Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – When 2019 first-round pick Ryan Johnson finished his senior year at the University of Minnesota, he could’ve chosen to become an unrestricted free agent. Instead, he chose to sign with the Buffalo Sabres.
Veteran defenseman Erik Johnson said he had five or six teams interested in his services, but he chose to sign with the Sabres at the start of free agency.
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That seems to be happening more-and-more for the Sabres, and general manager Kevyn Adams confirmed that to be the case before the first practice of Sabres Development Camp on Sunday.
"What’s starting to happen here within our own locker room is the players, themselves, talk about building something special. That gets around to other players in the league, and now different agents call and talk about what they hear is going on here in Buffalo," said Adams on Sunday. "To have Erik Johnson, a Stanley Cup champion with a great career, and to have us at the top of his list is pretty exciting."
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We’ve all talked about a top-four defenseman for the Sabres, but it wasn’t about that for Adams.
"You can really get focused on a top-four or this, but just really on overall a better [defensive]-core and depth," Adams said.
"When we had injuries last year, it really hurt, so we are trying to solve that."
Adams says he had legitimate and serious conversations with other teams for months, and when you put it all together, he felt Johnson and Clifton would be who they wanted to target.
When it comes to Clifton, Adams likes his physical presence and the fact he’s a good skater.
With the retirement of Craig Anderson, the Sabres lost a huge leader in their locker room. That’s one of the reasons the Sabres wanted to get Johnson.
"There’s nothing like someone that’s been through it, being able to sit next to someone that’s exactly been in their shoes,” Adams said.
Adams wants a defense that can mix and match, and guys that can play with anyone.
The salary cap didn’t go up much this offseason, which means the money just isn’t out there to spend wildly like teams have always done on July 1. Had Buffalo pursued these two last year or any other year, the price would’ve likely been almost double, and the term would have been a lot more too.
Getting Clifton signed to a three-year contract is good, because that’s around the time you’ll want to be locking up goalie Devon Levi, as well as forwards Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka.
Buffalo has nine defensemen and three goalies on their roster. Before opening night, they’ll need to get rid of one, maybe two defensemen and a goalie. There is the option of sending them down to Rochester, but I think the better option is trading them elsewhere.
Eric Comrie has played 47 NHL games, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has played 46, and Devon Levi has played seven. That’s why much of the fan base is flipping out over going into the season with two of them.
"You can go sign a veteran goalie that’s played a lot of games, but if you don’t think he’s better than the ones you have, then why would you do that? You could walk in here and say we got someone that played a lot of games?," Adams said.
“We have confidence in the guys we have, and I think these guys are getting better every day. You’re also looking at where they are today, trying to project and to improve our team. It's to clean up some of the ways to help our goaltenders out, whether its certain areas of our defensive game, our penalty kill, which will be a focus for sure.”
Adams says Luukkonen stayed in Buffalo for a while to have a little procedure on his ankle, and Adams had him over to watch playoff hockey and talk. Adams says he liked the opportunity to just spend time with his goalie, and he was able to talk to him about how much they believe in him. They also talked about things to work on to get better at.
Noah Ostlund is at Sabres Development Camp this week, but is still nursing a shoulder injury and can’t skate yet.
2022 second-round goalie Topias Leinonen has a stress fracture in his heel from working out, while this year’s sixth-round pick Sean Keohane had shoulder surgery.
All are at camp, but not skating. Monday’s session has been moved to 11:15 a.m. ET at Harborcenter and is open to the public.
