AHL Notes: Weissbach, Penguins, Wolf Pack
Free agent forward Linus Weissbach has signed with Frölunda HC of the SHL. Weissbach was a Group-VI UFA with the Sabres, effectively moving to unrestricted free agency after not receiving a qualifying offer from the team before July 1st.
This move returns Weissbach to his hometown of Göteborg, Sweden, where Weissbach grew up through the Frölunda pipeline. He made his debut with the organization’s top club in 2016, though he only played in one game before moving to North America and pursuing a four-year career with the University of Wisconsin. He graduated college in 2021 and has since spent the last three seasons with the Rochester Americans, accumulating 117 points across 191 games in the minor leagues. But despite consistent production and a stout role in Rochester’s top-six, Weissbach was never the top option for a call-up, losing standing to more robust minor leaguers like Lukas Rousek and Brett Murray, and more recently bumped out by prospects like Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen.
With that logjam only increasing after Buffalo’s successful 2024 NHL Draft, Weissbach will change his focus to pursuing a career with his hometown club. Frölunda’s sporting director Fredrik Sjöström shared his excitement for the move, saying, “We have lost two offensively skilled players in [Malte Strömwall] and [Jere Innala]. We wanted to bring in offensive skill and “Weiss” is just that. He is a skilled forward with good speed and plays like a pattern breaker. He fits what we wanted. We’ve been on him for a while and knew we needed to wait for some other parameters before he could choose us (Linus has been a free agent in North America). But he did and we are happy about that, says Fredrik Sjöström, sports director.”
Other notes out of the minor leagues:
- The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have added Nick Luukko as an assistant coach. Luukko, 32, has spent the last three seasons as the head coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen, leading the team to the postseason in each year, though they never made it past the second round. He earned the role with Jacksonville just two seasons after ending his own playing career – which spanned 274 ECHL games – after just one season as an ECHL assistant coach. He’ll now fast-track to the next level, joining a Penguins organization in the midst of cycling out much of their org chart.
- The Hartford Wolf Pack have hired Brendan Burke as a goaltending coach. Burke has spent the last two seasons as a goaltending coach for his former youth and junior hockey teams – the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes and Portland Winterhawks. He earned an NHL Draft selection with Portland in 2012-13, hearing his name called in the sixth round by his hometown Phoenix Coyotes. Burke is the son of legendary NHL goaltender Sean Burke, who is now serving as Vegas’ Director of Goaltending.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Linus Weissbach
The Buffalo Sabres signed left wing Linus Weissbach to a one-year, two-way contract today, the team said in a release. Weissbach’s new deal carries a $775K cap hit; however, the team did not disclose the complete structure of his contract.
With no pending arbitration cases, Weissbach was Buffalo’s last unsigned restricted free agent. Weissbach was eligible for arbitration but chose not to file.
The Swedish winger had quite a solid sophomore campaign with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, finishing fourth on the team with 47 points in 69 regular-season games last season and recording his first 20-goal campaign in the pros. He added on three goals, seven assists and ten points in 12 games of postseason play as the Americans advanced to the Eastern Conference Final, losing to the eventual Calder Cup champion, the Hershey Bears.
At 25 years old, Weissbach is a bonafide top-six AHL winger. How much farther he can rise from there remains to be seen. Still, his high-energy play and consistent forechecking earned him a qualifying offer last month and at least one more season of action in the Sabres organization.
Getting any games played within the organization out of a seventh-round pick is generally a victory for a team’s scouting department, and it’s fair to say the Sabres’ scouts can be happy with their choice after selecting Weissbach 192nd overall in 2017. The 5-foot-10 winger has gathered 84 points in 136 games over two seasons in Rochester after a successful four-year stay at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned Big Ten All-Rookie honors in 2017-18 and an All-Star team nod in 2020-21.