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Buffalo Sabres Should Claim Ben Scrivens Off Waivers

By Melissa Kania

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The Buffalo Sabres already have two goaltenders set to be on their roster for the 2015-2016 NHL season — but why not pick up another?

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With Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson currently set to be the team’s goaltending tandem, but nothing is certain.

The Edmonton Oilers placed Ben Scrivens on waivers on Sunday for the purpose of reassignment, and there’s no reason the Sabres couldn’t claim him. He would likely be an upgrade and could potentially play in either a starter or backup role.

Scrivens has 129 games of NHL experience under his belt; while that may not seem like a lot, it’s actually more than either Lehner or Johnson, and nearly as many games as the two have played COMBINED.

Scrivens, 29, began his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2011 after spending the previous season in the AHL (Toronto Marlies) and ECHL (Reading Royals).

That season, he went 4-5-2-0 with a 3.13 GAA and .903 save percentage.

Scrivens played about twenty NHL games in each of the following two seasons, with Toronto, Los Angeles and Edmonton. In that time between 2012 and 2014, Scrivens also played more for the Marlies (61 games) and played for Canada at the World Championships.

One of his best seasons was 2013-2014, when he accrued a 1.97 GAA in 19 games with the Kings.

But in the past two years, Scrivens has been getting a lot more playing time with the Oilers. He played 1,235 minutes in 2013-14 with the club, and played 3,228 minutes – a career-high – last season. Though he didn’t have a remarkable year last season – putting up a .890 save percentage and 2.90 GAA – it’s important to keep in mind that he was playing behind a struggling Oilers club.

The Oilers, of course, finished last season third-last in the league and ended up winning the draft lottery. Scrivens played in 57 games last season with the Oilers and carried a cap hit of just $2.3 million.

So – why are the Oilers placing him on waivers? The Oilers already have two NHL goaltenders, picking up Cam Talbot over the summer to act as their starter, and putting Anders Nilsson in the backup role. Scrivens is apparently the odd man out.

The ultimate purpose is to reassign him to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL, but I think there’s a good chance a team will swoop in and claim him, and there’s no reason that shouldn’t be the Sabres.

The best part of all this: if the Sabres put in a claim for Scrivens – or any other waiver player – before the season begins, they’re guaranteed to get him.

The NHL’s rules state that if more than one team puts in a claim (prior to the season beginning), the team with the lowest points in the preceding season win the claim. That, of course, would be the Buffalo Sabres.

We already know that goaltending is a question for the Buffalo Sabres heading into the season; why not pick up Scrivens and add more NHL experience to an otherwise largely unproven goaltending tandem?

Obviously if the Sabres did claim Scrivens, they wouldn’t be likely to carry three netminders for long. I could see them potentially holding onto Lehner and making him and Scrivens the new duo, with Johnson the odd man out.

What do you think, Sabres fans? Should the Sabres claim Ben Scrivens off waivers?

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