The Stars waived Remi Elie Monday morning with the intent for him to clear and join the Texas Stars. However, the 23 -year-old forward was claimed by the Buffalo Sabres. Elie spent his Stars tenure bouncing throughout the lineup, but last year seemed to cement his place within the Stars’ bottom six as he played in 72 games. After the Stars missed the playoffs, Elie was sent down to the minors to help the Texas Stars in their run in the Calder Cup Playoffs where they ultimately fell in the finals.
Elie was a second round pick back in the 2013 draft and since then has appeared in 121 regular season games and 23 post-season games for the Texas Stars. For the Dallas Stars, Elie has appeared in 90 games, tallying 21 total points, 14 assists and 7 goals. The forward brought a work ethic and hustle that sparked the Stars’ otherwise uneventful bottom lines at times last year, as Elie earned Ken Hitchcock’s trust though sheer hustle and hard work for the team.
Elie is a product of hard work and development, and Hitchcock gave the young forward more consistency in this past year. Elie is the type of player an old school coach loves: someone with speed and fearless hustle who will do what is asked of him. The idea is that other players, even more skilled ones, might model their game after Elie’s, giving the entire lineup a boost.
While it has been a battle between Gemel Smith and Remi Elie throughout camp, both of them are bottom line wingers who bring similar assets. Elie took the edge last season between the two, but this season it turned out to be Gemel Smith (based on Elie being waived) who has shown to have the qualities Jim Montgomery wants for his system. Moreover, with the emergence of Roope Hintz, who won a spot in the lineup out of camp, Dallas decided to take their chances in sending Elie back down.
Ultimately sending a player on waivers is always a risk, as with previously claimed folks like David Schlemko and Patrik Nemeth, and the Sabres are lacking forward depth right now, and thus were ready to snatch Elie and give him a shot.
With Roope Hintz and Jason Dickinson making a push for the roster this season, it became that much tougher to make the cut of forwards on the roster. Coming from a big Remi Elie fan, as shown by my “Why Remi Elie Deserves your attention and Maybe Your Fandom” article, I am saddened to see him go but know that he is getting a great shot with the Buffalo Sabres to come in and help contribute, something Dallas couldn’t offer him this season with Gemel Smith taking the final forward slot. As Jim Nill said yesterday, the Stars will genuinely be happy that Elie has earned a shot to make an NHL career for himself.
And while Elie’s #flow will be gone, luckily Stars fans still have Roope Hintz and his flow to look forward to.
The guys take a minute during practice to say their goodbyes to Remi Elie, who was claimed off waivers by the Sabres this morning. pic.twitter.com/ALMeaY1V4E
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) October 2, 2018