The Sabres’ top prospect Su'a Cravens Jersey Broncos , center Casey Mittelstadt, is leaving Minnesota following his freshman season after agreeing to a three-year, entry-level contract with Buffalo on Monday.

Mittelstadt is scheduled to join the Sabres on Tuesday, and general manger Jason Botterill said he expects the player to make his NHL debut Thursday, when Buffalo hosts the Detroit Red Wings.

With Buffalo out of playoff contention, Botterill also told reporters before Buffalo’s game at Toronto on Monday that he hoped Mittlestadt would consider representing the United States at the world hockey championships in Denmark in May.

The agreement with the Sabres was reached a little over a week after Minnesota’s season ended by failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Gophers are also undergoing a change after coach Don Lucia announced he is stepping down following 19 seasons.

The 19-year-old Mittelstadt was selected by the Sabres with the No. 8 pick in the 2017 draft.

Mittelstadt had 11 goals and 19 assists in 34 games and was named to the Big Ten all-freshmen team this year.

He has already made a splash in Buffalo after creating several highlight-reel plays in representing the bronze-medal-winning United States team at the World Junior hockey championship, which was held in the city three months ago.

From Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Mittelstadt was named the 10-nation tournament’s MVP after finishing tied for first in scoring with 11 points (four goals, seven assists).

Botterill was impressed by how Mittelstadt excelled at the world juniors.

”With it being here in Buffalo Sam Hubbard Jersey Elite , there was that added pressure,” Botterill told The Associated Press in January. ”And I think you saw a player who instead of succumbing to the pressure, actually thriving in that type of environment.”

Mittelstadt’s most memorable goal came in a in a 3-2 preliminary-round loss to Slovakia.

With the U.S. trailing 2-1, Mittelstadt stripped the puck from Marian Studenic at the Slovakia blue line and circled back into the zone. Mittelstadt kicked the puck between his legs to avoid a check by defender Michal Ivan and didn’t break stride in cutting across the top of the crease and avoiding goalie Roman Durny. He swept a shot into the open left side with 3:11 remaining.

Mittelstadt joins a Sabres team that has already extended its franchise-worst playoff drought to seven years, and in jeopardy of finishing last in the overall standings for the third time in five seasons.

The Sabres have six games left after playing Toronto, and they are not allowed to demote Mittelstadt to the minors this spring.

Mittelstadt will use up the first year of his contract this season. However, he would not be eligible to be exposed for selection in an expansion draft in 2020, should the NHL approve Seattle’s bid to join the league for the 2020-21 season.

Mittelstadt’s addition comes a day after defenseman Will Borgen elected to skip his senior season at St. Cloud State to sign a three-year contract with the Sabres.

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More NHL hockey: Gerard Gallant and Paul Maurice do not know each other well despite having their NHL coaching careers overlap for several years.

The men behind the benches for the Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets, though, both have led their teams into the Western Conference final after following long Wholesale Orlando Brown Jr. Jersey , winding paths.

”It’s quite a story for both of them,” Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman said in a telephone interview.

Gallant was fired by the Florida Panthers with a winning record just 21 games into the 2016-17 season, leaving him to catch a cab outside the arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, after his belongings were unloaded from the bus.

Maurice was fired by the Carolina Hurricanes twice. The second time was after just 25 games of the 2011-12 season.

They will match wits Wednesday night in Game 3 when Vegas hopes home ice gives it an advantage in the deadlocked series.

Gallant was infamously relieved of his duties with the Panthers, a season after being a finalist for coach of the year, because of philosophical differences between analytics-minded management and the old-school coach.

”He was left on the curb,” Golden Knights forward James Neal said.

Vegas center Jonathan Marchessault was on the bus when news broke that Florida had fired its coach.

”It was kind of out of nowhere,” he recalled.

And it worked out very well for Gallant and a team that also came out of nowhere.

The coach discarded by the Panthers has led a collection of castoffs to a stunningly successful expansion season.

”It’s a perfect fit,” Marchessault said.

If the straight-shooting coach can help Vegas win three more games Cheap Tyquan Lewis Jersey , he’ll join Scotty Bowman as the only coaches to lead a first-year expansion team to the Stanley Cup final. Bowman did it 50 years ago with the St. Louis Blues, and the Hall of Famer is rooting for Gallant.

”It’s a nice story because he deserved a better fate in Florida,” Bowman said. ”People felt bad for him the way it happened in Carolina. I know there were some teams thinking about hiring him before Vegas did.”

Gallant won a career-high 51 games this season, his seventh in the league.

Likewise, Maurice had his best season with what he said has been his best team. He won a career-high 52 games in his 20th year as an NHL coach. He’s three wins away from advancing to the Stanley Cup final for a second time. In 2002, the Bowman-led Red Wings beat Carolina and hoisted the Cup.

Maurice broke into the league as a coach in 1995 with the Hartford Whalers, who moved to Carolina two years later. After he was fired the first time by the franchise, he lasted just two seasons and was 10 games over .500 in a pressure-cooker job with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Winnipeg hired him to lead its franchise with 35 games left in the 2013-14 season. The Jets were patient enough to let him guide a young team he took to the playoffs only once – without winning a game – before their breakout performance this season.

When Winnipeg opened the postseason with a win over Minnesota, it was Maurice’s first victory in the playoffs since 2009 during his second stint with the Hurricanes. It reinforced a perspective he gained with two decades in the world’s top hockey league, knowing very well how hard it is to win in a league that may have more parity that any other in North American professional sports.

”What I’ve learned – the short answer is – it’s special Authentic DJ Moore Jersey ,” Maurice said.

Maurice is as much of a student as a teacher, evolving as a communicator after having language barriers with players while coaching in Russia and learning to show perhaps 10 video clips to his players instead of 100 after coaching in the World Cup of Hockey.

”He’s intense in games, but when we aren’t playing he’s pretty laid-back,” Winnipeg forward Andrew Copp said. ”He’s been in a pretty good mood, cracking some jokes in meetings lately. It shows his confidence in our team. It’s nice to have a coach behind the bench who doesn’t panic. He has an air of confidence and we carry that mentality, too.”

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