Sabres' Thorburn happy to have Roy on his side

[Don Cherry]

Sabres' Thorburn happy to have Roy on his side

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- As excited as center Chris Thorburn is to join the Buffalo Sabres, it's an added bonus that he'll no longer have to face Derek Roy as an opponent.

Thorburn, in Buffalo Friday to sign his first NHL contract, and Roy squared off several times as OHL juniors over the past four years. The two forwards, both selected in the second round by Buffalo in the 2001 draft, are now teammates, each agreeing to three-year deals with the Sabres this week.

"Great player, great competitor, but he was a hard guy to play against," Thorburn said of Roy.
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[Ð]

Thorburn played here in North Bay for three years 1999-2001 and was a fan favorite. While he didn't score a lot of goals, he was always going to the net, being a pest and a playmaker on a really, really bad North Bay Centennials team.

I think he's got potential to develop into a Claude Lemieux type of player. He's got the prerequisites...he's going to a really, really bad team

[SkateZilla]

Going to the net is one thing the sabres need.

Look at it this way

Kotalik had about 23 ish Goals Last year.
about 20 of them were him Going to the net.

and the rest were one times Against Patrick Lalime. :)

[MissBuffalo]

I think Thorburn has a great upside. His stats have gotten better and better every year. In his past two seasons, his penalty minutes have been over 100. He's a big guy, so IMO he'll definitley be a big force around the net.

[Rude American]

He's NOTHING like Claude LeMieux and never will be.

[Ð]

Is that a good or bad thing, rude ? LOL

[Rude American]

good. VERY good. He's one of the last players I'd want to be compared to.

I'm also not sure why they say he's rugged. He's certainly not rugged by NHL standards, and he wasn't really a muck-it-up guy in Jr, either. He's definately not affraid of the corners, but he'll never own them. That's not where he's most effective. I think he'll be most dangerous using his long reach out in front of the net, like Andreychuk. He's got a long, smooth stride with deceptive speed and skates bent over, a bit like Gretzky. He'll avoid a fight if he can. A few pounds and a few years he may be pretty darn good, but not dirty or tough like LeMieux.

[Ð]

I've seen him play at 1/2 dozen OHL games up here in North Bay. He liked to muck it up...mind you not Tie Domi calibre mucking

[Rude American]

I guess he's become a christian since then.

[Ð]

muckin' a!