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Matthew Savoie

Buffalo Sabres Assign Matt Savoie To AHL On Conditioning Loan

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The Buffalo Sabres have sent 2022 eighth-overall pick Matt Savoie to the AHL’s Rochester Americans on a conditioning loan.

Savoie was injured at the team’s prospect tournament and has been on injured reserve to start the season. This loan will allow Savoie to get some games under his belt in the AHL, a league he played two playoff games in at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.

Savoie, who will turn 20 on January 1st, misses the cut-off for automatic AHL eligibility by just one day. The Sabres have reportedly petitioned the WHL to give Savoie an exemption and allow him to play in the AHL, but while Seattle Kraken prospect Shane Wright received one such exemption from the OHL, the Sabres have reportedly not been optimistic about Savoie’s odds of receiving one from the WHL.

That reality means that once Savoie’s conditioning assignment has concluded, he’ll in all likelihood be on his way back to the WHL, where he’ll play for the Wenatchee Wild.

The WHL’s Wild have struggled so far this season without Savoie or Zach Benson, who was a surprise addition to the Sabres’ NHL roster to start the season. Savoie scored 95 points in the WHL last year and would be a massive, difference-making addition for Wenatchee.

There’s also always the chance that Savoie ends up called back to the Sabres’ NHL roster, although that possibility becomes more unlikely if Benson maintains his hold on a spot in head coach Don Granato’s lineup.

Injury Notes: Stars, Avalanche, Martinez, Savoie

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Saad Yousuf of The Athletic relayed several injury updates from the Head Coach of the Dallas Stars, Peter DeBoer this morning. All of the injury reports being on the milder side, the Stars could reasonably expect most of the players to be ready for opening night next week.

Being two of the more high-profile players on the list forwards Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston are both working their way back from injuries. Hintz has returned to skating following an upper-body injury, while Johnston had a non-surgical procedure performed, and is expected back skating this weekend.

Following those two, Yousuf reports that Radek Faksa has received stitches, but is not in concussion protocol after receiving a solid check in Tuesday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. Not playing in Tuesday night’s game, DeBoer also mentions that defenseman Jani Hakanpaa is out with an undisclosed injury, and is currently being evaluated by the team’s medical staff.

It goes without saying that injury news of any kind is negative news, but luckily for Dallas, a team that could very well win the NHL’s Central Division this season, all should be back in due time.

Other injury notes:

  • Staying in the Central Division, Corey Masisak of the Denver Post similarly relayed injury news from the Head Coach of the Avalanche, Jared Bednar. Bednar expects both Mikko Rantanen and Josh Manson to be ready for opening night but is unsure in regards to the status of Andrew Cogliano. For the entirety of this year’s preseason, Rantanen and Manson have each only suited up in one game, while Cogliano is still working his way back from a fractured neck in last year’s opening-round playoff matchup against the Seattle Kraken.
  • Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting that three-time Cup champion defenseman, Alec Martinez, will not participate in any team activities for the next few days due to a lower-body injury. Losing a step since his time with the Los Angeles Kings, the Vegas Golden Knights will surely use the next few days to make sure Martinez is ready for opening night, as he was a part of the defensive core that was fundamental in the Knights winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history last season.
  • With his eligibility still up in the air for the AHL this season, Buffalo Sabres’ prospect, Matthew Savoie is progressing nicely in recovery of an upper-body injury, and will likely be rejoining the team tomorrow morning. Having the talent to crack Buffalo’s roster out of the gates this upcoming season, Savoie’s play to finish up training camp may resolve any questions the Sabres had regarding his eligibility.

Sabres Notes: Savoie, Dahlin and Power, Quinn

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In a recent interview, Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said that Matthew Savoie is considered week-to-week with a left shoulder injury. This timeline puts Savoie at risk of missing the entirety of training camp, although Adams did mention there’s a chance that Savoie will be back before camp closes.

Either way, this is a tough blow for a player that many felt could break into the NHL lineup. Buffalo drafted Savoie ninth overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. As an encore to his strong draft year, Savoie put up 38 goals and 95 points in 62 WHL games last season, adding an additional 29 points in 19 playoff games. His regular season scoring ranked seventh in the league in total points and sixth in points per game. Now 19, there’s reason to question whether Savoie would benefit from another year in the WHL. To this end, the Sabres tried to petition the juniors league to provide Savoie with the same CHL exemption that Shane Wright recently received, although Buffalo isn’t optimistic that Savoie will receive it. With injury holding him out of the bulk of camp, it will be interesting to see where Savoie ends up this season.

Other Sabres Notes:

  • Adams also spoke to the intensifying contract negotiations the team is having with star defenders Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power. Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski recently shared that Buffalo may have Dahlin inked to a long-term extension before the regular season begins, although the negotiations with Power seem to be a new development. The former first-overall pick will become a free agent next summer, although Buffalo will have exclusive negotiation rights as Power hasn’t accrued enough games to earn full RFA status. That certainly gives the team a leg up in talks, something that could be helpful, as Lysowski mentions the likelihood of Power signing a bridge deal to make room for Dahlin’s extension.
  • Adams also provided an update on Jack Quinn’s injury status, sharing that the winger is progressing well from his rehab but there is still a lot of work to be done before he’s fully back to action. Quinn ruptured his Achilles tendon and underwent surgery in June of this year. He was listed as being out for four to six months following the surgery, so it seems Quinn is progressing as expected. Quinn scored 14 goals and 37 points in 75 games last season, his rookie year in the NHL.

Injury Notes: Pearson, Savoie, Rasmussen

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CapFriendly has reported that the Vancouver Canucks have officially activated veteran forward Tanner Pearson off of long-term injured reserve. In their post on X, CapFriendly writes: “This is significant because it means that he is no longer considered an LTI candidate, and tentatively leaves the club $1,709,167 over the cap” even if they place defenseman Tucker Poolman on LTIR.

The team could still be cap compliant to start the season, but to do so they would need to carry fewer than the maximum of 23 players on their active roster. Pearson, 31, is making $3.25MM against the cap and played just 14 games last season, scoring five points.

Some more injury notes from across the NHL:

  • The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski is reporting that Buffalo Sabres prospect Matthew Savoie left the prospects game against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an apparent injury. The 2022 ninth-overall pick left the ice in pain and did not return to the game. The Sabres have said that Savoie may miss time at the start of camp with what is being described as an upper body injury.
  • CapFriendly has also reported that the Detroit Red Wings have now officially activated forward Michael Rasmussen off of injured reserve. Rasmussen had been on injured reserve since March 2nd, meaning he finished his 2022-23 season with just 56 games played. The hulking six-foot-six forward had something of a breakout year, though, scoring at a 15-goal, 42-point 82-game pace.

Matthew Savoie Unlikely To Receive CHL Exemption Like Wright

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According to the Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski, the Buffalo Sabres are still waiting to see where top prospect Matthew Savoie will be playing next season. The team has petitioned the WHL to let Savoie out of the CHL-NHL agreement, making him eligible to be sent to the AHL this season, but has yet to receive approval. Notably, Shane Wright recently received this same exemption after efforts from the Seattle Kraken.

To be assigned to the AHL, a CHL player must either be 20 years old on or before December 31st of the season’s year or have registered four seasons in their league. Savoie misses the former cut-off by just one day, turning 20 on January 1st of next year. And while he hasn’t appeared in four CHL seasons, Savoie has played in 68 more juniors games than Wright.

The argument for Savoie seems clear but Lysowsky doesn’t anticipate that he’ll receive an exemption. One of his sources said that was likely a result of the Sabres working with the WHL, which has a different set of rules and approaches than Wright’s OHL. Savoie can instead turn his attention towards making the Sabres’ opening day roster, pushing for the roster spot left open by Jack Quinn’s recent Achille’s tendon injury.

If Savoie does have to return to the WHL, he’ll be joining the Wenatchee Wild, the WHL’s newest team formed after the sale of the Winnipeg Ice. Savoie would join fellow Sabres prospect Zach Benson and Arizona Coyotes prospect Conor Geekie on the new club.

Atlantic Notes: Knies, Savoie, Komarov

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Matthew Knies gave the Toronto Maple Leafs some solid playoff hockey as a rookie just weeks after wrapping up his collegiate career, posting four points in seven games and even sliding into a top-six role at times. Unfortunately, his postseason was cut short early into Game 2 of their second-round loss to the Florida Panthers when a behind-the-net hit from Panthers center Sam Bennett concussed Knies and kept him out of the final three games of the series.

Today, Knies says he’s “fully recovered” from the collision and has been for quite some time – saying he’d been cleared to return to the lineup in Game 6 had Toronto avoided elimination. Toronto’s 57th overall pick in 2021 has shot up prospect rankings thanks to two spectacular campaigns at the University of Minnesota, during which he averaged over a point per game. He was named the NCAA’s Big 10 Player of the Year for 2022-23 after recording 21 goals and 42 points in 40 games. After Toronto signed both Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi to one-year deals in free agency, he’s far from guaranteed to slot into the team’s top-six on opening night but should still play a significant role.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • While top Seattle Kraken prospect Shane Wright was granted an exemption from the CHL to head to the minor leagues a year earlier than normal, don’t expect the same for Buffalo Sabres 2022 ninth-overall pick Matthew Savoie. The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski says the Sabres have “communicated” with the CHL regarding an exemption, but the “odds aren’t in their favor.” Savoie lit up the WHL for 95 points in 62 games with the Winnipeg ICE (now Wenatchee Wild) last season and was born on January 1, 2004 – if he had been born a day earlier, he would be eligible for a full-time AHL assignment to Rochester this season. There is still an outside chance Savoie turns pro this season by making the Sabres out of camp, however.
  • Sticking with Buffalo, Lysowski also reports defense prospect Vsevolod Komarov is dealing with a lower-body injury that will keep him out of their rookie tournament games. Komarov, 19, is expected to return to the QMJHL’s Québec Remparts after being released from Sabres camp. The team selected him 134th overall in the 2022 draft, and he put up stellar two-way numbers for the Remparts last season en route to a QMJHL championship and Memorial Cup win, posting 39 points and a +38 rating in 62 regular-season games.

Snapshots: Winnipeg, Hayes, Sharangovich

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The WHL’s Winnipeg Ice are on the move again after spending just four years in the city, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports Friday. After moving from Cranbrook in the Kootenay region of British Columbia in 2019, a condition of the sale to new owners in Winnipeg was a new facility for the team. The condition was never met, and now the team has been sold to former 2017 BCHL executive of the year David White, who will move them to Wenatchee, Washington, a town with a population of about 35,000 people in the center of the state. For now, it seems the new Wenatchee WHL squad will share the ice with White’s BCHL team, the Wenatchee Wild, at the Town Toyota Center with a capacity of 4,300 people.

Winnipeg lost in this year’s WHL championship series and boasts an eye-popping record of 110-20-6 over the past two seasons combined. The franchise’s debut season in Wenatchee could include Buffalo Sabres prospect Matthew Savoie and Arizona Coyotes prospect Conor Geekie, both first-round picks in the 2022 NHL Draft.

Other notes from around the hockey world today:

  • On today’s episode of Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman dumped some cold water on the rumors of a Kevin Hayes trade between the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets. After the two teams were involved in a three-way deal that saw Ivan Provorov head from the Flyers to the Jackets, reports said the move didn’t eliminate the possibility of the long-rumored Hayes deal coming to fruition. However, the Blue Jackets now have under $6MM in projected cap space for 2023-24 (CapFriendly) after getting defender Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils in a sign-and-trade, which would force the Flyers to retain a high amount of Hayes’ $7.14MM cap hit through 2025-26. While Columbus remains in desperate need of centers, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen now has seven defensemen on the roster that cost more than $2MM against the cap, including a combined $6.75MM wrapped up in Erik Gudbranson and Andrew Peeke, who both had very disappointing campaigns last season.
  • Another name mentioned by Friedman was that of New Jersey Devils forward Yegor Sharangovich, who Friedman believes could hit the trade market this offseason. The 25-year-old Belarusian is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after completing a two-year, $4MM contract signed in August of 2021 and has registered at least 30 points in all three of his NHL campaigns. He is a decent depth scorer, but he’s not of much value defensively and posted the lowest point-per-game output of his NHL career (0.40) last season. He was a healthy scratch for most of New Jersey’s playoff run, appearing in three out of 12 games.

Buffalo Sabres Assign Matthew Savoie To AHL

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One of the Buffalo Sabres’ best prospects will get his first taste of professional hockey. The team reassigned forward Matthew Savoie to the AHL’s Rochester Americans today, and he will join them ahead of their Eastern Conference Final series against the Hershey Bears.

Selected ninth overall in 2022, the speedy, well-rounded forward slipped a few spots south of where most public scouts anticipated. Other teams’ loss was Buffalo’s gain, as Savoie posted another strong season with the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice in his post-draft year and didn’t look entirely out of place with the Sabres during training camp last fall.

After helping guide the Ice to the WHL’s championship series with 29 points in 19 playoff games, eventually losing to the Seattle Thunderbirds, Savoie now joins another high-pressure environment in Rochester. The Americans are among the final four AHL teams left standing after sweeping the Toronto Marlies in three games in the North Division Final.

Could it be a precursor to Savoie earning a spot with Buffalo out of camp next season? Definitely, if at least on a nine-game trial before he would need to return to Winnipeg for a final season of junior hockey.

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