Training Camp Roster Moves

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, French Collection said:

This is how I see the competition at forward.

Biro, Jost and Rousek are battling for the 13th forward spot.

They are giving Benson a long hard look at a spot, which he deserves while Kulich/Rosen wait in the wings.

Savoie is the wild card in this picture while Murray is filler.

I’d agree, although I’d say Murray is in the mix as well. He’s been getting a good look in the exhibitions and acquitted himself reasonably well.

If they keep 13 forwards including Benson, it will be surprising if 13 isn’t Jost.

But I think it’s definitely 7 forwards in the mix for the last 2 or 3 spots.

If I had to drill it down further, I’m saying Jost is on the team and Murray, Kulich and Rosen are Amerks.

it’s Benson, Rousek and Biro fighting for one or 2 forward spots.

[Marvin]

13 hours ago, Buffalo Sabres Fan said:

UPL is the worst of the three goalies so far. I waive UPL hope he clears and send him to the Rochester Americans for the season. Devon Levi the starter and Eric Comrie the backup are my two goalies for opening night. If UPL is claimed good luck no great loss the Buffalo Sabres have sunk enough time in waiting on this guy he is worse than Linus Ullmark who I wasn’t a fan of either. All I know is if Devon Levi isn’t the starting goalie for opening night than I question Don Granato competence as a head coach. Enough is enough the Buffalo Sabres need to make the playoffs and play there best players no more the future is bright crap year after year in my opinion. Go Sabres! Let’s Go Buffalo 

Welcome to the board!

[Drag0nDan]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

That could work, letting Joki be more of a puck mover while Mule holds down the fort. 
The flip side is can EJ handle the workload of 2nd pairing?

Then you just need to find your PK pairings.  

Assuming you keep power and johnson as one, that'd leave maybe muel and clifton as the other with Dahlin as a floater if any of them are in the box.  

Edited September 29, 2023 by Drag0nDan

[SabresBaltimore]

Is it too early to start projecting the initial 23? I think I want to keep too many forwards (14), but that's because I want both Biro and to give Benson up to 9 games. That would only leave me with only 7 defenseman and a need to move a goalie if possible (UPL right now)

[SabresBaltimore]

 

[dudacek]

44 minutes ago, SabresBaltimore said:

Is it too early to start projecting the initial 23? I think I want to keep too many forwards (14), but that's because I want both Biro and to give Benson up to 9 games. That would only leave me with only 7 defenseman and a need to move a goalie if possible (UPL right now)

I don’t think so.

Granato seems to be trending toward this, although we haven’t had a real good sense of how the D might line up:

Skinner Thompson xxx

xxx Mittelstadt Tuch

Peterka Cozens xxx

Girgensons Krebs Okposo

xxx

 

Dahlin Clifton

Power Jokiharju

Samuelsson Johnson

yyy

 

Levi

zzz

 

Leaving these questions

xxx = Greenway (who is definitely in the starting lineup, it’s just a matter of where) Olofsson Jost Benson Biro Rousek

yyy = Stillman Bryson Clague Johnson

zzz = UPL Comrie

With an open question of whether the 23rd spot will be a 14th forward, 8th defenceman or 3rd goalie?

***

Greenway with Mitts, Benson with Tage, and VO with Cozens is how they lined up today and I’d be happy to start the season that way. I think Jost has the inside track on the 13th forward spot and Stillman the 7th D, but again just my opinion.

I think in an ideal world the preference would be to keep 8 D, that’s just how the roster is built when taking the Amerks into account, and how the coach has said he prefers to practice. But I also think the GM values his 3rd goalie more than his 8th D and waivers may affect his decision in that spot.

I’d trade a backup goalie to the highest bidder and keep Bryson - mostly because I’d rather have him in an NHL press box and the other candidates playing in Roch.

If I can’t get anything for a goalie, I’d waive Bryson.

Edited September 29, 2023 by dudacek

[SabresBaltimore]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think Jost has the inside track on the 13th forward spot and Stillman the 7th D

Same. But right now I have Benson and Biro ahead of Bryson. I also have him cutting down to just 2 goalies..but maybe that's wishful thinking.

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I don’t think so.

Granato seems to be trending toward this, although we haven’t had a real good sense of how the D might line up:

Skinner Thompson xxx

xxx Mittelstadt Tuch

Peterka Cozens xxx

Girgensons Krebs Okposo

xxx

 

Dahlin Clifton

Power Jokiharju

Samuelsson Johnson

yyy

 

Levi

zzz

 

Leaving these questions

xxx = Greenway (who is definitely in the starting lineup, it’s just a matter of where) Olofsson Jost Benson Biro Rousek

yyy = Stillman Bryson Clague Johnson

zzz = UPL Comrie

With an open question of whether the 23rd spot will be a 14th forward, 8th defenceman or 3rd goalie?

***

Greenway with Mitts, Benson with Tage, and VO with Cozens is how they lined up today and I’d be happy to start the season that way. I think Jost has the inside track on the 13th forward spot and Stillman the 7th D, but again just my opinion.

I think in an ideal world the preference would be to keep 8 D, that’s just how the roster is built when taking the Amerks into account, and how the coach has said he prefers to practice. But I also think the GM values his 3rd goalie more than his 8th D and waivers may affect his decision in that spot.

I’d trade a backup goalie to the highest bidder and keep Bryson - mostly because I’d rather have him in an NHL press box and the other candidates playing in Roch.

If I can’t get anything for a goalie, I’d waive Bryson.

Yes.  All this.

[Brawndo]

 

[French Collection]

3 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

Cooley and Tokarski still up.

[sabresparaavida]

4 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Cooley and Tokarski still up.

I assume they will be backups as the starters will already be getting action. 

[LGR4GM]

The Sens are waiving Lassi Thomson, Buffalo should at least internally look at him because he's a rhd and anyone is better than Bryson. I'm sorry Bryson, you're too small and lack other high end traits to make up for it. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

Is anyone else surprised that Metsa didn’t get a longer look? 

[LabattBlue]

The Jacksonville team isn’t owned by Pegula, correct?

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Is anyone else surprised that Metsa didn’t get a longer look? 

No. Rochester will be a grooming situation for him. 

[nfreeman]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Is anyone else surprised that Metsa didn’t get a longer look? 

This brings up a question that occurred to me:  does releasing him from his PTO mean that they are done with him, full stop?  Or is it a necessary step in the process to get him to Rochester?

If they are totally done with him, then I too would be surprised as I thought he looked pretty good and certainly good enough to get another look in Rochester this year.

[LabattBlue]

4 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

This brings up a question that occurred to me:  does releasing him from his PTO mean that they are done with him, full stop?  Or is it a necessary step in the process to get him to Rochester?

If they are totally done with him, then I too would be surprised as I thought he looked pretty good and certainly good enough to get another look in Rochester this year.

I think the PTO guys are players signed to Amerks contracts, and then the PTO is needed for them to be part of training camp.   Maybe?

[RochesterExpat]

5 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I think the PTO guys are players signed to Amerks contracts, and then the PTO is needed for them to be part of training camp.   Maybe?

This is correct.

Metsa only has an AHL contract right now. He was on a PTO to attend Sabres training camp. Buffalo can still offer him a two-way NHL contract if they choose to.

I’m sure he’s been told that’s the reward if he plays the season in Rochester with the same skill, pace and attitude that he played in the AHL playoffs last season and carried through to when he was released yesterday.

[Taro T]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Is anyone else surprised that Metsa didn’t get a longer look? 

Because he's signed to a Ra-cha-cha only contract, not really.

Not sure of the mechanics of whether the Sabres are the only team that can sign him from Ra-cha-cha should they want to call him up and other teams would need to put in a waiver claim as he's going down to add them to their roster or if they can simply try to offer him a contract like NFL teams can do with guys on other teams' practice squads.  Believe another team would have to put in a waiver claim AND sign him to an NHL contract but am not positive of that.  If another team would need to put in a waiver claim to grab him, it makes sense to send him down with all the other pure AHLers when there's a few hundred guys getting sent down.  Makes it easier to slip through the cracks.

He's in Johnson's boat right now, but Johnson's ahead of him IMHO.  And by being in Johnson's boat mean that he's not beating out any of the top 6 guys at this point in time and he's better off playing in the A than sitting in the pressbox in the show.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Taro T

[RochesterExpat]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

Not sure of the mechanics of whether the Sabres are the only team that can sign him from Ra-cha-cha should they want to call him up and other teams would need to put in a waiver claim as he's going down to add them to their roster or if they can simply try to offer him a contract like NFL teams can do with guys on other teams' practice squads.  Believe another team would have to put in a waiver claim AND sign him to an NHL contract but am not positive of that.  If another team would need to put in a waiver claim to grab him, it makes sense to send him down with all the other pure AHLers when there's a few hundred guys getting sent down.  Makes it easier to slip through the cracks.

There are no reentry waivers anymore. Metsa is on an AHL contract. He is not affiliated with the Sabres (or the NHL for that matter). He was just on a "professional tryout" (PTO) contract during camp. This NHL "contract" ended when he was released back to his AHL club. If you want to look at it from a technical perspective, he's not "being sent down" like a player on an NHL contract (e.g. Novikov), but he's instead being returned to his club who basically loaned him to the NHL for camp. Therefore, there's no waivers because he's not an NHL hockey player.

That being said, any NHL team can offer him an NHL contract at any time. The AHL permits players to sign superseding contracts (i.e. NHL contracts--including the PTO contract he signed to participate in camp). This is different from the KHL where a player must wait until his KHL contract ends before signing an NHL contract. It's just very rare for players to sign contracts with the non-affiliated NHL team while on an AHL contract.

In fact, it's theoretically possible to sign a player to a PTO and have him attend training camp even if the player is signed by a non-affiliated AHL club if he's on an AHL-only contract. I just don't know of any instances of it happening.

The short of it: AHL-only players are only AHL players and can sign NHL contracts at any time with any club because they are free agents playing in a different league.

*disclaimer: it's possible for an AHL club to sign a drafted player to an AHL-only contract (this does happen but it's rare). While on the AHL-only contract, the player's rights are retained by the club who drafted him--similar to how players in Europe are handled--and so only the club who drafted him can offer him an ELC.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I don't think there are any rules that say players on a PTO have to be signed or released by ex-number of days in camp. After camp ends certainly, but not during camp. I believe that if the Sabres wanted to keep him up for another week they could have.   It could be a simple numbers game and they want him to be a key cog on the Amerks and go from there, but I thought he had shown enough to keep him around a little longer.  Not a big deal either way.

Edited September 30, 2023 by GASabresIUFAN

[Brawndo]

 

[thewookie1]

Guess we’ll see each of the 3 get a game

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Brawndo said:

 

In a move surprising absolutely noone, Sabres management confirms that the backup goalie competition is between Comrie and UPL.  😄

[LGR4GM]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I don't think there are any rules that say players on a PTO have to be signed or released by ex-number of days in camp. After camp ends certainly, but not during camp. I believe that if the Sabres wanted to keep him up for another week they could have.   It could be a simple numbers game and they want him to be a key cog on the Amerks and go from there, but I thought he had shown enough to keep him around a little longer.  Not a big deal either way.

What's I'd like to add though if I have a choice between Bryson and Metsa, both 5'9", I'm more inclined to keep Metsa who weighs 20lbs more and actually can defend. 

18 minutes ago, Taro T said:

In a move surprising absolutely noone, Sabres management confirms that the backup goalie competition is between Comrie and UPL.  😄