Buffalo’s fourth line gets grittier much to the fans chagrin
LAS VEGAS — Fans have been begging the Buffalo Sabres to make a trade to help the NHL roster in the worst way. Fans were understandably super annoyed when no deals were made during the first round of the NHL Draft on Friday night. But Saturday was a new day, and the Sabres granted their wish and dealt the 43rd pick of the draft to the Washington Capitals for forward Beck Malenstyn.
The reaction from the fans amounted to even more frustration when they got the trade they wanted, but not for who or what they hoped for.
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Malenstyn at last broke through full time in the NHL this season playing in 81 games. He had 21 points with six goals and 25 penalty minutes. He averaged 14:15 of ice time per game and had 241 hits and 93 blocked shots. Malenstyn was used almost exclusively in a defensive role. At 5-on-5 (via Natural Stat Trick) he had 8.9 percent of his zone starts in the offensive zone and 9.9 percent of faceoffs in the offensive zone.
Malenstyn is also a big-time penalty killer as he had more than 212 minutes played shorthanded this season.
One of the keys for this offseason for Sabres GM Kevyn Adams was finding help for the bottom-six of the forward group and that’s precisely what Malenstyn is. He’s a physical presence and adds all the grit/jam/hard-nosed traits you’d expect for a Lindy Ruff coached team. The fancy stats will not look favorably upon his addition, but his role is almost exclusively meant to have advanced numbers get blown to bits.
Malenstyn plays on the left wing and that’s a curious thing because that’s generally where Zemgus Girgensons has played on the fourth line the past few years. This addition very well may signal the end of Girgensons’ time in Buffalo as he’s an unrestricted free agent again this summer.
Girgensons is beloved by Sabres owner Terry Pegula, but after another losing season with the Sabres and seeing one of his best friends, Kyle Okposo, win a Stanley Cup he may want to find a contending team to try and reach the playoffs and win a Cup of his own.
If there’s a quibble to have about this trade, it’s giving up a second-round pick to acquire Malenstyn. In talking about the trade with San Jose that landed them that pick, Adams said adding another second-round pick is good ammunition for making a trade to acquire a player. Buffalo had picks 42 and 43 and dished off 43 to get Malenstyn.
In essence, the Sabres got the guy they wanted to draft at 42 in defenseman Adam Kleber who will play at Minnesota Duluth next season and got the shift disturbing forward they wanted to add for the bottom-six.
The Sabres are in get-better-now mode so adding NHL players is a must. The catch is that Malenstyn isn’t the player anyone had in mind for the first player trade to be completed.