With the regular season just around a month away, the Buffalo Sabres have a small logjam on their roster that they need to solve as soon as possible. Some players like Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, and Dylan Cozens have their spots set in the lineup, but on the flip side, there are a few players who need to do more than last season and impress right out of the gate. This does not necessarily mean that they need to score more, but rather it simply means that their overall play needs to be better than last season if they plan on retaining a roster spot long-term.
There are a few players that come to mind in this regard, so I am going to leave out second-year players who had a rough season, or a low-producing one. So players like Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, and Mattias Samuelsson are not going to be included, despite their seasons being less than was originally anticipated. Quinn and Peterka both will have ample opportunity to score more this season, and Samuelsson is more of a steady stay-at-home defender so point production is not really a good measure of his success. That being said, the following three players have a lot of talent to put forward, and they need to show that talent early in the season or risk being replaced by a rookie.
Jordan Greenway, Winger
On March 3, 2023, the Sabres traded a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick to the Minnesota Wild for winger Jordan Greenway, and he was brought in for a very clear reason. The Sabres were dead last in the hitting department, and he was seen as potentially being the physical power forward they needed for their forward group. While it took him a few games to get acclimated to the team, he has had some good moments in his short Sabres tenure thus far. He scored four goals in 17 games while being shuffled up and down the lineup to see where he fit but for the most part, he was not a standout player.
Going into this season, Greenway needs to get back to playing the role he was brought in for and be the physical presence of the offense. While he does have a decent scoring touch, he will need to come out of the gate throwing some hits, making plays along the boards, or fighting to stand up for his teammates. He has size (6-foot-6, 231 pounds) and skill so he could be deployed on the Sabres’ second power play unit as a net-front option. Regardless of how he is deployed by head coach Don Granato, he needs to be more noticeable in the first couple of months. Scoring a few goals and being an imposing presence will go a long way to helping this team, and Greenway has the right tools to get it done. Now he needs to put those skills to work so the Sabres can justify the price they paid for him.
Peyton Krebs, Center
Peyton Krebs by no means had a poor season in 2022-23, but as a big part of the Jack Eichel trade in 2021, and a former first-round pick, he has a lot of pressure on him to perform offensively. For most of last season, he found his best success playing between captain Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons, and while doing so, he grew his game to a different level. Before last season, Krebs was seen as a pure offensive playmaking center, and he still has all of that talent, but throughout the season he developed a more edgy physical side. As more of a gritty center with a playmaking skillset, he put up some respectable numbers scoring nine goals and 26 points in 74 games. This season, he will likely build on that.
For this season to be more of a success, Krebs needs to find a balance between his offensive production and his physical play. He is slated to make the lineup full-time, but he will not likely be gracing the top-six forward group. With Tyson Jost returning to Buffalo, he will likely slot in on the fourth line with Okposo and Girgensons, so that leaves Krebs with the third-line position. His wingers are anything but set in stone, so it will be critical for him to establish himself early on, regardless of who plays with him. Success this season for Krebs is 35-40 points and some power-play time on a regular basis. He was noticeable all last season, which is promising, now he needs to make a name for himself as his development continues.
Victor Olofsson, Winger
One might think that a player who scored a career-high 28 goals wouldn’t need to be a stand-out, but that is not the case here. Victor Olofsson has always been a tantalizing player since he made the lineup full-time back in 2020. His one-timer and overall shooting ability are amazing, but the problem with him lies in his consistency. He has always struggled to score on a regular basis as opposed to in bunches, and that hurt his playing time last season. He found himself as a power-play specialist on the second unit and often played less than ten minutes in an entire game. This season, there is much more pressure to produce more often, or he may find his way out of Buffalo via trade.
Watching Olofsson is always tough because he possesses one of the best shots of the entire Sabres roster, but for some reason, he refuses to use it when he should. Last season he took 161 shots, which is the second-highest of his career, but those numbers are low compared to other top-six scoring talents, and he needs to change that. For reference, Tage Thompson took 295 shots, Alex Tuch 218, Jeff Skinner 242, and Dylan Cozens 211. While the ice time allocation may be a slight factor in that, the reality is that he should be reaching at least the 200 mark in shots being the type of player that he is. Success this season for him is not necessarily more goals, but a more noticeable presence on the ice as a scoring threat. Being a player that floats around will not cut it for him anymore.
Put These Three Sabres On A Line Together
All three of these players have the potential to play in the top-six while Jack Quinn is out with an injury, but with the emergence of Casey Mittelstadt at the end of last season, these three should be put on a line together. They complement each other’s strengths and compensate for some of the weaknesses, so putting them together would be a potentially rewarding endeavor. Krebs at center gives them two-way physical play, Greenway on the left gives them size and reach both ways and Olofsson on the right keeps him in an optimal shooting/one-timer position to make the most of any scoring chances generated by the other two.
Related – 3 Sabres Players Poise For Breakout Seasons
The Sabres will need depth scoring to be successful, and all of these players can be key contributors to that. Should they play together and pan out in the way I believe they can, each of them will be putting up career numbers in 2023-24. Olofsson has the capacity to eclipse the 30-goal mark, Greenway has the potential to be a 30-35 point player, and Krebs easily can be a catalyst two-way playmaker with 30-40 assists on the high end. There are a lot of young players itching to make this Sabres roster, and general manager Kevyn Adams will ultimately need to shed some players to make room for them in the long run. This is a make-or-break season for the team, and some individual players, as they are all fighting for both a playoff spot and a long-term roster spot. All of them have the tools to make that happen, but the question is, which will stand out the most among them?