It’s should come as a shock to absolutely no one that Sabres first round selection Mikhail Grigorenko is a dominating force for the Quebec Remparts this season. In twelve games, Grigs has potted 10 goals and assisted in the scoring of 14 others. Yep, you’re all reading that right… 24 points in 12 games. How nice would it be to have him keep that pace up in the NHL, assuming the season starts sometime during this century?

It’s become clear to anyone who has had the pleasure of watching him, that grigorenko does not belong in the QMJHL, he’s more than ready to be given his chance. Apparently Quebec coach, Patrick Roy, and Darcy Regier also believe this to be true.

» Continue reading “Grigorenko Dominates in Quebec”

Because all of us aren’t already in love with the awesomeness that is Marcus Foligno, the Rochester Americans treated us to this little gem during the 3rd period of tonights game…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YSOesouK6U&feature=relmfu

Also lets just take a minute appreciate how much Mark Pysyk, Matt MacKenzie and Kevin Sundher appear to be enjoying themselves. What better way to make people love you than to make fools of yourselves! Well done Amerks, this video made my night and now I will never be able to listen to this song without laughing hysterically!!

Thomas Vanek joined fellow teammates Christian Ehrhoff Andrej Sekera, and Tyler Ennis today in choosing to wait out this lockout overseas. Vanek will play in his hometown of Graz, Austria for the 99ers and could appear in the lineup as early as Friday. Vanek’s contract, much like Christian Ehrhoff’s, has stipulations. As of now, his contract runs through November 4th when the European leagues break for the national teams. There is also an opt-out clause so Vanek could return immediately to Buffalo should the lockout end.

While Vanek may not be the star attraction in Sabreland anymore, he’s nothing short of Alex Ovechkin to the people in Graz. The website for the Graz 99ers crashed when news of Vanek’s signing broke due to the excessive interest and excitement over Vanek returning to his home country to play. Tickets to see the hometown boy have also become a hot commodity, with people from all over Austria falling over eachother to get their hands on them.

Below is what Chris Schleifer of the Osterreich, a large Austrian newspaper, had to say about the new breaking of Vanek’s return to his hometown:

“This is just huge. The 99ers’ Web site has already crashed. Hockey fans from all over Austria are already buying tickets for the next games, no matter what teams they’re fans of. They want to see Thomas play live. All of the media outlets have the story as their No. 1 story. The Austria Press Agency sent it out in blue, which means ‘urgent.’ There are no words to describe it.”

It sounds like it’ll be all eyes on Van, much like it is here. The major difference being most of the fans over there will welcome him home with open arms. Here, many people undervalue Vanek and don’t appreciate his raw talent (whoch I believe is sometimes stifled due to line juggling and excessive defense…). As with Ennis, Ehrhoff and Sekera, I’m sure we are all wishing him well, but would prefer him and all players to be here playing instead of 10 time zones away. Stay tuned for more updates.

The first domino has fallen. Christian Ehrhoff signed with the Krefeld Penguins of the German Ice Hockey League (Deutsche Eishockey Liga). Ehrhoff and his family spent the summer in the town where he will now be spending his time due to this glorious lockout.

Ehrhoff’s deal is interesting to say the least, mostly because its not a “contract” per say. His deal will allow him to return to the Sabres immediately after the lockout ends and the German league will pay $26,000 a month to insure Ehrhoff in the event of an injury. Obviously, all of us are hoping nothing happens to him while he is playing overseas, but at least he’s doing something to stay in shape.

Alexander Sulzer is also rumored to be in talks to play with another team in the same league, Düsseldorfer EG. It appears as though he is going to give himself a little more time to figure out what direction he’d like to go.

I know all of us are hoping this lockout will be over as quickly as it started, but realistically, we’re looking at a pretty decent chunk of time. No one can blame or be mad at players who have already signed/are contemplating signing elsewhere (yes people who call WGR550 to vent about nonsense, I’m looking at you). The players need to stay in shape and continue to make their living. If everyone will come to their senses sooner rather than later, everyone will be back here and we’ll have NHL Hockey.

With the lockout all but inevitable the Buffalo Sabres loaned 22 players to the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. Luke Adam, Brian Flynn, Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Grigensons, Cody Hodgson, Jacob Legace, Jon Parker, Kevin Sundher, Corey Tropp, Phil Varone, Alex Beiga, Jerome Gauthier-Leduc, Brayden Mcnabb, Mark Pysyk, Connor Knapp, Riley Boychuk, Shawn Szydlowski, Nick Crawford, Matt MacKenzie and Nathan Lieuwen will all start the season with Rochester.

Forward Kevin Porter and defenseman Nick Tarnasky have also been lent to Rochester, but they must clear waivers. In addition 4 players have been returned to their respective junior teams. 2012 first round selection Mikhail Grigorenko was returned to Quebec of the QMJHL, Joel Armia was returned to Assat of the Finnish elite league, SM-Liiga, and Daniel Catenacci was returned to the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL. The team also announced the signing of goaltender Andrey Makarov to a 3 year entry level deal. Marakov was immediately returned to the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL.

WTF… That’s really all I have to say on the title of this post and what I would probably say if I came into contact with anyone at the Buffalo Sabres front office today. I remember first hearing about this a few weeks ago and I brushed it off because, seriously… THAT’S JUST INSANE!

Not to take anything away from Shane Doan, because he is an absolutely fantastic player, leader and person (from what I’ve heard about him). I personally feel that this is just an absurd amount of money and a term that is a few years to long for someone who is past their prime and much closer to their retirement than winning the Calder Trophy.

» Continue reading “Report: Sabres Offer Doan 4 Years $30M Contract”

- Mikhail Grigorenko agreed to terms on his entry level contract yesterday (yippeeee!). As is standard, at least for now, the contract is for three years and according to , the average cap hit will be $1,755,000 including bonuses and assuming he plays in the NHL. Head over to to check out the press conference announcing the signing.

Grigorenko was the 12th overall selection, the 1st by the Sabres, in this years Entry Draft. He was ranked by NHL Central Scouting as the 3rd best North American skater available in the 2012 draft class. He was also ranked as the #1 available center, a position lacking organizational depth. Grigorenko played in the QMJHL last season for the Quebec Remparts under Patrick Roy. Darcy Regier has come out and said on a few occasions that Grogorenko will have every opportunity to make this team. In other words, it’s his to lose.

» Continue reading “Sabres News and Notes 7/18 – 7/19″

The Sabres are continuing their trend of signing tough guys. This morning the team announced the signings TJ Brennan and Nick Tarnasky to one year contracts. Brennan is a former 2nd round draft selection of the Sabres and Tarnasky was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 9th round of the 2003 draft.

Nick Tarnasky played last season in the KHL after playing parts of 5 season with the Lightning, the Nashville Predators and the Florida Panthers. In those 5 season 30 points, 297 PIM’s in 245 games. Tarnasky also appeared in 36 games while playing for Vityaz Chekov of the KHL and racked up 12 points and 173 PIM’s.

While the point total is not impressive, the tough guy mentality is something the Sabres felt they needed to acquire in bulk quantities this off season. Tarnasky joins the list of John Scott and Steve Ott as the tough guys acquired through free agency/trades. The 3 of them will join Patrick Kaleta (hopefully), Cody McCormick, Marcus Foligno and Corey Tropp. Apparently our goal this offseason was to get mean, very, very mean… Should be an interesting experiment.

» Continue reading “Sabres Sign Brennan, Tarnasky”

Its official. After days of speculation the Buffalo Sabres have announced that first round draft selection Zemgus Girgensons agreed to terms on his entry level deal. The deal is a standard 3 year, entry level contract.

Since he decided to turn pro, Girgensons will forfeit his ability to play at the collegiate level. Right after he was drafted, it sounded like Girgensons was set on attending the University of Vermont in the fall. However, after development camp and being around the professional setting, he seemed to have changed his tune.

Girgensons will most likely start the year in Rochester, but has a chance to make the team right off the bat if his training camp is as impressive as his development camp was. From what I saw out of him at camp, he’s got the whole package and he’s already strong enough to play with the big boys.

Up next, getting their other first round selection, Mikhail Grigorenko, under contract.

The French Connection will be forever immortalized outside of the First Niagara Center with a statue that will be the centerpiece of the new Alumni Plaza. A press conference was held this afternoon at the First Niagara Center to announce the plans for the statue and plaza set to be opened by October of this year (yay!). All I can say about this is, took you all long enough!

Rene Robert, Rick Martin and Gilbert Perreault are arguably three of the most important players in Sabres history. The trio played together for 7 season and were one of the most dominant lines in hockey at the time. Perreault’s #11 was retired by the team in 1990, the same year he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame with Robert (#14) and Martin (#7) joining him in the rafters in November of 1995. To this day, they remain a humongous part of the culture of Buffalo Sabres hockey, so much so that when they made their final appearance as a group people were so happily surprised, they laughed, cheered and cried (happy tears of course) all at the same time.

» Continue reading “Sabres To Finally Honor French Connection, Alumni”