New Sabres coach Nolan thinks his club has too many teenagers

New Buffalo Sabres head coach Ted Nolan has come to the conclusion that his team has too many kids on the roster. The Sabres are carrying four teenagers at the moment in Zemgus Girgensons, Mikhail Grigorenko, Nikita Zadorov and Rasmus Ristolainen, but expect that to change in the near future.

"We have so many young guys here, and it’s almost like going back to junior hockey in some sense," the former Moncton Wildcats coach told the Buffalo News. "Patty and I have been talking for the last three, four days about that. I didn’t realize how young they really were and the positions that they’re in and the capabilities of what they can do besides playing here."

"There’s some maneuvering we can do here," continued Nolan. "I think you can have some young kids, a few of them, but not as many as we have."

Of Buffalo's four teenage skaters, two of them (Ristolainen and Girgensons) are eligible to be re-assigned to Buffalo's AHL affiliate the Rochester Americans. Grigorenko and Zadorov, on the other hand, are subject to the terms of the NHL-CHL agreement and would have to be returned to their respective major junior teams.