The Buffalo Sabres did not fall victim to the waiver wire on Sunday, as forward Brandon Biro, defensemen Kale Clague and Riley Stillman cleared waivers and are expected to be sent down to the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.
The Sabres have not made their 23-man roster official as of yet, but it is expected that forward Jack Quinn and 2022 first-rounder Matthew Savoie will be placed on injured reserve. Quinn is recovering from an off-season Achilles injury and Savoie is slowly ramping up his conditioning after missing nearly three weeks with an upper-body injury.
Buffalo opted to keep three goaltenders on the roster rather than risking exposing either Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen or Eric Comrie to waivers with the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning looking for help in goal.
The Avs will likely be placing backup Pavel Francouz on IR as he is still dealing with a groin injury and is said to be looking for help between the pipes with the inexperienced Justus Annunen behind starter Alexandr Georgiev.
Tampa will be without two-time Cup winner Andrei Vasilevskiy for more than two months following back surgery, and at this moment their tandem to start the season is former Sabre Jonas Johansson and Canadian Olympian Matt Tomkins.
The Sabres were not the only Atlantic Division club to make strategic moves with their goaltending. Florida demoted waiver-exempt netminder Spencer Knight to the AHL to keep Anthony Stolarz as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky, Detroit like Buffalo is keeping three goalies on the NHL roster (Ville Husso, James Reimer and Alex Lyon).
The Toronto Maple Leafs did not have the luxury of keeping three goalies being tight against the salary cap. The Leafs cleared $1.15 million in cap space by trading forward Sam Lafferty to the Vancouver Canucks for a 2024 fifth-round pick and placed goalie Martin Jones on waivers.
The 33-year-old played 48 games for Seattle last season and his $875,000 salary is low enough for the Lightning to fit under their salary cap.