WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
Offseason Edition
©2022, NHL
MONTREAL – The Buffalo Sabres tonight selected Matthew Savoie, a center with the Western Hockey League’s Winnipeg Ice, ninth overall at the NHL Draft.
The 5-foot-9, 170-pound Savoie compiled 35 goals and 90 points in 65 games last season.
“My offensive abilities, my skating ability, I think is what makes me stand out as a player,” Savoie said at the NHL Scouting Combine last month in Buffalo.” I think I have good vision in the ... Read the full article
Kevyn Adams could have a career-defining night. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
MONTREAL – General manager Kevyn Adams’ vision for the Buffalo Sabres has started coming together much faster than most observers expected.
It was barely a year ago that Adams, fresh off the Sabres’ dead-last finish, began tackling a daunting rebuild. In his first months on the job in 2020, he had tried to push an older team into the playoffs by acquiring a few notable veterans.
After that team failed spectacularly, Adams implemented his blue ... Read the full article
Victor Olofsson ended the season on a tear. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
MONTREAL – General manager Kevyn Adams said on Wednesday the Buffalo Sabres have been working on a new contract with winger Victor Olofsson, the team’s most prominent restricted free agent.
“We’re in a good spot here,” Adams said inside the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, the team’s headquarters ahead of the NHL Draft. “Mark Jakubowski, who does a lot of our lead in the negotiating side, has had some good conversations as of late with ... Read the full article
Jimmy Snuggerud enjoyed a breakout season in 2021-22. ©2022, Rena Laverty, USA Hockey
MONTREAL – Nick Fohr looked down the ice that day early in the 2020-21 season and had no idea who was shooting pucks at the other end.
“I’m like, ‘What is that down there?’” recalled Fohr, then an assistant coach at the U.S. National Team Development Program.
The mechanics – the compact, quick release – looked familiar, just like Auston Matthews, a phenom he had coached years earlier.
Kevyn Adams is excited for his third NHL Draft as general manager. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – A year ago, the Sabres saw value in Russian prospects, so they drafted four of them, including three straight in the second and third rounds.
Taking a single Russian would’ve been notable; the Sabres hadn’t selected one in five years. Grabbing so many, especially early, indicated general manager Kevyn Adams would operate differently than his predecessors.
The world, of course, has changed a lot over the past year. Russia’s invasion of the ... Read the full article
Rutger McGroarty could be available to Buffalo in the first round. ©2022, Rena Laverty, USA Hockey
BUFFALO – One team, reportedly the Montreal Canadiens, asked NHL Draft prospects it interviewed at the Scouting Combine what kind of animal they would be.
Rutger McGroarty, a high-scoring winger with the U.S. National Team Development Program, put some deep thought into his reply. Instead of simply saying he’d be some sort of ferocious beast, he offered two answers based on his off- and on-ice demeanor.
“I said that I was a father gorilla off ... Read the full article
NHL Draft prospects Matthew Savoie (left) and Conor Geekie talk Friday in LECOM Harborcenter. ©2022
BUFFALO – Center Conor Geekie, an NHL Draft prospect the Sabres could be interested in taking ninth or 16th overall, hails from the tiny prairie town of Strathclair, Manitoba, population 709.
Well, that number from the 2016 Canadian Census is a little misleading. It includes the population of the surrounding area. Strathclair proper is much smaller.
“Um, 137, I think,” Geekie replied Friday when asked how many people live in his hometown. “Just in the ... Read the full article
Jimmy Snuggerud could be available to Buffalo in the first round. ©2022, Rena Laverty
For the 10th straight year, the Buffalo Sabres will have a top-10 pick in the NHL Draft.
The Sabres stayed put in Tuesday’s NHL Draft Lottery, receiving the ninth and 16th overall selections.
After finishing 24th overall, the Sabres had just 5 percent odds – the ninth-highest in the lottery – for the top pick.... Read the full article
Shane Wright began playing in the OHL when he was just 15. ©2022, Robert John Boucher, Kingston Frontenacs
Right now, there’s no consensus first overall pick for the 2022 NHL Draft.
NHL Central Scouting recently ranked Shane Wright, a youngster so talented the Ontario Hockey League granted him exceptional status to play as a 15-year-old, No. 1 in its final evaluation of North American skaters for the draft.
Wright, a center for the Kingston Frontenacs, has thrived under intense pressure for three years, securing his place among the most dynamic prospects on the ... Read the full article
Jerry Forton ran his first NHL Draft as Buffalo’s director of amateur scouting. ©2021, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – You had to go back five years and 34 picks to find the last time the Sabres drafted a Russian.
Before they selected winger Prokhor Poltapov 33rd overall Saturday, they hadn’t drafted a Russian since winger Vasily Glotov in the seventh round in 2016.
Poltapov’s selection was harbinger. The Sabres used three straight picks on Russians and took four overall Saturday.
Later in the second round, the Sabres drafted winger Aleksandr Kisakov with ... Read the full article
