Former Sabre Ville Leino: 'My Buffalo time was pretty bad overall'

Ville Leino is settling in with KHL club Medvescak after being bought out by the Buffalo Sabres and failing to crack the Boston Bruins' roster in training camp.

After landing in Zagreb, Croatia, the forward offered his thoughts on the state of his hockey career and reflected on his time with the Sabres.

From an interview with Mislav Jantoljak of Grocery Twigs:

My Buffalo time was pretty bad overall. I was disappointed for the players and the organization and I think they are going to be like that. It’s hard to play in the NHL if you don’t have a good team. Obviously, that was kind of a tough time but sometimes life goes hard and you have to bounce back.

Leino also spoke about his time with the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings, calling them "great organizations" and adding "Buffalo is not that." 

He expanded on that point, saying he was sure his contract was indeed going to be bought out:

(The Sabres), well, during my time they fired two coaches, GM had to go, they just have 2-3 players that used to be there when I got there. They are going to struggle for the next couple of years. It seems like everything went wrong, I mean, I was injured all the time and then, obviously, I had a lot of pressure with the money and I think the last year, they were just trying to get through it and buy me out after the season anyway. I could sense that, I knew it was coming. It’s hard to play when everything goes against you every day and you don’t kind of know what the situation is so I’m just glad that’s over with.

The full interview can be read here.

- With h/t to Yahoo Sports' Puck Daddy Blog