Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Dahlin leads revamped defense

Weaknesses

Defensive Depth

Dahlin is going to help the Sabres out immensely. Not only will he be a force on the ice, he also pushes Rasmus Ristolainen into a more appropriate number two or number three defenseman role. However, the rest of their defense is pretty questionable at best.

Marco Scandella and Ristolainen formed a surprisingly solid pairing last season, so the Sabres probably don’t want to mess with one of the very few things about their defense that worked. This leaves Zach Bogosian as the most likely candidate to play with Dahlin. Even if the Sabres put Scandella with Dahlin, that leaves Bogosian with Ristolainen, which isn’t ideal.

Nathan Beaulieu and Jake McCabe will likely form the third pairing. Optimistically, they did well together last season, albeit in a sub-100 minute sample size. The Sabres defense, even with the addition of Dahlin, is still one of the worst in the league.

Special Teams

The Sabres were a bottom 15 team on both ends of special teams. Their power play was the 12th worst, converting on 19.07 percent of their opportunities. On top of that, the Sabres allowed 10 shorthanded goals, tied for the third most in the league.

Somehow, their penalty kill was even worse. The Sabres killed 77.87 percent of their penalties (10th lowest rate in the NHL). But on the bright side, Buffalo was disciplined, giving their opponents the 11th fewest power plays in the league. And, as they say, the best way to prevent power play goals is to not go shorthanded in the first place.

Still, the Sabres have a lot of work to do on special teams. While five-on-five play is far more meaningful, teams can make up for even strength deficiencies on special teams. If the Sabres can make both ends of their special teams better, that would go a long way to seeing some good results in the standings.