Buffalo Sabres: 3 players who have something to prove in the final weeks
The Buffalo Sabres are not going to the playoffs this season, but they have provided some exciting hockey as of late
The Buffalo Sabres have really come together as a hockey team. And while they’ve struggled to maintain leads lately, you can’t deny they have played the NHL’s Eastern Conference’s best teams well.
Ordinarily, it’s best to see blowouts instead of heartbreaking losses. But if you’re a team like the Sabres that still have a lot of growing up to do, heartbreaking losses against potential Stanley Cup finalists is a move in the right direction.
But the Sabres have, overall, struggled for most of the 2021-22 season, seeing injuries and COVID-19 ravage the team from December to late January. As a result, the Sabres needed to get younger quickly and they pulled up a lot of talent from the AHL who have since become staples on the main roster, most notably Mattias Samuelsson and Casey Fitzgerald.
The Sabres also employed taxi squads and saw a few AHL forwards get their first taste of NHL action. Players like J.J. Peterka, Jack Quinn, and Brandon Biro all stepped onto the ice in a Sabres uniform at some point during the season.
As I write this, Owen Power is steamrolling toward his NHL debut. And it’s a given that with so many veteran defensemen’s contracts expiring, Power will permanently take someone’s spot on the defensive pairings next season.
With potentially more roster turnover coming, a lot of current Sabres have something to prove as the final month of the NHL season rolls on. Here are three of those players.
Rasmus Asplund
The 33rd overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft, Asplund has yet to perform to expectations. He’s averaging more ice time this season than any other time in his career at 14:28, but he has little to show for it.
In 71 games, Asplund has just 24 points and a 5.3% shooting percentage. He also lacks physicality and the ability to consistently win face-offs. Overall, Asplund is a fringe hocky player who, on most rosters, would find himself on the top scoring lines in the AHL.
Does this mean, with potentially players like Peterka and Quinn entering the NHL ranks, that Asplund will be playing elsewhere in 2022-23? The answer is, probably not.
Asplund’s contract runs through 2023, and it won’t cost the Sabres to keep him around. However, unless he proves otherwise during the last nine games of the season, don’t expect Asplund to play much of a role next year.
Henri Jokiharju
Enter, Owen Power, who won’t be teaming with Rasmus Dahlin on the first-pairing any time soon. At least not consistently. For the time being, expect Jokiharju to retain his role. But his days are definitely numbered on the top pairing with Dahlin.
To make matters more trying for Jokiharju, he doesn’t display the same physicality as Mattias Samuelsson and Casey Fitzgerald. Samuelsson and Fitzgerald have shown they can hold down the second pairing, which was often the case when the Sabres lost Colin Miller and Will Butcher to injuries.
This leaves teaming with Jacob Bryson on the third line as Jokiharju’s best bet at remaining a Sabre. Signed through 2024, it’s highly likely the Sabres will give the defenseman at least another season to prove he can stick.
But he needs to do more than what he’s shown this season. Through 51 games, Jokiharju has 15 points and 32 giveaways. He’s also logging just a 4.8% shooting percentage, indicating limited efficacy on offense.
His 51 blocks and 60 hits further indicate limited defensive skills, along with his 12 takeaways. Overall, Jokiharju has not lived up to expectations and it’s almost a given Owen Power will supplant him at some point.
Vinnie Hinostroza
Hinostroza made strides when he returned from injury but he’s since had minimal effectiveness in April, failing to record a single point. Throughout his NHL career, Hinostroza has identified as a journeyman more than a permanent fixture.
And like most journeymen out there, he is one of those players whose skills are too fringe to stick to an NHL roster long-term. Instead, Hinostroza is one of those players that will fill the lower lines of a team that needs a stopgap for a season.
While he has shown interest in remaining with the Sabres, he will also need to ward off the younger talent rising through the AHL ranks if the organization decides he’s shown enough to stick around. So far, he has been streaky, putting up solid performances before disappearing for long stretches.
Related Story. Factors that will decide Sabres success in April. light
While Hinostroza has proven time and again he can stick to an NHL roster, he has also shown that he’s nearly always the odd man out. And since the Sabres have some remarkable puzzle pieces rising through the ranks, he may yet again find himself in an eerily familiar situation.
(All statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)