Gilbert, a Buffalo native, looks to add a physical element to the Sabres’ defense

Dennis Gilbert struggled to make the roster early in his first professional season with the Rockford IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Gilbert had been selected in the third round of the draft by Chicago three years earlier and had enjoyed a successful career at the University of Notre Dame. Still, playing time was hard to come by on a veteran Rockford defense. Rockford captain Andrew Campbell had given Gilbert some advice early in the season.

“Gibby, you’re a good player, but there are seven players coming back,” Gilbert recalled Campbell saying. “When you get in the game, you’ve got to do something to stay in the game.”

So in Gilbert’s fourth AHL game, a Sunday night against Manitoba, he got into a fight with opposing forward JC Lipon. He got into a fight again about two weeks later, and then four more times that season.

Six years later, the will to fight remains a hallmark of Gilbert’s game — one he will bring to his hometown Buffalo Sabres after signing a one-year, $825,000 contract Monday.

“It’s not something that needs to happen 15 or 20 times a year,” Gilbert said. “But to be able to do it, you know, six, seven, eight times a season and your teammates know that someone is there to do it for you, I think that’s something that’s important in the room.”

The Sabres signed Gilbert as part of a concerted effort by general manager Kevyn Adams to make the team tougher to play against. The team also added forwards Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel (via free agency), all of whom would have been the Sabres’ top hitters last season.

Learning to fit that profile has been part of Gilbert’s journey, as the 27-year-old played his first full NHL season with the Calgary Flames in 2023-24. Gilbert credits his two years in Calgary, particularly under coach Darryl Suter, with improving his game.

“I’m a defensive-minded player,” he said. “I try to be extremely difficult to play against. You can look at that a lot of ways. Obviously, I’ve always been prepared to fight throughout my career and that’s something that’s not going to change.”

Gilbert has been involved in 12 fights in 82 NHL games. But being tough to play against, he explained, goes beyond just dropping the gloves every now and then.

“It’s being super physical,” he said. “It’s after the whistle. It’s taking guys out, cross-checking. If somebody’s going after somebody on your team and they can’t even connect, but you go up to them and say something to them or get in their face, all that plays a big part in that.”.“