This hypothetical third line is packed with little guys who play multiple positions so pick a name out of a hat so pick and throw em around at center, left wing and right wing. The sum total of these parts could be a very interesting mix of defensive, offensive and balanced forwards, no matter which way you slice it. Hinostroza has typically provided good value as a defensively responsible forward, Rasmus Asplund is a balanced forward between offense and defense, and Arttu Ruotsalainen is more of an offensive force than a defensive one.
Before getting into Ruotsalainen (which I can spell without spell check finally), though, let’s take a look at some candidates who are on the bubble of the roster and could force someone like Cody Eakin to the press box.
First up on the list is Drake Caggiula. The Pickering, Ontario native has five seasons logged in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Arizona Coyotes, and now, the Buffalo Sabres. His best offensive campaign came in his sophomore season with the Oilers where he tallied 13 goals and 7 assists in 67 games. The 5’10”, 176lb forward is variously listed as a right wing, a center or a left wing depending on which site you look at and he won 100% of his faceoffs this year. Either he’s the best to ever practice the art – or more likely – he only took one faceoff in the blue and gold (it’s the latter). The underlying advanced statistics show a player who generates offense at a very respectable level but has not fared as well in the defensive zone. If he makes the team, it would make sense to shift the defensively responsible Girgensons back to center and put Caggiula on his left wing with Kyle Okposo on the opposite flank.
Next up is the truculent center John Hayden. The 26-year-old is listed as having 13 NHL fights to his credit and he has the 6’3” 213lb frame to make that work to his advantage. Let’s take a look at his first NHL fight, a bout with former Sabre Marcus Foligno:
That wild right at the end absolutely buckled Foligno’s knees. The initial reaction to the signing from parts of the Sabres twittersphere was that this guy is more of a pugilist than an NHL player, but that’s really not true. He’s certainly not an offensive juggernaut with 13 career goals over 185 games, but his defensive impacts are pretty good. If you believe the fancy stats, his net impact defensively is completely respectable and considerably better than Cody Eakin’s. It might make sense for him to be paired with Ruotsalainen on his left and Hinostroza on his right if he makes the team in order to balance the line and try to squeeze some offense from the Chicago native.
Lastly, we have the enormous Bolton, Ontario native Brett Murray. Granted he’s an incredible longshot to make the team but it’s largely been that way for his entire career since being drafted in 2016. Prior to the 2019-2020 season, it was unclear if the Sabres would retain the rights of the 6’4” 216lb left wing before the Sabres ultimately gave him an AHL contract after trying out with the Rochester Americans. He posted 24 pouring his rookie campaign and then followed that up with 20 points in 27 games in Rochester this past year. That performance – along with injuries and trades – opened a spot for him to play two games with the Sabres this past year where he sported no points and a +1 rating.
With all of that out of the way, we can take a look at Ruotsalainen. The Finnish-born center/left wing was signed as an undrafted free agent by former Sabres GM Jason Botterill prior to the 2019 season that he played in the Finnish elite league. The 5’9” forward potted 43 points in 44 games for Ilves and then came over to North America for the 2020-2021 and scored at a point-per-game pace with Rochester. Known primarily as a goalscoring forward, Ruotsalainen never played for Ralph Krueger and was only brought up to the Sabres in April at which point he was given an opportunity to show his shot.
Don Granato got a little bit of offense out of “R2” to the tune of 5 goals and 1 assist in 17 games. I went back and watched the highlights of his goals which mostly featured Dylan Cozens dishing the puck over the right side for the left-shooting Ruotsalainen. Entering the last year of his contract, the question now is whether Ruotsalainen can provide enough offensive impact to keep him in the fold if his defensive impacts remain low. There is certainly time for his d-zone game to improve from the -9 he posted over 17 games last year and it will be imperative for him to improve on that side of the puck if he wants to stick as a bottom-6 player in the NHL.
I’m not convinced his shot is as dynamic as has been presented because of his goal scoring prowess in the Finnish league. Ruotsalainen scored on 17.9% of his shots this year which seems wildly unsustainable and that still only resulted in 5 goals in 17 games which prorates out to 23 goals over 82. That shooting percentage is a prime candidate for regression which would take him down to perhaps 12-15 goals based on usage over a full season. If he sees a lot of time on the powerplay or finds himself with top-6 minutes, then perhaps he can come close to the 20-goal mark while playing with Dylan Cozens with whom Ruotsalainen seems to share chemistry.
Ruotsalainen was given some time on the 2nd powerplay unit which didn’t result in any points so it remains to be seen if he has any special teams acumen that could help him stick in the NHL for a longer period of time. Likewise, he wasn’t used on the penalty kill so it’s tough to say if there’s any value there. Ruotsalainen will need to prove his value in a depth role by improving his defense and maintaining a high shooting percentage if he’s to be a Sabre moving forward. For now, he figures to be a middle-6 fixture for Don Granato who will need all the goals he can find to bail out the goaltenders.
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