Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka were resting Monday afternoon following a rigorous practice with the Buffalo Sabres when both rookie wingers received a phone call from Kevyn Adams.
With rosters due to the NHL by 5 p.m., Adams informed Quinn and Peterka, his first two draft choices as general manager of the Sabres, that each made the club’s season-opening, 23-man roster.
“I was just super, super happy,” Peterka, 20, said, smiling Tuesday following practice in LECOM Harborcenter.
“Really excited,” Quinn, 21, added.
The Amerks’ roster again is filled with young, intriguing talent that wants to make it to Buffalo.
This is only the beginning for Quinn and Peterka, both of whom were remarkable for the Rochester Americans last season. They acknowledged there will be ebbs and flows as they adjust to better competition and the exhaustive 82-game schedule, a process that officially begins Thursday night in KeyBank Center with the season opener against the Ottawa Senators.
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Adams and coach Don Granato also cautioned to expect growing pains, yet both expressed confidence that Quinn and Peterka will find their way, like other young Sabres have done in recent seasons.
Quinn, a goal-scoring winger drafted eighth overall in 2020, proved he’s ready for Buffalo with a historic season in which he was named the American Hockey League’s top rookie and totaled 26 goals with 61 points in 45 regular-season games.
Peterka, whom the Sabres traded up to select 34th overall in the same draft, joined Quinn on the AHL’s all-rookie team with a regular season in which he scored 28 goals and finished with 68 points in 70 games.
“We know their potential skill,” Granato said. “We know they're (talented) and, like I said, they compete, they're dedicated to improvement. If they weren't, they wouldn't be here because they need to improve. They need to get better, they need to acclimate to size, strength, speed of NHL players. They're behind right now and it's going to take them a bit, but we know their talent base. And the things I mentioned, the characteristics, intelligence of them; they will acclimate. We just need to get them in there. You know, it's almost like you can't learn to swim without getting wet, right? So, they need to jump in the pool and swim. And we're going to provide them that opportunity. We feel we have surrounded them with great support by the players that return.”
"It's just a tremendous honor and I couldn't be more proud," Okposo said of being named Sabres captain. "I'm just gonna continue to be myself. If you start to act a different way, or do things differently, the guys see through that in a heartbeat. You can't fool anybody. So authenticity is definitely number one on my list."
Neither forward’s development has been linear, either.
Quinn endured a difficult 15-game introduction to the AHL in 2020-21 and, more recently, contributed two assists in 10 games of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Though Peterka was the Amerks’ top postseason performer, he had only three goals over his first 23 games in Rochester while learning the importance of a responsible, two-way game. They’ve responded well to adversity, though. And the Sabres have the supporting cast to not burden either forward with too much responsibility or pressure too soon.
Quinn is going to start the season at left wing on a line next to center Casey Mittelstadt and right wing Alex Tuch. Peterka, meanwhile, is at right wing with Dylan Cozens at center and Peyton Krebs on the left side. And neither Quinn nor Peterka will be asked to help on the power play early in the season.
Granato prefers to have both rookies focus on their 5-on-5 play before adding any additional responsibility. The Sabres applied the same approach with defenseman Owen Power during the No. 1 draft pick’s introduction to the NHL last April. More experienced forwards have earned spots on the man-advantage, so Quinn and Peterka are going to have to earn those opportunities by showing progress.
Training camp went differently for Quinn and Peterka. While Peterka needed more time to regain his timing and adjust to the increased play, Quinn was consistent from front to finish. Quinn led the Sabres in shots on goal with 16 in five preseason games. He contributed two goals, one of which tied the exhibition opener in the final minutes, and three points. Peterka improved, though, and gradually began to limit risks when trying to make plays with the puck.
“Well, I think just try to keep the pattern going,” Quinn said of his goal to continue improving. “Keep working on my game every day and try to become a good player in this league. It will obviously take some time, there will be some ups and downs. But I think if I keep improving my game, eventually I’ll be able to get there.”
“I’ve seen it myself, like kind of how the process works and how I elevated my game from start to finish last year, so I’m pretty confident I can do it this year as well,” said Peterka.
The Sabres’ coaches proved last season they know how to help young players continue their development in the NHL. Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Asplund and Mattias Samuelsson are a few of the notable success stories from 2020-21. Their continued growth, combined with their potential and competitiveness, made Granato comfortable with the Sabres having the youngest roster in the NHL with an average age of 25 years old.
The roster is set. Now the Buffalo Sabres can get down to the business of dropping the puck.
Younger players typically make more mistakes in the NHL, but Granato also sees notable advantages to allowing prospects such as Quinn and Peterka to learn on the job while playing in the best league in the world.
“What that means is we'll develop more game by game; we'll take more from a game,” Granato said of the youth on his roster. “We can recover faster game to game. But you know, what you envision, what you know as a coach, is you do have the opportunity to get better faster than many other teams in the league. … I'm excited about that. … The realization is we're actually younger than we were last year, which is less experience. And it's gonna take us a little bit to gain that experience, but I'm happy with the makeup of our roster.”
Ready to go
Sabres captain Kyle Okposo was cleared for contact and will be ready for the season opener, Granato told reporters. Okposo, 34, missed the final week of training camp with an upper-body injury sustained in a preseason game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 4. He skated on a line at practice Monday with Asplund and Zemgus Girgensons.
On the mend
Rochester goalie Malcolm Subban will be out three-to-four weeks with a lower-body injury suffered in an exhibition game with the Amerks on Sunday. While Subban is out, either Beck Warm or Michael Houser will back up Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in Rochester.
