Buffalo Hockey Beat - WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage

Strong rookie season with Rochester earns Sabres pick Konsta Helenius spot on AHL’s Top Prospects Team

A strong rookie season in which forward Konsta Helenius scored 14 goals and 35 points in 65 games for the Rochester Americans has earned the Finn spot on the AHL’s 2024-25 Top Prospects Team.

Despite being the AHL’s youngest regular player, Helenius, who turned 19 on May 11, ranked fifth on the Amerks in goals and eighth in points. He made an impact in the Calder Cup Playoffs, scoring three goals and six points in ... Read the full article

Sabres might be hoping Anton Frondell or Victor Eklund last until ninth pick at NHL Draft

BUFFALO – In their first weeks as teammates with Djurgardens, a second-division pro team in Sweden, NHL Draft prospects Anton Frondell and Victor Eklund skated on separate lines.

The ultra-talent forwards wanted that to change. So they kept asking – actually, badgering might be a more appropriate term – their coach, Robert Kimby, if they could play together.

Eklund said he went to Kimby 10 times.... Read the full article

Scott Metcalfe, Amerks Hall of Famer who played for Sabres, dies at 58

Scott Metcalfe, a popular and gritty forward who played nine seasons for the Rochester Americans over two stints and 17 games with the Buffalo Sabres, died Friday morning, the AHL team announced. He was 58.

Metcalfe played for Rochester’s last Calder Cup championship team in 1996 and was inducted into the Amerks Hall of Fame in 2006.

Following his retirement from pro hockey in 2001-02, he lived and worked in Rochester, becoming a visible member ... Read the full article

Sabres relinquish rights to draft pick Ethan Miedema, two others

The Buffalo Sabres have relinquished the rights to three draft picks, including winger Ethan Miedema, a fourth-round selection in 2023.

In addition to Miedema, the Sabres did not sign forwards Viljami Marjala and William von Barnekow to contracts before Sunday’s deadline.

They selected Marjala, a Finn, in the fifth round in 2021, and von Barnekow, a Swede, in the sixth round that year.... Read the full article

Sabres add to front office by naming Jarmo Kekalainen senior advisor to GM Kevyn Adams

In hiring Jarmo Kekalainen on Friday as a senior advisor to general manager Kevyn Adams, the Buffalo Sabres added a respected hockey lifer whose decades in the game can provide critical guidance to a team trying to end an NHL-record 14-year playoff drought.

When the Sabres must make a difficult decision, you can bet Kekalainen, who spent 11 years as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, will speak up and explain what he did ... Read the full article

Rick Dudley had two stints with Buffalo as a player. handout/promotional photo

50 years ago, Rick Dudley bolted from the Sabres to the WHA after the Stanley Cup final, then wanted to come back

Rick Dudley never wanted to leave that special group of Sabres. He was loving life in Buffalo and living a dream that felt unreachable just a few years earlier. But the money – 10 times what he was earning in the NHL – and the security it offered him became too much to turn down. He couldn’t say no.

So early in what he called a “magical” 1974-75 season, Dudley agreed to a five-year, no-trade, ... Read the full article

Amerks’ Lukas Rousek leaves Sabres for Sweden; Rochester loses another player

Winger Lukas Rousek has left the Buffalo Sabres organization for the Swedish Hockey League.

HV71, a team based in Jönköping, today announced Rousek has signed a two-year contract. He was set to become a restricted free agent this offseason.

Rousek, 26, recently starred for the Rochester Americans during the Calder Cup Playoffs, scoring two goals and eight points in seven games before the Laval Rocket eliminated them Sunday.... Read the full article

Season with Calder Cup hopes ends for Rochester Amerks with loss in Laval

To veteran winger Brett Murray, reaching the do-or-die Game 5 against the Laval Rocket illustrates what a special group the Rochester Americans had this season.

The Amerks, whose 5-0 road loss Sunday afternoon ended a season with championship hopes, faced the daunting task of having to win two out of three games against the AHL’s top team in Place Bell, a hostile rink for visitors, to advance in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

After losing Game ... Read the full article

As time in Sabres organization possibly nears end, Lukas Rousek starring for Rochester Amerks

ROCHESTER – In what could be his final game here, Americans winger Lukas Rousek displayed the talent and smarts that helped him play 17 contests for the Buffalo Sabres and earn a one-way NHL contract.

To wit: in Friday’s 5-3 come-from-behind win in Game 2 of the AHL North Division final, Rousek, 26, scored the tying goal late in the second period before his slick pass created center Jiri Kulich’s go-ahead power-play goal in the ... Read the full article

Jiri Kulich plays hero, helps Rochester Amerks even series versus Laval Rocket

ROCHESTER – It felt like only a matter of time before Jiri Kulich put his mark on the Americans’ hotly contested second-round series against the Laval Rocket. The center, after all, is now an NHL player, having spent nearly all season with the Buffalo Sabres.

Kulich, however, has returned to the AHL for one final run with the Amerks during the Calder Cup Playoffs. Having just about outgrown the minors, he’s expected to be a ... Read the full article