Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Enroth added to Team Sweden for World Cup

With Buffalo Sabres' starting goaltender Robin Lehner still not fully healthy, Sweden replaced him on its World Cup of Hockey roster with Jhonas Enroth.
Lehner was bothered by a right ankle injury for much of last season that limited him to 21 NHL games. Lehner underwent surgery in March and had been working to get ready for the World Cup, which begins Sept. 17 in Toronto.
"We really wanted to give Robin the opportunity to recover from his injury from last year, but unfortunately it wasn't enough time for him to feel 100 per cent recovered," coach Rikard Gronborg said Friday in a statement released by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
Concussion problems held Lehner to 23 games in 2014-15, and he looked to be over those after the Ottawa Senators traded him to Buffalo at the 2015 draft. The 25-year-old injured his ankle early in the season opener and aggravated it in March.
It was not immediately clear when the Sabres expect Lehner to be back to 100 per cent.
"As Robin continues to progress during the off-season in his rehab from last season's ankle injury, he felt that it was best to withdraw from Team Sweden for the upcoming World Cup," Buffalo general manager Tim Murray said in a statement. "Robin felt it was important to continue his rehab in Buffalo to prepare for training camp. He has been working out both on and off the ice and we look forward to seeing him on the ice with our team next month."
Enroth, who spent last season with the Los Angeles Kings, recently signed a one-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He joins Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers and Jacob Markstrom of the Vancouver Canucks as the goalies on Sweden's roster.
The 28-year-old has a 2.80 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 147 career NHL games. Enroth was on the Swedish team that earned a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, though he never appeared in a game. He started for Sweden at the 2013 and 2015 world hockey championships, winning gold in 2013 with a 1.15 GAA and .956 save percentage.
"With Jhonas we get an experienced goalie that we know can win games for Tre Kronor, with the 2013 World Championship performance fresh in mind," Gronborg said. "Even though he didn't get the amount of games he wanted last season in the NHL, he did deliver when called upon and had a very respectable save percentage."

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Buffalo Signing Taylor and Gilmore

I don't think it will be that troublesome for the Bills to sign both Tyrod Taylor and Stephon Gilmore. The Bills will have a couple of million dollars in top space that they can move to next season. Likewise, the ebb and flow compensation top of $155 million will increment to presumably $162 million next season.

The Bills should slice Kyle Williams for this to happen. He would be a reserve funds of practically $7 million in top space. Additionally, cutting Corey Graham will free up another $3 million. Those can be supplanted by more youthful or less expensive players. Taylor and Gilmore pay increments would be around $20 million, yet an expanding top and disposing of these two players ought to permit the Bills to get it going.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Bills QB Tyrod Taylor focused on wins


Buffalo Bills beginning quarterback Tyrod Taylor has a considerable measure on his plate entering the 2016 season. Not just is Taylor an imperative piece to Buffalo's prosperity, but at the same time he's playing in the last year of his agreement.

Taylor has a base compensation of $3.1 million this season, which is a can anticipate a beginning quarterback. By examination, quarterbacks, for example, Case Keenum ($3.6 million), Mark Sanchez ($4.5 million), Sam Bradford ($7 million) and Colin Kaepernick ($11.9 million) all have higher pay rates without the sort of creation Taylor had last season.

Taylor tossed for 3,035 yards, 20 touchdowns and had a 99.4 passer rating in his first year as a starter. Another quality season could prompt a sizable payday in 2017. Be that as it may, Taylor is keeping his attention on the field with preparing camp set to start not long from now.

"The agreement circumstance will play out. My outlook is to go out there and win diversions," Taylor told ESPN this weekend, while going to a business gathering set up together by his specialist Adisa Bakari. "Do whatever it takes to win diversions, lead the folks, be the pioneer on the field, off the field and an officer. However, I'm not inexorably centered around the agreement. I can't control that. ... I've generally been one that spotlights on the things I can control, and that will be my readiness and how I go out there and play. I'll let everything else deal with itself."

Buffalo is a football town hungry for a playoff compartment. The Bills have the NFL's longest ebb and flow postseason dry season at 16 years. Taylor was 10 years of age when Buffalo lost in the "Music City Miracle" to the Tennessee Titans.

Taylor went 8-6 as a starter last season and trusts his 2016 Bills can possibly be far and away superior.

"Yes, we're unquestionably positive in the locker room," Taylor said. "We need to be the ones that change that attitude. The people group is certainly prepared for something to happen, similarly as a playoff run, and I think we have the ability to do as such."

Taylor sat tight four years for his chance to end up a full-time starter. He was a previous 6th round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2011 and beforehand served as Joe Flacco's reinforcement. Taylor says he's appreciative to have gotten a Super Bowl ring in simply his second year, yet he will likely lead his own group to the defining moment as its beginning quarterback.

Shielding NFL MVP Cam Newton additionally gives a fascinating diagram to Taylor. Both were drafted around the same time and give double dangers as portable quarterbacks. Taylor said he's created a compatibility with Newton throughout the years, and the Carolina Panthers quarterback's career direction has enlivened Taylor.

"Our expertise sets are comparable," Taylor said. "Do I trust I can be conceivably a NFL MVP? I unquestionably have the trust in my amusement. Be that as it may, I just gotta take it one diversion at once. I unquestionably see the development from a year ago to this spring. I just gotta keep on taking strides forward and consummate my diversion."

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Sabres happy with draft weekend

When the NHL Draft finished Saturday, field specialists raged the First Niagara Center floor. The destroying was quick and effective as tables, logos and signs vanished.

In the mean time, up in the Buffalo Sabers' workplaces, they were celebrating for the inverse reason. As others were tearing down, they kept on working up.

Wild ox gained a since a long time ago coveted defenseman, included talented prospects and turned its consideration toward free organization as the glad host of a fruitful determination appear.

"There's fervor about building this group and where we've gone and what we're doing," mentor Dan Bylsma said. "It gets me amped up for what sort of group we can be one year from now."

After five long seasons, the Sabers trust the expansion of Dmitry Kulikov and others helps them turn into the sort of group that begins with a P.

"He gives us a chance just to continue showing signs of improvement and make that playoff push that we discuss now," General Manager Tim Murray said.

The draft is normally an occasion loaded with good faith, and that was unquestionably valid in Buffalo. The Sabers included capable forward Alex Nylander in the first round Friday, then began Day Two with an exchange that netted another gifted Swede in addition to a veteran defenseman. Murray obtained Kulikov and the No. 33 pick, utilized on center Rasmus Asplund, from Florida in return for Mark Pysyk and the 38th and 89th determinations.

Kulikov is a 25-year-old left-gave defenseman who as of now has played seven seasons in the NHL. He will speak to Russia this fall in the World Cup of Hockey. He has one year left on an agreement that pays $4.33 million, and he'll be an unlimited free specialist toward the end of the arrangement.

Murray has been keen on Kulikov since he scouted in Ottawa. The Sabers and their scouts concentrated on the 6-foot-1, 204-pound defenseman late in the season and amid the playoffs. Unmistakably, the Sabers like what they saw. They think he can possibly play with Rasmus Ristolainen on Buffalo's top blending.

"I don't know whether he's going to play with Ristolainen – that is the mentor's business to assemble the lines – yet we unquestionably realize that he can," Murray said. "He's a solid match for us."

The swap wasn't a take. Pysyk has hinted at turning into a dependable NHL defenseman amid his four seasons in Buffalo and Rochester. Some of his ownership numbers top Kulikov's details, yet Buffalo truly needed a left-gave shot to counter the wealth of righties in the association.

"You can't give away an awful player to get a decent player," Murray said. "You need to exchange away a decent player. Imprint is a decent player. Imprint is somewhat of an examination dear, and we realize that."

The players' hostile details were comparable last season - Kulikov had one objective and 17 focuses in 74 recreations, while Pysyk had one objective and 11 focuses in 55 diversions – however the Russian is more physical.

"He brings an edge," Murray said. "He's not going to be a person that players are perched on the seat hesitant to go play against, however you need to keep your head up when he's on the ice. He'll hit you. He'll submarine you. He'll make you pay the cost in the event that you have your head down.

"He makes an incredible first pass. ... I positively like folks that can make a tape-to-tape pass. With our advances, in the event that you can make a tape-to-tape pass, great things are going to happen experiencing significant change with the expertise and pace that we as of now have here."

The Sabers made the exchange part to get more expertise and rate. They had Asplund appraised as a first-round determination, and they didn't think he'd last until the eighth pick of Round Two. So they hurled in their second-round pick and the remainder of three third-rounders to climb five spots.

"That is awesome that they truly put stock in me and truly need me to arrive," said Asplund, appraised as the No. 4 European skater by NHL Central Scouting. "I believe I'm a solid skating, two-way center that sees the ice extremely well and truly makes the folks that I play with better."

One of those folks was Nylander. They were linemates on the planet junior competition and joined for seven objectives and 14 focuses in seven recreations.

"That is part of the gang I've had the best science with in my entire profession," Asplund said. "He's the distinction amongst winning and losing. He's an astonishing player."

The Swedish team beat the rundown of 10 picks made by the Sabers, who entered the week with 12 determinations. They sent one to Nashville in return for the rights to Jimmy Vesey and exchanged the other to the Panthers. With the draft of prospects finish, the Sabers will turn their consideration regarding veterans.

The meeting time frame is open for unhindered free specialists, and Murray arrangements to call the best ones. That, obviously, incorporates Tampa Bay center Steven Stamkos. Murray has checked a left-gave defenseman off his rundown of longings, and distinct advantages are next in his sights.

"I have conversed with maybe a couple operators around maybe a couple folks," the GM said. "We're going to change our diagram and after that get at it once more."