Entering the year, the Sabres were very much in a state of flux. Jack Eichel hadn’t been traded, nor had he gotten the surgery he preferred. Buffalo’s offseason pointed towards another difficult season as the team continued to rebuild. With so much uncertainty surrounding the on and off-ice business of the team, I put together a list of 10 big questions that would likely define the 2021-22 season.
As the season wraps up, I wanted to take some time to look back on each of those topics and see just how they affected the Sabres as the season progressed.
Owen Power’s NHL career is a week old and we spend some time reflecting on his strong play through the first four games he’s appeared in. We also touch on how he and Rasmus Dahlin are rounding out a formidable top-four for the Sabres.
Also on the show is a discussion over Devon Levi and Erik Portillo each returning to school and how that affects Buffalo’s decisions in net for the offseason. We wrap up this week’s show talking about the introduction of ads on NHL jerseys.
Jason Moser of PuckLuck.com joined the show this week to discuss the way he applies advanced analytics to betting NHL games and how his model can help give bettors an edge in winning hockey bets. We discuss how he developed the model using common analytics such as expected goals and how those models are applied to determine which NHL games offer the best opportunity for betting wins on a night-to-night basis.
We also touch on how models such as Jason’s can be applied to areas such as fantasy hockey. All of the information can be found on Jason’s site, puckluck.com, which is free and available to the public. We talk at length about the sort of information he provides on the site and how it is structured to help you win more bets.
The Sabres celebrated Rick Jeanneret on Friday night and they put on quite a show in the process. We talk about the whirlwind evening and many of the highlights of the team’s impressive pregame ceremony, decisive win over the Predators and touching post-game tribute.
We also touch on prospect Devon Levi and the news that he will be returning to Northeastern for his junior season after finishing 2021-22 as a Hobey Baker finalist. Levi isn’t the only collegiate goalie the Sabres need to be tracking, as there are signs that Erik Portillo could qualify as a free agent as early as the 2023 offseason. That, plus Levi’s return likely puts him front-and-center to the Sabres plans to ink their collegiate prospects.
Somewhere in my parents house is a red Fisher Price tape recorder. You know the one, it had the little mic and you could record and play on cassette tapes. That recorder holds a tape with recordings of my friends and I doing our best Rick Jeanneret impressions.
That was just standard practice as a 90s kid. I suppose the same goes for children of the 80s, 2000s and 2010s as well. It makes sense given how transcendent Jeanneret is to this franchise. Beyond the crossed swords and charging bison, I can think of few things that represent the Sabres more than Rick Jeanneret.
I came to the realization in college that Buffalo isn’t unique when it comes to beloved sports broadcasters. Mike Lange, Dom Emrick, Bob Miller, Pat Foley, hockey is filthy with play by play voices who transcend the team they cover. While we may not have been the only town with an announcer we adored, we were the only one with someone as magical as RJ.
Friday and these last few games will be immensely bittersweet. I’m sure we’ll see RJ now and then for the odd game, especially when the team gets over the hump and back into the playoffs. But saying goodbye to this seminal figure of our youth is devastating in so many ways. We are so much richer for the gifts he has given us over the years. Now that the time has come to part ways, it’s getting much harder to say goodbye.
It’s easy to take for granted just how deeply ingrained he is to the Sabres. When I think of my favorite moments of franchise history, RJ’s call is the first thing that bubbles to the surface. The jovial, bombastic calls are naturally what makes him so special, but I think it’s his ability to elevate a moment that sets him apart. Anyone can explode after a big goal or save, Jeanneret was one of the few who could immortalize those moments.
I was lucky enough to be witness to one of those moments in 2011. For a while I did stats for TV broadcasts. The Bandits, Knighthawks and MLL games mostly. The odd Bills preseason game. It’s easy money if you can land it. What’s better than getting paid to go watch a game? I got a call from the Sabres saying that they needed a stats guy for the game the next night. RJ’s usual guy had a conflict, could I do it?
The Sabres were in the thick of a playoff race, so getting paid to go watch that game was the only offer I needed. To work with RJ for the night was icing on the cake.
So for three hours on April 8 I hung out in the booth with RJ and Harry Neale as the Sabres came back to tie the Flyers and clinch a spot in the playoffs. They’d finish the job in overtime for good measure, punctuating a thrilling victory which featured a vintage Jeanneret call of Nathan Gerbe’s tying goal.
It was a surreal experience, working beside two giants of hockey broadcasting. I’m not ashamed to admit I broke from professional standards and asked each for an autograph after the game. I figured he only had a couple years left in the booth. I would’ve never guessed he’d still be at it 11 years later.
Thank goodness he did.
I know my relationship with the Sabres won’t change after Jeanneret is gone. He’s a big part of why I fell so deeply in love with this big, dumb hockey team in the first place. RJ has narrated a lifetime of memories for us and I doubt any of us will be forgetting a single one.
As the season heads into its final month, one of the biggest holes on Buffalo’s roster for the offseason is in net.
The Sabres are currently set to the summer with no goaltenders under contract and a lot of questions over what the future in the crease looks like. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is a restricted free agent and is the only sure thing the Sabres have in terms of playing games in either Buffalo or Rochester in 2022-23. Beyond that, it’s a crapshoot.
Buffalo will need to acquire a minimum of two goaltenders this summer. One to play the lion’s share of the games in Buffalo and the other to share time in Rochester (ideally with one of Buffalo’s promising young collegiate prospects).
Any assumption that Luukkonen should be stepping in as Buffalo’s starter for the 22-23 season is premature to me. Luukkonen has played only 13 NHL games between two seasons and he suffered an injury in each of those runs. Even taking into account the poor play in front of him in Rochester, his resume isn’t that of a goalie who is ready to step into an NHL starter’s job. I think it would be far more appropriate for Luukonen to play somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-to-35 games behind a steadier veteran presence.
Bringing Craig Anderson back has been a popular refrain as he’s offered a reliable option since returning from injury. There’s a reason the Sabres odds against Winnipeg tonight are only +140 at Betway and not much steeper. There’s also a reason that the over/under of 6.5 for tonight’s game is a good bet of late. Anderson has been a big reason the Sabres vibes have been so good. However, his numbers this year are still quite average. He’s sporting a -5 goals saved above expected and his .901 save percentage falls in line with the downward trend of his last few full seasons in Ottawa.
Consider as well, he is 41 years old and missed a significant portion of the season to injury. Does he fit the profile of a goalie who can help the Sabres take the next step?
The Sabres pushed their point streak to six games and improved to 8-3-2 in the month of March. We discuss how the continued success of the team could potentially cloud the longer term needs when it comes to making sure the Sabres take the next step in their rebuild. Namely, we discuss the discourse around Craig Anderson and where the team would be had he been healthy for the entire year.
Also on the show is a discussion over the new Buffalo Bills stadium deal and highlights from the NHL GM meetings.
Kevyn Adams stood pat at this year’s trade deadline, only moving out Robert Hagg on Sunday. We talk about what the lack of action means for the team as they prepare for the stretch run, how they might fit key youngsters into the lineup and whether or not Adams made the right call by not making additional moves.
We also touch on moves from around the league. Who we felt were the big winners of this year’s deadline and even discuss that wacky Evgenii Dadonov deal.
In honor of the NHL Trade Deadline, it’s time once again to take a few reader questions.
I’m looking forward to Monday’s deadline as I think the Sabres are poised to move at least two or three players off the roster. And there’s potential for even more moves both out and in. Unless Kevyn Adams makes zero moves on Moday, it will be hard to say it was an underwhelming deadline.
As we touched on this week’s podcast, I’m hopeful that Adams will bring in a player who will be in Buffalo not just for the final weeks of the season, but well into the future. A younger player, ideally with term, who could add to the growing confidence over what Adams and the Sabres are trying to build. That’s easier said than done, but it wouldn’t be the first time the organization brought in a notable piece for the future at the deadline. Here’s hoping the next one comes on Monday.
Before we get to the questions, we should celebrate the beauty of the Armchair GM submissions on CapFriendly. It’s been far too long since we shared any of these, so let’s make up for lost time with some Very Bad Trades.
A few thoughts here. First, Kaapo Kahkonen has had a decent season for the Wild but he hasn’t yet risen to the level of a number one goalie. Marcus Foligno has also carved out a very valuable role in Minnesota, so the idea that just Casey Mittelstadt (whose has been very underwhelming when not injured) could fetch you both of these players is silly. Yet, that deal is trumped by the following offer of the Arizona Coyotes offering a first and a third for Victor Olofsson and recent healthy scratch, Anders Bjork. I’m not sure how to arrive at that particular valuation, but it seems…inaccurate. Olofsson ought to have some value this summer (or at the deadline) but Bjork’s value will have cratered and while the Coyotes do need players on contracts, they also desperately need draft capital.
Sure, I guess. There are other players in the NHL though. We don’t always have to do Pat Kane.
Once again, the Sabres will be sellers at the deadline. While they aren’t overflowing with pending UFAs or highly sought after talent, there will be a few faces missing from Buffalo’s lineup after Monday.
It’s hard to say exactly how many of Buffalo’s trade chips will find their way out the door, but I’ll be surprised if Kevyn Adams doesn’t make at least one or two moves. The Sabres have nine unrestricted free agents who could arguably be available via trade. But the more realistic number is five, maybe six players who are truly available. That list includes Craig Anderson, Cody Eakin, Robert Hagg, Vinny Hinostroza, Colin Miller and possibly Will Butcher. That doesn’t mean all of those players will be on the move, but they each have a profile of a deadline rental.
Players with term or RFA status could also be shipped out, but aside from some whispers about Victor Olofsson’s availability, it doesn’t sound like there would be any imminent moves from the non-UFAs on Buffalo’s roster.
What’s interesting is that while Adams could easily trade away five players on Monday, Buffalo’s roster might not look all that different. The injury bug that ran through Buffalo’s roster shifted the lineup to the point that the Sabres are only now sending players back to Rochester, with Mark Jankowski returned on Wednesday. So, while Hagg and Miller could both gone on Monday, Hagg is the only one of the two with a roster spot that would need to be filled. With Anders Bjork a healthy scratch and Zemgus Girgensons ready to return, the same could be said of Cody Eakin and Vinny Hinostroza.
I think the initial reaction to the Sabres potentially shipping out three or more players would mean a distinct impact to their competitiveness. But things might look pretty similar to how they look now. Right now, the Sabres are +200 underdogs against the Oilers at Betway. Not the greatest odds, but I don’t think you’ll be seeing much longer odds for the club once their work at the deadline is complete.
Two in the Box 