2024/25 Sabres Season Preview

Buffalo Sabres hockey has returned! It is that special time of year where everyone is willing to forgive the sins of Sabres past with one goal in mind: just win.

In order to build off of that yearly newfound Sabres excitement, here is a quick season preview where I highlight the four things that intrigue me the most about the 2024/25 Buffalo Sabres:

The Lindy Era 2.0

It becomes increasingly difficult to find things to get excited about as a Sabres fan as each season is tacked onto the playoff drought.

However, there’s one thing we can all get excited about: nostalgia.

Now, I do think the Lindy Ruff hire has much more to do with the hockey side of things than purely nostalgia. But I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been counting down the days until Ruff is re-introduced to a raucous Buffalo crowd during their home opener.

Lindy was the one piece that bridged Sabres hockey together for a decade and a half. From the Hasek/Peca era to the Briere/Drury era to the Vanek/Pominville era, Lindy was there. As a 90’s kid, he was behind the Sabres’ bench from when I was a newborn until I was in high school. His presence brings a sense of comfort to fans.

Seeing Lindy Ruff behind the bench makes some fans feel at ease. It has been so long since the Sabres have been a “normal” hockey team. A team that makes it to the playoffs as much as they miss them, a team that is a Cup contender for a few seasons every decade or so, a team that simply has hope. If Ruff can just get this franchise back to that “normal” status then he will truly be one of the most (if not the most) beloved characters in the story of the Buffalo Sabres.

Now let’s talk about the hockey side of things. The Sabres players were looking for a leader who demanded accountability out of their group. A veteran NHL coach like Lindy Ruff is that guy.

The NHLPA tweeted out this quote last season:

One would have to imagine that caught the attention of the Sabres front office. Ruff certainly made sure to have a training camp filled with push-ups and sprints this fall:

Ruff not only checks the nostalgia and accountability boxes, he also checks the tactician box as well. He has evolved a lot as a head coach in the NHL and that is to be expected from a guy who began his coaching journey three decades ago.

When things were clicking for Ruff in New Jersey in 2022/23 they were a team that killed plays early, got defensemen involved in the offense, and were deadly on the rush. They created a lot of expected goals for all while preventing a lot of expected goals against. At their peak they were like the electric 2022/23 Sabres, but a much more mature and responsible version.

It’s hard not to be excited about Lindy Ruff the tactician with the weapons he has at his disposal in terms of mobile, offensively-inclined defenseman (Dahlin, Power, Byram) and forwards who thrive on the rush (Thompson, Cozens, Peterka, Quinn, Tuch). The Ruff effect could be very real this season.

The Keepers of Goal

If you want to talk about the Buffalo Sabres then you have to talk about their goalies. Starting goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a breakout season last year. He appeared in 54 games and had the 6th most goals saved above expected in the NHL according to Evolving-Hockey.

Luukkonen did all of this while being extremely consistent. 66.7% of his starts were considered ‘quality starts’ by Hockey Reference. This stat developed by Rob Vollman is basically the percentage of games where a goalie posted a save percentage above the season’s league average save percentage. He had a significant jump from his 40.6% mark in 2022/23.

Compare that quality start percentage to the NHL’s Vezina finalists last season (Bobrovsky: 63.8%, Hellebuyck: 66.7%, Vasilevskiy: 51.9%) and the Sabres’ Finnish goalkeeper looks even more impressive. There is some comfort in knowing how consistent he was last season as he looks to build off of his breakout campaign in 2023/24.

Let’s not forget about Devon Levi. After a somewhat slow start to his NHL campaign, he regained his momentum with Rochester in the AHL. He posted a .927 SV% across 26 AHL appearances, only behind the Hershey Bears’ Hunter Shepard (.929 SV%). Rochester isn’t as goalie friendly of a system as Hershey either, Levi faced 6 more shots in 8 less appearances than Shepard.

Levi also impressed in his three March starts for the Sabres last season, posting a 1.78 GAA and .947 SV%. His quality start percentage as a whole last season was only at 47.6% so there were a few rough nights mixed into his dominant performances. But Levi is still a player who is every bit of the goalie prospect as he was two seasons ago.

I mean Levi is still doing stuff as a young NHL goalie that puts himself among the NHL’s elite:

The Sabres’ two young goalies are ceiling raisers for this hockey team. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen prevented last year’s ugly season from becoming very ugly and Devon Levi is still as bright of a star as he was in his college days. It has been a very long time since the Sabres have had this high of expectations from the goaltending position, but it feels good to return to the franchise’s roots.

The 4th Line Re-Invented

While the top half of the Sabres forward group is made up of all familiar faces, the bottom half of the forward group is made up of almost all new faces. If the lineup stays as it has throughout training camp then 5 of the 6 forwards in the bottom six will be offseason additions.

The fourth line appears to be the most set fixture in that bottom six, consisting of three newcomers: Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Sam Lafferrty, and Beck Malenstyn.

Look at all three pieces individually and none of them are too impressive. Nicolas Aube-Kubel is a purely defensive winger who has bounced around the NHL and was placed on waivers the previous three seasons. He had a career-high 23 points while playing games for the Philadelphia Flyers and Colorado Avalanche in 2021/22.

Beck Malenstyn is another purely bottom six forward who hit a career-high of 21 points with the Washington Capitals last season. He recorded 10 points in 40 AHL games in 2022/23, so not a lot of offense there. Oh and he was also put on waivers in 2022.

Sam Lafferty was a name that generated some buzz around the 2023 trade deadline. He had a career-high of 27 points that season where he split games between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Another purely bottom six type.

This trio may sound like there’s not much to get excited about, but I do think there is a scenario where this is a line where the sum is greater than the parts. And the one reason I think that: speed.

All three players play a game that is built upon speed and the finer defensive details. So I think there is potential with these three like-minded players to really work well as a unit and ease some of the defensive burden on the players in the lineup.

The other positive with this group is their ability to play on the penalty kill. Malenstyn had the 5th most shorthanded minutes of any forward in the NHL last season. Lafferty led all Blackhawks forwards in shorthanded minutes in 2022/23 despite not being heavily used by the Canucks on the PK last season. Aube-Kubel has never been a big shorthanded player in the NHL but he has been sound defensively at 5v5, so there’s room to grow.

Feeding the depth forwards heavy shorthanded minutes helps in two ways. It gives more rest and therefore more 5v5 minutes to the top lines on the team (the lines that score the goals). It also prevents injuries to the top players by easing them off those hard penalty kill minutes where they need to block shots and partake in general chaos.

So while this group is not the most appealing on paper, I do think there are ways where the Sabres can utilize this trio to help out the top of the lineup by eating up those “gravel-shovelling” minutes.

Benny the Butcher

I feel like there has not been a lot of chatter around Zach Benson this season. I think that kind of shows just how quickly Benson has adjusted to becoming an everyday NHL player. He plays such a mature style of smart, aggressive hockey that you quickly forget how young he is. I mean we are talking about a player who will be just 19 years old for the entire 2024/25 NHL season.

With his second NHL season comes increased responsibility. Casey Mittelstadt was flipped for a defenseman, Jeff Skinner was replaced by essentially nobody, so Zach Benson’s only real competition for a top six spot in training camp was a 32-year-old Jason Zucker. Alarming? Somewhat. But we’ll talk about the Sabres depth issues another day.

Benson is a player who may be due for a sizable scoring jump with his new role and simply just being a year older than last season. He only had 30 points in 71 games last season, but only 2 of those points came on the power play. I would expect those man advantage point totals to go up with a solidified role on a (hopefully) rejuvenated power play.

He also only scored 11 goals last season despite having 17.2 expected goals in Evolving-Hockey’s model. Benson was able to access very dangerous areas of the ice (his average shot danger was among the best in the NHL) but he struggled to convert. Maybe some added strength will provide some more pop to his shot or maybe the luck pendulum will swing more in his favor. Do not be surprised if he scores 20+ goals in the 2024/25 season.

Zach Benson is also heading into the 2024/25 campaign with some momentum on offense after having scored 7 points in his final 7 NHL games of the season:

I haven’t even touched upon the defensive side of his game, which may truly be the most impressive part of his game as a teenager in the NHL. Benson is already a competent two-way player and was the only (yes, the only) Sabres player to have a 5v5 xGF% over 50% in the final two months of the season.

There are a lot of players who I could have highlighted in this final section, but Zach Benson is one worth watching this season. He has the potential to become something great in the NHL.