Who were the Buffalo Sabres’ best penalty killers in 2023-24?

As we get closer to the 2024-25 season, let’s take a look at some fun facts and stats from the Buffalo Sabres’ 2023-24 campaign, starting with how the team performed in penalty minutes last year. For starters, the Sabres, from an individual standpoint, only had one player ranked in the top 25 in penalty minutes league-wide, and that was Connor Clifton, who finished the season with 88.

That said, you can put an asterisk next to that because, while Clifton has served more penalty minutes than most of his peers, 20 of those minutes came on Oct. 27 when he received a game misconduct and subsequent two-game suspension after a hit on Nico Hischier during a game against the New Jersey Devils.

As for the rest of the Blue and Gold, no one on the team has logged more than 70 minutes, the top three being:

Source: Hockey-Reference

That’s pretty much the kind of player you’d expect, as both Krebs and Dahlin are known for their aggressive play and willingness to get involved in skirmishes with their opponents. Especially Krebs, who finished the season with an average of just 12:30 total playing time over 80 games, allowing him to make the most of those scuffles.

It’s unfortunate that the Sabres seem to be getting hit with a lot of unfair penalties throughout the season, like when a trio of players pushed Zach Benson into the boards, and he was called for roughing. And we can’t forget that they also called him for what was supposed to be a body check on Jacob Trouba – I’m still trying to wrap my head around that.

Regardless, what’s done is done, and the Blue and Gold finished the season with 9.8 penalty minutes per game, good for 10th in the NHL. But the Sabres didn’t help themselves by drawing penalties, ranking 18th in the league in opponent penalty minutes per game with 9.2, tied with the Calgary Flames.

For the 2024-25 season, the Blue and Gold will need to maintain an aggressive play, and they will if their recent offseason signings maintain their respective aggressive plays. But they need to do a better job of drawing penalties than they did last season, and hopefully that power play will also look more like what we saw in 2022-23 rather than 2023-24.