Buffalo Sabres: Who was the Sabres’ most improved player this season?
Even amongst the disappointing season, the Buffalo Sabres saw numerous players show improvement throughout the year. Which member of the Sabres should be dubbed the “most improved” this season?
This really came down to two players, Linus Ullmark and Casey Mittelstadt. Both showed improvement from the 2019-2020 season to the 2021 season. Ullmark showed all season that he could be a viable number one starting goalie option in the NHL. But he struggled to stay healthy, which led to some depth problems for Buffalo down the stretch. Mittelstadt got off to a slow start to 2021, much like the rest of the team. But once the head coaching change was made, he started playing the best hockey of his career.
If you compare stats over the previous two seasons, both players played better in 2021. But one had a more noticeable improvement. Ullmark had a lower goals allowed average this year, 2.69 in 2019-2020, compared to 2.63 this past season, and he also improved his save percentage by .002%. Minor improvements, but still improvements. But Mittelstadt blew his 2019-2020 stats out of the water.
In the 2019-2020 season, Casey played 36 games in the AHL for the Rochester Americans and only 31 games in Buffalo. In his 31 NHL games that season, he had four goals and nine assists, a significant drop off from his numbers from the year prior. But he proved this year that he can still be effective at the NHL level.
This past season, Mittelstadt played 41 games and tallied ten goals and 12 assists. His total of 22 points on the season is three shy of his career-high, but his career-high came in 77 games, 36 more games than what he played in this past season. If this season were a full schedule, he would have very easily surpassed his career highs in goals and assists.
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Buffalo brought Casey back on a one-year, $874,125 contract right before training camp started last December. Now that he has shown that he is worth a bigger contract, it is on the Sabres to decide if they will bring him back or not.