Brian Gionta Has Several Interested Teams
Brian Gionta has been clear that he’d like to go back to the Buffalo Sabres if possible, but he certainly has other options. John Vogl of the Buffalo News reached out to agent Steve Bartlett, who told him Gionta has had a “number of teams” interested in signing him already. Gionta continues to mull over his options, but is preparing as if he’ll play professional hockey again this season.
Gionta scored 35 points once again for the Sabres last year, serving as their captain for the third straight season. Even at 38-years old he’s been an effective middle-six player, capable of chipping in offensively and providing a solid defensive presence. The new Sabres’ brass may want to go in a younger direction, but Gionta will easily find a job around the league if he wants one. Bartlett said that he’s still weighing his options, which likely include a starring role on the USA Olympic roster.
The veteran forward could potentially sign in Europe or the AHL in order to maintain eligibility for the tournament, one that he has played in once before with USA Hockey. In 2006 Gionta played in the Olympics and actually led his country in goal scoring with four in just six games. With a roster made up of several college-aged players and international professionals, Gionta could bring some NHL experience to Pyeongchang.
Cody Goloubef Signs PTO With Buffalo Sabres
While we discuss which professional tryout has the best shot at cracking their respective NHL roster, the Buffalo Sabres have decided to enter the ring. The team has signed Cody Goloubef to a PTO, bringing him into camp to compete for a roster spot against the likes of Viktor Antipin and Brendan Guhle.
The Sabres are trying desperately to rebuild a defense corps on the fly, as it has been part of their downfall for several years. Bringing in Marco Scandella, Nathan Beaulieu and Antipin has already given it a substantial face lift, and now Goloubef will try and show that he could be number seven or eight on the depth chart for the team. The 27-year old played 33 games for the Blue Jackets last season, but has rarely shown anything other than bottom-pairing skill in the NHL.
Drafted 37th-overall in 2008, Goloubef never did grow into any offensive potential he once had, and has just 23 points in 129 career NHL contests. Perhaps he can earn himself a two-way deal and spend time in the AHL, and show that his lack of production the last few years has been more due to injury (jaw, knee) than performance.
Jack Eichel “Pretty Adamant” On Staying With Buffalo Sabres
As Buffalo Sabres fans continue to pull their hair out waiting for a Jack Eichel extension, the man himself wants to calm the fan base down. From Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat, Eichel was clear about his intentions to stay with the Sabres.
I have no problem playing the year out…I’m pretty adamant on staying a Sabre and staying in Buffalo.
I want to bring some excitement to this town and the contract thing will take care of itself.
That meshes with the latest reports that an extension might not be reached before training camp begins, but instead of panic over his future with the club fans should feel confident their superstar is committed long-term. Eichel is on the final year of his entry-level contract and was eligible for an extension on July 1st, but might want to wait for his own breakout season before signing anything.
Injured for much of last year, Eichel doesn’t have the eye-popping numbers that many expected when he was taken second-overall behind Connor McDavid in 2015. While he’s still scored 113 points in 142 games, he’s seemingly been passed over in many minds by Auston Matthews as the second-best young player in the league. When he has been healthy though, Eichel has shown that he could be a devastatingly effective offensive player, easily capable of scoring at a point-per-game rate over the next few years. It’s unlikely that playing the year out would do anything to hurt his long-term value, but he could prove that he deserves an extension approaching $10MM per season if he put together a healthy productive year.
It’s clear that the Sabres are on the same page, with GM Jason Botterill recently saying they wanted to lock up Eichel for eight seasons. He’s the face of the franchise going forward, and it would be incredibly unlikely for a new contract to not be finished at some point before the start of the 2018-19 season. It might just have to wait until next year.
Latest On Jack Eichel Extension
Darren Dreger of TSN joined The Instigators on WGR 550 in Buffalo for his weekly chat, and discussed the ongoing contract negotiations with Jack Eichel. Eichel is heading into the final year of his entry-level contract, and there has been constant speculation that he’ll sign a long-term extension before the season begins. Not so fast says Dreger:
I’m now getting the sense that he’s okay starting the season without a contract extension in place.
It’s clearly part speculation on Dreger’s part, but it does make some sense from Eichel’s side. Losing part of last season to injury has brought his overall production through the first two years of his career, even though he remains one of the brightest young stars in the league. There is a chance he could push his contract even further up the salary charts with a breakout year.
That said, Buffalo already knows what they have in Eichel and seem willing to pay up for it. Recently GM Jason Botterill was quoted saying he wants to get his young center locked up for the max term, and that there had been nothing but positive talks between the two sides so far. It still seems likely that something will get done before the start of training camp, but if it doesn’t there is little cause for alarm.
Rochester Americans Sign Two AHL Contracts
- The Rochester Americans have signed Conor Allen and Sahir Gill to one-year AHL contracts. Allen is a stay at home defenseman who made his NHL debut several seasons ago with the New York Rangers, but has generally been an effective player in the AHL. While he won’t provide a ton of offense, he’ll be a strong addition to a minor league program that is receiving more attention from the Sabres front office. Gill is very familiar with that front office, as he’s coming over from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins that were previously under the purview of Jason Botterill in Pittsburgh. Gill has bounced between the ECHL and AHL in previous years, but last season started to establish himself as a solid two-way forward. Previously his game predicated on his offensive talent, but with maturity has come a more stable, reliable game.
Scouting Changes Hope To Bring Success For Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres have undergone a lot of changes this offseason, bringing in an entirely new management team. and coaching staff to try and turn the franchise around. As John Vogl of the Buffalo News reports, it didn’t stop there. New GM Jason Botterill has also made sweeping changes to the scouting side, including hiring amateur scouts from the St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins.
One of the downfalls of the Sabres in recent times has been their inability to find top-end players in the first few rounds. Going back a few years before they selected Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart second overall in back to back drafts, the Sabres last fifteen first-round picks look like this:
Rasmus Ristolainen
Nikita Zadorov
Mikhail Grigorenko
Zemgus Girgensons
Joel Armia
Mark Pysyk
Zack Kassian
Tyler Myers
Tyler Ennis
Dennis Persson
Marek Zagrapan
Drew Stafford
Thomas Vanek
Keith Ballard
Daniel Paille
There is some real NHL talent there, but outside of Vanek and perhaps Ristolainen not much to help lead a franchise to Stanley Cup contention. The entry draft is always something of a crapshoot, but the combination of missing somewhat on your first-round picks while also getting unlucky in the later rounds has a huge negative impact on your ability to find continued success. Botterill and his team will have to change that, and start supplying Eichel and company with a better supporting cast.
Robin Lehner Wanted Long-Term Contract
- Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat has a great piece on the thought process of Robin Lehner in this summer’s contract negotiations with the Sabres, writing that Lehner wanted a long-term deal even though his agents disagreed. Even though his representatives explained that with a one-year deal he could set himself up for a big raise in what will be his final summer of restricted free agency, Lehner wanted to sign long-term in Buffalo. Hoppe writes that former Sabres GM Tim Murray may have been open to that, but the new regime wasn’t. Lehner has had extreme ups and downs since coming to Buffalo, but clearly has the talent to be one of the very best goaltenders in the league. In a year where almost everything went wrong for the Sabres, Lehner made a career-high 58 starts and maintained an excellent .920 save percentage. Next summer any long-term contract will be buying out almost exclusively UFA seasons, and will push much higher than the $4MM salary he’ll earn this season.
Latest On Cody Franson
Following up on a report from last week that there had been increased interest in free agent defenseman Cody Franson, Rick Dhaliwal of News 1130 reports that the former Buffalo Sabres player could “possibly sign this week.” While that doesn’t sound like much, it does put the spotlight back on an interesting offseason case.
Franson went through a long period of free agency in 2015 before finally signing with the Sabres, and again this summer hasn’t seemed to be able to drum up much interest. The 30-year old defenseman has vocal supporters and detractors among hockey fans, but does have a history of putting up points at the NHL level. In 527 career games, Franson has registered 205 points, a better per-game rate (0.39) than players like Morgan Rielly, Hampus Lindholm and Matt Niskanen. Though he’s obviously not as mobile as those three, his overall possession contribution is still quite high.
The question is how effective Franson can be in his own end or without receiving much powerplay time. With most rosters all but set for their special teams contributors, Franson faces a similar situation as Thomas Vanek: able but not needed. It will be interesting to see what kind of guaranteed money a team gives him, or if he has to settle for a professional tryout. Drew Stafford recently settled for just $800K, but will be expected to play a fairly substantial role on the New Jersey Devils. A training camp injury could help Franson’s case, but waiting that long puts him in jeopardy of not finding any work in the NHL this season.
Morning Notes: Lindros, Sabres, McCool
The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that they will raise Eric Lindros‘ #88 sweater to the rafters in January of next year, retiring it from circulation among their players. No one has worn the number since Lindros’ departure, but his sweater will now officially join the likes of Bernie Parent (#1), Mark Howe (#2), Barry Ashbee (#4), Bill Barber (#7) and Bobby Clarke (#16) in retirement.
Lindros was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, and as Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post points out on Twitter, Mark Recchi‘s #8 could join the retired list next season. Recchi is among the 2017 Hall of Fame inductees, and spent parts of ten seasons with the Flyers. Lindros’ ceremony will be held on January 18th, before the Flyers take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- The Buffalo Sabres announced a huge list of number changes for the upcoming season, including Jason Pominville re-acquiring his #29 from Jake McCabe. Pominville has worn the number for his entire career, including the nine previous seasons he spent in Buffalo. McCabe will wear #19 this season. To keep up with all player numbers and depth charts, make sure to head over to Roster Resource where things are constantly updated with the latest information.
- According to Andy Strickland of Fox Sports, Hayden McCool will be in rookie camp for the St. Louis Blues, fresh off a Memorial Cup win in Windsor. McCool is a big forward who was deployed in a purely checking role for the Spitfires of the OHL. Undrafted, he’ll attend camp hoping to earn an AHL spot somewhere, though the Blues don’t have a single affiliate this season. McCool will more than likely only make an impact at the minor league level, but his work ethic and physical game is one that could translate to a fourth-line at some point.
Sabres Pursued Blaine Byron
- The Sabres had expressed interest in college free agent center Blaine Byron, notes Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. However, Byron ultimately chose to take a minor league deal with Florida in the hopes of earning a spot on Canada’s Olympic team. Had he signed a two-way NHL pact, he wouldn’t have been eligible. Buffalo only has 43 committed contracts out of the limit of 50 at the moment so it’s not surprising to see them active in this segment of free agency.