Good morning from balmy Buffalo, NY.
The Buffalo Sabres have trimmed fourteen players from their training camp roster.
The Rochester Amerks being their training camp on Monday morning.
Forward C.J. Smith and goalie Andrew Hammond have been placed on waivers with the intent of sending the players to the Amerks. Smith has been an effective player for the Sabres in September. Smith is a candidate to be claimed off waivers by another NHL team looking for a skilled bottom six contributor who can defend and add scoring.
The most surprising news of the day is rookie Arttu Ruotsalainen being reassigned to his Ilves squad in the Finnish pro league. Ruotsalainen has been impressive in the three exhibition games that he has participated in. On Saturday night against a veteran-heavy Toronto Maple Leafs squad, Ruotsalinen, 21, went 9-2 (82%) in the faceoff circle in his 10:54 TOI played. Ruotsalinen is a capable defender at 5v5 and his very effective on the PK. His future looks very bright for the Sabres moving forward.
Sabres fans, please don't view the Ruotsalainen reassignement as a negative. The kid is going to go home to Finland and dominate for his Ilves squad. He will transfer all positive experiences gathered in Buffalo to his club team in Finland where he will become an even better player than he is today. Case in point, on Friday, the Sabres sent forward Matej Pekar back to juniors. On Saturday night, Pekar tucked three goals for his Barrie Colts squad.
Ruotsalainen's loss may prove to be the gain of veteran forward Curtis Lazar, who is having himself a very impressive training camp for the Sabres. Lazar, 24, has been a standout in all three zones in the exhibition games that he has participated in thus far.
Here are the rest of the roster reductions:
Head coach Ralph Krueger wants to get a closer look at young forwards Lazar, Rasmus Asplund, Tage Thompson, J.S. Dea, and Remi Elie. Kruger also wants to see more from defenseman John Gilmour, who has been impressive at both ends of the ice in the preseason games and scrimmages he has participated in.
The Amerks will play their first preseason game on Thursday, September 26 at 7 p.m. when they host the Syracuse Crunch at the Rochester Institute of Technology's campus.
**
There are currently 19 forwards, 9 defensemen and 2 goalies.
Here is your Sunday morning roll call:
Forwards:
Jack Eichel, Dylan Cozens, Jimmy Vesey, Jeff Skinner, Samson Reinhart, Victor Olofsson, Rasmus Asplund, Marcus Johansson, Evan Rodrigues, Casey Mittlestadt, Conor Sheary, Curtis Lazar, Kyle Okposo, Vlad Sobotka, Zemgus Girgenson, Tage Thompson, J.S. Dea, Remi Elie, Johan Larsson
Defense:
Rasmus Dahlin, Rasmus Ristolainen, Colin Miller, Jake McCabe, Will Borgen, Hank Jokiharju, John Gilmour, Marco Scandella, Casey Nelson
Goaltenders:
Carter Hutton, Linus Ullmark
* Injured Players:
Brandon Montour, Zach Bogosian, Lawrence Pilut, Matt Hunwick, Scott Wilson
**
Were I Jason Botterill and Ralph Krueger, here is what my 22-man #Sabres roster will look like come October 1:
Forwards:
In:
Eichel
Vesey
Reinhart
Skinner
Olofsson
Johansson
Rodrigues
Mittlestadt
Sheary
Lazar
Okposo
Thompson
Sobotka
Out:
Cozens (Juniors)
Asplund (Amerks)
Dea (Amerks)
Elie (Amerks)
Larsson (Trade)
Girgensons (Trade)
Defense:
In:
Dahlin
Ristolainen
Miller
McCabe
*Borgen
*Jokiharju
Gilmour
** When Montour and Pilut return from injury in October, I send Borgen and Jokiharju to Rochester to play 25:00 TOI in all situations per game. Gilmour would be my #7 in Buffalo.
Out:
Scandella (Trade)
Casey Nelson (Rochester)
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