AMERKS 2021-22 SEASON PREVIEW
Oct 15, 2021By Suzie Cool
As the Rochester Americans embark on their 66th season in the American Hockey League this weekend, here’s an in-depth look at the current roster heading into Sunday afternoon’s season-opener against the Utica Comets at 3 p.m.
Forwards (13): Brandon Biro, Lukas Craggs, Dominic Franco, Mason Jobst, Ryan MacInnis, Sean Malone, Michael Mersch, Brett Murray, Matej Pekar, JJ Peterka, Jack Quinn, Ryan Scarfo, Linus Weissbach
With the late addition of Peterka to the Amerks roster earlier this week, the squad is now sporting 14 forwards heading into its first regular-season matchup this weekend. This group of forwards features a wide variety of league veterans to players just breaking into their first couple of years in the pros.
When we look at the veterans that have made their way back to the Flower City, we’re looking at players like Mersch, Malone, Murray and Scarfo.
Mersch is one of the mainstay culture drivers that we got quite familiar with last season.
In 2020-21, Mersch was tied for second among all Amerks skaters with 19 points in 28 games, including appearing in his 400th contest in the AHL and recorded his 250th pro point. After just being signed to a professional tryout with Rochester last season, Mersch signed a two-year AHL deal with Rochester this past August.
With the way that Amerks head coach Seth Appert and Mersch connect on a communicative level, and the intrinsic leadership qualities that Mersch naturally possesses, it’s very easy to see why Appert appointed the four-time 20-goal scorer and former Calder Cup-winner as the team’s captain for this season and quite possibly next.
Looking at a forward we’ve seen make an unbelievable jump in his game over the last year under Appert is that of Murray.
Going into the 2019-20 campaign, Murray wasn’t even signed to a contract until the week of Rochester’s home opener when he signed a one-way AHL contract for the remainder of the season. Since then, Murray has gone on to appear in 82 games with the Amerks, totaling 20 points (9+11) while making his NHL debut with the Sabres on May 6 of last season. Additionally, Murray finished 2020-21 as Rochester’s scoring champion.
After a standout Prospects Challenge, Murray was one of the last cuts from Sabres training camp and he admitted that it was a little bittersweet to be heading Rochester to kick-off the season. At the end of the day, Murray knows that this ultimately means that Buffalo is taking a more in-depth look at him this year, and this gives him a little more time to develop in Rochester, and simply, he’s happy here.
Malone is yet another player we’re all excited to see back on the roster in Rochester and one that Appert is more than happy to not have to play against.
After spending last season splitting time between the Nashville Predators and Chicago Wolves roster, Malone signed a one-year NHL deal with the Sabres in July. In 23 games between the Wolves and Predators last season, Malone record 15 points (5+10) while recording his first NHL point with an assist on Feb. 9 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In his three seasons with the Amerks from 2017-20, Malone has appeared in 169 games while recording 28 goals and 65 points including a career-high 30 points on 12 goals and 18 assists in 58 games in the shortened 2019-20 campaign. Since then, Malone has enjoyed getting a new set of eyes on his game and is excited to be under the helm of Appert heading into this season feeling as though his coaching style matches Malone’s style of play when he’s most successful.
MacInnis is the lone veteran in which he’s in his first year within the Sabres organization, but he comes as no stranger to the pro game after totaling 250 games in the AHL and 26 in the NHL.
In late July, MacInnis was signed to a one-year NHL contract with Buffalo after spending last season skating in a career-high 16 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets and playing in five contests with the Cleveland Monsters. MacInnis has went on to appear in 276 professional contests from 2016-2021, spending ample time with the Monsters over the last three seasons.
On Sunday we saw MacInnis centering the second line with Murray and Mersch, adding up for a big-bodied trio that seems to deliver the culture that Appert is looking for.
The younger forwards that are on two-way NHL deals are that of Biro, Pekar, Peterka, Quinn and Weissbach while Craggs, Franco and Jobst round out the AHL deals on the forward side of things.
Peterka and Quinn are the names that immediately standout amongst that list, as they were both selected in the same draft one after the other in October of 2020.
We all know the COVID-19 pandemic messed up a lot of plans, including Quinn’s original one of heading back to the Ontario Hockey League prior to the 2020-21 season. However, COVID had something else in mind and the OHL was shut down last year, allowing Quinn the opportunity to jump start his pro career at just 19-years-old.
Appearing in 15 games during his rookie season in Rochester, Quinn went on to total seven points on three goals and four assists. Unfortunately, Quinn’s season ended quite abruptly as he underwent season-ending hernia surgery to be able to rehab and be ready to go for the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign.
Yet another Amerks player that was one of those late cuts from Sabres training camp, Quinn was assigned to Rochester last Thursday, attended morning skate at The Blue Cross Arena the next day and was immediately thrown into preseason action against the Utica Comets in the same night. Quinn then went on to appear in both preseason matchups for the Amerks, registering one goal and two assists.
Quinn already feels as if he’s way more adjusted and ready for the style of play in the AHL and he’s ready to take on more of a role as a big-time player this season.
Peterka, on the other hand, is just getting accustomed to the game on North American ice and that’s one of the main reasons as to why we’re seeing him in Rochester to start off the season.
Spending the last two seasons in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga with the Red Bull München, Peterka made his professional debut at just 17-years-old during the 2019-20 campaign when he registered 11 points in 42 contests. Last season, Peterka picked up the pace, tallying nine markers and 11 assists in his 30 games with Red Bull while getting to play with Amerks newcomer and defenseman Ethan 
Prow and former Amerks standout defenseman Zach Redmond.
Being that Peterka was once again one of the last players we saw make his way to the Flower City from the Sabres roster, a lot of people wondered why they wouldn’t be seeing him in Buffalo to start off the season. Sabres head coach Don Granato and Appert both agree that there’s no reason to rush Peterka’s development and that it’s important for him to learn things the right way while having success in Rochester before pushing him into too much of a pressure situation that he can’t dig himself out of in the NHL.
Here’s how the forwards lined up during Sunday’s preseason tilt against the Crunch (not including Peterka, who was still with Buffalo):
Quinn – Malone – Weissbach
Murray – MacInnis – Mersch
Craggs – Scarfo – Pekar
Warren – Franco – Polino
Defenseman (8): Brandon Davidson, Mitch Eliot, Casey Fitzgerald, Oskari Laaksonen, Ethan Prow, Jimmy Schuldt, Josh Teves and Peter Tischke.
Following the Amerks preseason game on Sunday, it seems the defensive core could be led by two players who spent considerable time being paired together at St. Cloud State University in Prow and Schuldt.
Both Prow and Schuldt were signed to one-year contracts with the Sabres in July and were excited to get the pairing back together, which was made possible with both being assigned to Rochester over the course of last week.
When looking at the rest of the Amerks defensive lineup, we’re looking at a good mix of players on NHL and AHL contracts alike with Davidson, Fitzgerald and Laaksonen looking to break onto the Sabres roster at some point this season.
Eliot, Teves and Tischke are all players on AHL deals trying to find full-time roles in the Flower City.
Davidson comes with the most experience out of any of the defensemen starting out the season in the Flower City. Entering his 10th year in the pros, Davidson spent a majority of last season on the Sabres taxi squad while appearing in eight games between Rochester and Buffalo. Additionally, Davidson has appeared in 180 games in the NHL while recording 49 points (15+34) in 192 AHL appearances.
Being the last defenseman assigned to Rochester from Sabres training camp, Fitzgerald heads into his third full season in the pros looking to prove as to why he should make his NHL debut this season. Last year we saw Fitzgerald spend time on the Sabres taxi squad while taking on a leadership role with the Amerks despite being just 23 years old at the season’s start.
Fitzgerald started in the Amerks preseason matchup against the Crunch, starring on the Amerks third defensive pairing with Teves and recording an assist on Murray’s second marker in the first stanza.
Goaltenders (3): Aaron Dell, Michael Houser and Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen
The Amerks are currently holding three goaltenders, in which all have very different paths as to how they got to this point in their career. With that being said, Luukkonen does look to be the go-to netminder as he’s in need of more repetition in order to take his game to the next level.
With last year being an unprecedented season, Luukkonen made the unexpected jump to the NHL despite making just 25 appearances with the Amerks over the last three seasons. In his four games with the Sabres, Luukkonen went 1-3 while recording his first NHL win in his NHL debut in Buffalo’s 6-4 win over the Boston Bruins on Apr. 23 making him the first Sabres netminder to win his first career start since Mika Noronen on Oct. 5, 2020. Additionally, the third-year pro started 14 of the 17 games for Rochester during his time on the Amerks 2020-21 roster, going 7-5-2 with a .888 save percentage.
Luukkonen made the start in the Amerks first preseason matchup of the season, suffering the loss in the 4-3 shootout setback while stopping 35 of the 38 shots he faced.
Dell signed a one-year NHL contract with the Sabres in July and spent some time in Buffalo during training camp before being assigned to the Amerks last week.
Last season, Dell spent time bouncing between the New Jersey Devils, their taxi squad and the Binghamton Devils, appearing in eight games over the 2020-21 season. In his seven games with New Jersey, Dell went 1-5-0 while making 132 saves and sporting a .857 save percentage. Arguably Dell’s best season in the pros came in 2015-16 while he was with the San Jose Sharks and appeared in a career-high 40 games while showing a 17-16-6 record.
As the Amerks closed out the preseason against the Syracuse Crunch this past Sunday afternoon at The Blue Cross Arena, Dell got the win, making 17 saves.
Houser rounds out the trio of goaltenders having spent the last 10 years climbing the pro ranks for his shot in the NHL.
We saw this exact feat come to fruition for Houser last season as he made his NHL debut with the Sabres on May 3. As Houser became the second Sabre during the season to earn a win in his NHL debut, joining Luukkonen, and just the seventh goaltender in franchise history to win his first career start, he also won over the hearts of many in Western New York by making 34 saves against the New York Islanders that night.
The 10-year pro went on to appear in eight games, combining for a 3-5-0 record between Buffalo and Rochester before the conclusion of the 2020-21 campaign. Houser went on to earn the start in each of Rochester’s final four games of the season – including three games in three nights – finishing the year with 110 saves to go along with a 2.33 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage to boot.