My first hockey team was the Buffalo Sabres, back in the post-Finals appearance French Connection days. I’ve always been a sucker for a smart defenseman who wasn’t afraid to throw his body in front of a puck, so you might guess that captain Jim Schoenfeld was my favorite player. Black and blue and gold.
I could never understand how they could get rid of those classic uniforms for the black-white-and-red Buffalo Bills jimmies the team wore in the 90’s and beyond. Sure, the new look wasn’t as hideous as the Bruins’ third jersey or as laughable as the Islanders’ fisherman logo, but it was needless change for the sake of change. Having moved from Western New York to Connecticut in 1982, I was a New York Rangers fan by that time, and the vastly different look of those newfangled unis helped complete the mental separation from my former rooting interest.
Those are my Sabres’ credentials (The Rochester Americans are another story). Putting aside that lengthy intro, let’s take a peek at last season’s squad by Even Strength Total Rating, to see who the best contributors were, on that near-playoff team:
| Buffalo Sabres, Regular season 2008-9 | |||||
| Name | Pos | ESOR | ESDR | ESTR | ESTOI |
| Tim Connolly | C | +1.50 | +0.02 | +1.52 | 631 |
| Chris Butler | D | -0.01 | +0.84 | +0.83 | 725 |
| Paul Gaustad | C | +0.19 | +0.43 | +0.62 | 741 |
| Drew Stafford | RW | +0.28 | +0.20 | +0.48 | 1025 |
| Jaroslav Spacek | D | +0.47 | -0.06 | +0.41 | 1300 |
| Craig Rivet | D | +0.12 | +0.24 | +0.37 | 1003 |
| Adam Mair | C | -0.33 | +0.67 | +0.34 | 777 |
| Derek Roy | C | +0.09 | +0.13 | +0.22 | 1204 |
| Thomas Vanek | LW | +0.80 | -0.59 | +0.22 | 932 |
| Jason Pominville | RW | +0.36 | -0.18 | +0.18 | 1096 |
| Dominic Moore | C | +0.59 | -0.44 | +0.14 | 1032 |
| Tony Lydman | D | +0.03 | -0.03 | +0.00 | 1388 |
| Daniel Paille | LW | +0.28 | -0.44 | -0.16 | 775 |
| Henrik Tallinder | D | +0.02 | -0.18 | -0.16 | 1033 |
| Clarke MacArthur | LW | -0.18 | -0.18 | -0.36 | 831 |
| Teppo Numminen | D | -0.08 | -0.30 | -0.38 | 818 |
| Andrej Sekera | D | -0.05 | -0.43 | -0.48 | 1157 |
| Jochen Hecht | C | -0.49 | -0.20 | -0.69 | 982 |
Centerman Tim Connolly led the team (among players with at least 500 minutes ESTOI) with a whopping +1.52 ESTR, good for 4th in the NHL. Not bad for a player that many fans don’t know of, huh? Connolly doesn’t get much respect even from Buffalo fans, as Rob from Amherst writes:
“Personally I love Connolly as a player – as with most things you have to weed out the public perception of him. I think you hit it on the head – I don’t believe he’s ‘injury-prone’ so to speak, rather he’s just had bad luck with a variety of them lately…I think Connolly is a lot more of a complete player than he’s ever given credit for – he’s been painted with a ’soft’ brush which is very much unwarranted. Perhaps to his detriment, he’s never afraid to dig for the puck or cross into dangerous mid-ice territory. I was probably in the incredibly small minority of Sabres fans who was very pleased when they re-signed him late last season.”
Along with a very good goaltender in Ryan Miller, the Sabres have several promising pieces. Rookie Chris Butler put up the 3rd best ESTR (+0.83) among defensemen in his 47 GP last season; he scored only 6 Points, but had an impressive +11 plus/minus rating on the non-playoff squad. This season, the 22 year old youngster will be joined on the blue line by 5th rated defenseman Steve Montador (+0.80), recently of the Ducks and Bruins.
Even Strength Total Rating suggests that Buffalo stay away from resigning unrestricted free agents Maxim Afinigenov and Andrew Peters, and is ambivalent about resigning UFA Dominic Moore.
**Iain’s Fyffe’s Sabres preview is now up at Puck Prospectus**
Judging by these metrics, the Montador signing seems to be a really strong one – both in terms of production and value (~$3mil/2yrs). I think the team has an interesting problem going into training camp in trying to figure out who will earn the 6 defensive spots. Tyler Myers is an intriguing prospect who probably can’t learn too much more at the junior level but for him it’s either NHL or WHL after 9 games… but who sits? These numbers don’t put Andrej Sekera in the best light but i’m pretty confident they’re grooming him to be someone they count on to rush the puck.
Rivet isn’t going anywhere. Let’s assume Butler and Montador are top 6. That leaves 3 more out of…
Lydman
Tallinder
Sekera
Mike Weber (critical year for him to make the A-to-N jump)
Tyler Myers (whom Regier absolutely loves)
Paetsch (thanks for your service!)
They’d love to deal Tallinder if at all possible.
Eagerly waiting to see what develops….
Non-uberprospects don’t always jump to peak level right away, especially defensemen. The 23 year old Sekera had his first full NHL season in 2008-9 (after 37 GP in 2007-8). Hockey’s Future had him pegged as a likely #2-#4 blueliner. They list the highly-touted 19 year Myers as Buffalo’s current #1 prospect, a possible first pairing defenseman with All-Star potential. Note that Myers was a top half of the first round draft choice; Sekera was a third round pick.