WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
Offseason Edition
Michael Misa talks June 6 at the NHL Scouting Combine in LECOM Harborcenter. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – The human element often gets lost in the excitement generated by teenage hockey phenoms. It can easily be forgotten they’re still kids.
Michael Misa is so talented the Canadian Hockey League granted him exceptional status in 2022, allowing him to play full time for the Saginaw Spirit as a 15-year-old. Over the next three seasons, the slick center lived up to the enormous hype, winning a championship and a scoring title.
Next Friday, ... Read the full article
Buffalo prospect Konsta Helenius participated in development camp last year days after the NHL Draft. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
The Buffalo Sabres will hold a summer development camp for prospects from June 30 to July 3 at LECOM Harborcenter, the team announced Wednesday.
The on-ice session sessions are free and open to the public.
A camp roster will be released at a later date. Draft picks the Sabres make next week will attend.
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Rasmus Dahlin has represented Team Sweden in other tournaments. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin will be representing Team Sweden at the Olympics in February.
The defenseman on Monday was named to a preliminary roster for the Milano Cortina Games.
Each of the 12 countries participating released their first six selections. Dahlin, 25, is the only Sabres player who earned an early spot.
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Konsta Helenius made a fast impact in Rochester. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu, Rochester Americans
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
Victor Eklund (left) and Anton Frondell talk Friday at the NHL Scouting Combine in LECOM Harborcenter. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
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 (left) celebrate Rochester’s Calder Cup championship in 1996 with teammate Dan Frawley. ©2025, Rochester Americans
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
Buffalo drafted Ethan Miedema in the fourth round in 2023. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
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.
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Kevyn Adams took over as Buffalo’s GM in 2020. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
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
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
Lukas Rousek spent four seasons in Rochester. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu, Rochester Americans
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