AHL: Young Americans

Pride of Pittsburgh Leads Amerks

Drawing players from both the Buffalo Sabres and the Florida Panthers organizations, the Rochester Americans are the only split-affiliate in the AHL in 2007-08. Despite two talent pools to draw from, the extremely young Amerks have had a tough season. However, while the team is last in goals-against in the AHL, the team has a few notable prospects on defense, led by 20-year-old Pittsburgh, Penn., native Mike Weber. McKeen's recently had the opportunity to catch Rochester in action and enters the following notes on Sabres prospect Weber, Panthers prospect Martin Lojek, and more.

Mike Weber (Buf), D, Rochester Americans

A rock defensively .. plays a physical game along the boards and in the corners to establish position for the puck .. also adept at using his stick with poke checks and intercepting passes .. has good all-compass mobility, even with the puck, and moves the puck crisply and reliably .. makes timely shot blocks .. also adept at clearing the puck along the glass .. has all the makings of a physical, defensive defenseman that makes a good first pass and that coaches can trust.

Marc-Andre Gragnani (Buf), D, Rochester

Puckmoving defenseman has been playing forward at even strength to fill in for team's needs, not because he's a poor defensemen .. a heads-up stickhandler who makes crisp passes .. at forward, he likes to hold up at the point and set-up plays .. when at forward, he must make certain not to move too much laterally when skating the puck into the zone and cause teammates to go offside .. still operating the point on the powerplay .. has a nice pointshot that he keeps low .. has a long stride and decent speed, but is bent over a bit when skating the puck. Click the link for a recent interview with Marc-Andre Gragnani

Andrej Sekera (Buf), D, Rochester

Puckmoving defenseman who is more than willing to skate the puck .. transitions well from backward to forward while handling the puck .. a smooth skater with a decent stride, but whose speed without the puck is less than with.. shows good acceleration and speed bursts with the puck .. has good agility with the puck to spin away from checkers .. capable of making crisp passes, including saucer passes, when he does choose to pass the puck, over skating it .. mobility makes him adequate defensively, but he can be beaten wide by speedy opponents.

Michael Funk (Buf), D, Rochester

Had a disappointing showing .. looked very uncertain with the puck and had a number of passes to nobody or the wrong team .. skates upright with the puck and his crossovers while skating with the puck were a little awkward .. backwards skating looked good, as he did not rely on crossovers backwards and got into a low, power position .. however, his physical effectiveness was somewhat feeble and was caught looking at the puck and undressed by a slick stickhandler in front of the net on one occasion.

Martin Lojek (Fla), D, Rochester

A rangy defensive defenseman who's poised with the puck .. makes simple plays, but does so with crisp passes and is not pressured into bad plays with the puck .. adept at clearing the puck out of the zone either along the boards or high and out .. good at using his and reach to steer the play toward the perimeter or intercept passes .. keeps his head on a swivel defensively and offensively when chasing the puck .. has good all-compass mobility and shows good foot speed when necessary, but lacks top speed .. stride is perhaps over-extended .. combination of mobility and reach allows him to cover a lot of ground .. has a quick wristshot and slapshot from the point, both of which he does well to keep low .. must work on improving his effectiveness physically, as he failed to knock over opponents on a couple attempted checks and was knocked over by a much smaller player .. still has all the makings of a mobile, rangy, defensive defenseman at the NHL level.

Kenndal McArdle (Fla), LW, Rochester

Noted for excelling in track, his talent in this sport may carry over in a negative way, as McArdle runs a bit on his skates .. has some speed, but would be much faster if he had a more optimal skating stride .. skating style appeared to give him a high center of gravity, which made him easy to push over and caused him to lose one-on-one battles for the puck .. showed hustle and commitment to the defensive part of the game, including blocking shots.

Jordan Henry (Fla), D, Rochester

Undrafted rookie-pro played his way into a two-way NHL contract with Florida .. has decent speed and mobility and has a smooth pivot from forward to backwards .. must improve stickhandling at the point and keeping the puck in the zone so that it doesn't leave the zone .. has decent shot power, whether it be a one-timer, slapshot, or snapshot from the point .. plays with some physicality, as he'll go for an open-ice hit from time to time and rough up opponents in the corner or in front of the net .. would be advised not to rough up an opponent into his own goalie.

David Brine (Fla), C, Rochester

A forward with good hustle on the forecheck and on the penalty kill .. did a good job of using stops and starts when applying pressure on the forecheck and the penalty kill and showed some quickness .. will venture into traffic with the puck .. has a heavy wristshot and a hard slapshot.