A memorable two-month stretch that seemingly began with Jack Eichel’s cold welcome back to Buffalo's KeyBank Center and ended with a celebration of Rick Jeanneret’s remarkable broadcasting career inspired hope for Sabres fans who grew tired of watching years of losing.
The roster is dotted with talented players who haven’t reached their potential and quickly connected with the community in Western New York. As coach, Don Granato implemented a fast-paced, entertaining style of play. General manager Kevyn Adams added to the young corps through the Eichel trade and strengthened the Sabres’ prospect pipeline into one of the best in the NHL.
There’s a behind-the-scenes culture that’s made the club better on the ice. Between March and April, The Sabres’ 16-9-3 record for a points percentage of .625 ranked 13th in the league during that span. Players achieved personal milestones, and those with less experience, most notably Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and Mattias Samuelsson, developed as the season progressed.
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Yet the reality is the franchise missed the playoffs for a league-record 11th consecutive season. And though most of the roster remains intact – strengthened, even, by the additions of goalie Eric Comrie and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin – all involved need to prove again that they’re going to be competitive, beginning with the season opener Thursday night in KeyBank Center against the Ottawa Senators.
“You know, no matter what we did, we want to win and win more,” Granato said. “And I've said it many times, if there's one thing I'm greedy about, it's wanting to win. I'll take more and more. … Things might look good, good things might look great, but don't we want better? I don't want to settle for good or great. I want better, better. So, that's easy. That's the mindset.”
Among the 23 players on the opening-night roster, 19 were with the club last season: Thompson, Dahlin, Cozens, Samuelsson, Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuch, Owen Power, Victor Olofsson, Kyle Okposo, Zemgus Girgensons, Peyton Krebs, Rasmus Asplund, Casey Mittelstadt, Vinnie Hinostroza, Anders Bjork, Jacob Bryson, Henri Jokiharju, Casey Fitzgerald and Craig Anderson.
Jack Quinn, a first-round draft pick in 2020, graduated to Buffalo following a season in which he was named the American Hockey League’s top rookie and will be in the lineup opening night. Winger JJ Peterka also joins the Sabres following a season in which he totaled 28 goals and 68 points in 70 games with Rochester.
Comrie, 27, signed a two-year contract with Buffalo following a breakout season with the Winnipeg Jets. He recorded a 10-5-1 record and .920 save percentage in 19 appearances as the backup to Connor Hellebuyck. It was Comrie’s first full season in the NHL after 207 games in the American Hockey League. He’s expected to handle the bulk of starts for the Sabres, but Anderson will try to earn as many turns in the crease as possible. At 41 years old, Anderson is entering his 20th NHL season, and his 308 career wins rank fifth among U.S.-born goalies in league history.
“Opportunity’s great, but you’ve got to go out there and earn it, too. For myself, it’s about going out there every single day and just doing the best I can,” Comrie said. “I’m not looking anywhere in the future or the past. It doesn’t matter. Hockey’s a 'What have you done for me lately?' kind of sport, so I’m just going to go out there and try to earn a spot every single day. That’s been my mindset since I started playing hockey, just earn a spot every single day and go out there and just work as hard as you possibly can, control your controllables to make sure that you can take advantage of the opportunity that’s given to you when you get a chance.”
This is arguably the most promising defense corps the Sabres’ have rostered in years. Dahlin, 22, was an All-Star selection last season, finishing his fourth NHL campaign with career highs in goals (13), points (53) and average time on ice (24:01). Samuelsson, also 22, was a defensive stalwart in 42 games after his promotion from Rochester in January and averaged 20 minutes of ice time.
Jokiharju, 23, had his best season yet and set a new career-high in average ice time (21:53). Power, 19, showed poise and exceptional talent during his eight NHL games with Buffalo in April. Bryson, 24, has developed his two-way game and strives to be more consistent in his third season with the team. Fitzgerald, 25, is working to carve out a full-time role after playing 36 games with the Sabres in 2021-22.
The group will be supplemented by Lyubushkin, a 6-foot-4 freight train of a defenseman who delivers big hits, blocks shots and excels at shutting down passes across the slot. His physical game complements the skill of a Sabres blue line that had an average age of 22.3 over the final weeks of last season.
“I think, last year, it was obviously a real talented D core, so I think, for me and probably all the other guys, it was just nice to just pick each other's brains or even just watch other guys play,” Power said. “And I think everyone has their own things that they do really well, and all things that we could learn off of.”
Despite the significant progress, the Sabres finished with 75 points, one fewer than Phil Housley’s final season as coach in 2018-19. Injuries exposed a lack of depth. Goaltending was shaky when Anderson was out and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in Rochester. Offensively, though, Granato took the club to new heights. Their 229 goals were the most by Buffalo since Thomas Vanek and Drew Stafford helped the 2010-11 Sabres reach the playoffs with a team total of 240 goals.
It’s possible, if not likely, that the club will have an even better offensive attack in 2022-23 with a healthy Mittelstadt, Cozens primed for a breakout and Tuch having a full season. Thompson, Skinner and Dahlin will be counted on to match, or exceed, their production.
All signs point to the club taking another step forward. Most important, Granato said, is the belief he saw from the Sabres late last season and a desire to win even more than the final two months in the spring.
“They’re (ticked) off that – there were nights I challenged them hard,” Granato said. " 'I believe this is a game we should win,' and we said that a lot the last half of the year, before we even started winning. I’m big on you have to be confident before you win. If your confidence comes, you just start winning. I don’t know how that really works in the long run. So, I think our guys were really confident before we started winning hockey games. They played with that intention. They’ve developed kind of that ownership and identified with, ‘OK, there’s a lot of work that goes into winning and a lot of details that need to be executed.’ ”
