Michael Peca won a lot of games in Buffalo. He got within two wins of a Stanley Cup in 1999, as many of us remember. So when he says he's blown away by the talent level he saw at the Sabres' development camp, the viewpoint carries weight.
"It's pretty exciting," Peca, now a Rochester assistant, said last week in LECOM Harborcenter. "And I think the part that's exciting is the obvious what you said, that the talent that's out there is remarkable, even the fresh crop from this most recent draft. But it's the vibe off the ice that's just as impressive.
"And I know everybody that spoke in front of a microphone the second half of last year talked about the culture and the environment and how it's just changed so much for the better. It's carried over. And I think it's just going to continue to build momentum. And everybody can feel it. It's really exciting."
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The hope, of course, is that what we saw in Buffalo in March and April and what we saw in Rochester in March, April and May will carry on to training camp in September, the start of the NHL/AHL season in October and beyond.
There are never any guarantees, of course. And the way Ottawa and Detroit pushed their teams forward in free agency and via trade was eye-opening. But for an organization that has done a whole lot of losing the last 11 years, those three months could prove to be seminal moments.
"It's big. I mean, it's the start of something, right? We've kind of reignited the fire," Peca said. "And that's a difficult process to get going. Especially mirroring Buffalo and Rochester together. The difficult part is maintaining it now and continuing to build upon it. And I think we've got the staff in both organizations that are committed to doing that. And, obviously, (scouting director) Jerry Forton and his staff have done a tremendous job in continuing to stack the cupboards for us to work with and, hopefully, we can just continue to grow it."
Coach Don Granato gave off a similar vibe when he spoke with reporters after Saturday's 3-on-3 tournament.
"I think our scouting staff has done an amazing job – especially after I watched these five days," Granato said. "There's a lot of talented, talented kids out there, that now the determining factor is going to be their love and passion and fight to make it. But there's enough skill that there's a lot of players in there that could be real impactful to winning at the NHL level. They've just got to keep pushing themselves."
The Sabres are suddenly stacked down the middle with the likes of Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs, Casey Mittelstadt and 2022 draftees Matthew Savoie, Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich, taken in the first round earlier this month in Montreal. Savoie should be on the Buffalo roster as soon as the 2023-24 season, and Kulich was one of the standouts in camp after being taken No. 28.
"When you see a team pick three first-round centermen, that means at least two of them might be on the wing at some point in their career," Peca said. "But I think it's exciting. They said they picked the best player available. And it's unfortunate we don't get to see Matthew on the ice this week, but the other two have been incredibly impressive."
It is mind-boggling to think of the overall talent the Sabres had on the ice in this camp, highlighted by eight former first-round picks. But then you have to stop and think of the names that weren't out there: Savoie, Quebec League breakout performer Olivier Nadeau, burgeoning Swedish prospect Filip Cederqvist and Buffalo's entire cadre of 2021 Russian draft picks (Prokhor Poltapov, Alexander Kisakov, Stiven Sardarian and Nikita Novikov). Pretty amazing to add them to the group we saw.
Granato said it was a thrill for him to see many of the new names the Sabres have drafted the last two years, especially since this was the first development camp since 2019. And it was a unique chance for the NHL head coach to check out some of the players at a grassroots level, playing against, mostly, guys their own ages.
"To finally put the hockey player to that name we drafted and watch some of the skill out here as a head coach here and a guy that's worked with kids these ages, it's really, really exciting," Granato said. "It's great for me to get kind of a vision of what that player could be, see their skill set before it comes into the NHL.
"... They have a whole different skill set than you're going to see when they enter the NHL. You put a player in the NHL for the first time and it's survival. And so you don't see their skill set as you would when they're at a lesser level. It's hard for you to gain a vision of that player in his road to becoming successful in the NHL. So it's very important for us to watch this as well."
Levi turns heads on, off the ice
Northeastern goalie Devon Levi was terrific in camp all week, and his spectacular shootout save Saturday on Jack Quinn was careening across social media shortly after it happened. When he met the full Buffalo media for the first time earlier in the week, you were blown away by his poise and maturity.
Johnson beats Portillo and Levi with a *spectacular* crowd-pleasing stop on a Quinn dangle to give Hasek the 1-0 win over Perreault. #Sabres pic.twitter.com/50xE6nqmMP
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) July 16, 2022
And his thought process about returning to school was fascinating. I asked what it's going to be like for his name to be on the mind of every opponent, given that he's the reigning Mike Richter Award winner as college hockey's top goaltender. Levi refuses to think that way.
"This year going in, I'm going to treat it like it was last year, like I still have a lot to prove," he said. "I definitely think I have more to give. So I'm going in as an underdog. I want to get better. I want to do better and, obviously, be mindful of not putting too much pressure on myself where I have to carry the whole team."
Levi is small at 5-foot-10, but players like Juuse Saros of Nashville and Ville Husso of Detroit are pushing the mantle back toward smaller goaltenders. Levi showed an incredible butterfly that covered much of the net and tremendous athleticism this week. As the Sabres have seen with Robin Lehner, Linus Ullmark and most recently, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, you have to worry about injuries with big goalies.
Then the Sabres took the top goalie in the draft, 6-foot-5 Topias Leinonen, and what happened to the big Finn in camp? Injured on the first day. A lower-body ailment that was enough to keep him off the ice the rest of the week, a real shame.
Levi and Michigan's Erik Portillo both were rock-solid in goal all week. Minnesota defenseman and former first-round pick Ryan Johnson, who seems much more likely than Portillo to sign with the Sabres after next season, seemed to ramp up his game each day and showed impressive offensive skill in Saturday's 3-on-3 affair.
Jack Quinn was the best player on the ice most times he was out there, be it a drill or Saturday's games where he continued to show sick hands in shootouts. Kulich was perhaps the most impressive new name, while 2021 seventh-rounder Tyson Kozak showed off moves that belied his status as a last-round pick. He had 32 goals and 69 points in 66 games last year at Portland of the WHL.
Potarulski among those moving
After winning his second Calder Cup, this time with the Chicago Wolves, Williamsville native Andrew Poturalski should get his best NHL chance this fall after signing a two-year deal with the Seattle Kraken. Potarulski, 28, got a one-way deal at $750,000 this season and $775,000 in 2023-24. He had 101 points for Chicago in the regular season and 23 more in the playoffs as the Wolves beat Springfield to take the Calder Cup. If Poturalski lands in the AHL again, he would be at Seattle's new team in Palm Springs, Calif., coached by former Sabres bench boss Dan Bylsma.
Former Canisius College star and Lancaster native Dylan McLaughlin signed a two-way deal with St. Louis last week ($750,000 NHL/$175,000 AHL). McLaughlin, 27, is coming off his best AHL season, with 13 goals and 29 assists in 55 games for Rockford.
Among 2021-22 Sabres getting new NHL deals, defenseman Colin Miller got the biggest one, a two-year, $3.7 million package from Dallas. Goalies Aaron Dell (San Jose) and Dustin Tokarski (Pittsburgh) each returned to their old organizations on one-year, $775,000 deals. Defenseman Mark Pysyk got one year and $850,000 from Detroit, and forward John Hayden signed with Seattle (one year, $750,000). Cody Eakin, Will Butcher and Robert Hagg remain unsigned.
Nieuwendyk's son will become a Griff
Canisius got an interesting commitment for the 2023-24 season Thursday when forward Jackson Nieuwendyk of the British Columbia Hockey League's Penticton Vees announced he will be heading to Buffalo. Nieuwendyk is the son of Hockey Hall of Famer and former Cornell star Joe Nieuwendyk, who won three Stanley Cups and was the 1999 Conn Smythe Trophy winner for Dallas when the Stars beat the Sabres in the No Goal final.
Jackson Nieuwendyk, 19, had nine goals and 13 assists in 52 games for Penticton last season, but the Dallas native was fifth on the team in postseason scoring with 14 points in 17 games (6-8-14).
Also from Canisius, goalie Jacob Barczewski attended the St. Louis Blues development camp. Barczewski is a native of nearby O'Fallon, Mo., and had good numbers for the Griffs last season (13-14-2, 2.42/.923) while earning All-Atlantic Hockey honors.
Around the boards
• Johnny Gaudreau in Columbus? Great town, great fans, great organizational leadership in president John Davidson and GM Jarmo Kekalainen. Terrible noise from that Nationwide Arena cannon every time the Blue Jackets score. Iffy prospects to win. So what happened to Johnny Hockey going home to Philadelphia or New Jersey? Seven years and $68.25 million through 2029 happened.
Gaudreau ducked out of the pressure of a Canadian market by taking far less money than he would have gotten in Calgary. It has to rate as one of the most shocking free agent signings ever. Folks in Calgary now know what July 1, 2007 was like in Buffalo after the star player spurned the team and walked away for nothing.
• Jack Eichel better have a big year in Vegas because he keeps costing them players. Max Pacioretty and Dylan Coghlan are gone to Carolina in a salary dump because the Golden Knights have to carry an $82.5 million payroll by the start of the season. To get Eichel, Vegas' current scorecard shows it gave up Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a No. 1 pick this year (Noah Ostlund), a second-rounder next year, plus Evgeni Dadonov, Pacioretty and Coghlan. Better be worth it, boys.
• Who has been knocking it out of the park? Carolina. GM Don Waddell has added, among others, Brent Burns and Pacioretty, and it has cost him only two prospects and a 2023 third-round pick.
• More injury woes for Zach Bogosian. The former Sabres defenseman and Tampa Bay teammate Anthony Cirelli both had shoulder surgeries in the wake of the Stanley Cup final and could be out until early December.
