Buffalo Sabres must bring back defenseman Jacob Bryson

The Buffalo Sabres have four young defensemen that you hear nothing but good things from. But Jacob Bryson should be among that group. 

Of all the young defensemen for the Buffalo Sabres last season, Jacob Bryson got the smallest amount of attention. While Bryson saw some action on the first pairing with Rasmus Dahlin following an injury to Henri Jokiharju, he often found himself on the third pairing with one of the veterans. Mainly with Robert Hagg (before his trade to Floriday) and Mark Pysyk.

Bryson, a Restricted Free Agent (RFA), may or may not return. Especially as the Sabres plan on adding a bit of experience to the defensive pairings to help Owen Power. But in the 24-year-old’s first full season with the Sabres (73 games), he showed improvement in key areas production-wise.

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson must return next season

Bryson is not an ideal player to put onto the first or second-pairing. He’s not the most aggressive defenseman and he won’t check or strike fear in an opponent. But he displays an excellent knack for locating the puck, evidenced by his 116 blocks in 111 career games. He also showed incredible durability last season, nearly doubling his ice time from 724 in 2020-21 to 1,338 minutes last season.

Bryson’s biggest improvement came in the takeaway column. Last season, he averaged 0.328 per game. Not a huge number, but drastic when you realize he averaged just 0.052 per game two seasons ago. Besides his improved number of takeaways, his giveaways per game also dropped from 0.447 per game in 2020-21 to 0.342 last season.

Overall, Bryson improved in several key areas and only showed regression in scoring – 0.236 points per game in 2020-21 to 0.136 last year. But we got Dahlin and Owen Power there to score goals from the blue line.

Overall, Bryson is worth bringing back into the mix next season. He may not remain the full-time player he was last year if and when general manager Kevyn Adams brings in a veteran defenseman. But either way, Bryson has done enough to warrant a return to Buffalo.

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)