Colton Ellis

[Nublues69]

looks like Ukko has played 2 games and alex lyon has played 10 games with ellis playing 1.

I think the sabers are going to either put Ellis on waviers or they are going to try and trade alex lyon and keep ellis.


Any thoughts

[IsDurbanodoingtime]

For what it's worth Friedman is reporting that the Sabres have every intention of keeping Ellis. Maybe it is something like trading or waiving Lyon to see if anyone bites on his contract believing he is an upgrade on their backup. It doesn't help Ellis' game for him to continually sit. Something has to give shortly.

[Nublues69]

I agree which is weird why they dont give him more starts

[STL fan in MN]

For what it's worth Friedman is reporting that the Sabres have every intention of keeping Ellis. Maybe it is something like trading or waiving Lyon to see if anyone bites on his contract believing he is an upgrade on their backup. It doesn't help Ellis' game for him to continually sit. Something has to give shortly.

I hadn’t seen that from Friedman but that’s disappointing…but also smart. Ellis is legit IMO. Lyon is playing way better than expected this season and UPL is a JAG starter IMO. A starter really only because he was the best the Sabres had for a couple years really.

Agree something has to give eventually. If I were them, I’d try to trade UPL but he costs the most and is playing the worst of the 3 so probably not a great market for him out there.

I’m still hoping we can get Ellis back somehow but it’s looking less and less likely unfortunately.

[stlblue06]

For what it's worth Friedman is reporting that the Sabres have every intention of keeping Ellis. Maybe it is something like trading or waiving Lyon to see if anyone bites on his contract believing he is an upgrade on their backup. It doesn't help Ellis' game for him to continually sit. Something has to give shortly.

I hadn’t seen that from Friedman but that’s disappointing…but also smart. Ellis is legit IMO. Lyon is playing way better than expected this season and UPL is a JAG starter IMO. A starter really only because he was the best the Sabres had for a couple years really.

Agree something has to give eventually. If I were them, I’d try to trade UPL but he costs the most and is playing the worst of the 3 so probably not a great market for him out there.

I’m still hoping we can get Ellis back somehow but it’s looking less and less likely unfortunately.

Of course this is the first time since 2019 that the Blues goaltending has been so bad that an AHL call up has been needed for a start or 2. Could the Blues have carried 3 goalies for a short period if Elis was never claimed?

[STL fan in MN]

For what it's worth Friedman is reporting that the Sabres have every intention of keeping Ellis. Maybe it is something like trading or waiving Lyon to see if anyone bites on his contract believing he is an upgrade on their backup. It doesn't help Ellis' game for him to continually sit. Something has to give shortly.

I hadn’t seen that from Friedman but that’s disappointing…but also smart. Ellis is legit IMO. Lyon is playing way better than expected this season and UPL is a JAG starter IMO. A starter really only because he was the best the Sabres had for a couple years really.

Agree something has to give eventually. If I were them, I’d try to trade UPL but he costs the most and is playing the worst of the 3 so probably not a great market for him out there.

I’m still hoping we can get Ellis back somehow but it’s looking less and less likely unfortunately.

Of course this is the first time since 2019 that the Blues goaltending has been so bad that an AHL call up has been needed for a start or 2. Could the Blues have carried 3 goalies for a short period if Elis was never claimed?

Sure, they could have, if they wanted to. It would’ve just required the Blues to not have kept someone else instead to stay under the 23-man roster limit. At the beginning of the season, that likely would’ve been Texier. Currently, with Jake on IR, it’d probably be either Dvorsky that’d be sent back down or again Texier.

That said, Binner was lights out in the preseason and Hofer was fine too. There was basically no indication our goaltending would fall apart in the early parts of this season. And teams generally hate keeping 3 goalies as there’s really only 2 nets in practice and you then have to carry one less forward or d-man as well. I don’t fault the Blues at all for not foreseeing their 2 goalies falling to (bleep) and inexplicably carrying 3 goalies. I fault them for a lot of things but not that.

That said, I still hold out hope we can get Ellis back. It might be a while though as Buffalo has the roster and cap flexibility to keep 3 goalies for a while. But maybe that changes if they’re hit with some injuries and they need a roster spot for a forward or D and it just doesn’t make sense to carry 3 goalies anymore.

[stlblue06]

For what it's worth Friedman is reporting that the Sabres have every intention of keeping Ellis. Maybe it is something like trading or waiving Lyon to see if anyone bites on his contract believing he is an upgrade on their backup. It doesn't help Ellis' game for him to continually sit. Something has to give shortly.

I hadn’t seen that from Friedman but that’s disappointing…but also smart. Ellis is legit IMO. Lyon is playing way better than expected this season and UPL is a JAG starter IMO. A starter really only because he was the best the Sabres had for a couple years really.

Agree something has to give eventually. If I were them, I’d try to trade UPL but he costs the most and is playing the worst of the 3 so probably not a great market for him out there.

I’m still hoping we can get Ellis back somehow but it’s looking less and less likely unfortunately.

Of course this is the first time since 2019 that the Blues goaltending has been so bad that an AHL call up has been needed for a start or 2. Could the Blues have carried 3 goalies for a short period if Elis was never claimed?

Sure, they could have, if they wanted to. It would’ve just required the Blues to not have kept someone else instead to stay under the 23-man roster limit. At the beginning of the season, that likely would’ve been Texier. Currently, with Jake on IR, it’d probably be either Dvorsky that’d be sent back down or again Texier.

That said, Binner was lights out in the preseason and Hofer was fine too. There was basically no indication our goaltending would fall apart in the early parts of this season. And teams generally hate keeping 3 goalies as there’s really only 2 nets in practice and you then have to carry one less forward or d-man as well. I don’t fault the Blues at all for not foreseeing their 2 goalies falling to (bleep) and inexplicably carrying 3 goalies. I fault them for a lot of things but not that.

That said, I still hold out hope we can get Ellis back. It might be a while though as Buffalo has the roster and cap flexibility to keep 3 goalies for a while. But maybe that changes if they’re hit with some injuries and they need a roster spot for a forward or D and it just doesn’t make sense to carry 3 goalies anymore.

I was referring to after the season started. I agree that the goaltending was perfectly fine going into the season. There has been a stretch of 3 straight and now 4 out of 5 where Binnington has clearly been off while Hofer has slowly been gaining his confidence back. It would have been a perfect time to give Elis a shot in one of these Binnington game’s hypothetically

….oh and I just saw a post on X from an insider that the Sabres have every intention on keeping Ellis. Strange they only give him the 1 start after playing so well in it.

[STL fan in MN]

For what it's worth Friedman is reporting that the Sabres have every intention of keeping Ellis. Maybe it is something like trading or waiving Lyon to see if anyone bites on his contract believing he is an upgrade on their backup. It doesn't help Ellis' game for him to continually sit. Something has to give shortly.

I hadn’t seen that from Friedman but that’s disappointing…but also smart. Ellis is legit IMO. Lyon is playing way better than expected this season and UPL is a JAG starter IMO. A starter really only because he was the best the Sabres had for a couple years really.

Agree something has to give eventually. If I were them, I’d try to trade UPL but he costs the most and is playing the worst of the 3 so probably not a great market for him out there.

I’m still hoping we can get Ellis back somehow but it’s looking less and less likely unfortunately.

Of course this is the first time since 2019 that the Blues goaltending has been so bad that an AHL call up has been needed for a start or 2. Could the Blues have carried 3 goalies for a short period if Elis was never claimed?

Sure, they could have, if they wanted to. It would’ve just required the Blues to not have kept someone else instead to stay under the 23-man roster limit. At the beginning of the season, that likely would’ve been Texier. Currently, with Jake on IR, it’d probably be either Dvorsky that’d be sent back down or again Texier.

That said, Binner was lights out in the preseason and Hofer was fine too. There was basically no indication our goaltending would fall apart in the early parts of this season. And teams generally hate keeping 3 goalies as there’s really only 2 nets in practice and you then have to carry one less forward or d-man as well. I don’t fault the Blues at all for not foreseeing their 2 goalies falling to (bleep) and inexplicably carrying 3 goalies. I fault them for a lot of things but not that.

That said, I still hold out hope we can get Ellis back. It might be a while though as Buffalo has the roster and cap flexibility to keep 3 goalies for a while. But maybe that changes if they’re hit with some injuries and they need a roster spot for a forward or D and it just doesn’t make sense to carry 3 goalies anymore.

I was referring to after the season started. I agree that the goaltending was perfectly fine going into the season. There has been a stretch of 3 straight and now 4 out of 5 where Binnington has clearly been off while Hofer has slowly been gaining his confidence back. It would have been a perfect time to give Elis a shot in one of these Binnington game’s hypothetically

….oh and I just saw a post on X from an insider that the Sabres have every intention on keeping Ellis. Strange they only give him the 1 start after playing so well in it.

Well, after the season started, we’d already lost Ellis on waivers so I guess I’m not following what you’re suggesting then.

And yeah, my guess is they’re looking to trade one of Lyon or UPL. Ellis is legit. They’re probably playing Lyon and UPL in hopes that they play well enough to garner interest from another club.