Sabres Release 11 Players And Announce An ECHL Affiliate

by Zachary Zielonka on Sep 20, 2011 8:14 PM EDT in Prospects

The Buffalo Sabres have announced that they have sent 11 players back to their respective junior teams:

Forwards Steven Beyers (Barrie, OHL), Dan Catenacci (Owen Sound, OHL), Cedrick Henley (Val D'Or, QMJHL), Steven Shipley (Niagara, OHL), Kevin Sundher (Victoria, WHL) and Gregg Sutch (Barrie, OHL); defensemen Jerome Gauthier-Leduc (Rimouski, QMJHL), Alex Lepkowski (Barrie, OHL) and Mark Pysyk (Edmonton, WHL); and goaltender Nathan Lieuwen (Kootenay, WHL).

The Canadian junior season starts in a couple of days so having those players back with their teams for the start of the season if they aren't going to make the team.

The next announcement the team made is that they have signed an ECHL affiliation with the Gwinnett Gladiators. The Gladiators will be featuring players from both the Sabres and the Coyotes. The Gladiators use to be the ECHL affiliate for the Thrashers before they moved to Winnipeg. Sabres University just added a community college.

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Damn.

Was hoping Elmira would get looked at… but probably not a good idea for us and ottawa to play together.

Fitz = M(C)²
"Lets Go Buff! a! lo!"

by bflo on Sep 20, 2011 8:27 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

Elmira already has two parent teams with Ottawa and Anaheim. Kind of make sense when both of them have farm teams in Binghamton and Syracuse. I remember when the Sabres had a team in the ECHL and they tried to send a “wake up” call to former 1st round pick David Booth. They sent him down to Charleston from Rochester. Unfortunately, the wake up call didn`t work.

by BUBLSRM on Sep 21, 2011 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions

OOPS

I meant David Cooper. Former 1st round pick of the Sabres who only played 30 games in the NHL

by BUBLSRM on Sep 21, 2011 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions

A little awkward...

Theyre affiliated with Phoenix and Portland.

Fitz = M(C)²
"Lets Go Buff! a! lo!"

by bflo on Sep 20, 2011 8:30 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

Gwinnett?

Well at least I have a team to root for when I got to Florida Everblades games.

"If we needed any more motivation to win a Cup sooner than later, we've got one now," Black said. "I really want to listen to the game that RJ calls when he finally gets to shout out, 'Buffalo wins the Stanley Cup.'"

by FloridaBuffalo on Sep 20, 2011 11:24 PM EDT reply actions

Too bad Pysyk is already gone...

I was hoping he would get a long look.. He just didn’t do enough up in Traverse City.

by drwho62 on Sep 21, 2011 8:13 AM EDT reply actions

Cool, an ECHL affiliate

Maybe we can relocate them to Utica…

Ted Black is really good at facilitating fan suggestions

by lassathrax on Sep 21, 2011 8:26 AM EDT reply actions

Gwinnett arena is sweet.

My best friend takes his family to games here all the time. Nice looking arena.

by 2010bulls on Sep 21, 2011 10:34 AM EDT reply actions

I`m glad to see them get an ECHL affiliate. I think this can help in player development and also be able to help Rochester when injuries and call ups occur. The way I see it now, they have alot of defensemen slotted for Rochester. It may make sense to send one or two of them to Gwinnett to get playing time instead of being healthy scratches in Rochester. I heard an interesting rumor that South Buffalo`s Peter Ratchuk may be signed to play there.

by BUBLSRM on Sep 21, 2011 2:27 PM EDT reply actions