In this edition of Buffalo Sabers News and Rumors, Sam Reinhart and Jack Quinn did not attend training on January 29 due to injuries – more about them in the team’s notes. Initial goalkeeper Linus Ullmark’s performance eased the pressure on general manager Kevyn Adams to pull the trigger for a new goalkeeper. If and when Adams makes a switch to improve his position, there is a possibility now that it will be for a reserve goalkeeper as an upgrade to Carter Hutton.
Taylor Hall’s future in Buffalo has been a topic of discussion in the hockey world lately, as some are wondering if he will be in the long run with the Sabers. His family lives near Toronto, which may have been the reason he signed with Sabers, but the player’s desire to win a championship could lead him to greener pastures.
In addition, there are some player milestones approaching that we will keep an eye on as the season progresses. There’s a lot to cover, so come on.
Taylor Hall’s future
Sports Illustrated writers The Hockey News recently sat down to discuss intriguing trade stories to follow as the season progresses this year. One of the names mentioned by writer Matt Larkin is Hall.
Larkin thinks that Hall’s future is not with the Sabers and that the player really wants to play for a contender sooner or later. He called Hall an “obvious choice” for a star player in a contract year that is likely to be traded this season.
“It’s not that I don’t think Buffalo is going to improve this year, but that division is devastating,” said Larkin. And he’s right, doing the postseason in a meat grinder like MassMutal East Division is going to be difficult, to say the least, and some good teams that otherwise could have done in a normal year will be in tight contests for a spot in the postseason in early May. “I don’t know how this is going to happen with the Buffalo Sabers,” added Larkin.
If the Sabers are out of contention for one of the playoff slots near the April 12 negotiation deadline, they may be asking Hall to waive its bargaining / move clauses to send him to a candidate, and Larkin he thinks Hall would be willing to make that move to a) give the playoffs a hard push and b) increase his payout potential in one year of the contract.
Goalkeeper rumblings
Ullmark’s game lately has been pretty decent, although Sabers fans may want to back down on that statement, given the team’s track record and the fact that he made some mistakes in the last few games (like the goal of Nicklas Backstrom on 24 January ), he has done what any team would ask a goalkeeper most of the time.
At the time of this writing, his defending percentage of 0.915 (SV%) placed him among the top 20 goalkeepers in the league, ahead of some famous goalkeepers like Frederik Andersen, Jordan Binnington and Connor Hellebuyck. However, SV% is an indicator as good as the sample size allows. This means that in a single season it is not very useful as an indicator of how good a goalkeeper is, let alone after five games played. However, what she can say is who is hot and who is cold.
Ullmark is showing signs that he may be becoming a legitimate number one in the National Hockey League. In Thursday’s loss to the New York Rangers overtime, he made 10 saves to the Sabers while they were short of players, helping them make three to three on the penalty spot. In two games against New York last week, Ullmark stopped a total of 17 missed kicks, helping the team to kill all six Rangers power plays in the series and proving that old saying that his goalkeeper is always his best scorer.
Ullmark also reminded us, on January 24, in a penalty shootout win against Washington Capitals, that he is one of the league’s best goalkeepers. With 27 saves in 32 career kicks faced, Ullmark’s SV% penalty shootout is 0.844 – good enough for fourth place ever among NHL goalkeepers who faced at least 20 shots. Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy (0.852) is the only active goalkeeper ahead of Ullmark in this category.
With that in mind, it is possible that General Manager Adams is looking for a reserve goalkeeper in the coming weeks to reinforce his position behind Ullmark, rather than making a big fuss to replace him as number one. Potential targets: Darcy Kuemper / Antti Raanta of Arizona Coyotes.
Team Notes
Sabers Reporter Bill Hoppe from the Olean Times Herald reported from 12 noon training on January 29 that strikers Reinhart and Quinn were absent due to upper body injuries, according to coach Ralph Krueger. Reinhart is listed as everyday, while Krueger says the team would like to see Quinn spend time with the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans.
Sabers fans are probably tired of watching Jack Eichel’s highlight being exposed in a 2-1 overtime by Alexis Lafreniere’s first NHL goal in Thursday’s defeat against Rangers. But they will probably have to live with that one for a while. And while it’s heartbreaking to see the team continually push games into overtime and not be able to complete a full 60 minutes, the advantage is that the Sabers now have a four-point streak (2-0-2).
Reinhart was also a highlight in the defeat for Rangers. His two-point night playing on the top row with Eichel and Hall was his second multi-point game this season. The team is 42-7-9 when registering at least two points.
Eichel also scored a goal in that game, passing him ahead of Jochen Hecht for possession of 19th place on Sabers’ list of greatest goals of all time. He is behind Drew Stafford by 18 goals for 18th position. Eichel ended the game tied 11th in the championship with nine points (two goals, seven assists) in eight games.
Victor Olofsson scored an assist to Reinhart’s goal in the loss to Rangers, extending his streak of points to the team’s best mark in four games (one goal, three assists).
Milestones of the approaching player
There are some milestones of the approaching player that are worth noting.
- Cody Eakin is six games away from playing 600th of his career.
- Curtis Lazar is eight games away from playing his 300th career game.
- Six more wins this season for Carter Hutton, and he will have reached the mark of 100 wins in his career.
- With eight more points, defender Brandon Montour has 100 career points.
- One more assist for Riley Sheahan and he will have reached 100 career assists.
- Four more goals for Kyle Okposo and he will have reached 200 goals in his career.
A number of player milestones have been achieved recently, including:
- 100 NHL career games for Linus Ullmark on January 24 against the Capitals.
- Dylan Cozens had his first NHL goal on January 22 against Capitals.
- Rasmus Ristolainen played his 500th NHL game on January 26 against Rangers.