The Sabres will soon have a big goaltending decision to make.
Exactly one week ago today, the Sabres assigned goaltender Eric Comrie to the Rochester Americans for the purposes of a conditioning stint as part of his lower-body injury recovery process. Per NHL rules, a conditioning stint in the AHL can last no longer than two weeks, meaning the team will have to make a decision on what to do with their soon-to-be three-headed goalie monster no later than this time next week.
Comrie has so far played 3 games with the Americans and posted a 1-2-0 record with an .898 save percentage in those contests.
Meanwhile, at the NHL level, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has made the lion’s share of starts for the blue-and-gold (or black-and-red) in the absence of Comrie, and the 6’5” Finn has made the most of his starts by amassing an impressive 8-3-0 record. Sure, his .894 save percentage on the season isn’t going to wow anyone, but he’s been much better recently with five out of his last 6 starts resulting in a save percentage above .900, which is really all this team has asked of him.
So, when Comrie comes back, the question becomes: how do the Sabres proceed? Does it send a bad message to send UPL down to the minors when he’s playing so well? Would it hurt or help his development? And perhaps more importantly, do they have any other option?
Kevyn Adams and Don Granato could certainly opt to carry three goalies on their roster while making veteran Craig Anderson a healthy scratch. Anderson is a consummate professional and would probably take that in stride, and because he’s seen so much rubber over his 20+ year career, the lack of playing time most likely wouldn’t affect his performance on the ice too much if-and-when he were inserted back into the lineup. Anderson has been the season-starting goaltender for the past two seasons because he’s essentially always ready to go.
The bigger problem is making room on the roster to accommodate three goalies. The Sabres currently have 25/23 roster spots occupied with Comrie and Henri Jokiharju on injured reserve, but approaching return from injury. When Jokiharju returns, the team will have to waive a defenseman – most likely either Jacob Bryson or Casey Fitzgerald – to make room for the man nicknamed “Joker.” Kale Clague looks to be safe.
But for Comrie and UPL to both remain on the roster, the Sabres would have to waive another player and that’s where things get tricky.
Forwards Rasmus Asplund and Vinnie Hinostroza were the two most recent healthy scratches, so let’s suppose that the team would pick between one of them to trade/waive. Both provide solid depth for the bottom-six, meaning it’s incredibly difficult to see them expose either to waivers. While Hinostroza would be the more likely of the two to clear, Don Granato seems to have a solid relationship with his fellow American, so it’s hard to see the coach signing off on that move.
The other option would be to waive Eric Comrie. There’s no point in spending too much time on this thought. It’s hard to see Adams pulling the trigger on that move considering the two-year investment he made in Comrie just 6 months ago. While Comrie’s numbers haven’t been great this season, a large chunk of his games came during a stretch that saw several key defensemen lost to injury – including key defensive cog Mattias Samuelsson. He can be better than what he’s shown before. The other factor to consider is next year’s goaltending situation, as Craig Anderson will likely be out of the picture due to his age. The Sabres invested in Comrie to provide 1A/1B goaltending with UPL next season as a bridge to Devon Levi coming aboard.
It's just incredibly unlikely that the Sabres would choose this route.
The most likely scenario is that they take every minute of their allowed two-week conditioning window with Comrie and wait to see if any further injuries pop up which would create an opening for all three goalies to remain on the roster. If not, UPL is likely heading back to Rochester.
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The Sabres begin a grueling stretch of 8 games in 13 days tonight against Minnesota Wild in Buffalo at 7 pm tonight.
Buffalo is currently 6 points behind the Islanders for the last wildcard playoff spot with five games in hand over New York, so this stretch can either vault them into a playoff spot, or it will bury them in the standings.
The Wild are clicking well with an 8-2-0 record over their last 10 games. They’re led offensively by Russian phenom Kirill Kaprizov who has 47 points in 37 games this season, along with the ageless Mats Zuccarello who has 40 points in 37 games.
On the blueline, rumors continue to swirl regarding the future of 28-year-old defenseman Matt Dumba who is in the last year of his contract. The Wild are unlikely to re-sign the defensemen as they have to contend with $14.7m in dead cap hits in 2023-24 and 2024-25 resulting from the dual buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.
Back when the Sabres were looking to trade Jack Eichel, and the Minnesota Wild were considered a leading trade partner, Dumba was rumored to be a piece included a potential deal in order to make the money work for the Wild due to his $6m per year salary. The offensive defenseman has had a rough go of it this year and has only amassed 10 points in 37 games.
The underlying numbers don’t look any better.
Supposedly the Wild were unwilling to part with center prospect Marco Rossi in order to close the deal.
Looks like the Wild missed out big time on that opportunity.
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