The Buffalo Sabres announced today they assigned forward Arttu Ruotsalainen to the Rochester Amerks of the AHL. This move doesn’t come as a big surprise for me. The only thing I didn’t expect is that it happened now, instead of when Casey Mittelstadt returns from injury.

It has been clear that the Finnish forward has not been in favor with head coach Don Granato going back to training camp. The good news is that he’ll have an opportunity to go back to the AHL and get some top-six minutes with the young group.

Playing Center

When we try to figure out what went wrong so far this season with Ruotsalainen, it starts with him playing center. I’ve felt since he was signed out of Europe that he was not a center at the NHL level. Not only is he undersized, but he doesn’t have the skillset to be successful at that position at this level.

Don Granato had a strategy throughout training camp and the early part of the season. He wanted to try a few different people at center with the organization’s lack of depth. It has worked out brilliantly with Tage Thompson. Ruotsalainen was put in the middle going back to the Prospects Challenge in September. It carried over into training camp and he struggled. Yet, they stuck with it when the season started.

Now, part of it could have been due to the injuries. However, they never gave him a real look during the regular season back on the wing. Oddly, they were so stubborn to stick with it. This isn’t the first time that he struggled playing center at the pro level in North America. Playing with the Amerks last season he was moved from playing down the middle to the wing and started to produce again before being recalled.

Most of his success at the pro level outside of Finland has come while he played on the wing. In 17 games with the Sabres last season he scored at a 1.39 goals per 60 minutes rate at 5 on 5, according to Evolving Hockey. You can even point to his success in the IIHF World Championships last year playing on the wing with Anton Lundell for the Finnish national team.

Quality of Teammate

During his brief time with the Sabres last season, his two primary teammates were Anders Bjork and Dylan Cozens. The trio had some chemistry and was productive. Although it should be noted that their on-ice shot quality as a trio wasn’t anything special. They put up a 1.73 shot quality for as a line, but from a relative team standpoint, it wasn’t that bad. In terms of actual goals, they were at 3.2 goals for per 60 minutes, according to the twins’ site.

The goal above is a perfect example of the type of player that Ruotsalainen could be in the NHL as a transitioning winger with above-average finishing ability. That’s why I found it odd that Granato didn’t try to put Cozens and Ruotsalainen back together at any point this season when both were struggling offensively. It looked like we may get a look at it against the Montreal Canadiens based on the morning skate, but Brett Murray was put into the lineup in his place.

The primary linemates for the 23-year-old this season have been John Hayden and Bjork. The interesting part is that Ruotsalainen was still able to put up a 2.15 on-ice expected goals for per 60 minutes rate with that group. The issue was that it didn’t translate into actual goals. He had the second-lowest on-ice goals for rate of 1.78 and an on-ice shooting percentage of 6.2%, according to Evolving Hockey.

His RAPM chart from Evolving Hockey’s model tells this story, as you’ll see below.

Below replacement-level actual goal production, above-average offensive numbers, and slightly below average defensive impacts. Ruotsalainen probably should have higher production numbers based on some stats that we’ve discussed here. Especially when you take the small sample of Corey Sznajder’s tracking data into account. He’s fifth on the team in shot contributions per 60 minutes and primary setups at 5 on 5 in his early-season data.

Conclusion

It’ll be interesting to see if Ruotsalainen gets another opportunity with the Sabres. He’s a restricted free agent at the end of the season and we’ve seen them not qualify players in this type of scenario.

We’ll have to see what position they play him at in the AHL and who he plays with. It would make sense to see pair him with Peyton Krebs. They seem like a logical pair based on their skillsets.

It also should be said that not all of this falls on improper usage. Ruotsalainen is responsible for his own play and didn’t take advantage of the opportunities he was given. He didn’t make a difference on the power play when he was given the chance and didn’t do enough to stay in the lineup over other players in the eyes of the coach.

Data via: Evolving Hockey and Corey Sznajder

Photo Credit: Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images