Zach Bogosian Making An Impact With Buffalo Sabres
Zach Bogosian isn’t the newest member of the Buffalo Sabres — technically, that title belongs to goaltender Anders Lindback, acquired via trade just a few hours after Bogosian and fellow former Jet Evander Kane.
He’s certainly new to the team, however, and has wasted no time fitting in with the Buffalo Sabres.
Zach Bogosian, 24, joined the Sabres as part of the trade that sent Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, Joel Armia and Brendan Lemieux to Winnipeg. Bogosian came to Buffalo along with his (injured) teammate Kane, and has already been making an impact in the lineup.
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As it stands right now, Zach Bogosian has played in six games with the Buffalo Sabres. Despite having played in so few games, his numbers are pretty solid.
Let’s start with one category: hits.
Bogosian has registered 30 hits in just six games, averaging five hits per game. That total includes 11 hits thrown in his first game with the Sabres, a 2-1 loss to the Flyers on February 15.
For comparison’s sake, here’s how some of the other Buffalo Sabres match up in average hits/game:
- Nicolas Deslauriers – 3.2
- Zemgus Girgensons – 2.1
- Mike Weber – 2.5
- Marcus Foligno – 3.3
- Nikita Zadorov – 2.4
Obviously hits aren’t going to be the determining factor for a lot of people, but Bogosian’s ability to play tough, throw the body around and be a physical presence is undeniably commendable. Assuming he plays every game for the rest of the season, he could wind up with 135 hits in 27 games.
Bogosian has also registered 20 blocked shots in six games. Averaging this out, he’s right on par with Josh Gorges (148 blocked shots/46 games) and has averaged more blocked shots per game with the Buffalo Sabres than Mike Weber, Tyler Myers and Rasmus Ristolainen.
Overall, Zach Bogosian’s impact is being felt largely due to the amount of ice time he’s been getting since joining Buffalo.
Bogosian’s played over 24 minutes of ice time in every game and had over 28 minutes of ice time in four of six games. He’s played 168:49 total over the six games, averaging just over 28 minutes a night.
This is certainly helpful when you consider that with the trade, the Sabres lost Myers, one of the guys who had been playing the most ice time and making a huge impact on the blueline.
Bogosian has helped to fill that gap and has been an absolute workhorse since joining his new team.
The obvious statement that needs to be made here: this is a very, very small sample size. It is, after all, just a six-game period over a stretch of less than two weeks. There’s still plenty of this season left, as well as five more seasons on Zach Bogosian’s contract.
So while these numbers are great, and he’s making an impact already with the Buffalo Sabres, take it with a grain of salt, but stick around to see what else he can do in his time to come with Buffalo.
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