3 pending free agents the Sabres must bring back in 2024-25
The Buffalo Sabres are better off looking toward the 2024-25 season and taking notes on which players are worth keeping around.
There are a plethora of Buffalo Sabres players who don’t need to return next season, with unrestricted free agents like Victor Olofsson, Tyson Jost, and Eric Robinson likely playing their final games in a blue and gold uniform. That said, today’s list will include just one unrestricted free agent who has once again shown that they still hold a lot of value on the lower lines.
So, we’re mainly talking about restricted free agents today. And there is one player in that crop who will keep calling the Queen City home - goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Luukkonen’s numbers haven’t been as sharp lately, but it’s also tough to pin all the blame on him. The 25-year-old has become one of the league’s better No. 1 goaltenders, and everything, from his 0.910 save percentage to his five shutouts drives that point home.
Luukkonen isn’t the only pending free agent the Sabres must retain
Besides Luukkonen, there are two more restricted free agents in the current lineup whom general manager Kevyn Adams must bring back no matter what. These players won’t be perennial stars, but they play important roles and will help maintain depth with the big club.
Note that we will not discuss any player who is currently playing in the AHL, so you won’t see anyone wearing an Amerks uniform listed or even those who are currently in Rochester but also saw more than a few games with the Blue and Gold.
Now that we got the basics out of the way and spoke a little about the inevitable extension coming Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s way, which three players must be back in a Sabres uniform for 2024-25? Here’s a hint: The first name mentioned is the lone unrestricted free agent on the list, and he is a player I never thought I’d mention when the puck first dropped in October.
Zemgus Girgensons should be a mainstay on the lower lines again
Yep, Zemgus Girgensons was someone who I figured would be a stopgap with the Sabres when he returned on a one-year deal. And while it would be great to see him land with a team that has been a surefire contender recently, it’s still worth mentioning that the Blue and Gold may not be as far from contention as their “step back” this season implied.
When you’re the youngest and one of the lesser-experienced teams in hockey, it will eventually catch up to you, and it’s one of a few reasons the Sabres season didn’t go the way most fans envisioned. For 2024-25, that won’t be the case, and Girgensons will realize that, but experience aside, it’s not the only reason he should return.
Overall, he’s been a great player on the fourth line and an outstanding leader. He’s once again landing triple-digits in body checks with 134, but he’s also made the most of his ice time in the offensive zone, scoring 13 points, eight goals, and three game-winners.
Shifting gears back to the defensive side, Girgensons remains a sound option on the penalty kill, with 55.5 minutes through 58 games and an on-ice save percentage of 90.8 to go along with it. That save percentage sits at 93.5 at 5-on-5, and the Sabres have scored a few more goals than they have allowed when he’s on the ice in that same situation.
Give Peyton Krebs a bridge deal and keep him on the lower lines
Since the Sabres traded for Peyton Krebs in 2021, he’s never evolved into the prolific scorer the team may have envisioned. Krebs has played in 148 games over the past two seasons as of April 4th, and he has just 13 goals and 41 points in that stretch with a minus-6 rating.
But there are quite a few reasons why he needs to stay in the Queen City, with the first being his overall improvement in winning faceoffs, which has climbed from a meager 35.3 percent in 2021-22 to 46.9 percent this season. It’s still not an ideal number, but he’s becoming more reliable in the faceoff dot, and the Sabres need that.
The Sabres aren’t a physical team, but like Zemgus Girgensons in the previous slide, Krebs is also an outlier, finishing over one check per game on average. He’s becoming another one of those “glue players,” and he also plays a bigger role in the offensive zone than his points production shows.
Krebs’ 52.3 Corsi For shows us that he’s helping to generate more shots for the Sabres than he’s facing from opponents at 5-on-5, and that’s further reflected in the fact he’s been on the ice for more goals scored in the same situation than the team has allowed. Like Girgensons, his on-ice save percentage at 5-on-5 is also stellar, sitting at 92.1 as the season winds down.
Henri Jokiharju still holds value as a seventh defenseman
Hey, someone needs to be the seventh defenseman, and preferably, it would be a skater who knows the system well. While I’ve entertained the prospect of Ilya Lyubushkin returning to the team in the role, Jokiharju, who has more experience in the system, would naturally make for a much better fit.
He hasn’t been outstanding, and you can even argue that several players like Ryan Johnson, Bowen Byram, Connor Clifton, Mattias Samuelsson, and Owen Power have either passed him up or are about to overtake him. But that shouldn’t mean Jokiharju has no value, as he’s gotten far more physical this season with 83 hits and 100 blocks while averaging less average total ice time than he’s seen over the past three seasons.
Further, Jokiharju is good insurance for the penalty kill, and his presence at 5-on-5 has been rather enticing for the Sabres - 54 on-ice goals scored compared to 40 against in 68 games played through April 4th. It’s also worth noting that if Jokiharju is on the ice for one more on-ice goal, it will give him a new career high.
Jokiharju has proven that he isn’t suited to be a full-time player, but as the seventh blueliner, he only needs to be ready for a game or two per week, and that should bring out the best in him.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference as of April 4th)