The Buffalo Sabres will have a good problem in a defensive rotation that features two former number one overall picks Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.
While every NHL team has fewer defensemen, I had a tough time ranking the top eight in the Buffalo Sabres organization. Now, I will be upfront: I do not believe all eight of the following players will spend the entire season in Buffalo.
However, the players listed below and in the following slides are instead the top eight defensemen in the organization as of July 2022. And they are arguably the youngest in the NHL, with the 28-year-old Ilya Lyubshikin serving as the elder statesman.
Therefore, we have a potential-laden group that is far more than just average. Especially on the top lines. Since I made so many changes before setting on these final rankings, I do want to say that just because a player is ranked highly, it does not mean they will be part of the first pairing. Ditto for the lower-ranked players not necessarily slated for the third pairing.
Instead, I ranked each player mainly by their NHL accomplishments and experience. While I took their potential pairing into consideration, it did not completely reflect the former two factors used. Therefore, expect these rankings to look a bit, if not dramatically different, when the regular season ends in mid-April.
So what do the initial rankings look like for the 2022-23 Buffalo Sabres? Keep reading to discover more.
Ranking the 2022-23 Buffalo Sabres defensemen: Number 8 – Lawrence Pilut
2021-22 Statistics: None – Played in KHL
Lawrence Pilut is a curious case, since he spent the last two seasons playing for Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. However, he decided to make the big return to North America in July 2022, and since the Buffalo Sabres held his rights, he signed a one-year contract worth $750,000 with the organization.
Projection for 2022-23: I can only see Pilut gracing the NHL ice in the regular season if the Sabres decide to keep eight defensemen on the active roster. I do, however, see him as the next man up if an injury were to occur over the likes of Chase Priskie, Jeremy Davies, and Kale Clague.
Don’t expect Pilut to make many rounds at the NHL level unless the injury bug hits the defensive rotation. The Sabres did see some players miss time last season, so it wouldn’t be surprising for Pilut to make a cameo appearance or two as a stopgap.