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Sabres invite former Wild first-rounder Gillies to camp

ColtonGillies

The Buffalo Sabres have given Colton Gillies another shot at reviving his NHL career.

The Sabres released their training camp roster on Tuesday, revealing that Gillies -- the 16th overall pick at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft -- will be attending on a professional try out.

Gillies, 24, has fallen on hard times after making his NHL debut for Minnesota at 19 years of age.

Things started brightly with the Wild -- Gillies made the team out of training camp in 2008-09 and appeared in 45 games, scoring seven points -- but quickly turned south as he toiled in AHL Houston for the better part of two seasons.

Gillies appeared in just seven games for Minnesota during the 2010-11 season and 37 during the 2011-12 campaign before being placed on waivers, where he was quickly scooped up by Columbus.

While the former WHL Saskatoon standout did carve a role for himself with the Jackets -- he appeared in 27 games last season -- he was a healthy scratch on numerous occasions and wasn’t brought back after his contract expired in July.

All this said, Gillies does have some upside. He’s big (6-foot-4, 207 pounds), relatively young and has over 150 games of NHL experience.

He’s also competing for a spot on a Sabres team with just 11 forwards under contract (Cody Hodgson, still unsigned, will be the 12th) -- but it remains to be seen if he’ll get a shot ahead of promising youngsters like Zemgus Girgensons and Joel Armia.