Buffalo Sabres

Sabres prepared for Traverse City

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Fans looking to dip their beaks in hockey action will get a small taste the week before the Buffalo Sabres preseason opens.

The Sabres are sending 23 prospects to Traverse City, Michigan to participate in the 2011-12 NHL Prospect Tournament.

Topping the list of players are Luke Adam, Zack Kassian, Brayden McNabb and Mark Pysyk. Those players are currently the top players in the Sabres’ pipeline and Adam and Kassian are expected to challenge for an NHL roster spot this season

The remaining 19 players are an assortment of draft picks from the past few seasons in addition to a few invitees. Steven Beyers, Jonathan Parker and Phil Varone all participated in the Sabres rookie camp earlier in the summer, Parker and Varone will be in camp with the Amerks in a few weeks time as well. Beyers was impressive in camp and will remain on Buffalo’s radar for him final year of junior.

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Effin’ A Cotton, effin’ a

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In a summer of major changes for the Sabres organization one more cosmetic one will occur today. First Niagara will acquire the naming rights to HSBC Arena.

This is a move I suspected would occur in the near future, I just didn’t think it would happen this soon. As First Niagara has continued to grow in recent years I began to wonder if they would look into some sort of branding with the Sabres, Bisons or the Bills. When HSBC sold their retail branches to First Niagara I assumed a name change for the Arena was inevitable. However, all news from the three parties involved appeared to be in the contrary.

Now there is the opportunity for the Arena to be called the First Niagara Arena – or FNA (effin’ a). UPDATE: It appears the name will be the First Niagara Center.

With the additional renovations being made to the interior of the Arena and the locker room, a name change will add that much more of a new look for the new regime. Based on the look of the First Niagara logo, it will look much better on the exterior (and interior signage) of the building. I do wonder if they will utilize the neon waves that were once prevalent on the main exterior sign back in the 90s.

Aside from a trade, it seems as if the next biggest change will come with a new sign on the front of the Arena.

Sabres-Flames rumors swirl again

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As training camp fast approaches the Sabres timetable to get under the cap continues to shrink.

Despite the obvious solution (sticking players in the minors), Darcy Regier continues to stand by his strategy of utilizing trades to clear the necessary cap space. Due to that apparent strategy, the rumor mill is back up and running.

Everyone’s favorite rumor monger, Eklund, floated the idea of a second trade between the Sabres and Flames. While it is an intriguing notion I doubt that either team could find a workable option.

Jarome Iginla is on every Sabres fan's wish list. I say keep wishing.

Buffalo currently sits $3.6 million over the salary cap. The Flames are just about $1.5 million under the cap at this time. Given those numbers, I can’t find a may either team could work the payroll. The Sabres top trade prospects are Brad Boyes, Ales Kotalik, Shaone Morrisonn, Jason Pominville and Andrej Sekera. Sekera is the most attractive option based on his cap hit (2.75) and his skill level. Pominville is a close second based on his scoring touch, but his $5.3 million cap hit would require a lot of tweaking in a potential trade. Brad Boyes has a moderate cap hit and a moderate offense return, I wonder how attractive he would be for teams around the league.

As for the Flames, there are only a few truly attractive options based on the Sabres’ needs and salary constraints. Rene Bourque, Curtis Glencross, Nik Hagman and Brendan Morrison. Certainly Sabres fans are hoping that the white whale, Jarome Iginla, is a target, but there is no way they could swig the trade based on their current cap situation.

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Farewell Captain Clutch

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In case you hadn’t heard, Chris Drury played in, and won, the Little League World Series. No fooling.

In a related note, Captain Clutch is calling it a career. After an underwhelming and injury plagued tenure with the New York Rangers, Drury was bought out earlier in the summer and has decided to retire from professional hockey all together.

What this tells me is his degenerative knee condition is more severe than originally expected in July. There were many who figured he would find his was onto a contender’s roster at discounted rate for the 2011-12 campaign. After all his face off skills, penalty killing and other intangibles would be very attractive to a team making a Cup push.

Alas, his injuries likely played a large role in this decision.

Drury was, and will be, one of my favorite players of all time. Ever since his first seasons with Colorado I was a fan of his style and skill. When he was acquired by Buffalo I was ready to do back flips.

Drury was part of some of the best Sabres hockey in the history of the franchise. He, Daniel Briere and the rest of the core players carried the team to the Eastern Conference Finals in back-to-back years in what was one of the most memorable runs I can think of with this team. Then, of course there was the goal. Who else?

And here is an even cooler angle

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Sabres re-sign Gragnani and add to AHL depth

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Nearly a strong month of silence from One Seymour H Knox III Plaza was ended this week when the Buffalo Sabres announced a trio of new signings.

The final signing, a one-year deal for Marc-Andre Gragnani, is the most important of the three. The Sabres no longer have any players left without a contract after Gragnani agreed to terms. Earlier in the week Buffalo came to terms on one-year contracts for Mike Ryan and Paul Szezechura. Both will play in Rochester this season.

The acquisition of Ryan and Szezechura was a good move by the team as the Amerks were in desperate need of help at forward, particularly at center. Szezechura is a natural center and Ryan will likely allow for Matt Ellis to serve as a pivot as well. Both players are capable of putting up numbers at the AHL level in addition to having some NHL experience. Strong marks to Darcy Regier for finding two strong veterans for the Americans. Continue reading →

Sabres/Canisius rink gets some teeth

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It seems my spitballing for a Sabres practice arena wasn’t strictly conjecture. Well, I had no idea that this plan could ever come to fruition. Also my plan would call for the arena to be built in the Cobblestone District near HSBC Arena. But, it is still cool to know that these discussions are occurring.

Give credit to Nick Veronica for getting details on this story at It’s Always Game Seven (Bucky Gleason also mentioned the rumor in a recent column). He explained that the school will be joining Niagara University, Robert Morris University (PA) and Mercyhurst College in meeting with the CCHA on potentially joining the conference when the Big Ten and NCHC poach all of the strong programs in college hockey.

In addition, it seems as if preliminary discussions have taken place for Saint Terry to make a donation towards erecting a rink for Canisius and the Sabres to share on the school’s campus. Continue reading →

A closer look at the Sabres’ depth

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With the Buffalo Sabres re-signing Matt Ellis, Jhonas Enroth, Dennis Persson Andrej Sekera and Travis Turnbull this week, the opening day roster is all but set. While there will be tweaks as training camp comes and goes, the main body of the roster is pretty easy to piece together right now.

The Sabres have a boatload of depth at this point and a look in the prospect cupboard reveals even more. I was linked in a post about the Sabres depth being mistaken for a logjam. While I certainly see portions of the roster that are clogged I did not mean to portray the point of view that bodies need to go and go fast. Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff need to capitalize on the depth at their disposal. In two seasons this could be a very different team and that depth will be the reason why.

I divided the team up by position in a relative depth chart. Anyone under a professional contract for this season was accounted for (ex. Shawn Szydlowski). I also included Marc-Andre Gragnani even though he hasn’t officially signed. Of note; the defense isn’t in pairs, it is just split into a relative depth setting to account for who I expect to be on the opening night roster, and the order of call ups. Additionally, the forwards are offset because there are more right wingers than left wingers or centers at this point. Continue reading →

Enroth inked to two-year contract

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The Sabres came to terms with goaltender Jhonas Enroth today on a two-year contract that should finally cement the Sabres’ back-up goaltender position. With Enroth under contract the Sabres only have Marc-Andre Gragnani left to sign.

Enroth agreed to a two-year $1.35 million deal, good for $675,000 a season. A very manageable cap hit that makes the player and contrcat attractive for a potential trade. This was another one of those no-brainer extensions for Darcy Regier. Rather than ride out one season on a qualifying offer, Regier wisely extended the goaltender for an additional year. The same can be said about the Mike Weber extension. This contract will allow Enroth to develop further at the NHL level and maybe even turn into a major asset on the trade market. It is a win-win. Continue reading →

Sabres hit the ceiling, re-sign Ellis and Sekera

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The past few weeks have been pretty boring for most hockey fans and suddenly a few GMs woke up today and made some noise.

Tampa Bay reached an agreement with Steven Stamkos for some big money, Anaheim extended Andrew Cogliano and the Devils announced Pete DeBoer as the next head coach that Lucky Lou will fire.

Darcy Regier got his hands dirty with two more signings as well. He re-signed Matt Ellis and Andrej Sekera each to a multi-year contract. Ellis will be with the Sabres for two more seasons while Sekera was re-upped for four more years. These came on the heels of a pair of minor league contracts for Dennis Persson and Travis Turnbull, somewhat irrelevant but necessary signings.

The terms of the Ellis deal are not fully disclosed, but Bill Hoppe reported that Ellis will be under a two-way contract for the 2011-12 season and a one-way deal for 2012-13. I’m glad to see Ellis back in the fold. He is likely destined for Rochester as he served very well as the Portland Pirates captain last season. He will certainly be one of the first players called up by Lindy Ruff if there is an injury. Another bonus to signing Ellis? The Sabres are 76-39-16 with him in the lineup the past three seasons and 53-49-13 without him (see #EllisPrinciple or #MattEllisEffect). Thanks to Ian Ott for tweeting those stats. Continue reading →

My Sabres practice arena pipedream

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I am a big proponent for developing the city of Buffalo. I even touch on it in this space from time to time. Those of you who follow me on Twitter, or sit behind me at work, know that I have been dreaming up a grand vision for a practice/junior hockey venue near HSBC Arena.

After a little bit of Photoshop and Illustrator work I have a picture to go with my ramblings. Please excuse the polish of my work, I am quite the novice when it comes to both Photoshop and Illustrator. The pictures and overall vision can be found after the jump.

I gave this creation a name just so it looks a little less bare. I chose to call it the New Era Centre because the cap company is a large Buffalo-based corporation and the name flowed well off my tongue.

Basically this idea cropped up in my head because there are two enormous, barren surface lots in the “Cobblestone District” that don’t get very much use. It is a real shame because the remaining buildings in the District have a similar feel to the Distillery District in Toronto. I began thinking of things that could be put in their place to add some life and density to a neighborhood that is composed of about six buildings on one city block. This multi-purpose arena came to mind.

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