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Rochester Americans Roster Facelift Via Free Agency

By Melissa Kania

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For any team – including the Rochester Americans – free agency is always an interesting time of the year. Players come, players go. Sometimes players come back to a team after playing elsewhere. Sometimes, your team signs a player you never would’ve expected — or fails to sign a player you thought would be there forever.

The fact is, there are a LOT of players that spent time with the Rochester Americans this season that are set to become free agents this July.

The Amerks roster could receive quite a facelift over the summer, with some of these players likely not returning to Rochester in the fall.

An astounding 14 players that spent time on the Rochester Americans roster this year have expiring contracts. Will they stay or will they go?

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  • Drew Bagnall – D – UFA (31 years old, $550k)
  • Matt Ellis – C – UFA (33 years old, $242,473)
  • Zac Dalpe – RW – RFA (25 years old, $188,702)
  • Jerry D’Amigo – LW – RFA (24 years old, $182,903)
  • Jerome Gauthier-Leduc – D – RFA (22 years old, $635k)
  • Mikhail Grigorenko – C – RFA (20 years old, $223,790)
  • Matt Hackett – G – RFA (25 years old, $145,306)
  • Johan Larsson – C – RFA (22 years old, $374,193)
  • Nathan Lieuwen – G – RFA (23 years old, $588,333)
  • Mark Pysyk – D – RFA (23 years old, $299,354)
  • Jordan Samuels-Thomas – LW – RFA (24 years old, $640k)
  • Tim Schaller – C – RFA (24 years old, $208,870)
  • Kevin Sundher – C – RFA (23 years old, $610k)
  • Philip Varone – C – RFA (24 years old, $182,939)

Those are all the impending free agents for the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Which of these players do you think the Buffalo Sabres will re-sign? Which will re-sign but likely end up in the NHL with the Sabres next season? Which could potentially sign AHL deals with the Rochester Americans, if they aren’t picked up by another team during the offseason? Will any of them go on to play overseas, exercising their option to play internationally?

A lot of players are leaving locker cleanout day at the Blue Cross Arena uncertain of where their futures lie. Of the 14 Rochester Americans players who will hit the free agent market this summer, nine spent at least some time in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres this season.

But were these glances quite enough to make the NHL team want to retain these players for the near future?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling each of these impending free agents and trying our best to predict where they could be playing when October rolls around. Either way, even if half of these players return to the Rochester Americans in October, there will likely be a lot of turnover in the AHL team’s roster next season. It could be quite a different lineup at the BCA in October — let’s just wait and see.

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