Who wouldn't want to play hockey in Los Angeles? Like new Sabres defenseman Christian Wolanin joked Monday, your first thought after practice was often, "Great, I'm going to the beach."
But that perk only goes so far if you're not playing. Wolanin didn't play in the Kings' first two games and when veteran Olli Maatta was activated from injured reserve, the Kings waived Wolanin and the Sabres picked him up Saturday.
That was fine by him. When Wolanin played for Ottawa, he was on the other side of the ice during the Sabres' 9-2 shellacking of the Sens on Nov. 3, 2018, a contest most remembered for being Jason Pominville's 1,000th game and lots of noise from a big house in KeyBank Center.
"I got to see Buffalo to the fullest, I guess," Wolanin said Monday after his first practice with the Sabres. "It was just cool. It's a hockey town, you know that it's a sports town. I was fired up to come here."
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Wolanin, 26, is a 6-foot-2 left-shot defenseman. It's crowded on that side and he said he's willing to cross over. He might have to if he wants to crack the lineup.
The Sabres won't use Wolanin in Tuesday night's game against Vancouver here but a back to back over the weekend (Boston at home Friday, at New Jersey on Saturday) could provide coach Don Granato with an opportunity to shuffle his lineup some.
While coaching the U.S. National Development Team Program, Granato saw Wolanin play for Muskegon of the USHL in 2011.
"I've kind of followed his career a little bit, but I'm going to observe like everybody else at this point much like we did in training camp," Granato said. "Try to learn more about him as we go along. So now it's just getting him integrated."
Born in Quebec City while his father, Craig, played for the Nordiques, Christian Wolanin was a 1-year-old when his father won the Stanley Cup in 1996 while playing for the Colorado Avalanche after the franchise moved from Quebec.
The family has the obligatory picture of their tiny child sitting in the Cup and Christian Wolanin still wears his dad's old blue and white Nordiques jacket.
"That thing rocks," he said. "It's actually Bills colors. I might be able to rock it here."
Wolanin, who played at North Dakota with current Buffalo winger Drake Caggiula, played 30 games for Ottawa in 2018-19 but has been slowed since by shoulder surgery after an injury in the fall of 2019. He's played just 33 games since the start of the 2019-20 for Ottawa and Los Angeles between the NHL and AHL, and 10 more in the World Championships for Team USA in June in Latvia.
While playing for Team USA with Sabres center Tage Thompson, Wolanin's short-handed goal opened the scoring in a 6-1 win over Germany that clinched the bronze medal.
"That was the best. It was just so fun to play hockey and play consistently, play meaningful minutes, be a part of a team again," he said. "(It was great) to go out there and be able to play, play a part of a team again. ... All the superstars didn't want to go because of the Covid year, so a bunch of guys just had an opportunity and ran with it and it was just a blast."
Christian Wolanin a super personable guy. Stoked to be here. In LA, “sure, you get to the beach after” but he wasn’t playing. Played in BUF for OTT during Pominville’s 1000th game. pic.twitter.com/dwzJKbt0jK
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) October 18, 2021
Wolanin will wear No. 86 for the Sabres, a first in franchise annals. He spent a good deal of time at Monday's practice on defense with Colin Miller and now waits for the chance to make the lineup.
"I have zero complaints about LA," he said. "I absolutely loved it from the head GM to whatever's at the bottom. But I wasn't playing, so it's never fun to go and practice every day and just show up again and practice again."
Lineup news
Granato said he'll keep the same lineup of skaters Tuesday that he used in Saturday's win over Arizona. That means forward John Hayden will join Wolanin as the healthy scratches.
"I'm really happy with what they did in the first two games, but it was the first two games," Granato said. "The league gets better every game, especially through the first 15-20. Coaches around the league and teams haven't been able to implement the structure they want, they're going to have, and that's going to be more of a challenge to us as we go along."
The lone change will be in goal, where Craig Anderson will get the start. He beat Montreal on Thursday, and Dustin Tokarski got the win in Saturday's shootout victory. It stands to reason they will then split the weekend.
The Canucks, who are 1-1-1 on a five-game road trip to start the season, are likely to get standout winger Brock Boeser back Tuesday for his first game. He's been out since late September with a groin issue but practiced fully on the top line and power play Monday in Detroit before the team headed to Buffalo.
