A second-round pick in 2016, Rasmus Aplund figures to play his first full season for the Buffalo Sabres following a decent showing under Don Granato in 2021. Asplund did not make his way into the lineup with any regularity while Krueger was still coach, as Krueger only gave the Swede five games in the early part of the season. The Swedish-born forward potted 11 points in 23 games after Granato took the helm in an average of 12:51 seconds per game for a .47 points-per-game average.
Back in June the Sabres signed the 23-year-old to a modest two-year “show me” contract worth an average of $825,000 per year for the next two years, meaning that at the end of that contract, the organization will likely know more about his offensive ceiling. Asplund said following the conclusion of the season that he believes he’s a defensively responsible player who wants to take the next step offensively.
“I think I started on the right end of my game,” Asplund said. “I’ve been working on my defensive game with Donny all season long, and even last year. I think I just started getting comfortable enough defensively that I can do my thing offensively. That’s a huge part of it.”
That’s good news for the Sabres who have had a chronic lack of production over the past decade from the bottom-six, even when the top line could get humming. Asplund credited the development path that he and the Sabres decided on and executed for his continuing progress at the NHL level.
“I think everything went as planned,” he said. “It was the plan to be able to compete for a regular spot as in the third year, which it is now. The years I played in Roch helped me a lot. I think I grew a lot in Roch. I just understood how hard I need to work and what it takes to be an NHL player. When I got a taste of it last year, I really realized that this was going to be hard work and I had to work on a lot of things to be able to reach my goal.”
Asplund, like his hypothetical linemate Vinnie Hinostroza, can play either center or wing, so these titles are largely interchangeable. Neither are really good on the faceoff dot which could be slightly problematic or it could be an opportunity for Asplund to further hone his craft. Plenty of people will say that faceoffs don’t matter enough to make it a big deal, but for those curious, the only Sabres with a 50% or better faceoff stat line from last year were Cody Eakin (54%), Kyle Okposo (54%) and Victor Olofsson (50%). Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt posted seasons of 47% and 49% respectively which are totally respectable numbers. Asplund was pretty bad at 35% but it’s possible to improve that.
Analytically, Asplund was a positive chance-producing forward, but the actual goals fell showed of the number of opportunities created. He’s solid defensively and he’s capable of playing on the penalty kill without hurting the team. Here’s the player card from evolvinghockey.com for those interested:
An overall useful middle-six player with positional and situational versatility is never a bad thing. The biggest knock on Asplund isn’t really a knock on him at all, but rather a comment on the structure and personnel choices in the bottom six: there is really no toughness here.
Zemgus Girgensons, Cody Eakin and Kyle Okposo are likely candidates for the 4th line and there’s no real jam in that group. Sure, Girgensons will throw his body around and make some contact, but he’s not really an agitator or a fighter. Cody Eakin really brought zero personality to the team last year. No one wants to see Kyle Okposo throw a punch in anger ever again as the consequences of fighting for the long-time Sabre could be disastrous due to his history of concussions. On this projected third line, the cumulative effect of diminutive players becomes very clear: the Sabres have 5’9” Vinnie Hinostroza, 5’11” Rasmus Asplund, and 5’9” Arttu Ruotsalainen.
Again, it’s not an indictment on Asplund as much as it’s a comment on the Sabres inability to ice a team with players who bring different skill sets to the table. This has been a recurring theme for the past few years as the Sabres found some useful bottom-six talent but never managed to put together a cohesive third line that brought an array of talents. The best 3rd line in terms of varied composition and a variety of skill sets was probably the trio of Marcus Foligno, Johan Larsson and Brian Gionta back in 2016 when they played for Dan Bylsma. It would be nice to have a character like Curtis Lazar to bring some flavor to the depth ranks of the Sabres roster to give it some flavor.
The Sabres did sign the pugilistic John Hayden to compete for a depth role on the team, although his presence won’t be a net positive unless he proves he can make meaningful contributions to the game on the ice in addition to his punching ability. The team did not add any forwards this offseason who are proven commodities in terms of offensive, defensive and physical ability which I believed needed to be a focus heading into this summer.
Perhaps it’s jumping the gun a bit, but the top-six isn’t going to add much physicality either. It’s fair to say that Dylan Cozens is the roughest, toughest customer on a Sabres team that has cried out for an improvement in that area for years. “The workhorse from Whitehorse” – a moniker given to Cozens by Sabres play-by-play man Dan Dunleavy – earned his stripes the hard way with two good bouts in his rookie year so this is by no means an indictment on the Yukon native. Still, it would be a real shame to watch the young talent on this team get run over night-in and night-out because management didn’t provide the necessary toughness to deal with a rugged NHL.
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We continue our best-of Sabres playoff drought moments with numbers 7 and 6 today. I’m still looking to round out the top 5, so if you have a moment you think is best then leave a note in the comments.
#7
This one is one of my favorites and it comes courtesy of Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Dahlin before Ralph Krueger crushed their scoring psyches and left them a husk of their former selves. May Don Granato revive their spirits:
Nice to see Eichel and Reinhart before they were dead inside.
#6
Boss34 recommended this one and it’s an absolute classic. Jake McCabe flattens Patrik Laine following an ill-advised hospital pass from Mark Scheifele. Great call by RJ on the hit.
Honorable mention video here:
I mentioned that Cozens has a little bit of a wild-west spirit in him, so here’s one of the fights from his rookie season. Once they drop the gloves there is no hesitation as the rights start flying. You love to see it.
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