An NHL team’s questions, issues, and problems more often than not eventually become a puzzle for its AHL affiliate to solve as well.
The Rochester Americans know that trickle-down effect and its reality quite well with the AHL season not even a week old. With the Buffalo Sabres trying to sort out numerous issues, including their goaltending picture, the Amerks find themselves impacted as well.
Several factors are at work already.
First, while an 8-4 home win against the Ottawa Senators to open this week eased a bit of the pressure in Buffalo following an 0-3 start, considerable tension always lurks with the team having missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the past 14 consecutive seasons. A visit from the back-to-back champion Florida Panthers awaits the Sabres this Saturday afternoon. From there the remainder of their October schedule brings a run of six games in 11 nights.
The pressure is on in Buffalo. Last season a somewhat-promising start gave way to a disastrous 0-10-3 crash from late-November into December that left the Sabres in a hole that they never escaped.
Secondly, the organizational priority in Rochester is again to give top prospect Devon Levi as much work as possible. Last season Levi took the Amerks to the limit of the North Division Finals against the regular-season champion Laval Rocket. Levi is starting his third full pro season after a standout run at Northeastern, and he has largely delivered on his promise with the Amerks. He has taken Rochester to the Calder Cup Playoffs in his first two seasons, and he went to the AHL All-Star Classic last February. Still, he has yet to stick with the Sabres on a full-time basis and only got into nine games with them last year, posting a 2-7-0 | 4.12 | .872 line. But this is a highly cerebral goaltender who has shown that he is more than capable of being a number-one goaltender at the AHL level – and perhaps match up against anyone in the league. This is someone who was a 2020 seventh-round pick who has made himself a top prospect, and he has the type of competitiveness and drive that comes with having done so.
Buffalo management turned quite active this past offseason and into training camp revamping the organizational depth chart in net.
Veteran Alex Lyon came over from the Detroit Red Wings as a free agent on a two-year deal. James Reimer, who made 22 appearances last season, departed. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen delivered a workmanlike 55-game effort last season, but he missed the start of training camp last month. When he did make his preseason debut Oct. 1 for the Sabres, he left the game after one period; head coach Lindy Ruff said that it was a separate injury from the one at the beginning of training camp, according to Buffalo’s team website.
Levi, 23, had signed a two-year contract extension with Buffalo this past July. But he found himself a somewhat early assignment to Rochester on Sept. 26. By that point, the Sabres also had already added Alexandar Georgiev, who signed a one-year contract with the team Sept. 10 after dividing the 2024-25 campaign between the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks.
But Buffalo’s goaltending moves continued. In came Colten Ellis from the St. Louis Blues via a waiver claim Oct. 6. Ellis, who had turned 25 one day earlier, had put together a standout performance with the Springfield Thunderbirds last season. Making 42 appearances, he went 22-14-3 | 2.63 | .922 and recorded three shutouts. The 29-year-old Georgiev found himself clearing waivers and sent down to Rochester.
Somewhere in the mix sit two more prospects in Topias Leinonen and Scott Ratzlaff. Leinonen, a 21-year-old who went to the Sabres as second-round pick in 2022, is starting his first season in North America. Last season with Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, he had a solid 13-10-0 | 2.31 | .910 performance in his extended run at the pro level; that work prompted the Sabres to sign him to his three-year entry-level contract last March. Ratzlaff is a 20-year-old rookie who spent parts of the past five seasons with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds. Last season he played 49 games and was a WHL (West) First All-Star Team pick with a 23-19-4 | 3.10 | .916 line for the Thunderbirds.
To help arrange the goaltending picture, the Sabres have been busy making moves. Ratzlaff needs work. That’s why the Sabres opted to assign him to their ECHL affiliate, the Jacksonville Icemen, to begin the season. The Icemen have a Saturday-Sunday visit to face the expansion Greensboro Gargoyles this weekend. An eight-game road trip awaits the Icemen to begin this season, but even the Jacksonville crease is crowded with Michael Bullion and rookie Cameron Rowe, a member of Western Michigan’s national championship team last April, on hand.
But Rochester’s net is packed as well with Levi, Leinonen, and Georgiev on the roster. Levi took Rochester’s opening-night start last Friday at home, making 24 stops to defeat the Toronto Marlies, 4-3. The following afternoon in Toronto came Leinonen’s turn. He finished with 17 saves as the Marlies took a 4-1 victory to complete the home-and-home set. The Amerks visit the Utica Comets on Friday night before going to Syracuse the following evening. From there they have a three-in-four set next week that begins Wednesday when the Crunch come to Blue Cross Arena. Amerks head coach Michael Leone told the media this past Tuesday that Levi will get Friday night’s start.
“Then we’ll kind of re-evaluate going forward,” Leone added. “They’re all really capable.”
2025 Rochester Americans vs Utica Comets
And with Buffalo trying to handle early-season struggles, Lyon has had to take all four starts so far. Where does a start for Ellis fit? A start against the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers at KeyBank Center with the team 1-3-0? Then comes a trip to Montreal’s Bell Centre followed by a home date with the Detroit Red Wings. A home-and-home series with the Toronto Maple Leafs concludes Buffalo’s slate next week.
There are not a lot of simple, clear choices right now for the Sabres.
Not in Rochester, either. The beginning of the AHL season is always a challenging time for coaching staffs. They are trying to work in new faces, get systems implemented fully, and help young players acclimate themselves to the pro game. First-round pick Radim Mrtka, for example, has a bit of pro experience. But the ninth overall pick from this past June’s NHL Draft is, after all, an 18-year-old defenseman trying to find his way in the AHL. Another first-rounder, Konsta Helenius, has one year with the Amerks behind him, but he is all of 19 years old himself. Anton Wahlberg is 20. Viktor Neuchev, 21, faces a critical third season with Rochester. Vsevolod Komarov is a 21-year-old on the Rochester blue line. Even a bulk of Rochester’s veteran group is new with captain Mason Jobst, Brett Murray, and Kale Clague among the offseason departures.
To add further movement to the mix, Buffalo recalled Amerks captain Zach Metsa on Thursday. Young defenseman Ryan Johnson went the other direction to Rochester.
Luukkonen, Lyon, Ellis, Levi, Leinonen, Georgiev, and Ratzlaff. It’s a lot to figure out, and the schedule, at least in the NHL, rarely affords the luxury of lots of time to let situations play out. Buffalo management has decisions to make. Players in both Buffalo and Rochester will help to inform those choices. But in Rochester, Leone and his coaching staff will have to help to execute those plans. So much of what happens – now and down the road – in Buffalo will depend on how well the Amerks can make those objectives a reality. Fortunately for both Buffalo and Rochester, the highly regarded Leone is the sort of even-tempered presence who can manage what has been an evolving picture for his roster.
Nothing is easy in the AHL, especially in October.
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