Buffalo Sabres Player Projections: Marcus Foligno
Can the Buffalo Sabres power forward enjoy another career-best effort in 2016-17?
The Buffalo Sabres currently have a healthy number of players who will be treating the 2016-17 regular season as if their career as a member of the Sabres depends on it.
That’s because, in the case of Johan Larsson and Marcus Foligno, their careers with the Buffalo Sabres actually do depend on it, as each of these players was inked to just a one-year extension in 2016. With the Sabres progressing toward becoming a playoff squad, and with at least 3-4 prospects looking as if they are almost ready to play in the NHL on a full-time basis, these two bottom-6 forwards have just one more season to prove that they can help this team achieve its goal of competing for Lord Stanley’s Cup in the not-so-distant future.
Larsson will be featured in our Buffalo Sabres Player Projections series soon, but today we look at one of Buffalo’s native sons, Marcus Foligno.
Player: Marcus Foligno
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2015-16 stats: 10-13-23, +4 in 75 games played
Fact: Foligno enjoyed his best offensive season in the NHL in 2015-16, setting career-bests in goals and points.
Also Fact: Foligno’s biggest day on Twitter was the day he got married, resulting in countless “My heart will go on” Tweets from the ladies.
Despite the fact that his numbers have improved every season he has played, it’s safe to say that most Sabres fans expected more from the bruising kid out of Buffalo than they have seen thus far in his career. Foligno’s 93 points in 267 games played (a rate of .35 points per game, blech) would land him on the fourth line of pretty much every NHL playoff team from last season, but it was pretty apparent that Foligno was benefiting from playing alongside Larsson and captain Brian Gionta, with the elder-statesman Gionta having the largest impact on Foligno.
Listening to Foligno describe the season, you have to believe he is poised to make a bit of a breakthrough in 2016-27:
This is the best I’ve felt and the most consistent I’ve played. I believe I’m only going to get better from here on out. (courtesy of The Buffalo News)
For Foligno’s sake, he better be right!
The HERO Chart
As you can see, Foligno is your typical bottom-6 forward, which is fine – a championship team needs depth, and the fact that Foligno was able to emerge from the 2015-16 season with a positive goal differential gives you hope that the Sabres are moving toward having a third line that can ease the scoring burden of the top two. Foligno still has not developed a scoring touch, however, and his line fares slightly better with him off the ice than when he is on it.
Even so, Foligno sounds confident and could be gearing up for his best season, by far. Whether or not that is enough to earn him a spot on the roster heading forward is up for debate, but hopefully Foligno continues to make strides thanks to the guidance of Gionta.
Projection: 15-15-30