Sabres assign 2022 top 10 pick to AHL on conditioning loan

The Buffalo Sabres have sent 2022 ninth-overall pick Matt Savoie to the AHL’s Rochester Americans on a conditioning loan.

Savoie was injured at the team’s prospect tournament and has been on injured reserve to start the season. This loan will allow Savoie to get some games under his belt in the AHL, a league he played two playoff games in at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.

Savoie, who will turn 20 on January 1, misses the cut-off for automatic AHL eligibility by just one day. The Sabres have reportedly petitioned the WHL to give Savoie an exemption and allow him to play in the AHL, but while Seattle Kraken prospect Shane Wright received one such exemption from the OHL, the Sabres have reportedly not been optimistic about Savoie’s odds of receiving one.

That reality means that once Savoie’s conditioning assignment has concluded, he’ll in all likelihood be on his way back to the WHL, where he’ll play for the Wenatchee Wild.

The Wild have struggled so far this season without Savoie or Zach Benson, who was a surprise addition to the Sabres’ NHL roster to start the season. 

Savoie scored 95 points in the WHL last year and would be a massive, difference-making addition for Wenatchee.

There’s also always the chance that Savoie ends up called back to the Sabres’ NHL roster, although that possibility becomes more unlikely if Benson maintains his hold on a spot in head coach Don Granato’s lineup.