{"id":106633,"date":"2021-04-09T14:10:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=106633"},"modified":"2021-04-09T14:10:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:10:40","slug":"buffalo-sabres-claim-drake-caggiula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/04\/09\/buffalo-sabres-claim-drake-caggiula\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres Claim Drake Caggiula"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres have claimed forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/caggidr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drake Caggiula<\/a> off waivers from the Arizona Coyotes. The team will hope that the former Coyote adds forward depth to a team with several injuries. Buffalo sits dead last in the NHL, with a total of 24 points on the season. Elliotte Friedman reported the claim Friday morning.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"fi\">BUF claims Caggiula<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/1380551571499540485?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Sabres Claim Drake Caggiula<\/h2>\n<p>The 26-year-old Caggiula previously signed with Arizona for the league minimum during the off-season. He recorded just one goal and six assists in 27 contests. Caggiula&#8217;s point pace this season has been at its lowest rate in his career. Caggiula was providing a negative impact to the club, posting a -0.9 GAR (goals above replacement) and 0.2 OFF value (total offensive value). (Stats via <a href=\"https:\/\/evolving-hockey.com\/?\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evolving-Hockey<\/a>). Despite the rocky season, an increased role in Buffalo could provide Caggiula the opportunity he needs.<\/p>\n<p>Caggiula was signed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/oilers\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a> after going un-drafted. Coming from University of North Dakota, he signed his two-year entry level contract, playing his first season in 2016-17. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/blackhawks\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> would acquire Caggiula during the 2018-19 season, where he would spend an additional year with the club following the trade. Overall, Caggiula has recorded 42 goals and 41 assists and 83 points in 249 career games.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means For The Future<\/h3>\n<p>It is safe to say Caggiula will find himself somewhere in Buffalo&#8217;s starting line-up to close out the season. The bottom-six of the Sabres are mostly taxi squad players for an injury-filled season. Defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/i\/irwinma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Irwin<\/a> has been playing on Buffalo&#8217;s fourth line. Caggiula has an outside shot at rebounding to form, potentially seeking second or third-line minutes.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side, this allows forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/buntimi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Bunting<\/a> to continue his hot pace for Arizona. As of right now, the Coyotes sit fourth in the Honda West Division, looking hopeful for the playoffs. Overall, the claim helps Buffalo&#8217;s depth chart and gives some Arizona forwards more opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"sVJ3qO4hTItgWE3pP3w85w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1231456452\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'sVJ3qO4hTItgWE3pP3w85w',sig:'_tqTzQylC-SvhriEr42avIWNpuP4aOz0DdzE7K_Qtkc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1231456452',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres have claimed forward Drake Caggiula off waivers from the Arizona Coyotes. The team will hope that the former Coyote adds forward depth to a team with several injuries. Buffalo sits dead last in the NHL, with a total of 24 points on the season. Elliotte Friedman reported the claim Friday morning. BUF [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3765,"featured_media":106648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4547,34,4548,21],"tags":[6539,2495,5957,6541],"class_list":["post-106633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-mammoth","tag-coyotes-featured","tag-drake-caggiula","tag-nhl-waivers","tag-sabres-featured"],"modified_by":"William Grigsby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}