BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Wednesday, I reminded Rasmus Dahlin about how many players said that they really hated that last season ended in April. The first thing he said was that he’s so happy that the wait is FINALLY over and they can play hockey again starting Thursday against the Ottawa Senators.
In the past few weeks, both general manager Kevyn Adams and head coach Don Granato have gotten contract extensions as well as Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson. Both players got big seven-year deals locking them into the Sabres through what should be their most productive years.
For the first time since Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier were here, players are talking about stability within the organization and how much they like it.
Don Granato is so focused on this season and making sure his team is in the moment that when Adams approached him with the contract extension, he told him he didn’t have time to think of such things.
All Granato can think about is making things right for this franchise and for the fans here in Western New York.
Usually when you miss the playoffs by 25 points, there are massive changes, but Adams and Granato believe they have gotten rid of the bad attitudes and entitlement in the locker-room and replaced them with good hockey players that care about each other, winning and this community.
Only Ilya Lyubushkin and Eric Comrie were signed in free agency. The other two new players are high touted draft picks in Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka who come up from the Rochester Americans.
These players believe in Granato and what he teaches. Both Thompson and Samuelsson wanted to know what Adams' intention was with Granato because if they were going to commit for seven years, they wanted to play for Granato.
We’re going to know if this team is better almost right away because the Sabres schedule in October isn’t killer. Last year they finished on a 103 point pace in the final 28 games and if they want to be anywhere close to that, they must take advantage of an easier schedule in October.
The Sabres are solid on defense with eight players that could easily be playing. To start the year, Casey Fitzgerald likely sits as the No. 7 guy and Lawrence Pilut is in Rochester being eighth on the depth chart.
The top four are unbelievable. Buffalo has two first overall picks in Dahlin and Owen Power, a first-round pick in Henri Jokiharju and second-round selection in Samuelsson. This group turned out to be a great top four with one being 23, two being 22 and one being 19, Buffalo seems set on the blue line.
Last year, Vinnie Hinostroza scored 13 goals in 62 games from a bottom six position and he likely will be a healthy scratch on Thursday.
Quinn and Peterka are being thrown into the deep end on purpose. The only way to learn some of the lessons of the National Hockey League is to experience them. I think Quinn benefits a lot with Alex Tuch mentoring him from the right wing on his line.
A big question mark is Casey Mittelstadt. He didn’t play well in the preseason, but that doesn’t mean he won’t play well in the regular season. He only played 40 games last year and he was hurt for many of them, but if preseason is any indication, Dylan Cozens has easily passed Mittelstadt on the depth chart.
To me, 75 points isn’t good enough. Yes, the Sabres are the youngest team in the NHL, but as these kids are getting better, so is the depth. While I don’t think this is a playoff year, I think they need to have more than 90 points to call this season a good one.
I’m not buying that Ottawa and the Detroit Red Wings made themselves so much better than the Sabres. Steve Yzerman’s vision with the Red Wings is to sign unrestricted free agents. To me, all that is going to do is make him regret it three or four years down the road when they’re in salary cap jail.
They signed some good players, but they way overpaid for Andrew Copp. Detroit also signed David Perron, Dominik Kubalik, Ben Chiarot, Olli Maatta, Jordan Osterle, Mark Pysyk and Robert Hagg. Most teams don’t go that heavy into free agency so only time will tell if it works. It usually doesn't.
With October games against Ottawa, the Edmonton Oilers, the Vancouver Canucks, the Montréal Canadiens, the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit, we should have a good idea if this really is a better Buffalo Sabres team.