The Buffalo Sabres are set to play their first home game since December 1st, and there have been plenty of changes since the last time they were on the ice at KeyBank Center. They are returning riding a three-game win streak, but more importantly, have a new person leading the front office.
Earlier this week, the team decided to make the switch at general manager from Kevyn Adams to Jarmo Kekalainen. During his first press conference, Kekalainen talked about how everything is under evaluation from the players to the coaches to management.
While Kekalainen has been part of the organization since the summer, he now has the power to start to shape the roster as he sees fit. There are a number of players who are looking to show the new general manager they can help this team moving forward and can make their case against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Owen Power and Michael Kesselring
Let's start with the defensive pair of Owen Power and Michael Kesselring, who were expected to be the team's second defensive pair after the JJ Peterka trade. Unfortunately, Kesselring has been dealing with injuries and has only played 19.5 minutes together on the ice over eight games.
On Wednesday, head coach Lindy Ruff said that Kesselring is good to go for this game against the Flyers. The Sabres will finally get to see what these two can do together, and the hope is that their skillsets can complement each other.
As Kekalainen starts to think about trades, Power is one that might be made available. He is a former first overall pick, but after a career-high 40 points last season, he has only eight through 31 games. He also carries a big AAV north of $8.3 million, which might be tough to trade.
The Sabres should give this pair 10 to 20 games before making a decision on Owen Power but if they struggle, he is a player they could look to trade.
Alex Lyon
During the press conference, the new Sabres general manager made it clear that they are going to need to get down to two goalies. They don't have to make that decision right now with Colten Ellis on injured reserve, but he will be re-evaluated on Friday, so it is a decision they might need to make sooner rather than later.
It remains to be seen which goalie will be the odd man out, but Alex Lyon certainly could be a player who is traded. The pressure will be on Lyon to prove he can continue to be a key part of this team and help win games.
On Wednesday, he was the goalie in the starter's net and looks to be in line for the start against the Flyers.
The veteran goalie certainly did that on the road trip as he came in to the Flames and Oilers game in relief and then started the games against the Canucks and Kraken. During that stretch, he allowed only six goals and had a save percentage of .929.
Earlier in the season, Lyon was clearly the team's best goalie and kept them in a lot of games they probably shouldn't have been in. He is back to playing at that level and should remain the starter for the foreseeable future.
Jack Quinn
It was an up-and-down road trip for Jack Quinn as he started it with an assist against the Philadelphia Flyers, then had a +/- of -3 over the next three games before ending it with an assist in each of the final two games.
Fans have been waiting for Quinn to live up to expectations after being taken eighth overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. He has played in 210 NHL games and has only 45 goals in his career. This season, he has six, but had three of them in a three-game stretch at the end of November. Quinn has now gone nine straight games without a goal.
The Sabres have seemingly given him every chance to produce and he has a career high in ice time per game at 16:21. It wouldn't be overly surprising if Quinn is one of those players Jarmo Kekalainen offers up in trades to bring in a proven veteran closer to the trade deadline.