Top 3 Buffalo Sabres who will make a leap in 2023-24
The Buffalo Sabres are the NHL’s youngest hockey team, and three players who’ve been up and down this year have shown enough to give us optimism.
For context, this article doesn’t mean anyone’s giving up on 2022-23. But following strong performances from a few young Buffalo Sabres lately, there are three players who deserve special recognition.
As a disclaimer, the following three players haven’t played lights out, nor have they become one of the league’s better players. Not yet, anyway.
However, each have made sound improvements over the past couple of weeks throughout what has been an up and down season for them, but a season that has, overall, trended north development-wise, and are poised for a leap in 2023-24. Let’s meet these players.
3 Buffalo Sabres who will make a leap next season
1 – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
If the Buffalo Sabres were to go with a full-time starting goaltender in 2023-24, it’s most likely going to be Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Talk about an up-and-down year, but Luukkonen has shown the ability to bounce back every time he’s faced serious adversity.
On February 21st, he allowed four goals in the game’s first 13 minutes, prompting head coach Don Granato to yank him early in favor of Craig Anderson. On March 2nd in Buffalo’s 7-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, he ended up breaking his stick over the crossbar in frustration.
But these past two games, despite them being losses, he’s been brilliant, stopping 60 out of 65 shots on goal, good for a 0.923 save percentage. And we’ve seen Luukkonen have such stretches at various points this season.
Goaltenders often take longer to develop than skaters. And for Luukkonen, that development predominantly required time in Rochester, before he’d see a season full of ups and downs in the NHL, but improvement nonetheless.
The next step? Consistency, and it’s something that you will see more of as the 2022-23 season winds down in his last handful of starts. At least if his defense holds.
2 – J.J. Peterka
What makes a good hockey player? Many will point to a player’s points total, but for a rookie like J.J. Peterka who we knew would suffer his fair share of growing pains this season, it was all about creating opportunities for himself and for others.
Despite the Buffalo Sabres scoring just one goal in their loss to the New York Rangers, Peterka enjoyed yet another good game. In Saturday’s loss, the winger led the Sabres with six shots on goal, and he also created a notable scoring chance for Jack Quinn and Dylan Cozens at different points of the contest.
With only 23 points in 61 outings this season, Peterka’s rookie season will look like a wash from a distance. But given his strong play that started picking up noticeably in Buffalo’s loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets two weeks ago, Peterka has shown he will be a key fixture for the Blue and Gold both in these final dozen-and-a-half games, and in 2023-24.
3 – Peyton Krebs
During the early stages of the 2022-23 season, there was a lot of talk among Buffalo Sabres fans that Peyton Krebs had no business playing in the NHL this season. This was back when we had Vinnie Hinostroza and Rasmus Asplund predominantly watching games from the press box while Krebs struggled to get anything going on the ice.
Head coach Don Granato later inserted Krebs onto the fourth line (mainly) with Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons. His game picked up, and the second-year forward has since become one of the Sabres more physical players, landing 73 hits in 57 contests.
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Krebs has also been the one to step up when opponents get rough with his teammates following a stoppage in play. While I don’t believe he will ever become a consistent scorer (20 points in 57 games), he will remain a physical bottom six forward who deserves a spot in Buffalo as the organization continues to build.
Source: Observations: Sabres ‘buckle down’ defensively, fall to Rangers in overtime by Lance Lysowski, BuffaloNews.com