No one on the Buffalo Sabres has experienced as many starts, stops, sputters, and stalls since 2018 than Casey Mittelstadt.
Not only has anyone else on the Buffalo Sabres been more star-crossed than Casey Mittelstadt, I’ve personally been hard on him. In the past few months, I’ve said Mittelstadt is an underachiever, that potential AHL talents could supplant him, you name it.
But, I’m also changing my tune a bit on the former eighth overall pick. Looking at head coach Don Granato’s ability to turn around underperforming players this past season, Mittelstadt can easily become the Sabres boss’s next success story.
Mittelstadt needs to stay healthy, and that is something he has struggled with. And it doesn’t take a deep dive into the guy’s stats to realize how close he is to riding the Bust Label for good. Mittelstadt is nearly out of chances, but here are three reasons why he might be the next breakout player for the Buffalo Sabres.
The first reason Buffalo Sabres center Casey Mittlestadt can breakout: A strong finish to 2021-22
Casey Mittelstadt will go down in Buffalo Sabres lore as the player who scored the final goal of Rick Jeanneret’s legendary career in the broadcast booth. But Mittelstadt’s game-winning goal to close out a successful two-month run for the Sabres concluded his own mini-renaissance.
Mittelstadt scored just 19 times in 40 contests. But 13 of those scores came in the final 20 games of the season when he was finally healthy. The star-crossed center has never really caught a break on the health front, but his performance over the last 20 games of the season shows how productive he can be when at full strength.
No, he won’t supplant Tage Thompson on the first line and he may not even find a place on the second scoring line. But Mittelstadt’s production showed that he can remain a valuable puzzle piece for the Sabres if he just found a way to stay healthy for a full season.
Taking his 13 points in 20 games and multiplying by four, it put Mittelstadt on pace for 52 points over an 80-game stretch (let’s give him a glamor point for 53 in 82 games). Not record-setting, but if Mittelstadt keeps up this production, he will have finally broken out to a degree.