Headlines

  • Buffalo Sabres Showing Interest In Patrick Kane
  • Brad Marchand Named 27th Captain In Boston History
  • Ducks Remain Far Apart In Negotiations With Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale
  • Montreal Canadiens To Acquire Tanner Pearson
  • Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Calen Addison
  • Brayden Schenn Named St. Louis Blues Captain
  • 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
  • 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

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

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

Comments

  1. tylerall5

    7 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

    7 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

    Buffalo Sabres Showing Interest In Patrick Kane

    Brad Marchand Named 27th Captain In Boston History

    Ducks Remain Far Apart In Negotiations With Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale

    Montreal Canadiens To Acquire Tanner Pearson

    Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Calen Addison

    Brayden Schenn Named St. Louis Blues Captain

    Mike Babcock Resigns As Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach

    Noah Hanifin Reverses Course, Open To Extension In Calgary

    Carey Price Confirms He Won’t Return To Play

    Colorado Avalanche Sign Tomáš Tatar

    Recent

    Summer Synopsis: Seattle Kraken

    Injury Notes: Canadiens, Ehlers, Barlow, Smith

    Minor Transactions: 09/22/23

    Injury Notes: Hartman, Verhaeghe, Jenner

    Devon Toews Wants To Finish Career In Colorado

    Snapshots: Stamkos, Backlund, International Games

    Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

    New York Rangers Sign Adam Clendening To PTO

    Marc-Andre Fleury Will Decide Playing Future After Season

    PHR Chatter: Schedule Surmising

    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

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version