The Rochester Americans saw one of the most consistent lineups the team has had in years this season.
Here are some basic numbers from this season, as well as from years past for the Rochester Americans:
In the 2013-14 season, 45 different players skated in at least one game for the Rochester Americans. Throughout the season, the team signed 13 players to either a PTO (professional try-out contract) or ATO (amateur try-out contract). Thirty-five NHL recalls happened throughout the course of the season.
The following season, all of those numbers increased. Fifty players skated in at least one game, with the Rochester Americans signing 21 players to PTO/ATOs throughout the season. A whopping 43 NHL recalls happened.
This season?
While the numbers were still high – as to be expected with a development league like the AHL – they were also the lowest we’ve seen in a few years for the Rochester Americans.
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Forty-four players skated in at least one game for the Rochester Americans, with 15 of those players appearing in at least 50 games for the team. Only 11 players appeared in 10 or fewer games, including Robin Lehner (three-game conditioning stint).
The Rochester Americans signed just seven players to PTO/ATOs throughout the course of the season, including twice signing defenseman Collin Bowman.
Of those seven players, three (Zdolshek, Komm, Sauer) never played a game with the Rochester Americans but were signed and quickly released.
Finally, just 27 NHL recalls happened throughout the course of the season – 16 fewer than the 2014-2015 season.
Three of those “recalls” happened on paper as part of the blockbuster AHL trade Tim Murray made, which sent Jason Akeson, Philip Varone and Jerome Leduc to Ottawa.
That figure also includes the recall of Lehner from his conditioning stint, as well as the recalls of Mark Pysyk and Jake McCabe, both of whom would remain with the Buffalo Sabres upon their recall.
All in all, this allowed for a lot more consistency in the AHL lineup.
The AHL is always an interesting league because clearly, consistency helps when you’re trying to build a collective team and put together a solid team effort. It’s hard to do that when you’ve got players coming in and out all the time. But then again, the very nature, and in fact purpose, of the league, is to have players moving like that, in case of NHL injuries or just being called up due to the sheer deserving of a roster spot.
At any rate, it does help to have at least some consistency in the lineup, which the Rochester Americans largely did have this season, in guys like Brady Austin and Justin Bailey.
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However, as is usually the case, we could see a lot of turnover in the Rochester Americans’ roster heading into next season, as roughly 12 players are going to become either restricted or unrestricted free agents this summer.