Peyton Krebs came to the Queen City in the Jack Eichel trade and performed very well. Here’s a deeper dive into his first season with the Buffalo Sabres.
Peyton Krebs was the other piece in the Jack Eichel trade along with Alex Tuch. When the trade went down in early November, Krebs was sent down to Buffalo’s AHL affiliate the Rochester Americans. In late December though, Krebs would be called up to the Buffalo Sabres roster.
Krebs would finish the season with the Sabres and performed pretty well. According to Hockey-Reference, he had 7 goals and 15 assists in 57 games played last year. Buffalo fans are optimistic for this team and players like Krebs are a huge reason why.
Just how good was Peyton Krebs for the Buffalo Sabres?
He was the Vegas Golden Knights first round pick in 2019 (17th overall). So when he got traded to Buffalo, he was being labeled as the main piece of the trade. Looking at his scouting report according to Elite Prospects, here are some of the assessments:
"“He is a high-end playmaker with great vision and the ability to execute any number of tricky passes that can catch defenses”-McKeen’s Hockey. “Plays with determination and passion … exciting player … puck follows him on the ice … accurate wrist shot … always in motion”-ISS Hockey."
What really caught my eye personally was he has an edge. In previous years, the Sabres have lacked physicality. Last year was a different story as the team had players who can get into the dirty areas, one of those players was Krebs.
After the Sabres regular season was over, Krebs went back down to Rochester to help out the Amerks in the postseason where he had 4 goals and 11 assists in 18 playoff games.
As mentioned earlier, Krebs is just one piece to this Sabres team that has fans optimistic for the first time in a long time. Going into next season and beyond, if he pans out to be the player everyone expects him to be then he can be a player who scores at least 25 goals. It should be fun to watch him grow as a player and be a cornerstone for the franchise going forward.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)