Buffalo Sabres forced by NHL to put Grigorenko back on the roster.

Nov 19, 2013; Buffalo, NY, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Chris Stewart (25) checks Buffalo Sabres center Zemgus Girgensons (28) into the bench during the third period at First Niagara Center. Blues beat the Sabres 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

I admit I have a soft spot for the Buffalo Sabres. They have a very nice fan base, and they’ve got another hard working squad of blue collar players. Well, at least one of those stayed the same from last season. The Buffalo Sabres have become synonymous with a worst case scenario for a NHL franchise. They’ve gotten rid of two coaches, one general manager, and have chosen to throw away all their veteran talent in the hopes that in three or four years, they can be a contender again in hockey.

The latest of the small disasters facing the Sabres, (let’s leave their conscious decision to continually play John Scott, the biggest joke in the NHL aside for a moment) they can’t even seem to send their players to the appropriate leagues without screwing things up. The Buffalo Sabres attempted to send their young 19 year old center,  Mikhail Grigorenko to their AHL on a two-week conditioning assignment. Apparently, the Sabres did this not realizing they were violating the rules. Grigorenko is too young for the AHL, and the team is now stuck with either keeping him on the roster(and relegating him to the land of the healthy scratch) or shipping him back to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

”We determined that the assignment would not have been consistent with our obligations under the league’s agreement with the CHL,” NHL spokesman Frank Brown responded to the Associated Press in an email today.

”We thought we were doing it by the rulebook, but unfortunately we weren’t,” set interim(and likely permanent) head coach Ted Nolan said. ”Now he’s back with us. We’ll have to sit down and evaluate what the next step is. He’s a real nice young man. He’s just put in this predicament. Now we have to go back to the drawing board and see what else might work, and what the best situation is for him to develop his skill and be the dominant player we all think he could be in this organization.”

They could always put him in John Scott’s position.