Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – Before the season started not many knew who Colten Ellis was. On Oct. 6 the Buffalo Sabres claimed him from the St. Louis Blues saying they had their eye on him for awhile and couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
The 25-year-old goaltender was drafted by the Blues in the third round of the 2019 Draft after playing four season in the QMJHL.
Ellis turned pro in 2021-22 and went to the ECHL to play for the Worcester Railers. He played 34 games for them and got called up for six games in the AHL with the Springfield Thunderbirds.
In 2022-23 Ellis played 27 games for the Tulsa Oilers and in 2023-24 he got 21 games with the Orlando Solar Bears and 16 more with the Thunderbirds. Ellis said he learned a lot spending three seasons and 82 games in the ECHL,
“I think coming into pro I really didn’t know what it was like, I was coming after playing four years junior, so you don’t really know what it’s all about, so I think in my first couple of years I learned a lot in the sense of how things operate day-to-day and something that really helped me was once I realized that you can’t be looking too far down the road and wondering where you want to be in a year or next year, so I was just playing where my feet were at and it took me a little bit to realize it, so realizing that was one of the most important things that I learned.”
I wondered if he ever got impatient along the way and he said,
“Yes, I think so, like when I was in the East Coast I just wanted to be in the AHL and take that next step, but once I realized to take care of where I’m at, everything will work into place.”
St. Louis has Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer in net, so Ellis knew there was no room for him in the NHL. He said,
“I was just taking it day-by-day and try to improve myself and my game and when I went into St. Louis, I just focused on the day-to-day things and the details of my game.
“You can get caught looking down the road thinking if this happens or that happens you then spend a lot of time wasting an opportunity that you have in front of you.”
Had Ellis cleared waivers, he would gone back to the AHL where he has played 64 games. Thinking back, Ellis feels there’s a big difference between the East Coast League and the American League,
“It’s the speed, the structure, the intensity of the game and it’s the same when you come up here, the guys are a lot bigger, stronger, faster and really tenacious around the net, so everything is just elevated here.”
There are two things that stick out with Ellis, he’s almost like a third defenseman as he handles the puck well enough to start the breakout and except for the Calgary game, his rebound control is impeccable. Moving the puck is something he learned along the way,
“Ever since I was young, my goalie coach back home Scotty Gouthro was really helpful and we’ve been working on it since I started working with him years ago, so I always liked stickhandling even when I was a young player, so I think that helped me now.”
Work ethic is something engrained in Ellis at a very young age. Lindy Ruff has commented on it more than a few times and he credits family values for that,
“Growing up my parents instilled that you’ve got to work hard and you earn what you put in, so they’re both extremely hard workers, so just seeing that growing up and how hard they’ve worked makes it easy for me because I’m playing a game.”
Ellis has had five NHL starts, all with the Sabres and the only bad one was against the Flames when he gave up six goals on 35 shots. Ellis is 3-2-0 with a 3.41 goals against and .896 save percentage.
The Sabres host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon. They were on the road in Winnipeg on Friday and beat the Jets 4-3. The Canes are 2-0-2 in their last four games and 7-1-2 in their last 10. Carolina’s .714 points percentage is second in the NHL pending on what the Dallas Stars do on Saturday in Calgary.
If Rod Brind’Amour continues to rotate his goalies like he has been doing that would put Pyotr Kochetkov in net. He’s 4-0-0 with a 1.70 goals against and .926 save percentage.
The Canes came into Saturday second in the NHL scoring 3.62 goals per game. Sebastian Aho, a notorious Sabre killer leads the way with eight goals and 13 assists for 21 points in 21 games. Seth Jarvis has the most goals with 11.
Buffalo has won three out of four games. In the three wins they have 19 goals. Tage Thompson has goals in five straight games and six out of seven. He has 10 points in those seven games.
Since coming back from Sweden, Rasmus Dahlin has played four games and has seven assists.
On Sunday join Brian Koziol and me for the pregame starting at noon when you’ll hear from Ruff, Ellis and Jacob Bryson who had a goal and an assist in Friday’s win over the Chicago Blackhawks.