Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – On Dec. 21, Jarmo Kekalainen hired former Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin to be his assistant GM.
Bergevin had been working as a senior advisor for the Los Angeles Kings and he said Buffalo seemed like a good fit for him to move to,

“Where the team’s at, it’s been awhile since they’ve been in the playoff. I think their core, they have some good asset, good core, but you need to get better and I’ve only watched five games live, so it’s still for me an early stage to evaluate the team and there’s a ways to go, but there’s some good pieces in place.

“The fact that they have some really good pieces in place and you could ask anybody around the league it’s always why haven’t they made the playoffs or had success? They have good players and there’s a reason why and personally I don’t know what it is, but that’s one of the reasons they brought me here, to give my views on where the team’s at and where it needs to be.”

Bergevin said part of his job will be evaluations in Rochester, but he’ll also be evaluating the prospects too and he was short and sweet when talking about his job description,

“Bring the best information based on my experience to where the Sabres organization are and where they need to be.”

Bergevin suggested to Kekalainen that he hire Stacy Roest to the pro scouting department. Roest has had many years of scouting. Bergevin said the Sabres were in need of help on the pro scouting side. It’s just another example of an organization that had people in jobs they weren’t qualified to have. Kekalainen is fixing that in a hurry.

This is the first time Bergevin has worked with Kekalainen, but he’s know him a long time,

“I knew him when he was working with the Blues and then when I became GM, he was already in Columbus and over the years at GM meetings we hung out and then Jarmo’s a guy that’s very active on the phone and so was I so we got in a lot of discussions about players.”

Bergevin said he was very upfront with Kekalainen that he’s still looking to be a general manager again.

After Tuesday’s practice Lindy Ruff said Michael Kesselring is looking good, but he did seem like he wasn’t going to use him Wednesday. Ruff did say his defenseman is real close. Josh Dunne is going to miss a little time with a mid-body injury. Ruff said it’s something he’s been playing through. Bo Byram missed practice for personal reasons and Ruff said he’ll play Wednesday.

Everything pointed to Ruff continuing his goaltender rotation with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen likely to start Wednesday.