Jake McCabe finds himself in a curious predicament at Sabres development camp. McCabe suddenly is the old man on the blue line. The 21 year old is suddenly the oldest D prospect left in the organization. This is McCabe's third Sabres prospects camp. He has performed exceptionally well in his previous two auditions.
Chad Ruhwedel is 25 and was a free agent signing from UMass Lowell.
McCabe's buddy Rasmus Ristolainen could not participate in this camp having played too many NHL games. His other peer Nikita Zadorov was traded away to Colorado last month along with Mikhail Grigorenko, J.T. Compher and the 31st pick in the EichDavid Draft in exchange for Ryan O'Reilly.
McCabe comes into this development camp with one primary objective in mind:
To convince his new head coach Dan Bylsma and his GM Tim Murray that he is worthy of one of the seven D jobs on the Buffalo roster.
Zach Bogosian, Josh Gorges, and Rasmus Ristolainen have already locked up their jobs for 2014-15. Mark Pysyk will likely be in Buffalo when training camp breaks. Mike Weber will fight for his roster spot when camp begins. Tim Murray has signed two lefties in Carlo Colaiaocovo and Matt Donovan in the past few days.
Murray is still looking for a left handed D and McCabe fills that bill perfectly.
With all due respect to Donovan and Colaiaocovo, McCabe feels that he is ready to compete for and to claim his spot in the Buffalo D corps.
Thanks, Sabres.com
I'm a huge Jake McCabe fan and I would love to see him grab the brass ring in Buffalo this season. He has all of the physical tools and the strength to play the rugged NHL game. He stands six feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. He skates well and makes an exceptional first pass to the forwards moving north out of the zone. If you want to mix it up then so be it. McCabe can play that way, too.
Despite injuries that sidelined him for a period of time, McCabe scored 5 goals and added 24 assists in 57 games played in his first pro season in 2014-15 in Rochester.
Now, he wants his aggressive, high tempo style of play to do his talking to Tim Murray for him. McCabe feels like he has what it takes to make the Buffalo Sabres roster. McCabe doesn't want Murray to go to the trade market to find another left handed D-man. He wants to be a Sabre on a full time basis.
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Vladimir Tarasenko‘s breakout performance in 2014-15 just landed the Russian rifle a big, fat eight-year, $60 million contract extension with the St. Louis Blues.
Tarasenko can thank Ryan O'Reilly and the Buffalo Sabres for the $7.5 million AAV. O'Reilly signed his seven year, $52.5 million contract extension with the Sabre s last week.
NY Rangers center Derek Stepan, a restricted free agent, is licking his chops to get a taste of the same $7.5 million AAV prime rib that O'Reilly and Tarasenko have just been served by their respective teams.
The 23 year old former first round draft choice (16th overall 2010) busted out big time in The Loo last season by scoring 37 goals and adding 36 assists in 77 games played. In his six playoff games, he cranked in another six goals and added an assist.
In 169 NHL regular season games played, Vlad The Impaler has already scored 66 goals and has chipped in 69 assists. In 13 playoff games, he has 10 goals and an assist.
The Blues had no other choice but to sign Tarasenko to a long term, lucrative contract extension.
The thought process went something like:
“Pay him now or lose him later”.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong isn’t out of the woods right now regarding his 2015-16 salary cap. He has only $2.4 million dollars remaining in his cap budget and still hasto re-sign RFAs Magnus Paajarvi and Jani Hakanpaa.
Looming in the Armstrong’s windshield next season is potential collisions with captain David Backes and newly acquired Troy Brouwer, who are set to become unrestricted free agents. Slick kid forward Jaden Schwartz will be a restricted free agent . Schwartz will earn $2.35 million this season, however, is in line for a big pay raise if he duplicates the career high 63 point plateau that he accomplished this past season.
Trade rumors continue to swirl around defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk who has two years remaining on his four year $17 million contract. Shattenkirk is highly coveted due to his skill set, experience and his $4.25 million cap hit. He has two years remaining on his deal which makes him all the more attractive to would be trade partners.
Might Armstrong trade Shattenkirk to make salary cap space for Backes, Brouwer and Schwartz? Perhaps Armstrong will trade Backes to create cap room ro re-sign his RFAs and UFAs
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