We're not far from the start of the regular season and, as such, teams are reducing their rosters to the required 23 players. The St. Louis Blues re-assigned defenseman Hunter Skinner to their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, but another player is no longer a part of the organization.
Colton Ellis, a 25-year-old goaltender the Blues selected in the third round of the 2019 draft, was claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Sabres. Ellis had a decent career in the AHL, posting an average save percentage of .923 in 58 games across two seasons with the Thunderbirds. Due to his age and contract status, however, he was no longer waiver-exempt, allowing the Sabres to claim him off the waiver wire.
This shouldn't be too big of an impact for the Blues: at the NHL level, Jordan Binnington is the clear-cut starter, and Joel Hofer has the backup position locked up. In the AHL, the Blues also have goaltending prospects Vadim Zherenko and Will Cranely. Neither Zherenko nor Cranley has shown much yet to suggest they'll be NHL-quality goaltenders, but, in the short term, they should be good enough to backstop the Thunderbirds.
The Sabres, meanwhile, are struggling with their goaltending situation. Their presumptive starter, Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen, is going to miss time due to injury. Their backup situation isn't great, either: Devon Levi has potential, but needs more time to develop in the AHL; Alex Lyon is good when he can play, but injuries often keep him out of the crease; Alexander Georgiev's 2024-25, meanwhile, was the season from hell, and there's no telling whether he'll be able to rebound or not.
In any case, happy trail to Ellis--hopefully he finds more NHL success in Buffalo than he was ever likely to find in St. Louis.