Savoie Demotion Due Mostly To Young Prospect Missing Training Camp
2022 top pick played six AHL games and was used sparingly in NHL debut
Savoie Demotion Due Mostly To Young Prospect Missing Training CampBuffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato led off his media availability on Monday with an explanation of the club’s demotion of 19-year-old prospect Matthew Savoie back to the Wenatchee Wild of the WHL on Saturday after making his NHL debut in a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
"That game was a very tight game and started with trading power plays and penalty kills and as the day went along, I did not feel comfortable as a coach putting him in a spot where it was a tight game and him being on the ice for a mistake against, I didn't think he had enough practice time. It's unfortunate because of the injuries and I didn't want that to happen to him. So that was a personal decision for me." Granato said. "With (Mattias) Samuelsson coming back, we no longer had a roster spot."
After missing all of training camp with an upper-body injury and playing six games with the Rochester Americans on an AHL conditioning stint (where he had 2 goals, 3 assists) Savoie played just under four minutes and five shifts in his first NHL game.
"The way the rules say we were going to have to send it back to Junior or keep him on one of our 23 roster spots," Granato said. "We have a guy that we love as a as a prospect and player. We saw he's gonna miss the entire training camp because of injury. So we brainstormed as to how can we keep him around. He had to take one of the 23 roster spots. We were able to get him in Rochester for six games instead of as mandated, send it back to Junior, and from that point, we said if there's injuries on the 23-man roster, we're going to try to get him a game, maybe more to get some feel that he missed the training camp in five or six preseason games."
Savoie will get significant playing time over the next month prior to the opening of Canada’s World Junior camp in Toronto on December 10, where he is expected to be one of Team Canada’s top offensive weapons.
LATEST THN BUFFALO STORIES