- While the Sabres were hoping that prospect defenseman Ryan Johnson would turn pro after development camp, Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News reports that the blueliner has informed Buffalo that he’ll go back to college for his senior season. The 21-year-old was the 31st pick in 2019 and had 19 points in 39 games for the Minnesota Golden Gophers last season. If he doesn’t sign with Buffalo and becomes a free agent next August, the Sabres would receive the 31st pick of the second round in the 2024 draft as compensation.
Sabres Rumors
Buffalo Sabres Sign Riley Sheahan
Aug 11: Sheahan’s contract includes a $375K AHL salary, according to CapFriendly.
Aug 10: The Buffalo Sabres have brought Riley Sheahan back to the organization, signing him to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal has a $950K NHL salary.
Sheahan, 30, spent last season with the Seattle Kraken, registering 17 points in 69 games. He also cleared waivers in November though, leading to four games in the minor leagues, his first time in the AHL since 2013-14.
It perhaps is that fact that makes this contract structure so interesting. It’s not often a two-way contract has an NHL salary as high as $950K. Sheahan will be nicely rewarded if he can make the roster but that isn’t guaranteed, given how many other players will be in camp.
The Sabres already had ten forwards signed to one-way deals, with a large group of entry-level prospects pushing for playing time. Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs, and Jack Quinn are all likely to make the opening day group, which doesn’t necessarily leave a lot of room for Sheahan.
Still, with more than 600 games of NHL experience and a strong defensive pedigree at center ice, he represents nice depth for the Sabres to add this late in the summer.
Sabres Not Confident They'll Be Able To Sign Erik Portillo
While the Sabres still have another year and a bit to sign goaltending prospect Erik Portillo, Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News notes that there are doubts both internally and league-wide that the netminder will actually sign with Buffalo. The 21-year-old was a third-round pick back in 2019 (67th overall) and was quite impressive with Michigan last season, posting a 2.14 GAA along with a .926 SV% in 42 games. While Portillo has two years of college eligibility remaining, he will be eligible to opt for free agency next August since it will be four years since he has been drafted. If Buffalo isn’t able to sign him after the 2022-23 college season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to trade his rights to a team he’d be willing to sign with.
Looking Back At The First Round Of The 2005 NHL Entry Draft
On this date 17 years ago, the first round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft was held at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. It was the league’s first major event since the lockout that cost them the entire 2004-05 season ended just over a week prior, and considering the draft’s top prize, there was added intrigue.
With the lack of regular-season standings to determine the draft order, the league implemented a snake draft system to make things more equitable for teams in later rounds that didn’t fare so well in the draft lottery. One team that did fare well that night, though, was the Pittsburgh Penguins, who cemented a 15-plus year run of success by drafting future captain Sidney Crosby with the first overall pick.
Five players selected that night went on to appear in at least 1,000 NHL games, including Crosby. One was 2022 Stanley Cup Champion Jack Johnson, taken third overall by the Carolina Hurricanes. Johnson never played a single game for Carolina, though, as he was traded the following offseason to the Los Angeles Kings along with defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky in exchange for defenseman Tim Gleason and center Eric Belanger.
Johnson wasn’t the only player from the first round to play meaningful games for the Kings, though. The team selected two-time Stanley Cup champion and future captain Anze Kopitar with the 11th overall selection. Another thousand-gamer was selected directly after him when the New York Rangers picked defenseman Marc Staal 12th overall, while Johnson’s teammate on the 2022 Avalanche, forward Andrew Cogliano, was selected 25th by the Edmonton Oilers.
One name from that night who could still join the 1,000-game club was St. Louis Blues selection and current Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie. Taken 24th overall, he only needs 100 more appearances to hit the mark.
Future Stanley Cup-winning skaters weren’t the only future legends drafted that night, though. Two of the greatest goalies in recent memory were drafted that night, with the Montreal Canadiens selecting Carey Price with the fifth overall pick and the Toronto Maple Leafs selecting Tuukka Rask with the 21st overall pick, of course prior to trading him to the Boston Bruins the following season.
Just three players selected that night, all taken within four picks of each other, would never make an NHL appearance. Slovak forward Marek Zagrapan, drafted 13th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, played just three years in the organization with two different AHL affiliates, scoring 20 goals there just once. At 35 years old, Zagrapan is still active, playing the 2022-23 season in the French Ligue Magnus.
Directly after him, the Washington Capitals took Canadian defenseman Sasha Pokulok with the 14th overall pick. The first overage player taken in the draft, he’s arguably the biggest bust of the night. He never spent a full season in the AHL, bouncing up and down between there and the ECHL for four seasons after turning pro in 2006. He failed to make a notable impact in Europe, too, only lasting one season in the DEL (2010-11) before floating around various lower-level leagues in Eastern Europe and Quebec.
Lastly, there’s Canadian winger Alex Bourret, taken by the Atlanta Thrashers at 16th overall. A short but strong power winger, Bourret had a very successful junior career in the QMJHL that just didn’t translate. His North American career fizzled out quickly after a strong start in the AHL, but after being traded twice (first to the Rangers, then to the Coyotes), he had just 14 points in 48 AHL games during his final season there in 2008-09.
Olivier Nadeau Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
- Sabres prospect Olivier Nadeau underwent shoulder surgery last week and will miss the next four-to-six months, reports Jean-Francois Plante of Le Droit. The 19-year-old had a strong showing with QMJHL Shawinigan last season with 78 points in 65 games while adding four goals and two assists at the Memorial Cup. Nadeau was traded to Gatineau this summer but some of that return will be rescinded as a result of the extended absence; a clause was put into the trade in case surgery was needed.
Arttu Ruotsalainen Signs In Switzerland
Despite specifically denying intentions to go to Switzerland this offseason, Arttu Ruotsalainen has indeed signed overseas, inking a one-year deal with EHC Kloten. The young forward received a qualifying offer from the Buffalo Sabres, meaning they will retain his exclusive NHL rights.
Ruotsalainen, 24, signed out of Finland in 2020 as an undrafted free agent after lighting up the professional ranks there, and quickly established himself as a depth option for the Sabres. In 2020-21 he scored five goals and six points in 17 NHL games, and this past season it was more of the same, with four goals in 18 matches.
Where he really stood out was in the AHL, where Ruotsalainen had 76 points in 80 games including an outstanding playoff run with the Rochester Americans this spring. In ten games, he scored eight goals and 12 points, picking up some of the goal-scoring slack for a young core that at times looked a bit overwhelmed. With Jack Quinn and Peyton Krebs failing to score even a single goal in the postseason (though Krebs did have 11 assists) it was up to Ruotsalainen and J.J. Peterka to carry the load.
Now, with him heading back overseas, it’s unclear where Ruotsalainen’s future with the Sabres lies. It appears that he was hoping for a full-time NHL opportunity when he came to North America, something that will be difficult to accomplish as Buffalo’s roster is filled more and more by top young talent. The fact that he stands just 5’9″ won’t help his case there either, despite the top offensive ability he has shown at basically every stop. Even his NHL numbers–seven goals in 35 games despite averaging fewer than 13 minutes a night–suggest that he could be of use at the highest level, but we’ll have to wait and see if he ever gets that chance again.
Andrej Sekera Retires From NHL
After 16 seasons, one of the best Slovak defensemen to ever lace them up is calling it a career. Andrej Sekera told a Slovak-language newspaper today that he’s stepping back from the NHL.
A 2004 third-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres, Sekera carved out a quite long, underrated NHL career with the Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers, and Dallas Stars, where he spent the last three years and 135 games of his career.
His peak season, interestingly enough, came during his only full season with Carolina, notching 11 goals and 44 points in 74 games while averaging a career-high 23:41 per game.
Sekera was one of the more overlooked pieces that helped the Edmonton Oilers return to relevancy with Connor McDavid at the helm. He was the team’s most important defensive player in the 2016-17 season that saw them make the playoffs for the first time in 11 years, but a torn ACL during the second round in 2017 really hurt his career. He never played more than 57 games in a season after that and never averaged higher than 18 minutes per game after consistently averaging 20 or more for a number of seasons prior.
Sekera retired third all-time in games played amongst Slovak defensemen, trailing the obvious (Zdeno Chara) and Lubomir Visnovsky.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Brett Murray
The Buffalo Sabres have signed restricted free agent forward Brett Murray to a one-year contract worth $750K for the 2022-23 season. He was eligible for arbitration but did not file by yesterday’s deadline, suggesting that a deal was close.
Murray, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Sabres in 2016, an interesting blend of size and skill that hadn’t played above the CCHL level. His development was a slow process, going through the USHL, two unsuccessful years at Penn State, back to the USHL, and then two years in the minor leagues, before becoming a semi-regular with the Sabres last season.
In 19 NHL games, he scored two goals and six points while racking up 23 penalty minutes, using that 6’5″ frame to his advantage. With a strong performance in the minor leagues as well, there’s a real chance that Murray could secure a roster spot this season with the Sabres, at least as a bottom-six option for head coach Don Granato.
One thing that will hurt that chase is the fact that despite being arbitration-eligible, Murray is still waiver-exempt. He can be sent to the minor leagues without issue, meaning he may end up with Rochester to start the year as the Sabres figure out their optimal lineup. Still, with the focus on players like Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs, and Jack Quinn (not to mention Matthew Savoie, Jiri Kulich, and Noah Ostlund) as the future up front in Buffalo, a player like Murray could quickly become a valuable piece to fit lower in the lineup.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Three Draft Picks
The Sabres have gotten down to business today, earlier finalizing a deal with free agent defenseman Lawrence Pilut and now finishing up entry-level deals for their three first-round picks: Matthew Savoie, Jiri Kulich, and Noah Ostlund.
While all three deals were announced simultaneously, the development paths for each of the players is likely to be very different. Savoie, the first pick of the three, was drafted ninth overall after a brilliant season for the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL. Savoie, who plays center in Winnipeg, will in all likelihood return to the Ice for 2022-23 and spend another season starring on a contending WHL club.
Ostlund, the second pick, was picked 16th overall out of Djurgardens in the SHL. He’s perhaps best known for being the playmaking center on Djurgardens’ line of 2022 first-rounders, often sharing the ice with Minnesota Wild prospect Liam Ohgren and Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki. Ostlund signs his entry-level deal and can potentially be sent to the AHL’s Rochester Americans if he doesn’t make the Sabres out of training camp. The new NHL-SHL agreement would stipulate that Ostlund returns to Sweden, but both his status as a first-rounder and Djurgardens’ relegation to HockeyAllsvenskan means Ostlund is a candidate to play in the AHL next season. Ostlund could also take the route of fellow Djurgarden product Alexander Holtz, who spent most of the year after he was drafted in the SHL while also getting 10 AHL games under his belt to familiarize himself with the North American game.
The last of the three first-rounders the Sabres’ signed today, Kulich, was selected 28th overall. Kulich, who spent his draft season with Karlovy Vary HC of the Czech Extraliga, has a few options to choose from for where he wants to play next season. Kulich said in his media availability after the draft that he hoped to play in the NHL next season, but the track record of 18-year-old late first-rounders making an immediate jump to the NHL is thin. Kulich will have the opportunity to play in Rochester if that’s where the Sabres choose to send him, or he could always return to Czechia and get another season of European pro hockey under his belt. One other option for him would be going to the CHL, where his rights are owned by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the QMJHL, although that is not the likeliest option, despite the fact that he was selected third overall at the 2022 Import Draft.
All three players are extremely talented forwards, and two of them have experience playing against men already. With their entry-level deals signed, the Sabres will be able to help each player along their development paths so that they can reach Buffalo and become difference-makers as efficiently as possible.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Lawrence Pilut
July 15: Pilut has sign a one-year, $750K contract to return to the Sabres.
July 8: When Lawrence Pilut decided to leave the Buffalo Sabres and take his talents to the KHL in 2020, the team still extended him a qualifying offer to retain his exclusive rights. That appears to have paid off, as Pilut’s contract in the KHL has been terminated and the Sabres are now “very interested” in bringing him back to North America, according to Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News.
Pilut, 26, was an undrafted free agent signing in 2018, following his offensive explosion at the SHL level. In his first season with the Sabres organization, he split time between the Sabres and Rochester Americans, making a huge impact at the AHL level with 26 points in 30 games. While his numbers haven’t been quite as good when deployed in the NHL, the 46 games he experienced were sporadic and inconsistent.
Now, after two years in the KHL, the puck-moving defenseman could be a nice addition to give the Sabres some additional depth at the position. Notably, if the Sabres wanted to bring him in and use him in Rochester, he would now have to clear waivers. That would give other teams a chance to claim him if they believed he can contribute in the NHL.