The Sabres will face off against the Detroit Red Wings in Buffalo for a Saturday 3 pm matinee game (MSG, WGR550) which will be a final opportunity for some players to cement their place on the roster. On Thursday, the Sabres announced a couple of roster moves ahead of Saturday’s final preseason games by sending big power forward Brett Murray and 2020 first-round pick Jack Quinn to Rochester ahead of the Americans training camp opening on Friday.
The 6’ 5” Murray flashed at times throughout the preseason starting with his performance at the Prospects Challenge in September. The Bolton, Ontario native was particularly effective on the powerplay where he was able to use his enormous frame to take away the opposing goaltenders’ line of sight and then use his underrated finishing ability to bury some chances. The biggest knock on Murray is that his lack of speed hinders his ability to contribute at 5-on-5. He also failed to register much in terms of the physical game despite his enormous stature. Murray scored a goal in the Sabres preseason game against the Penguins after taking a nice feed from another player the Sabres sent down on Thursday: Jack Quinn.
Quinn was largely underwhelming during the preseason after being transitioned back to his natural wing position rather than playing at center which is where the Sabres auditioned him during the Prospects Challenge. Quinn looked terrific in the shootout during two preseason games as he was able to showcase the finesse and scoring touch that made him a top-10 draft pick for the Sabres last year. Like Murray, Quinn struggled to keep up with the pace of the even-strength game, though not due to a lack of footspeed. Quinn is plenty fast enough to keep up in the NHL. The Cobden, Ontario born forward over pursued the opposition often and had trouble reading where the play was heading often. Quinn will be given ample opportunity to play all-purpose minutes in Rochester and hone his craft.
Quinn could end up playing on a line with Murray either as a center or a right winger, or perhaps Americans’ head coach Seth Appert could put Linus Weissbach with Quinn to create a very speedy and skilled duo.
With those two prospects gone, the list of players vying for the final few roster spots has whittled considerably. Let’s take a look at the probable forward locks first:
Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt, Vinnie Hinostroza, Victor Olofsson, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Zemgus Girgensons, Arttu Ruotsalainen, Kyle Okposo, Anders Bjork and Rasmus Asplund. That leaves one opening day roster spot for JJ Peterka, Drake Caggiula, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, John Hayden and Cody Eakin.
Unfortunately for the Sabres viewing audience Peterka is probably Rochester bound. As much as I’d personally like to see Peterka play this year, the Sabres will likely send him down to Rochester to grow with some of their other key future pieces. Everyone knows that the preseason is not a meritocracy. Peterka would undoubtedly be a Sabre this year if it were a meritocracy because Peterka has arguably been the best Sabre in the preseason. Getting some reps in at the lower level will help him, though. If the Sabres do decide to send him down, Peterka will almost certainly be the first forward callup in case of injury.
Jonsson-Fjallby’s best opportunity to make his case to Don Granato will be tomorrow when he takes the ice in his first contest as a Sabre. It’s not clear what exactly the Swedish forward will bring to the Sabres beyond his flowing, golden mane of hair. He also apparently has above-average speed, though I’ve never watched him so I can’t personally attest to that.
Drake Caggiula has been pretty invisible in the preseason, so tomorrow will be his last chance to make the team, if the Sabres even elect to play him against the Red Wings. He seems destined to be an extra forward or he’ll be waived. Ditto for Cody Eakin who doesn’t bring much of anything to the team beyond the ability to take faceoffs. John Hayden doesn’t add a whole lot, either, beyond some size and physicality that the team otherwise lacks. My best guess is that Jonsson-Fjallby takes the last spot and Hayden and Eakin act as the Sabres’ extra forwards.
On the defensive side, in terms of locked in players, we’ve got Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, Colin Miller, Will Butcher and Robert Hagg (who, according to Sabres.com does not have an umlaut in his name. I like the umlaut. RIP). That leaves one spot with Mark Pysyk and Jacob Bryson as the only realistic players in the mix for that position. Mattias Samuelsson lost his chance when he was injured in the waning seconds of the prospects game, and due to his absence, he was never able to claim a stake to a spot. I can’t see Brandon Davidson, Ethan Prow or Casey Fitzgerald making the team.
It wouldn’t surprise me either way if the Sabres decide to land on Bryson or Pysyk as the sixth defenseman. I’d go with the steady Eddy choice in Pysyk personally. So currently I’d predict Eakin, Hayden and Bryson as the extras. Eakin is being paid way too much money for the Sabres owners to send him down to Rochester where he’d probably be miserable anyway. Hayden will be an insurance policy in case things get too rough for the young kids to handle.
Overall, it was a pretty uneventful preseason with the biggest surprise so far coming in the form of Dustin Tokarski winning the backup goalie job instead of Aaron Dell who was the presumed guy for the job. It looks like that’ll hold up as the only upset unless JJ Peterka can pull the upset over Jonsson-Fjallby. We’ll see tomorrow.
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