(August 30, 2011) - The Buffalo Junior Sabres will, for the second time in two weeks, participate in a preseason event that will expose players to college coaches before the Ontario Junior Hockey League season has even started. Players will work out in a Labor Day Weekend session hosted by the Canisius College hockey program in Buffalo.
“It’s a situation where the boys show up early in the morning on Saturday, they’ll be there all day,” said Junior Sabres head coach Grant Ledyard. “They’ve got a practice, doing a dryland with Canisius coaches.”
They’ll also take on two other Junior-A teams in exhibition play during the weekend. After working out with the Canisius staff on Saturday, the Junior Sabres will skate against the Walpole Express of the Atlantic Junior Hockey League. On Sunday, they’ll face the Jamestown Ironmen, a North American Hockey League franchise that moved into Western New York from Michigan during the off-season. On Monday, selected players from the three visiting junior teams will form an “all-star” team to face Canisius.
Ledyard will be watching his players and taking notes, as he mulls trimming down his roster before the start of the OJHL season.
“Our coaches will be assessing and working with the kids and talking to them, but really it’s an opportunity for them to experience the Canisius coaches and college experience,” Ledyard said.
The Junior Sabres open their OJHL regular season on Saturday, September 10 at 7:30pm inside the Northtown Center in Amherst against the Newmarket Hurricanes.
