‘But if the Sabres suffer another injury on defense, they have only three rookies to choose from in Rochester (Mike Funk, Mike Card and injured Andrej Sekera). Amerks captain Brandon Smith is their property, but they have never considered him to be a player on their NHL roster. “Ideally you’d like 12 defensemen who could all play in the NHL,” general manager Darcy Regier said…”But you make decisions based on how much room you have in the minors, and in our case there’s not a lot of room, and on the salary cap.”‘