Sulzer, Porter back for Sabres; Pysyk sent to AHL

BUFFALO -- The Buffalo Sabres have shuffled the roster a little ahead of their game Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

The Sabres will have defenseman Alexander Sulzer back from injured reserve. To make room for him, they sent defensemen Mark Pysyk and Brayden McNabb along with forward Luke Adam to the American Hockey League and called up forward Kevin Porter and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel.

Pysyk has been a steady player in the Sabres lineup this season, playing in 31 of of their 33 games with no goals and four assists.

"Obviously Mark can play in this League and on this team right now, but is he at the mature level he could be? Not yet," Sabres interim coach Ted Nolan said. "He needs a bit more time to mature. He's a different type of send-down, he's not going down for a long time. He's just going down for a few days and go over to the Spengler Cup and he'll join us right after that."

Sulzer and Porter are expected to play against the Jets.

"I'm definitely excited to be back, I'm excited to play," Porter said. "This is where I want to be and I'm excited to play."

Ryan Miller was the first goalie off at the optional skate and is expected to start.

The Jets also made a move Tuesday, recalling forward Eric O'Dell from St. John's of the AHL. O'Dell has 12 goals and 17 assists this season and could slide into the lineup right away.

"Right now we're going to wait and see," Jets coach Claude Noel said. "We've got a little bit of a situation with some health things we have to look at a little bit. A lot of that will be probably a game-time decision as the day moves forward here."

The Jets held an optional skate after they beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Monday night with Al Montoya earning the win in goal. Noel said Ondrej Pavelec will get the start against the Sabres. Pavelec gave up five goals on 24 shots to the Dallas Stars in his previous start on Saturday.

"I don't remember that game," Pavelec said. "There's nothing I can do about it. That's just the way we play. Now I just focus for the next game."

Forward Evander Kane returned to action on Monday, scoring the game-winning goal after missing six games with a lower-body injury.

"I took the necessary time to make sure it felt good and I was able to come back and perform," Kane said. "I think it was a good start for me and I just want to kind of carry that on."

Here is how the lineups project for the Jets and Sabres:

JETS

Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler

Evander Kane – Mark Scheifele – Michael Frolik

Chris Thorburn – Olli Jokinen – Devin Setoguchi

John Albert – Eric O'Dell – Eric Tangradi

Dustin Byfuglien – Grant Clitsome

Jacob Trouba – Tobias Enstrom

Mark Stuart – Adam Pardy

Ondrej Pavelec

Al Montoya

Scratched: James Wright, Anthony Peluso (suspended), Keaton Ellerby

Injured: Matt Halischuk (arm), Jim Slater (sports hernia), Paul Postma (blood clot), Zach Bogosian (groin strain)

SABRES

Matt Moulson – Tyler Ennis – Zemgus Girgensons

Marcus Foligno – Cody Hodgson – Matt D'Agostini

Steve Ott – Ville Leino – Drew Stafford

Matt Ellis – Kevin Porter – Brian Flynn

Tyler Myers – Henrik Tallinder

Christian Ehrhoff – Alexander Sulzer

Jamie McBain – Mike Weber

Ryan Miller

Jhonas Enroth

Scratched: Chad Ruhwedel, John Scott

Injured: Cody McCormick (upper body)