Sabres Edge

Sabres announce roster for NHL Prospect Tournament

The Sabres won't be having a rookie camp in HSBC Arena this season, partly because of the ongoing locker room renovations but also because they're going to instead take their young players to Traverse City, Mich., for the first time and play in the NHL Prospect Tournament that has been run since 1998 in cooperation with the Detroit Red Wings' training camp.

The Sabres will be joining the Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues at the event, which runs Sept. 10-14. Count this as a big added expense on the scouting/development side under new owner Terry Pegula: Traverse City, a city of about 15,000 people, is in extreme northwest Michigan, a four-hour drive from Detroit.

Some big prospect names will be on the Sabres' roster, such as forwards Luke Adam, Zack Kassian and Marcus Foligno, and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Mark Pysyk. Defenseman Alex Lepkowski, the West Seneca native drafted in the fifth round in June, will also play. 

Teams are divided into two divisions for a round-robin portion of the tournament and then ranked by their win-loss records for final placement in 7th-, 5th-, 3rd-place and championship games on the final day. The winning team will be given a plaque and their name put on a trophy to be housed at Centre Ice Arena.

Buffalo's full roster:

Forwards: Adam, Kassian, Foligno, Steven Beyers, Riley Boychuk, Daniel Catenacci, Cedrick Henley, Jacob Legace, Jonathan Parker, Steven Shipley, Kevin Sundher, Gregg Sutch, Shawn Szydlowski, Corey Tropp, Phil Varone.
Defense: Pysyk, McNabb, Lepkowski, Alex Biega, Nick Crawford, Corey Fienhage, Jerome Gauthier-Leduc, Matt MacKenzie.
Goalies: Nathan Lieuwen, Ryan Rondeau.

The complete schedule for the tournament is at this link. The Sabres open against Minnesota Sept. 10 at 3:30. They then meet Columbus at 2:30 on Sept. 11 and Detroit at 7 p.m. on Sept. 13 before playing their placement game on Sept. 14.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

TSN reports Regehr waives no-trade clause to join Sabres

TSN is reporting that Calgary Flames defenseman Robyn Regehr has agreed to waive his no-trade clause in order to join the Sabres.

Prospect camp opens July 5

Mark your calendars for your first look at the Sabres' prospects. The team announced late Monday afternoon that its annual development camp will run July 5-9 at Niagara University's Dwyer Arena. There will be an on-ice session each day open to the public featuring the camp's 42 prospects. Top choice Mark Pysyk is scheduled to attend. Public workouts are currently slated for the following times:

---Monday July 5, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
---Tuesday, July 6, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
---Wednesday, July 7, 4-5:30 p.m.
---Thursday, July 8, 4-6:30 p.m.
---Friday, July 9, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Pregame skate report: Miller vs. DiPietro in net tonight on Long Island

UNIONDALE -- Ryan Miller will be in goal for the Sabres tonight against the New York Islanders and that's not big news. But there was plenty of chatter today in Nassau Colisuem because Rick DiPietro, he of the 15-year, $67.5 million contract that has been reviled and howled at around hockey, will make his first home start since a 4-1 win over Toronto on Dec. 26, 2008. DiPietro, who has battled knee surgeries and extended rehab the last two seasons, played one game this year and took a 4-3 loss Jan. 8 at Dallas.

DiPietro, of course, was the starting goaltender for the 2006 U.S. Olympic team in Torino, Italy. Miller is almost certain to be the starter next month in Vancouver.

"It's good that he's back playing again and healthy," Miller said. "He's gone through a lot in his career and it's always good for another American boy to be back on the ice."

Former Sabre Dwayne Roloson has been red-hot of late, shutting out Detroit here Tuesday and posting a 7-0-1 mark with a 2.02 GAA in his last eight starts as the Isles have gone 7-2-1 over their last 10. But his career numbers against Buffalo are shaky (0-5-1 with one tie, 3.46) so coach Scott Gordon opted for DiPietro tonight. The Islanders, remember, have shut out Buffalo, 2-0 and 5-0, in the Sabres' last two trips here.

"We've got to get pucks at him, get traffic in front of him and test him on rebounds," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said of DiPietro. "We're going to really focus in on where we want to get the puck because he's as good as it comes when he's on his game in terms on disrupting. At the same time, when a goalie plays it that much you know you'll get one or two opportunities where he's going to misplay it. We don't want him to be reason our forecheck isn't any good."

The Sabres will have the same lineup as they did Thursday in Atlanta, meaning Matt Ellis, Nathan Paetsch and Andrej Sekera are the scratches.

More notes: No. 1 overall pick John Tavares has just one goal in his last 16 games and none in the last nine for the Isles but the team has scored 23 goals in the last five games without him adding anything to the offense. ... The Sabres will  be trying to join New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Chicago and San Jose on the last of teams with 30 wins. ... Buffalo is 7-0-2 in its last nine and 35 of 37 on its penalty kill in that stretch. ... Tim Connolly's 10-game point streak is the longest current run in the NHL and he's one goal shy of 100 for his career.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

World Juniors chatter

Never too early to start thinking about the 2011 World Junior Championships in HSBC Arena -- which actually begin Dec. 26, 2010. Last year's event was in Ottawa (be sure to check out John Vogl's post from Scotiabank Place on the reeling Senators as they face the Sabres tonight).

This year, the World Juniors are in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Next year, it's HSBC and Niagara University's Dwyer Arena.

USA Hockey has announced the NHL Network's television schedule for this year's tournament and it's a big one -- all Team USA games, all medal-round games and six other matchups. That's 16 games in all, and they'll be in HD. Click on the link and you get an idea of the kind of games we'll be seeing here next year. USA vs. Canada on New Year's Eve at 8 p.m. Something tells me that might be the case on Dec. 31, 2010 in Buffalo! Other than the 1993 World University Games, this is easily going to be the biggest international sports event ever held in these parts.

This year's Team USA candidates are arriving in Grand Forks, N.D. for a pretournament training camp that opens Thursday. There are 29 players on the roster -- including seven first-round draft picks from either 2008 or 2009 -- and it will be trimmed before the team heads to Saskatchewan. There are no Sabres prospects on Team USA. Here's a link to USA Hockey's World Junior tournament page.

Meanwhile, Canada has completed a roster that includes 10 first-rounders in its quest for a sixth straight gold medal. Last year's team featured John Tavares and Tyler Myers and the headliners this year include defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, the No. 4 overall pick by St. Louis in 2008 who has seen NHL time with the Blues, and London forward Nazem Kadri, who was No. 7 overall this year to Toronto. He was sent back to juniors at the end of training camp even though many people say he was perhaps the Leafs' best forward in the preseason.

Center Luke Adam, the Sabres' second-round pick in 2008 who plays for Cape Breton in the Quebec League, is also on the Team Canada roster. Adam had a four-goal game last week and left for the junior camp leading his league in goals with 25 in 32 games. He was second in points with 52 in a big bounceback year after a ruptured spleen prematurely ended his 2008-09 junior season.

Two of Buffalo's '09 draftees, top choice Zack Kassian and third-rounder Brayden McNabb, were part of  Canada's summer evaluation camp but were not in this week's main camp. But that puts them in position to be contenders for a spot on Canada's roster next year when the tournament hits Buffalo.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Patrick Kane arrested

At 1:15 p.m. Sunday, here is the lead to Aaron Besecker's story in The Buffalo News:

Chicago Blackhawk right winger and South Buffalo native Patrick Kane and a relative face robbery and other charges after allegedly assaulting a cab driver and failing to pay their fare after getting a ride from Chippewa Street early this morning.

Kane, 20, and James M. Kane, 21, were arrested about 5 a.m. on Eastwood Place, according to Buffalo police reports.

The pair allegedly punched the cab driver and grabbed money they had handed him after he told them he didn't have twenty cents in coins to give them their change, the report said.

Their fare was $13.80 and they handed the driver $15, according to a report.

What's your reaction?

Time for development camp

Should be an interesting week for the Sabres starting Monday at Niagara University, as the team convenes its annual development camp. The public sessions run from 3-6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Friday.

You'll see five players who appeared in the NHL last year (Chris Butler, Mike Weber, Marc-Andre Gragnani, Nathan Gerbe and Tim Kennedy). You'll see 6-foot-8 Tyler Myers, the top draft pick last season. Zack Kassian, the top choice this year. Marcus Foligno, son of Mike. And virtually every top prospect and recent draft choice in the organization.

It should be a particularly important camp for Myers, Weber, Kennedy and Gerbe, all of whom rate a good chance of seeing regular roles on the big club this year. 

There were several hundred fans at every session last year and I'm sure it will be more of the same this time so here's a little quiz for you: Pick the three players from the list below you're most interested in following at camp this year.

Feel free to add your pros and cons on any of the youngsters in the comments section. Especially if there's someone we haven't listed.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

poll by twiigs.com

Draft postmortems: How did Darcy do?

Pronger to Philly and the rights to Bouwmeester to Calgary (leaving those teams in deeper salary cap trouble). No moves yet from the Sabres, other than the fact it looks like Jaroslav Spacek may be gone. This was one quiet draft. Hope Wednesday's free agent day gets us some real news.

As for the draft itself, Darcy Regier & Co. definitely went in a different direction to get bigger and tougher. Enough with the 5-foot-8 guys. Great to see. Have to like the Kassian pick in the first round.

Have to wonder why no centers were chosen. Have to wonder why Jochen Hecht and Henrik Tallinder are still on this roster. Gotta believe they were dangled to try to get into the second round but nothing happened.

Lots of questions, not many answers.

How do you think Regier did in the draft?

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Rounds 4-7: Foligno tops the list

Yep, another son of former Sabres captain Mike Foligno. This one is Marcus Foligno, a 6-foot-2 left winger who played for his dad in Sudbury. And he was born in Buffalo -- on Aug. 10, 1991.

John Vogl has talked to the Folignos in Montreal and you can read our updated story here.

The fifth-round pick was Boston area high school defenseman Mark Adams, who is nicknamed "Roo." Nice goal celebration here by Adams on a shootout goal.

The sixth-round choice was Miami University goalie Connor Knapp.

Here's a video with Knapp explaining his mask design.

Final pick: Right winger Maxime Legault of Shawinigan from the Quebec League

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Sabres round 3: Brayden McNabb

The Sabres did not move up into the second round. With their first pick today, a third-rounder that was No. 66 overall, Buffalo has selected Brayden McNabb, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound defenseman from Kootenay in the Western Hockey League.

Here's a WHL video on McNabb.

---Mike Harrington

Kassian, Darcy speak

Click here for NHL.com's draft floor chat with Zack Kassian.

Here's NHL.com with Darcy Regier. Regier confirms that Jaroslav Spacek expects to test free agency and probably won't re-sign with the Sabres prior to July 1. No major surprise there.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Bouwmeester to Calgary

Jay Bouwmeester has been shipped to Calgary by the Florida Panthers in exchange for Jordan Leopold and a third-round pick. So the Flames have a few days to get a long-term deal done with the top free-agent defenseman on the market. And they have salary cap issues to deal with too. Should be interesting.

---Mike Harrington

More Kassian videos

Here's some more looks at Sabres' No. 1 pick Zack Kassian. Go with me on this one as YouTube embedding is fouled up and not working but I can give you the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSuzenUtyxU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4GGYKke-5g -- his six-minute interview with NHL.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l5Wit6NVA8&feature=related

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

BULLETIN: Sabres select Kassian

With the 13th pick in the NHL Entry Draft, the Sabres have chosen rugged Peterborough forward Zack Kassian.

---Mike Harrington

Tavares-Hedman-Duchene

Looks like form holds in Montreal as the Islanders go with John Tavares, Tampa takes Victor Hedman and Colorado takes Matt Duchene.

Chris Pronger to Philly. Huge deal. How do the Flyers keep Danny Briere now?

Sabres at No. 13. Follow our updates at this story.

Follow our pick-by-pick draft tracker.

---Mike Harrington

Darcy's draft floor chat

MONTREAL -- Just chatted with Sabres GM Darcy Regier about an hour before the draft starts. He said there's a pool of four to five players the Sabres are looking to pick, and he made one thing clear: The player they select in the first round will wear the Blue and Gold.

"We’re going to get a player that [the fans are] going to be thrilled with, that they are going to see play for the Sabres for a lot of years," Regier said.

Of the five players, the Sabres are fairly certain at least one will be gone before they pick at 13, so they'll need help to get that unnamed prospect.

"And they could all be gone," Regier said. "There’s a better with four of them, a lesser chance with the fifth."

The Sabres moved up from 13 to 12 last year to select Tyler Myers, but Regier doesn't envision a need to do that today.

"This is a different draft," Regier said. "The cutline isn’t as distinct as it was a year ago. We thought there was a pretty significant drop after what amounted to Myers being the last of that group. We felt it was necessary to jump in, and I don’t see that this year. It’s not as distinct. It’s a little murkier."

Also murky is the trade value of the big names being dangled, like Dany Heatley. It's why the significant chatter has yet to yield moves -- at least as of this writing at 6:18 p.m.

"I do think that the market hasn’t been established yet for some of these players," Regier said. "The seller is looking for greater value than I think they’re going to get. Where it goes, I think will take some time. It may go well into July or August for some players, and some teams quite frankly may not be able to get rid of players.

"There’s some big names out there. Whether they get moved or not I think will be the question. It’s different from the standpoint that a lot of players not only have no-trade clauses in their contracts, they have no-move clauses. A player gets a lot of say in where he goes and when he goes."

---John Vogl

Note to Isles: Don't pick Duchene

MONTREAL -- Greetings from the draft floor in Bell Centre. A little buzz generating that the New York Islanders may go off the board and select Matt Duchene first overall. Advice: Don't do it!

He'll be a fine player, but the fans on Long Island have been debating John Tavares or Victor Hedman so long that they'll go nuts if the Isles don't take one of them. They would have needed to leak Duchene much earlier than three hours before the draft to ease the shock.

Other tidbits:

*Ignore the rumors of the Sabres trying to acquire the rights to Jay Bouwmeester. Darcy Regier has repeatedly said the cost of going that route is too high. You have to give up something just to talk with the player, then you have to overpay to ensure you sign him. It's not the Regier Way.

*The GMs are starting to congregate on the floor, shaking hands and chatting.

*When you come to Montreal during the regular season, you think, "Wow, pretty cool city." When you come here in the summer, you think, "What an awesome city!" The bars, shops and restaurants that line the streets shed their windows in the summer, and it's patio after patio for folks eager to get outside after the long winter. Buffalo needs more places like this.

---John Vogl

Who should go No. 1?

All the talk for months has been that the New York Islanders have to take John Tavares, nephew of Mr. Bandit by the same name, with the No. 1 pick tonight in Montreal. But as the days go by, you keep hearing more and more chatter about Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman or even Brampton center Matt Duchene.

Go here for TSN's capsules on the top prospects.

So you play Garth Snow for a minute and be the Isles GM. (I didn't say be Matthew Barnaby or Steve Shields and pound Garth Snow --- classic Sabres brawls at those links).

Think as Snow for a minute: Who do you pick?

Do you risk the PR disaster of not taking Tavares? Do you risk not taking Hedman, a Lidstrom type on defense? Tough call.

Make your choice below and then be sure to vote in our poll on who should be the Sabres' No. 1 pick.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

poll by twiigs.com

Who should the Sabres draft?

poll by twiigs.com

It's Draft Day ... do something

Hold me back from the excitement surrounding the NHL's annual gathering of guys who won't play for your team next season. It starts tonight at 7 in Montreal with Round 1 on Versus and the NHL Network, then continues Saturday morning at 10.

As I wrote this morning, Darcy Regier needs to start taking some bold moves and maybe he'll surprise us all and do something. Or maybe it will be more of the same for the Sabres, which is just about nothing. John Vogl is on hand in Montreal, and writes about how prospect Evander Kane knew he was NHL-ready thanks to his battles with future Sabre Tyler Myers.

Vogl also heard from Lindy Ruff for the first time since the end of the season, as Ruff spoke on his appointment as an associate coach for Team Canada's Olympic team and the disappointment of missing the playoffs for a second straight year.

Thoughts on Regier? Thoughts on Ruff's comments? This is the place for them. We'll have full coverage of the draft this evening with Vogl on hand in the Bell Centre and yours truly filling the blog from One News Plaza.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

How did Darcy do?

Darcy Regier has a spotty record in the first round of the NHL draft but does well overall, as reporter John Vogl points out in a story in Wednesday's Buffalo News.

His drafts are short on star power but a look at the NHL All-Star teams from the past decade shows most of the top players were either drafted before Darcy came to the Sabres or they were taken with premium picks (early in the first round). Thomas Vanek has been Regier's only premium pick and he made the second All-Star team in 2006-07. Brian Campbell, a sixth-round pick of Regier's in 1997, is the only other Sabre to be named a first- or second-team All-Star in that time.

By comparison, the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins stocked their roster with a slew of premium picks.

TSN has a couple of interesting pieces on the draft, including one on the value of first-round picks and another on the value of draft picks overall.

Take a look at all this and let us know how you feel Darcy did.

Lindy going to Olympics

Lindy Ruff is getting his shot at Olympic glory.

The Buffalo Sabres coach will be named as an assistant for Canada's 2010 Olympic team Thursday, CTVOlympics.ca has reported. Ruff will help head coach Mike Babcock along with Ken Hitchcock and Jacques Lemaire.

Ruff's first chance at international competition came this spring as the head coach for Canada's world championships team. Ruff earned a silver medal in Switzerland.

The coaching announcements will be made at 10 a.m. in Montreal near McGill University, where Babcock played. The 2010 Olympics will be held in February in Vancouver.

---John Vogl

Regier resurfaces

Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier resurfaced Monday after going under cover since the end of the NHL's regular season. In a press conference called only a few hours before the news conference, Regier  said the Sabres were trying to sign Jaroslav Spacek, their top-scoring defenseman from last season, before he became a free agent July 1.

He also said South Buffalo's Tim Kennedy and defenseman Tyler Myers, last year's No. 1 draft pick, might be ready for full-time duty in the NHL.

The Sabres have the 13th pick in the first round Friday in the NHL draft. Should they try to trade up to get one of the top two or three picks to get an NHL-ready player to add to their stable of prospects? Should they use the pick on a forward and if so, should they draft specifically for size? Is bringing back Spacek a good idea or should they try to spend the money on an upgrade in the free-agent market?

What are your priorities and how do they differ from GM for a Day Bucky Gleason's priorities?

The Sabres' All-Time All-Star Draft Team

Baseball writer Rob Neyer once did a book that collected a variety of lists about each franchise -- best all-time players, best rookies, best players acquired in trades, and so forth.

With the Sabres' draft coming up soon, it got me to thinking what Buffalo's all-time team of draft choices might look like, roughly grouped by position. So here it is, at least my version of it. Remember -- this includes a player's performance after leaving town, when applicable:

F - Gil Perreault
F - Pierre Turgeon
F - Peter McNab
F - Derek Roy

F - Rick Martin
F - Dave Andreychuk
F - Craig Ramsay
F - Thomas Vanek

F - Alexander Mogilny
F - Danny Gare
F - Donald Audette
F - Jason Pominville

D - Mike Ramsey
D - Phil Housley
D - Jim Schoenfeld
D - Brian Campbell
D - Jay McKee
D - Bill Hajt

G - Tom Barrasso
G - Ryan Miller

I did struggle with the goaltenders, as you probably could make a case for Bob Sauve and Don Edwards somewhere. Calle Johansson and Larry Playfair were tough to leave out on defense, and Roy won out over such centers as Derek Plante and Curtis Brown.

--- Budd Bailey

Ennis, Myers make Canadian junior team

Big news from north of the border: Both of the Sabres' first-round picks last June have been selected to play for Team Canada in the upcoming World Championships that begin Dec. 26 in Ottawa (the 2010-11 tourney, remember, will be at HSBC Arena and Niagara University).

Tyler Myers, the 6-foot-6 defenseman who was selected 12th overall, and center Tyler Ennis, taken 26th with the pick acquired from San Jose in the Brian Campbell trade, were both named to the roster Monday.

"That's great they both made it," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said when told the news after practice. "It just tells you we've got a couple good players coming down the pipeline."

Ennis and Myers both attended the Sabres' prospect camp over the summer at Niagara University and were at training camp in September before being returned to their junior teams in the Western Hockey League. Ennis has 36 points (15-21) in 31 games this season for Medicine Hat while Myers has four goals, 16 assists and is plus-9 through 26 games at Kelowna.

The Canadian team also includes Oshawa winger John Tavares, the consensus top North American prospect in next year's draft and the nephew of the Bandits star of the same name, and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo of the Niagara Ice Dogs, the fourth overall choice last year by the St. Louis Blues. Pietrangelo played eight games for St. Louis this season before being returned to junior and his final NHL appearance saw him log 19 1/2 minutes of ice time Nov. 12 against the Sabres in HSBC Arena.

---Mike Harrington