Buffalo Sabres: Matt Moulson Struggling, Rookies Shine

Buffalo Sabres: Matt Moulson Struggling in 2015-16, While Rookies Continue to Shine

Buffalo Sabres are showing promising signs of growth and development in 2015-16. A busy offseason brought hope of more success in the new season. More goals for, less goals against, one roster overhaul later, and the Buffalo Sabres are playing much more competitive hockey, resulting in more wins.

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Sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Divsion, Buffalo is 16-22-4 with 36 points after 42 games. The Sabres are just seven wins shy of last season’s total (23), and are on pace in 2015-16 to finish with a point total that would have been good enough for 12-13th in the Eastern Conference in 2014-15.

Much of the team’s success is due to emerging young players, and performing acquisitions. All of this after starting goaltender Robin Lehner went down with a long-term injury in game one of the season. He was acquired this past summer for a first rounder (ended up being Colin White). Buffalo expected Chad Johnson to absorb the bulk of the workload moving forward from that point, but an emerging young Linus Ullmark gave Johnson good competition. Lehner is now finally healthy, playing an AHL conditioning stint, and could be back sometime this week.

What’s nearly as remarkable about the Buffalo Sabres success without their starting goalie, is the ability to win games and score goals without production from a highly productive top six forward. Matt Moulson has just 12 points in 41 games, on pace for 24 points in 2015-16. In his 7th season of NHL action, Moulson is yet to finish a season with less than 40 points. His 2014-15 total of 41 is a single-season career low. His ice-time has progressively been cut down in 2015-16, and he hasn’t produced a point since December 10th, 2015. For a player carrying a no-trade clause and contract through 2018-19 at $5 million/year, there’s cause for concern.

The Buffalo Sabres are still rebuilding, and hence are in no rush to make drastic decisions over a half a season of an under-performing player on the books for the next three years. There’s zero chance that any NHL team is willing to take on his contract with the way he’s playing right now, but it’s conceivable the 32-year-old finds his game again, and garners interest on the open market. Buffalo could keep him until his contract expires at age 36, or they have the option to move him at some point to make room for younger players. Expect the latter.

Players expected to perform going into 2015-16 have generally done so with Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel leading the charge up-front. O’Reilly leads the team with 36 points, while Eichel is heating up over the last month, now with 27 points. Eichel is making a bigger name for himself in the Calder Trophy race with added production on top of his excellent play. A couple big pieces in Evander Kane and Tyler Ennis have missed some time in 2015-16, but Kane has 14 points in 32 games, while Ennis has 11 points in 23 games. Not producing enough is Zemgus Girgensons, with 8 points in 38 games, with an average ice-time of 15:31/game.

A couple unsung heroes to mention for the Buffalo Sabres. Certainly getting enough credit from the fan base, but not enough love from the hockey world… yet. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and rookie forward Sam Reinhart are the two quietest bright spots on the Sabres, arguably in the entire NHL in 2015-16.

Their top defenseman this season, Rasmus Ristolainen has seven goals and 20 assists in 42 games. He has a -8 rating, logging an average 24:46 minutes of ice-time/game, while 12 of his 27 points have come on the powerplay. In 2014-15, Ristolainen had 20 points in 78 games, posting a -32 rating. The 21-year-old Finnish defenseman is one of the most improved players in 2015-16. Statistics obviously support the argument, but it’s in watching him play where you see the most growth. A player known for his offensive instincts/abilities, Ristolainen is showing improvement in all three zones. Whether it’s making better decisions under distress, or making a better first pass out of the zone, Rasmus is evolving into a complete defenseman.

It’s hard to believe we’re just 19 months removed from the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, and already people seemed to have already forgotten about the player that some scouts regarded as the top prospect, ahead of Aaron Ekblad. Some lenience is given when you consider the amount of personnel changes in Buffalo. Not to mention, the addition of another second overall pick in 2015 named Jack Eichel. Both picked at the same position in back-to-back offseasons, with two wildly different sets of expectations.

Sam Reinhart has 19 points in 41 games, currently sitting tied fourth in scoring with Jamie McGinn. Reinhart has seen an increase in productivity over the last couple months, which correlates with the spike in extra ice-time around late October. A somewhat quiet start to the new year, Sam Reinhart exploded for a hat-trick on Sunday against Winnipeg en route to a 4-2 win, letting the hockey world know the Buffalo Sabres have more weapons to worry about, besides Jack Eichel.

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Imagine how dangerous the Buffalo Sabres can be when players such as Hudson Fasching, Brendan Guhle, Justin Bailey, Nick Baptiste, Vaclav Karabacek, Eric Cornel, Brycen Martin, and Will Borgen, among others make their NHL impact. There’s still some pieces to be added in the crease, and on the back-end, but the rebuild blueprint is set up for sustained success over the next decade.

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