BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres has its 23-man roster for Thursday’s opener against the New York Rangers and I bet not too many of you had 18-year-old Zach Benson making the team on your Bingo card.
Of course, Benson having seven points in six preseason games helped his cause, but that was just part of the story.
Kevyn Adams was curious so he looked at clips of when he touched the puck, every time he touched the puck and Adams found that Benson is cool under pressure, he’s tenacious on pucks and he’s not intimidated by the moment.
The only question I would have is can Benson take the beating of the NHL? At 18, is he strong enough?
It didn’t matter if Benson was playing with Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner or Casey Mittelstadt and Jordan Greenway, he was always the same.
There aren’t too many players that young that can drive a line in the NHL, but Benson has shown he can do that.
Don Granato tried using Rasmus Dahlin with Connor Clifton through most of the preseason and it didn’t seem to work. Now Dahlin is back with Mattias Samuelsson whom he has great chemistry.
The huge roster topic is Buffalo is carrying three goalies Devon Levi, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Eric Comrie. You only have three extra players and to me, using one of those spots on a goalie is a waste. The problem is none of them other than Comrie distinguished themselves in camp.
Ideally, Luukkonen would’ve taken the reins to be Levi’s backup, but that didn’t even come close to happening. Adams of course doesn’t want to give up on a 24-year-old goalie and I wouldn’t either, but here they are now with three.
Jack Quinn will be out until around Christmas with a torn Achilles and I thought Lukas Rousek had the best chance to take that spot. It didn’t even come close to materializing as Rousek, Jiri Kulich, and Isak Rosen showed they weren’t even close to being ready for the NHL.
That left that spot to Victor Olofsson by default. A player that did earn a spot, but couldn’t have one because of the three goalies is Brandon Biro.
Peyton Krebs is back between Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons and is happy to be there. Krebs is quite capable of producing offense. In his last season of junior with the Winnipeg Ice, he had 13 goals and 30 assists for 43 points in 24 games.
Buffalo’s top two centers are Thompson and Dylan Cozens. Krebs wants to be on this team and he’s figured out that he can be hard on the forecheck, he can be good in his own end and be a very good compliment to his two wingers. That line spent most of their time in the offensive zone last year and Krebs told me he’s really embracing his role.
Two years ago, Thompson was the Sabres' breakout player, and last season, it was Cozens. This year I think it could be JJ Peterka.
In his rookie season, Peterka had 12 goals and 20 assists for 32 points in 77 games. That was after scoring 28 goals and 40 assists for 68 points in 70 games with the Rochester Americans. Peterka was voted the best forward at the World Championships playing for Germany. In 10 games, he had six goals and six assists for 12 points.
In training camp, I saw a bigger, stronger, and smarter JJ Peterka which should serve him well this season.
The lines you’d like to see for the opener on Thursday:
Forwards:
- Skinner – Thompson – Tuch
- Peterka – Cozens – Olofsson
- Greenway – Mittelstadt – Benson
- Girgensons – Krebs – Okposo
- Defensemen:
- Samuelsson – Dahlin
- Power – Jokiharju
- Johnson – Clifton
- Goaltenders:
- Levi – Luukkonen – Comrie