By Chris
With all of the movement over the last few days between the Sabres and the Pirates, the Maine Hockey Journal has been a great source for information.
Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier was in Portland to watch the farm team take on the Hartford Wolf Pack today and MHJ has a transcript of his interview with the media.
The highlights:
Are (Ennis, Mancari and Gerbe) on emergency recall? Do you expect to use your regular recalls for any of these players?
“Right now, they are all emergency recalls. We’ll have to see, but Connelly’s [sic] situation is “hopefully” very short-term, Tomas [sic] Vanek will be seen (by the doctors) tomorrow. We’ll get a better medical understanding tomorrow. Torres should be back pretty soon.”
Are there any prospects who you would like to see in Portland?
“The player that we’re in negotiations with now that would be the most likely consideration to join (Portland) would be Luke Adam. I think for someone like him to experience (pro life) whether he is playing or not, but being here and getting a sense of what’s involved.”
What’s been your impression of Tyler Ennis with his time in Buffalo?
“He came in and just slid into a position. Lindy put him on the power play right away, he really took him from the position he was playing on the power play (in Portland) and put him in the same hole in (Buffalo) with a different cast, but he still did the same thing.”
“That’s what you want to happen.”
Obviously the biggest news out of all of that is that Regier is working on bringing Luke Adam to Portland. You need to go no further than SabresProspects.com to know how good Adam has been this season since returning from surgery to remove his spleen.
Adam could really help Portland if their top three scorers are in Buffalo for an extended period of time. And he’d be a great addition for their playoff run (assuming he’s eligible to play).
One of the key components of the 2005-06 Buffalo Sabres coming out of the lockout was team chemistry. Guys like Derek Roy, Brian Campbell, Jason Pominville and Ryan Miller had played together in Rochester for a few years before they made it to the show. They were familiar and comfortable with each other, making the transition to the NHL a lot easier.
We’re slowly seeing that same process take place with the current prospects. Ryan and I touch on it a little in an upcoming podcast, but it’s nice to see that Regier and the rest of the front office aren’t rushing prospects up. It’s never been their style to dress players who aren’t ready and that should continue to be the norm.
Ennis and Adam could both very well be on the Sabres next year and the little bit they may be able to play together this season will pay off in the long run (as much as I’d like to see Ennis stay up, there’s a numbers game to be played and with his emergency recall status, I bet they send him down as soon as everyone is healthy). So now that Adam’s junior team has been eliminated from the playoffs, let’s hope they can get him in a Pirates uniform as soon as possible.