Headlines

  • New York Islanders Acquire Bo Horvat
  • Cole Caufield Out For The Season With A Shoulder Injury
  • Vancouver Canucks Extend Andrei Kuzmenko
  • Vancouver Canucks Hire Rick Tocchet
  • Minnesota Wild Extend Matt Boldy
  • Boston Bruins Extend Pavel Zacha
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • MLB Trade Rumors
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors

Pro Hockey Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • Atlantic
      • Boston Bruins
      • Buffalo Sabres
      • Detroit Red Wings
      • Florida Panthers
      • Montreal Canadiens
      • Ottawa Senators
      • Tampa Bay Lightning
      • Toronto Maple Leafs
    • Central
      • Arizona Coyotes
      • Chicago Blackhawks
      • Colorado Avalanche
      • Dallas Stars
      • Minnesota Wild
      • Nashville Predators
      • St. Louis Blues
      • Winnipeg Jets
    • Metropolitan
      • Carolina Hurricanes
      • Columbus Blue Jackets
      • New Jersey Devils
      • New York Islanders
      • New York Rangers
      • Philadelphia Flyers
      • Pittsburgh Penguins
      • Washington Capitals
    • Pacific
      • Anaheim Ducks
      • Calgary Flames
      • Edmonton Oilers
      • Los Angeles Kings
      • San Jose Sharks
      • Seattle Kraken
      • Vancouver Canucks
      • Vegas Golden Knights
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Partners
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

When Will The Buffalo Sabres Have Their Renaissance?

February 27, 2017 at 10:00 am CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments

For Buffalo Sabres fans this season must be hell. They have seen their team rocked by injuries all season long, taking what is a talented squad and sapping them of their playoff potential. The consecutive losses over the weekend to bottom-dwelling Arizona and Colorado has all but assured that they are sellers at this week’s trade deadline instead of buyers.

The Sabres weren’t sellers last summer, when they went out and gave a big contract to Kyle Okposo and traded for Dmitry Kulikov to help their back end. They were a young team with a ton of potential, and decided to augment it with talented veterans. While Okposo was the team’s all-star representative, his scoring touch hasn’t been enough to help them out of the bottom of the Eastern conference. Rasmus Ristolainen

Meanwhile, they have to watch the Edmonton Oilers and (even more painfully) Toronto Maple Leafs experience huge gains from teenagers, turning into legitimate playoff contenders overnight. The teams that they’ve battled with for first overall picks are now surging to the top of the standings. Edmonton won a lottery that Buffalo had worked so hard for to get Connor McDavid, and Toronto tanked for Auston Matthews while the Sabres tried to compete a year ago.

But it’s not just the past two years that should have been building blocks for the Sabres. Like the Oilers, they’ve long had picks to help build a system—that just haven’t seemed to come together as a team. Since 2011 the Sabres have had eight picks in the top-16 of the draft, including four top-eights (Alex Nylander, Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen).

If you look at their track record, it’s actually quite good in these spots with all of them looking like solid if not excellent NHL players. So why hasn’t it come together for them yet? Is it just the injuries? Perhaps, but even the players who have been relatively healthy haven’t performed up to standards.

Ryan O’Reilly, he of the highest cap-hit on the team, has just 38 points in 52 games and hasn’t yet turned into the dominating elite centerman the Sabres had hoped for. Okposo has 39 and looks like he’ll end with his lowest total since the last lockout. Matt Moulson and Brian Gionta have shown their age and turned in a bottom-six production, and Marcus Foligno might not hit double-digits in goals this season.

So when will they experience their renaissance, like the Oilers and Leafs? Will it happen next season, when Eichel is healthy enough to lead their team all season, or are they doomed to sit in mediocrity while they pay off the long-term deals they’ve given to some of these veteran players. Fans should be wary of asking for any other high-priced additions this summer, and instead just rely on the internal development of all these highly drafted players. It looks like the Sabres will add another top pick to the stable this offseason, as long as they don’t do anything too crazy at the deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Share 0 Retweet 0 Send via email

Auston Matthews| Brian Gionta| Buffalo Sabres| Connor McDavid| Dmitry Kulikov| Edmonton Oilers| Jack Eichel| Kyle Okposo| Marcus Foligno| Toronto Maple Leafs

Minor Transactions: 02/27/17
Main
Brandon Manning Suspended Two Games For Illegal Check
View Comments (2)
newest oldest

Comments

  1. tylerall5

    6 years ago

    Buffalo is a talented team, it takes a while for the kids to gel though, look at Edmonton. They’ve had years of Taylor hall, RNH, and Jordan Eberle, and they are now just starting to compete. They just need time.

    2
    Reply
  2. Dave Sigouin

    6 years ago

    Sabres have scoring ability and good goaltending. However, they are weak on defense by giving up way more shots on goal above the NHL average. They need to look at “D” personel (minus Ristolainen) and improve the “backend”.
    Remember…they are still young yet. Not sure if a new coach is necessary..Bylsma has won before. Give him one more year. Tough to find “winners” out there who would want to come to a fancy place like Buffalo.

    2
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.
Log in Register

    Top Stories

    New York Islanders Acquire Bo Horvat

    Cole Caufield Out For The Season With A Shoulder Injury

    Vancouver Canucks Extend Andrei Kuzmenko

    Vancouver Canucks Hire Rick Tocchet

    Minnesota Wild Extend Matt Boldy

    Boston Bruins Extend Pavel Zacha

    Dallas Stars Extend Joe Pavelski

    Ottawa Senators Extend Artem Zub

    Edmonton Oilers Sign Jason Demers

    Los Angeles Kings Place Cal Petersen On Waivers

    Recent

    Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

    New York Islanders Acquire Bo Horvat

    Dylan Cozens, Mattias Samuelsson Close To Returning

    Boston Bruins Reassign Marc McLaughlin, Joona Koppanen

    Chandler Stephenson Named To All-Star Game, Replacing Matty Beniers

    Anton Levtchi Placed On Unconditional Waivers

    Rudolfs Balcers Clears Waivers

    Snapshots: Three Stars, Schenn, Thompson

    Josh Norris To Undergo Surgery; Out For Season

    Ottawa Senators Recall Mads Sogaard

    Rumors By Team

    Rumors By Team

    • Avalanche Rumors
    • Blackhawks Rumors
    • Blue Jackets Rumors
    • Blues Rumors
    • Bruins Rumors
    • Canadiens Rumors
    • Canucks Rumors
    • Capitals Rumors
    • Coyotes Rumors
    • Devils Rumors
    • Ducks Rumors
    • Flames Rumors
    • Flyers Rumors
    • Golden Knights Rumors
    • Hurricanes Rumors
    • Islanders Rumors
    • Jets Rumors
    • Kings Rumors
    • Kraken Rumors
    • Lightning Rumors
    • Maple Leafs Rumors
    • Oilers Rumors
    • Panthers Rumors
    • Penguins Rumors
    • Predators Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Red Wings Rumors
    • Sabres Rumors
    • Senators Rumors
    • Sharks Rumors
    • Stars Rumors
    • Wild Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives

    PHR Info

    • About
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

    scroll to top
    Close

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version