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Will The Buffalo Sabres Re-Sign Center Phil Varone?

By Melissa Kania

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The Buffalo Sabres will undoubtedly have a busy offseason. The team needs to find a new head coach, solidify its goaltending plans going forward, think about the draft AND, of course, focus on free agency. The Sabres have a number of players in the organization that are going to hit the free agent market, including 14 players who spent time with the AHL’s Rochester Americans this season.

One such player is center Philip Varone, who spent most of the season in the AHL but also saw significant time with the Sabres towards the end of the season.

Varone, 24, was originally a 2009 draft pick of the Sharks, but was never signed by San Jose and thus became a free agent. He joined the Amerks for the 2011-12 season and has been with the Sabres organization ever since. Varone has been a strong forward for the Amerks, playing big minutes and putting up points at the AHL level.

This season, he led the Amerks in scoring with 44 points, despite only appearing in 55 games with the team. His 15 goals were second-most on the team, one behind Zac Dalpe, and his 29 assists also led the team. Varone averaged 0.8 points/game and recorded 120 shots on goal, an average of 2.18 per game.

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Varone also led the Amerks in scoring last season, with 61 points in 69 regular season games. He added three assists in five playoff games.

Varone made his NHL debut last season, on January 23, 2014. He had an assist in his first game with the Buffalo Sabres, and scored his first goal with the Sabres a handful of games later.

This season, he began the year in Rochester but came up on January 6 for his first game of the season with the Buffalo Sabres.

He’d end up appearing in 28 games with the Sabres, putting up five points in that stretch. That included two multi-point games, including both of the Sabres’ goals in a 5-2 loss to the Hurricanes in January.

Varone is set to become a restricted free agent this summer after earning $1.76 million this season. He’s at the end of a three-year contract… but has he proven himself enough to make the Buffalo Sabres organization want him back?

I’ll be the first to admit that I like Varone’s game. I’ve been watching him play since his days in the OHL when he was an absolute beast of an overager with the Otters, and I can appreciate his scoring ability at the AHL level, even if it’s not quite translating to the NHL at the same effect.

Though many fans will say it may not be worth it to re-sign Varone, as he didn’t contribute much during his time in the NHL this season, you can’t underestimate the value of having scorers in the AHL, guys who know how to make plays and can, at the very least, help other guys succeed.

Will he ever become a full-time member of the Sabres? Probably not. Does he make a valuable contribution to the Amerks? Yes. But is that enough to warrant giving him a contract? That’s the question that Tim Murray has to answer this summer.

Do you want to see Varone re-signed, or do you think it’s time for the Sabres organization to part ways with him?

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