The opening-night roster is set for the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres announced their initial 23-man roster Monday afternoon, ahead of their season opener at 7 p.m. Thursday against the New York Rangers, and they’ll open the season without three of their marquee players, all of whom will begin the season recovering from injuries.
The Sabres will be without goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and defensemen Michael Kesselring and Owen Power when they face the Rangers. They’ll have three goalies on the roster to start the season: Alex Lyon, Alexandar Georgiev and Colten Ellis.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said during training camp that he was not inclined to carry three goalies to start the season, but Luukkonen sustained a lower-body injury Oct. 1 in an exhibition game against Pittsburgh and will not be available for the season opener.
That opens the door for Lyon to start against the Rangers, a little more than three months after he signed a two-year contract with the Sabres as a free agent, after spending the last two seasons with Detroit.
Here’s a closer look at each position group for the Sabres, who open the season at 7 p.m. Thursday against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center.
Forwards
Zach Benson, Justin Danforth, Josh Doan, Mason Geertsen, Jordan Greenway*, Tyson Kozak, Peyton Krebs, Jiri Kulich, Beck Malenstyn, Ryan McLeod, Carson Meyer*, Josh Norris, Jack Quinn, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Jason Zucker.
Scoring isn’t an issue for the forwards – they return four players who scored at least 20 goals last season, including Tage Thompson (44) and Alex Tuch (36), but will turn to Norris and McLeod to fill the void following the trade of JJ Peterka (27 goals, 41 assists) to Utah in June.
Tuch is known for his offensive capabilities but should be just as noted for his defensive game. He set a new single-season record for NHL’s forwards with 113 blocked shots last season and wants to strengthen his candidacy for the Selke Trophy, given annually to the top defensive forward.
The Sabres got a good look at the possibilities that Norris adds to the lineup, whether it was winning faceoffs, scoring goals or setting up scoring chances for teammates. Now, they need a healthy Norris, who joined the Sabres in March as part of a trade with Ottawa for Dylan Cozens, but was limited to three games after the trade due to an oblique injury. Josh Doan, acquired from Utah in June, will be the third-line wing and could provide a net-front presence. Ruff likes McLeod’s versatility and Benson continues his maturation as a playmaker and budding pest.
Defensemen
Jacob Bryson, Bowen Byram, Rasmus Dahlin, Ryan Johnson, Michael Kesselring*, Owen Power*, Mattias Samuelsson, Conor Timmins
Ruff has set several goals for the defense, including a big one: Cut down the goals-against. The Sabres tied with Pittsburgh for 29th in the NHL, each with 287 goals against last season. Keeping the puck out of the net falls on the entire team but starts with the defense, which needs to set the stage by playing a physical brand of hockey. The magic number for a drop in goals against? Target 50 fewer than last season.
Dahlin begins his eighth season as a legitimate candidate for the Norris Trophy, given to the NHL’s top defenseman – he was sixth in voting in the spring – but he needs support, and the defense needs to stay healthy.
Samuelsson, Byram, Power and Kesselring each missed time during training camp with various injuries, and Kesselring is week-to-week with an unspecified injury he exacerbated Oct. 1 in a preseason loss to Pittsburgh. Likely the most stable pairing on defense, at least during the preseason: Timmins, acquired from the Penguins in June, and Johnson, a former first-round NHL Draft pick out of the University of Minnesota.
Goalies
3Colten Ellis, Alexandar Georgiev, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen*, Alex Lyon
This was supposed to be the year for Luukkonen to prove his consistency and his value as a No. 1 goalie. Instead, Luukkonen is on injured reserve to start the season and Alex Lyon – signed with the intention of being Luukkonen’s understudy – will be the likely starter Thursday against the Rangers, with Georgiev as the backup. Luukkonen begins the season with a lower-body injury, separate from the lower-body injury that kept him out of the start of training camp.
Lyon enters his 10th professional season and has spent time in almost every role – as a starter, as a backup, in the NHL, in the AHL, so he is prepared to take on anything. Even the possibility of a prolonged absence by Luukkonen, whose injury status in the final days of training camp was week-to-week. The Sabres kept Georgiev, signed a week before training camp, and picked up Ellis, a former St. Louis prospect who enters his fifth pro season but has not played in the NHL. Ellis was 22-14-3 with a .922 saves percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average in 42 games with Springfield of the American Hockey League last season.
But what the Sabres need in goal this season is the combination of stability and consistency, and the Sabres goalies needs the defense in front of them to place a priority on cutting down opposing offensive opportunities.
* – player begins the season injured/on injured reserve
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Rachel Lenzi
News sports reporter
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