BUFFALO, N.Y.-It appears that rookie center Mikhail Grigorenko is going to put the Sabres in a tough spot and that's a good thing.
The 18 year Russian remains eligible to play for Quebec in the Quebec Major Junior hockey league. He has a five game tryout before the Sabres would need to send him back to Quebec or they would burn of year of his three year entry level contract.
Grigorenko was impressive in Monday night's scrimmage and he's impressed his veteran teammates in practice.
One those making the decision on where Grigerenko fits in the organization this year is head coach Lindy Ruff who said after practice Tuesday "I think its to early to say. He had a good scrimmage last night and good practices. You like his hands. So far his compete inside the practice drills has been good, his compete last night was good so there's a lot of good things. There's a lot of things to like about what he's done so far in these two days. He's come along ways even from a year ago and even from the start of the year to now he's grown as a player. There are two schools of thought. Put him in play him or make sure that he's ready."
Veteran forward Steve Ott said Tuesday after practice Tuesday about his young teammate "I played with different high end high end guys throughout my career in Dallas but right off the bat who knows what he's going to be ? You look at a guy like Malkin, the size, skill level and if he can be anything close to him in the long run he's obviously going to be a heck of a player. Its obviously too early to tell what's going to happen with him but the skill set, the mind set, him at 18 years old, I haven't seen a kid come into an NHL training camp and have all those things in his bag."