- Mason Geertsen is generating attention at Buffalo Sabres camp with his physical play, and it is becoming increasingly possible that the 30-year-old veteran finds his way back to an NHL roster in 2025-26. The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn reported today that head coach Lindy Ruff “envisions [Geertsen] as the team’s enforcer,” and Buffalo Hockey Beat’s Bill Hoppe wrote that Sabres fans should “expect” Geertsen “to rack up some fighting majors this season.” Geertsen is a 6’4″, 231-pound natural defenseman who is also capable of playing forward in a traditional enforcer’s role. He hasn’t played in the NHL since 2021-22, when he skated in 25 games for Ruff’s New Jersey Devils. He didn’t earn his first NHL point in that stint, but he did fight five times and rack up 77 penalty minutes. Geertsen has since played exclusively in the AHL, but with the Sabres potentially looking to up their physical edge heading into 2025-26, it appears Geertsen could be getting another chance to play in the NHL. Geertsen, who is repped by Quartexx’s Paul Capizzano, signed a two-year, two-way contract this summer that carries a $775K salary at the NHL level and a $425K AHL salary.
Sabres Rumors
Sabres Cut Three Players From Training Camp
Moving quickly toward getting their team down the required 23-man roster, the Buffalo Sabres have returned three prospects to their respective junior programs after the first day of training camp. The Sabres announced that defensemen Simon-Pier Brunet and David Bedkowski, and netminder Samuel Meloche have been cut from the roster.
Brunet will return to the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres after spending the last three years with the Drummondville Voltigeurs. Buffalo selected the 19-year-old with the 123rd overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, and he scored eight goals and 32 points in 60 games with a +10 rating last season with the Voltigeurs. The Sabres likely expect a slow-paced development, given that Brunet has already committed to the NCAA’s Merrimack College for the 2026-27 season.
Meanwhile, Bedkowski could take even longer to reach the NHL, if he does. The 6’5″, 220lbs, 18-year-old blue liner spent last year with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack, scoring three goals and seven points in 30 games with a whopping 73 PIMs. The former 71st overall selection of the 2025 NHL Draft makes his presence known by his high-level physical play and his ability to fight.
Like Brunet, Meloche is another QMJHL product, this time with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, who has also committed to an NCAA program for the 2026-27 season. Last season, as the Huskies’ starter, Meloche recorded a 30-14-6 record in 51 games with a .900 SV% and 2.90 GAA, along with five shutouts. Meloche, 18, was drafted with the 116th overall pick by the Sabres in the 2025 NHL Draft and has committed to Northeastern University.
Sabres Notes: Luukkonen, Tuch, Greenway
The injury keeping Sabres starting netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen sidelined to start training camp is a lower-body issue, general manager Kevyn Adams told reporters yesterday, including Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic. He won’t require surgery and “there’s no alarms right now, but there was a tweak where he didn’t feel great,” Adams said. He’s not on the ice today as the Sabres begin the on-ice portion of their camp. That absence is why the club brought in veteran Alexandar Georgiev on a one-year, $825K deal last week to give them added security in the event Luukkonen isn’t ready to go by the time the regular season starts. There’s still little clarity on whether that will be the case. Still, it’s up to their top goaltending prospect Devon Levi, who’s notably still waiver-exempt, to force his way above Georgiev and free agent signing Alex Lyon in camp and start the year with the big club while forcing one of the vets, likely Georgiev, to the waiver wire.
Other updates from Buffalo as training camp gets underway:
- Star winger Alex Tuch will be limited to start camp with an undisclosed injury, per Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550. He’s only day-to-day, and his issue is “nothing significant,” Hamilton said. It remains to be seen if he’ll be cleared for their preseason opener on Monday against the Blue Jackets, a contest he likely wouldn’t play in anyway that early in the exhibition schedule. The pending unrestricted free agent’s availability for opening night of the regular season isn’t currently in doubt.
- The news isn’t as promising regarding winger Jordan Greenway. Hamilton relays that he sustained a setback in his recovery from the lower-body injury that ended his 2024-25 season in March, requiring a second surgery in mid-July. He’s still on the mend from that and isn’t expected to be available for any preseason games. His projected return timeline is “around” opening night, Hamilton said, so there’s a small possibility of an IR placement for him to begin the year.
Sabres Cut Five From Rookie Camp
- While many teams are revealing their training camp rosters, the Sabres are trimming theirs. The team announced that forwards Matous Kucharcik, Melvin Novotny, Ryan Rucinski, and Ashton Schultz, along with defenseman Luke Dragusica, have all been returned to their respective junior teams. The four forwards were all part of Buffalo’s draft class back in June.
Snapshots: Kraken, Johnson, Dumais
The Seattle Kraken endured another disappointing campaign in 2024-25, going 35-41-6 and finishing seventh in the Pacific Division. The middling season cost head coach Dan Bylsma his job after just one season at the helm of the club, and the team also did some shuffling at the top of their hockey operations hierarchy, promoting Ron Francis to the position of president of hockey operations and Jason Botterill to the position of general manager. On Friday, Botterill spoke to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun about the state of the franchise heading into his first season as GM.
Botterill told LeBrun that he believes the “organization in the next year or two has to take that step to be, I’m not going to say a team that vies for the Stanley Cup, but a team that certainly competes for a playoff spot and is going to be in that mix in a constant way.” He also said he was eager to see new coach Lane Lambert implement his defensive philosophies to help the team shore up its back-end. The Kraken surrendered the ninth-most goals against per game in the NHL last season. While it remains to be seen whether the Kraken will be able to build themselves up to true Stanley Cup contention the way the Vegas Golden Knights were able to early in their franchise’s existence, there is a clear the mandate in Seattle is to take an urgently-needed step forward in 2025-26.
Other notes from across the NHL:
- Defenseman Erik Johnson, 37, is currently deciding between three different PTO offers in advance of the start of training camps, reports Guerilla Sports’ Jesse Montano. Montano added that none of those three offers are from the Avalanche, the team Johnson not only finished 2024-25 as a member of, but also has spent most of his 1023-game NHL career with. The veteran blueliner has settled into more of a reserve role as he’s progressed into his late thirties, though he could still have something to offer NHL teams in need of a defensive specialist with some leadership qualities. At the very least, he’ll get the chance to compete for a role in an NHL camp and most likely play in some preseason games.
- Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Jordan Dumais took part in warmups before the team’s prospect tournament game in Buffalo today, but was ultimately held out of the lineup for the contest. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that Dumais’ absence relates to a “slight tweak” he felt in his lower-body, and that the club elected to hold him out of the game for entirely precautionary reasons. While his absence is entirely precautionary, this development is notable because persistent injury issues caused Dumais to miss a large chunk of time in each of the last two seasons. Dumais is not considered a likely contender for the Blue Jackets’ season-opening roster, but could position himself for a call-up opportunity down the line if he can remain healthy and put together a strong preaseason and training camp.
Latest On Owen Power
If there was any concern that the knee injury Buffalo Sabres defenseman Owen Power suffered late last season would impact his readiness for 2025-26, those fears can be put to rest. According to Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic, Power “should be ready to go” for Sabres training camp and has been in Buffalo skating with teammates ahead of training camp. Fairburn added that Power “seemed to avoid the worst-case scenario” in terms of his injury, and Fairburn added that the injury should not be cause to lower expectations for Power’s upcoming season.
The upcoming season is a crucial one of the 2021 first-overall pick, as it is the second year of his massive eight-year, $8.35MM AAV contract extension. The 22-year-old blueliner offers rare offensive ability for a defenseman his size, and he set career-highs in 2024-25 by scoring seven goals and 40 points. But Power at times has been a lightning rod for criticism in Buffalo for his lack of physicality (something made all the more noticeable due to the fact that he stands six-foot-six, 226-pounds) and the fact that his steady personal improvement has not resulted in a major reversal of on-ice fortunes for the Sabres franchise as a whole. So, it is good news for both Power and the Sabres that his late-season injury does not look as though it will impact his ability to perform in 2025-26.
Latest On Alex Tuch
The Buffalo Sabres are looking to end their 14-year playoff drought this season, and if they’re going to do so, it’ll be in large part due to the contributions of Upstate New York native Alex Tuch. The 29-year-old winger has been stellar for the Sabres since arriving from Vegas as part of the Jack Eichel trade, and after scoring 36 goals and 67 points last season, the power forward is in line for a significant raise from his current $4.75MM AAV. A pending unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, Tuch’s contract situation will be one of the key storylines to watch for the Sabres this season.
As of right now, nothing appears imminent, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Pagnotta reports that the Sabres “want to lock [Tuch] up” by signing him to a new contract, but “haven’t gotten to that point yet.” With the trade of J.J. Peterka to the Utah Mammoth this past summer, Tuch’s contributions will be even more important to the Sabres immediate and long-term future. The only major bump in pay for next year on the Sabres’ books, at this point, is the increase of Jeff Skinner’s buyout cap hit from $4.4MM to $6.4MM, so it appears the Sabres will have the financial flexibility to afford a new deal for Tuch – whether he re-signs will likely come down to the preferences of the player.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen "Tweaked" Something Over Offseason
- Yesterday evening, the Buffalo Sabres surprised many by inking netminder Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year pact for the 2025-26 season. Given that Buffalo already has Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi, and Alex Lyon rostered for next year, there wasn’t an apparent positional need for Georgiev. Giving context to the signing in a new article on The Athletic, Matthew Fairburn reported that team sources indicated that Luukkonen “tweaked” something over summer training, and the Sabres are unsure when he’ll be back to full health. No reports indicate that Luukkonen has sustained a serious injury, but it is something to monitor during training camp.
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Buffalo Sabres Sign Alexandar Georgiev
The Buffalo Sabres have added a new goalie to their roster. The club announced tonight that they have signed netminder Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year, one-way $825k contract.
Georgiev, who is repped by Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey, had lingered on the free agent market after a sub-par 2024-25 season. It was just a few years ago that Georgiev was considered one of the NHL’s more promising young goalies. In 2022-23, his first season as the number-one for the Colorado Avalanche, Georgiev went 40-16-6 with a .919 save percentage, landing a seventh-place finish in Vezina Trophy voting. The next season, Georgiev started 62 games for the Avalanche and represented the team at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. But despite that honor, some cracks were beginning to show in Georgiev’s performance, as his save percentage declined to .898.
Georgiev struggled mightily to begin 2024-25, and through 18 games, he had a .874 save percentage. The Avalanche decided to move on from Georgiev in December of last year, dealing him to the San Jose Sharks as part of a larger trade that put Mackenzie Blackwood in position to take up a role as the new number-one goalie in Colorado.
In San Jose, Georgiev failed to find his form. He played in 31 games for the Sharks and went 7-19-4, posting an .875 save percentage while playing behind an admittedly poor defensive group. After the season, the Sharks informed Georgiev that he was not in their plans moving forward. After the Sharks’ final game of 2024-25, the netminder told the media, including Sharks Hockey Digest’s Max Miller, that he would not be offered an extension to remain with the club.
By signing with the Sabres, Georgiev has given himself a fresh opportunity to re-establish himself as an NHL goalie. The Sabres are not the most obvious fit for Georgiev – they already have Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen entrenched as a starter, and two other netminders with NHL experience set to compete for the role behind him. Top prospect Devon Levi appeared set to battle with Alex Lyon for the right to be Luukkonen’s backup, and now it appears a third name, Georgiev, has entered the mix for that role.
The Sabres signed Lyon to a two-year, $1.5MM AAV contract this summer, and the cap hit of that deal indicates that he enters training camp as the favorite for the spot behind Luukkonen. But this addition of Georgiev adds a new, qualified veteran for the Sabres to consider. With Georgiev playing to re-establish his place as an NHL netminder, Levi fighting to retain his status as one of the game’s top goalie prospects, and Lyon looking to play a third consecutive season entirely in the NHL, the battle for the number-two goalie spot in Buffalo looks set to be one of the more intriguing roster situations to watch in this upcoming preseason.
Injury Notes: Sharks, Power, Seguin
There was some concern for Sharks up-and-comer William Eklund’s health over the summer after he sustained a wrist laceration while playing in a pre-tournament game for Sweden at the World Championship. He needed surgery, and while the skate cut didn’t damage any vital nerves, it did carry a lengthy three-month recovery window. During that time, he also inked a three-year, $16.8MM extension.
Since Eklund’s injury occurred in May, the expectation was that he’d be ready for training camp. That looks to be the case as he was on the ice for an informal skate Monday and was taking contact, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now relays. That’s great news ahead of what could be even more of a breakthrough season for Eklund. He turns 23 next month and carried a 17-41–58 scoring line through 77 appearances in his sophomore year in 2024-25, up from 45 points in 80 games as a rookie (with a horrifying -45 rating) the year prior.
With the 2021 No. 7 overall pick on the mend, another first-rounder in their system also skated after ending last season on injured reserve. Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin was on the ice yesterday “without obvious limitation,” Peng wrote. The 23-year-old had shoulder surgery in the closing days of the regular season after logging nine points and a -7 rating in 30 regular-season appearances, a career-high. The 2020 first-rounder, previously acquired from the Devils, will be in a tight battle with fellow first-rounder Sam Dickinson and depth righty Jack Thompson for a roster spot in camp. He’ll need waivers to head to AHL San Jose, likely a matter of high concern to the Sharks’ front office.
Other injury updates as players begin to return to their team bases for training camp:
- Sabres defender Owen Power is fully healthy after rehabbing a lower-body injury that ended his 2024-25 season prematurely, telling the team’s Justin Alpert he’s “back to doing everything” and is “ready to go.” He said he’s looking forward to how the increased time in the gym over the summer due to his rehab affects his game as he heads into his fourth full NHL season. The 2021 top pick hit a career-high in points with 40 last year, but also saw career lows in plus/minus (-13) and time on ice (21:19 per game).
- After telling reporters following the Stars’ playoff elimination that he was dealing with a shoulder injury, Tyler Seguin is 100% after some “relatively easy” rehab, he tells Robert Tiffin of D Magazine. He told Tiffin the injury was caused by a hit from Oilers defender Darnell Nurse in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. Seguin had 29 points in 38 combined regular-season and playoff games last year, losing most of his regular season to a significant hip procedure.