Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - Casey Mittelstadt hadn't been playing lately and, to be honest, that's not a good way to develop a 21-year-old player.
With that in mind, the Sabres sent Mittelstadt down to Rochester. The forward was with his new team for practice on Monday.
Sabres general manager Jason Botterill said it was a decision that needed to be made, "With the holiday break coming up here and with the new coaching staff coming in here, we wanted to continue to work with Casey and his development and the one thing we've loved interacting with Casey is he's been all in.
"His attitude during practice and after practice with the coaching staff has been really good, and after sitting out a few games, I wanted to make sure that leading into the break that he was playing games and continuing his development."
Amerks coach Chris Taylor has been instrumental in the development of Victor Olofsson, Linus Ullmark, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Asplund and others. Botterill said it will only help Mittelstadt putting him in Taylor's hands, "To have Chris come up here and work beside Ralph, understand exactly what Ralph's looking for in players, and also too Chris has now seen some of Casey's best games and he's also seen when Casey struggled. Having that knowledge is just going to help him out in getting Casey back up to the National Hockey League."
Mittelstadt has many things to learn as he starts his journey in Rochester. Botterill said, "We see his hockey sense. We see his skill level and we've seen glimpses of it. We just need to on a more consistent basis.
"He's a very motivated young player and as an organization. We know he's going to be a big part of our future, and hopefully a part of our second half here too.
Botterill and Ralph Krueger called Mittelstadt in on Sunday morning to talk about this. Botterill said, "It's always an emotional conversation, but what I liked was his initial respect for the American Hockey League level and going and playing." Botterill added, "What I really enjoyed about the conversation is he immediately got over the frustration and disappointment and it was, 'What do I have to do to get back on track to the National Hockey League to help achieve things.'"
For the second straight week, and third time this season, Jack Eichel is the NHL's third star of the week. Eichel has complete faith in Mittelstadt that he's going to handle his situation in the right way, "Casey's going to be fine. It's a good chance for him to go down there and build some confidence. It's never easy being out of the lineup and not playing and with somebody like him, he comes in with a lot of expectations and it's a good chance for him to start building his game again and I don't think anybody's worried about him."
Krueger thinks that Mittelstadt needs to play and for right now, that wasn't happening in Buffalo. He said, "The most important thing is development and us always communicating with the players in a real clear way about what our expectations are, what they need to work on and Casey has the opportunity now in Rochester with a little more time and space to work on these things and to get more reps and more minutes and to continue to work on his habits."
The team practiced for about 40 minutes on Monday before leaving for Toronto to play the Leafs on Tuesday.
