With all of the offseason acquisitions made by the Buffalo Sabres, there were bound to be a few odd men out, and come the close of the summer, one of those men was fan favorite fourth liner Patrick Kaleta.
Today, the Rochester Americans announced that Kaleta will be staying with the Sabres organization, having signed a one-year AHL contract to play in Rochester.
NEWS: The #Amerks have signed forward Patrick Kaleta to an AHL contract. He will attend @BuffaloSabres training camp on a PTO
— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) September 12, 2015
Kaleta, who will be attending Sabres training camp on a professional tryout, scored three assists while accumulating 36 penalty minutes in his 42 games wearing the blue and gold last year. The often-injured Kaleta suffered a knee injury last season that cut his campaign short, and has never played more than 63 games in a single season during his professional career thanks to his rough-and-tumble style of play which leads to plenty of time off to recover – and the occasional suspension.
The 29-year old Kaleta will now be fighting at training camp for a spot among the likes of David Legwand, Nic Deslauriers, Cody McCorimck, Johan Larsson, Jerry D’Amigo, Tim Schaller, and Evan Rodrigues. If I had to guess, I would put Kaleta in Rochester to start the season, where he can help mentor the influx of new talent the Amerks will have this year.
The few games he was in Rochester 2 years ago, Kaleta got right to work getting to know the younger players and helping them to improve
— Matthew Coller (@MatthewWGR) September 12, 2015
The signing of Kaleta is yet another loose end from this offseason tied up nicely by Tim Murray. Is there anything else you’d like to see the Sabres do before camp opens next week? Give us your thoughts on that and Kaleta below.