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The Buffalo Sabres had a pretty hectic final preseason schedule featuring five games in eight nights with three of them on the road. Head coach Phil Housley noted the busy schedule last week and kept a pretty full roster because of it. The Sabres also opted to skip practice today while they finalize their 23-man roster by 5 pm EST.
Buffalo made a number of moves over the weekend which included waiving wingers Justin Bailey and Nicholas Baptiste on Saturday. The duo had been with the organization for a few years and ended up clearing waivers on Sunday. Baptiste was traded to the Nashville Predators on Monday for 22 yr. old defenseman Jack Dougherty, who has spent his pro career in the minors with the Milwaukee Admirals.
Yesterday the Sabres sent three players to Rochester--winger Alexander Nylander along with defensemen Brandon Hickey and Brendan Guhle.
While Hickey was almost guaranteed to be sent down and Guhle was highly probable, the Nylander demotion was a bit of a surprise. Nylander came into camp with something to prove, and looked like he did, but seems to have lost out to winger Tage Thompson for a spot in Buffalo's top-nine forward group. It should be interesting to note that when Thompson was acquired from the St. Louis Blues in the Ryan O'Reilly trade, Sabres GM Jason Botterill said that the big winger would get a shot in Buffalo's top-six. Botterill remained true to his word (possibly at the expense of Nylander?).
A spot did open up on the Sabres fourth line, however, as winger Scott Wilson got tangled up late at practice on Sunday and broke his ankle. He'll be out 8-10 weeks and rather than put a scorer in a grinder's role, Buffalo opted to hit the waiver wire and pick up winger Remi Elie from the Dallas Stars.
Elie was a 2103 second round pick (40th overall) who scored just over a point/game in the OHL prior to being traded to the Erie Otters. While in Erie riding shotgun on Connor McDavid's line, the big left-winger upped his per-game totals and had particularly strong run in the playoffs scoring 24 points, second only to McDavid.
As his pro career progressed 6'1" 210 lb. Elie went from a potential top-six powerforward to a bottom-six grinder who could pitch in offensively. In two seasons with the Texas Stars, Dallas' AHL affiliate, Elie managed 15 goals and 45 points in 117 games. He played all of last season with Dallas scoring 14 points (6+8) in 72 games.
Elie got caught up in a bit of a numbers crunch at the Stars' training camp this year and was the odd man out. Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News quoted Stars GM Jim Nill as saying about the decision to waive Elie. "In the end, maybe a little bit of the flexibility of the position," Nill said. "We got some guys that can play different positions which helps. Remi probably doesn't have that quite as much. In the end, the other guys based off of the camp, just earned it ahead of him. That's part of the competition."
There's no need for Elie to be versatile in Buffalo as they have a glut of centers, nor will he be looked at as anything but a fourth-line grinder as the Sabres have some scoring on the left side. Buffalo GM Jason Botterill had a hole on the fourth line after Wilson went down and filled it with Elie and one would think, barring other injuries he'll be waived or in the press box once Wilson returns.
These were the line Housley rolled out yesterday at practice:
Jeff Skinner -Jack Eichel -Sam Reinhart
Conor Sheary -Patrik Berglund -Tage Thompson
Vladimir Sobotka -Casey Mittelstadt -Kyle Okposo
Zemgus Girgensons -Evan Rodrigues -Jason Pominville
Sunday's practice had the same lineup with Wilson/Girgensons at left wing on the fourth line so if we sub Elie for Wilson, this looks like what the Sabres will be opening up on Thursday with one of the two in the press box.
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