Climbing Back On The Horse: Featuring, The Buffalo Sabres

Convinced this teams pretty deep at forward? If your not, it gets better. The Sabres also recently signed Boston College forward Nathan Gerbe. Gerbe led the nation in scoring with 35 goals and 33 assists in 43 games. Gerbe averaged over a point a game his collegiate career, with 133 points in 123 games. Despite being only 5'6 and 160lbs, Gerbe has a decent chance at cracking the Sabres line-up next year given his international experience playing for Team USA in the World Junior Hockey and Under-18 championships.

The only possible free agent signing I see is a second line center in place of Connolly. But they fared well in the offensive department without him for a good portion of the past two seasons. If anything, they could possibly shop him for a defencemen.
 

DEFENCE 

unfrestricted free agents: Dmitri Kalinin, Teppo Numminen, Nolan Pratt

The only slight area where the Sabres need some improvement. They should look to bring back Dmitri Kalinin, who brought a nice physical presence to the team. Hopefully they can get Teppo Numminen back, who is a great two-way physical defencemen despite his age. Jaroslav Spacek continues to be helpful on the powerplay, with seven of his nine goals coming on the man advantage. However, he could be shopped to another team that needs a veteran defencemen and has salary to spend. Rounding out their solid defence core would be two way blue liner Toni Lydman, one of Buffalos most consistent defencemen this season.

Their biggest off-season task would have to be trying to replace Brian Cambell. If the Sabres cant convince Cambell to leave San Jose and return to Buffalo, they could possibly look to sign someone like Mark Streit. Streit has been quoted saying he wants to stay in Montreal because he's so comfortable in their locker room. However, something tells me the versatile veteran that can play forward or defence would find himself right at home on the high scoring Sabres.

As far as a younger options to bolster their blue line, the Sabres could make offer sheets to Joni Pitkanen or Dustin Byfuglien, both restricted free agents. Pitkanen enjoyed a much better year this year with Edmonton then his first few with the Flyers. He's a solid two way defencemen with good size and is getting better and better offensivley. Byfuglien, who swapped back and forth this year between forward and defence, scored 19 goals and added 17 assists in only 67 games. Those numbers might be decieving for a defencemen who plays up on offense occasionally. But Dustin is a big boy at 6'3, 246lbs. If the Sabres can get that much offense from a guy that big, he's gotta be at least worth a look. Rounding out possible blue line additions would be veteran two way Sandis Ozolinsh and defensive d-man Brooks Orpik.

GOALTENDING

unrestricted free agents: Jocelyn Thibault

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