Which Sabres players should you have your eye on for fantasy hockey in 2024-25?
Thanks to their sheer ineptitude offensively last season, the Buffalo Sabres aren’t the first team you think of when someone utters the phrase, ‘fantasy hockey.’ But we also know that many of their top scorers put on quite the show back in 2022-23, so if there’s one team whose skaters are worth taking fliers on this season, it’s the Blue and Gold.
There are several up-and-comers here, like Dylan Cozens, JJ Peterka, Jack Quinn, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, to name a few. But there’s a good chance you could get all of them in the final round or two of your fantasy draft or even as waiver-wire pickups. The three players listed below, however, you will be better off drafting because they’re less likely to stick around.
Rasmus Dahlin
Rasmus Dahlin didn’t enjoy an increase in points production last season, but he still added another milestone with 20 goals, which could set the stage for an even bigger 2024-25 campaign. If the Sabres power play gets hot again, Dahlin will also rack up the assists, meaning there’s a good chance he puts up 70-plus points again.
ESPN hasn’t gotten that ambitious, though, projecting Dahlin to finish with a solid 64 points and 21 goals. Of those points, 21 of them should come at 5-on-4, meaning Dahlin should once again be in high demand relatively early in the 2024 fantasy drafts.
Tage Thompson
Tage Thompson’s production also dipped, but injuries didn’t help, and hence, they’re a good reason why he took a step back in 2023-24. He still led the team with 29 goals and managed 56 points, with 16 on the power play, so it wasn’t all bad for the team’s best scorer.
ESPN sees him enjoying a bounce-back season, but still nothing compared to his 2022-23 output when he finished the year with 47 goals and 94 points. Still, 35 goals and 69 points, for a potentially defense-first squad that the Sabres may be in 2024-25, means he would make a good value pick in the middle rounds.
Alex Tuch
Yet another player for the Blue and Gold who didn’t fare incredibly well last season, Alex Tuch scored just 22 times and skated away with 11 power play points. Of course, the Sabres entire man advantage was bad last season, but overall, you still would have expected better from Tuch.
That said, much like with Tage, we know what Tuch can do when he’s not battling injuries and playing consistent hockey, something we didn’t often see last season. Once again, ESPN has him pitching in for just 11 power play points, but a solid 65 points and 26-goal projection means they also don’t think Tuch’s 2024-25 campaign will be a wash.
If he’s there in the later rounds, Tuch is one to take a chance on because there’s always a chance that the player we saw from 2022-23 will sneak back into the lineup.
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(Projected statistics powered by ESPN)