Observations:

February 2016- Varone has been traded to Ottawa in a seven-player deal. Hayden Soboleski

January 2016 – Varone was recalled from the Amerks to fill in for an injured Girgensons. Varone was leading the Rochester Americans with 10 goals scored, he also had nine assists to give him 19 points on the year. Varone was playing at his best at the time of his call up in mid-January, so Bylsma said he will try to give him an opportunity to use his ability with the puck and not just be a third or fourth line guy. Varone has already dressed in three games and has one goal, he has been playing the majority of his ice time with Jack Eichel and Jamie McGinn. Paul Zwambag

July 2015 – Philip Varone and Buffalo’s arbitration case gets settled, Varone signs a one-year, two-way contract worth $600,000 at the NHL level. Varone will be a top six forward in the AHL playing with much better talent than last year. He may never have a full-time role in the NHL, but he could be called up to cover injuries if they occur down the middle of the Sabres lineup. Paul Zwambag

June 2015 – Varone was called up twice, once at the beginning of January for seven games, then called up for a second time at the end of February for the rest of the year (21 games). He had five points in 28 games played. Averaging 13:27 minutes of ice time per game, Varone was playing on the third line mostly between either Marcus Foligno and Gionta or Ennis and Moulson. He is an RFA this summer and the Sabres will have a difficult decision to keep him in the organization or let him move on. If he gets signed, he will likely stay in the AHL, seeing as they have a load of centermen on the cusp of playing top line NHL minutes.

Varone had a good chance to show he could score at the NHL level in his 28 games played. He was between a rock and a hard place, Buffalo was in full tank mode when he was given his chance, but to only put up five points in 28 games is not impressive at all. Varone has slowly moved down on the depth chart, which is not what you hope to see young prospects do. He has definitely dropped out of the top 5 centermen prospects in this organization. A change of scenery would be great for Varone because he's burried in a deep Sabres system. Paul Zwambag

Fantasy Outlook: D+

Varone has shown he can score, but he hasn't translated it into the NHL. His AHL numbers are pretty impressive, he has a small NHL sample size, but he think he will likely won’t get a chance to be a top-six guy. Buffalo's top prospects down the middle are far better than Varone.

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