ROCHESTER – Instead of dazzling during training camp and forcing the Buffalo Sabres to keep him, winger Isak Rosen played three exhibition games and quietly returned to the AHL to begin his fourth season.
Before the Prospects Challenge last month, coach Mike Leone said he wanted Rosen, 22, “to kind of blow the doors off” in his fourth appearance in the rookie tournament.
The Swede, who has played 15 NHL games, hardly stood out against neophytes, many of whom are teenagers playing junior hockey or about enter college.
After the preseason began, he recorded one assist and a team-worst minus-3 rating before the Sabres sent him to the Americans.
“I could’ve done more, I think,” Rosen said of his preseason after scoring two goals in last Friday’s 4-3 season-opening victory against the Toronto Marlies.
Rosen, having started the final year of his entry-level contract, knows he has reached a critical stage of his nascent career.
If he keeps developing and evolving, he could earn more chances in Buffalo. If he plateaus or regresses, the Sabres could part ways with the prospect they drafted 14th overall in 2021.
So Rosen’s performance in the opener was significant. Having become a high-end AHL scoring threat – he scored 28 goals and 55 points in 61 games last season, offensive totals that led the team – he’s expected to be Amerks’ catalyst.
Seconds after the opening faceoff last Friday in Blue Cross Arena, a charged-up Rosen nearly scored. Clearly, he wanted to send a message right off the hop.
“Just excited to play and kind of show that Buffalo was wrong and stuff like that,” he said.
He scored a power-play goal late in the first period and another on the man advantage early in the second to put the Amerks up 2-0.
“I guess you’d say it didn’t go well there (in Buffalo during camp),” Leone said. “You have a choice to either sulk about it or move. (He) had a great week of practice. I thought he was really good tonight.”
The 6-foot, 185 pound Rosen understands returning to the minors offers him an opportunity.
“Just trying to show that I can be too good for this level, I think, and do it consistently,” said Rosen, who recorded an assist in Saturday afternoon’s 4-1 loss in Toronto. “And I think I did it a lot last year, but it’s more than just points and stuff like that. It’s being hard on pucks and being hard to play against, and I think that’s a thing that I’m trying to do better this year, too.”
If he wants to crack the NHL again and stick in Buffalo – he has registered one point, an assist, during his recalls – Rosen must develop a more mature style many bottom-six forwards possess.
“His version of compete is going to look different than someone else on that third or fourth line,” Leone said. “He’s not going to go out there and blow guys out. But it’s getting in on the forecheck with his speed, disrupting plays with his stick, getting on the inside of the rink, and I thought he did a really good job of that tonight.”
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In Wednesday’s 8-4 thumping of the Ottawa Senators, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff started struggling center Jiri Kulich at right wing on the fourth line alongside center Tyson Kozak and Beck Malenstyn.
Ruff later moved the Czech, 21, up to some scoring lines.
“I thought his game was OK,” Ruff said following the game in KeyBank Center. “He’s got more there. I haven’t seen the Jiri that really skates himself out of the zone. I think he had some puck plays that normally he would skate it.
“He needs to just grab hold of his confidence just a little bit and put a little pizzazz in his game where (he says), ‘This is my puck, and I’m going to get it.’”
In Tuesday’s practice, Ruff skated Kulich on the fifth line, a sign he could be scratched.
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The Sabres had Thursday off.