Carson Soucy showed up to Blue Jackets camp on a professional tryout. After last night in Buffalo, a roster spot might not be his biggest worry anymore.
With 1:35 left on the clock and the Sabres up 3-0, Soucy caught Olen Zellweger with a hit that left the Buffalo defenseman needing help getting to the room.
That detail matters. Guys absorb heavy contact in September all the time, but you rarely see one need help just to get down the tunnel.
The clip from Tuesday night has already racked up 439.8K views. Sabres fans aren't sharing it for the highlight value.
Buffalo closed it out 5-1 at home. The final score became a footnote fast.
Zellweger's final line shows 13:37 of ice time and four shots on goal. Whether he returned after the hit isn't clear.
There's no word yet on his status. Lindy Ruff and the Sabres head to Detroit on Thursday, and that blue line could have a hole in it.
A suspension would wreck Carson Soucy's tryout in Columbus
For Soucy, the timing is awful. He's 32, unsigned, and trying to convince Rick Bowness and Don Waddell he still belongs on an NHL blue line.
His last contract carried a $3,250,000 cap hit that ran through 2025-26.
That season got split between the Rangers and the Islanders. The Long Island stretch finished with him going minus-10 over 30 games.
Career-wise, he's logged 441 NHL games. Nobody hands a 6'4" defenseman a tryout for his transition game.
He's there for size, sandpaper and penalty kill minutes. That's the whole pitch.
And that's the trap. The exact style that earns a veteran a camp invite is the one that gets him in trouble when he mistimes it.
Picture a temp worker on day two who backs the company van into the boss's parked car. The résumé stops mattering right there.
It was a bad hit in a game that didn't need one. Buffalo already had things in hand, and a guy on a tryout can't afford to be the story.
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Would Columbus even wait for Player Safety? A suspended tryout player is a guy the staff can't evaluate, and camp doesn't pause for anyone.
The Blue Jackets host Pittsburgh on Thursday. Whether Soucy dresses will say plenty about how the organization views what happened.
And the schedule has a sense of humor. Columbus opens the regular season October 1 at home against, of all teams, the Sabres.
If Soucy is still wearing that jersey by then, Buffalo's bench won't need a reminder of the name.
Should the NHL suspend Carson Soucy for his hit on Olen Zellweger?
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