SABRES REASSIGN QUINN TO TAXI SQUAD
Jan 10, 2022By Jourdon LaBarber for Sabres.com
The Buffalo Sabres have reassigned forward Jack Quinn from the Rochester Americans to the taxi squad, the team announced Monday.
Quinn, the eighth-overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft, has tallied two points (1+1) in three games with the Amerks since returning from a month-long absence due to mononucleosis. Despite missing time, the 20-year-old is tied for eighth in the AHL with 12 goals in 20 games. His average of 1.20 points per game ranks fifth among AHL players with at least five games played.
The Sabres host the Tampa Bay Lightning at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.
The start to Quinn's pro career was expedited when the OHL cancelled its 2020-21 season due to COVID-19, allowing Quinn to jump into the AHL as a 19-year-old. He tallied nine points (2+7) in 15 games during the shortened AHL season, reduced even further when he underwent season-ending surgery to repair a hernia in April.
When Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and coach Don Granato informed Quinn he would begin this season in Rochester after a promising training camp, the forward said he had unfinished business.
"He looked at both of us and he said, 'I'm OK with going down in one sense: I played below the standard I believe I can play in the American League and I feel like I need to go back there and prove to myself that I can play better in that league,'" Granato said in November.
"… His immediate response was, 'I still have some unfinished business down there.' That's [how] he went down there looking at that. That's exactly why we drafted him and picked him and why we enjoy having him in our organization. He's like a homing torpedo."
Quinn returned to the AHL and displayed the goal-scoring prowess that made him a top-10 draft selection in juniors, when he scored 52 goals in 62 games for the Ottawa 67's.
"I wasn't really satisfied with how I played in this league last year," Quinn said following a two-point outing against Belleville on Nov. 3. "… In the back of my mind I'd say I still wanted to prove I can put up big numbers in this league and be a dominant player."