set.
"When I watched (Armia) for the time period we had him, he had very good vision and the skill set he has with regards to making plays and in those tight areas was something that jumped off the page," he said. "An area he has to work on is having that high level of compete all the time.
"He’s a player that has to have the puck. He can make plays with it. He has to make sure he’s working to get it back. But big upside to him. He’s still learning, still developing but definitely liked what I saw."
Armia said that McCambridge has given him some simple advice to follow.
"Just play with your own game, and hard work, that will be the most important," Armia said.
With hard work and a little bit of luck, Armia may end up playing on a line in Winnipeg this season. Nothing will be handed to him though. Armia will be one of many blue chip winger prospects looking to crack into the NHL lineup this season, including: Nic Petan, Nikolaj Ehlers, Brenden Lemieux, J.C. Lipon, and Axel Blomqvist.
"Usually I don’t watch whether there are any spots open," Armia said.
"I just do what I can do. It’s only your work that matters, your hard work and how well you play that should give you a spot.
"My only goal is to play in the NHL this year. I’ve been working hard for that. I hope I’m ready at the training camp."
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Happy Shark Week! It's also Buffalo Sabres Development Camp Week, too.
Looking to play some hooky to watch Jack Eichel play hockey? Well, here is your chance to do so.
Late Friday afternoon, the Sabres released their agenda for the 2015 prospects camp. Not all sessions will be open to the public. Public viewing times are noted.
Here is the 411:
It's here! The #SabresDevCamp schedule. Here's what's open to the public.
Scrimmage tickets: http://t.co/lcAgD1Xctc pic.twitter.com/pngiWwCzSE
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) July 3, 2015
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High tide floats all boats.
NY Post scribe Larry Brooks suggests that the NY Rangers aren't too peachy keen with Ryan O'Reilly $52.5 million contract and how it will affect their contract negotiations with RFA center Derek Stepan.
Brooks notes, and I happen to agree with him 100%, that Stepan and his agent will take the team to arbitration this summer. Stepan has until 5 pm today to file for arbitration. The thought process is that Stepann will use the ROR contract as his comparable in arguing for a higher salary than the Rangers will be willing to offer him.
It was Christmas in July for Derek Stepan but a lump of coal in Jeff Gorton’s stocking, this gift of Buffalo’s seven-year, $52 million ($7.5 million per) extension to Ryan O’Reilly that kicks in next season and will keep on giving headaches to the Rangers and their newly installed general manager.
In a flash, Friday’s agreement between the needy Sabres and the 24-year-old center they obtained from Colorado last weekend blows to smithereens any hope the Blueshirts had of signing the 25-year-old Group II free agent center Stepan to a long-term deal in the range of $6.2 million to $6.5 million per.
It likely means Stepan, whose numbers are superior to O’Reilly’s in every meaningful category other than faceoff efficiency, not only will file for salary arbitration by Sunday’s 5 p.m. deadline, but could be in line for a two-year award taking him to unrestricted free agency worth well over $7 million per.
Stepan, 25, has become the spoon that stirs the drink in Manhattan. He has already played 362 NHL games. He has scored 89 goals and has assisted on 163 others. His true value to the Rags is that he has played 80 playoff games in which he has scored 15 goals and added 26 assists.
Stepan and the Rangers are heading towards an impasse similar to the one that O'Reilly encountered with the Colorado Avalanche last summer. The Avs elected to team dictated arbitration on O'Reilly, and the two sides agreed to a two year contract for $12 million just moments before the case was to be heard by the arbitrator.
When the arbitrator (if the case gets that far) rules in Stepan's favor and awards him a $7 million annual salary over 2 years, he should buy a bottle of expensive bottle of bubbly and send it to Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray.
The Rangers can ill afford to jerk around with Stepan right now because they just lost valuable RFA Carl Hagelin in a trade to the Anaheim Ducks that saw Emerson Etem traded to New York.
Stepan's two year, $6,150,000 contract has expired. He is one of four remaining RFA's to be signed by the Rangers. The others are J.T. Miller, Emerson Etem, and Jesper Fast.
The Rangers have just $10.2 million in cap space for next season.
Stepan is going to get paid the lion's share of that $10.2 million and the Rangers are going to end up in cap jail as a result.