Kyle Okposo has been a godsend for the Buffalo Sabres.
If ever there was an NHL free agent who delivered more to his new team than what was originally expected, Okposo is the man.
The Sabres have lost 146 man games to injury this season. Okposo's nightly contributions have helped to insulate and offset the serious injuries to Sabres offensive standouts Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, Ryan O'Reilly, Tyler Ennis. Okposo has played just as strong ion the defensive side of the pcuk as his has played on the offensive side.
Okposo is skating 19:27 TOI per game. He leads the Sabres in scoring with 21 points in 27 games. He has scored 9 goals (4 PPG) on the 74 shots he has landed on enemy keepers. He has 21 hits, 9 takeaways and has won 53.3% of the 75 draws he has taken.
Okposo tallied three assists in Tuesday's 6-3 win over the LA Kings and he now has 11 points (4G, 7A) in his last 10 games.
Okposo has 12 power play points and has helped Buffalo to improve their man advantage unit to 4th overall in the NHL with a 22.6% success rate with 21 PPGs. The Sabres PP ranked #12 in 2015-16 with an 18.9% success rate with 48 PPGs.
That the Sabres trail the Boston Bruins by only three points in the Eastern Conference wild card standings is a bit of a Christmas miracle. The Sabres would be in a world of hurt had “Booker… signed an unrestricted free agent jumbo contract with another NHL club.
Okposo and his Buffalo Sabres will host the NY Islanders on Friday night in Buffalo.
Okposo told Newsday that he will be feeling the full gamut of emotions when his old teammates line up against him.
“There’s going to be a lot of different emotions running through me, I’m sure,… Okposo said. “It’ll be a little easier seeing them first up here, but the trip back down to Brooklyn (next week) is going to be different, to say the least.…
To hear Okposo tell it, all he wanted to do was re-sign with the Islanders before the July 1 UFA period.
Then Okposo heard the whispers that turned to screams about Garth Snow wanting to trade Okposo rather than re-sign him to a fat contract. The Islanders made no attempts to discus a long term cobtract extension with Okposo. Rather than sulk or whine about it, Okposo shut hi smouth, put his head down and accumulated 64 points in 79 games played.
When it was all said and done, Okposo played 529 career games with the Islanders. He scored 369 points. Tim Murray and the Sabres had a huge chunk of salary cap space with Okposo's name written on it. Murray needed another veteran power forward to help Ryan O'Reilly, Matt Moulson and Brian Gionta to teach the NHL ropes to Jack Eichel, Samson Reinhart, and the rest of the young Sabres. Moments after the UFA officially opened opened on July 1, Murray inked Okposo to a seven year, $42 million contract.
Garth Snow's loss is certainly Tim Murray's gain.
The Sabres are trending upwards while the Islanders are nose-diving to the Eastern Conference basement. Snow allowed Okposo, Matt Martin and Frans Neilsen to leave and seek greener pastrures elsewhere.
“There’s no satisfaction at all in seeing your buddies go through a tough spell…, Okposo said. “I figured there could be some growing pains with the three of us leaving. I feel like we were a big part of that room. I still talk to a lot of the guys there, we bounce ideas off each other — they’re friends, you want to help them out to a certain extent.…
Dan Bylsma immediately ordered the Buffao trainers to sew an “A… over the heart of Okposo's sweater. “Booker… has enjoyed his reunion with former Islanders line mate Matt Moulson. The 26-21 duo sit next to one another in the Buffalo room. Moulson thanks the hockey gods every minute of the day for delivering “Booker… to Buffalo. Moulson's 2015-16 season was too hazardous to dump in local landfills so it was burned and incinerated instead. Moulson scored only 8 goals and 13 assists in 81 games. Moulson was relegated to the fourth line. Dan Bylsma would have played Moulson on the fifth line if he had one. Moulson, the multi-time 30-goal scorer, wasn't himself. He was buckling under the enormity of the $25 million (5 year) contract that Murray signed him to. Moulson need a miracle. He was a buyout candidate at one point. Tim Murray resisted the temptation to buy out the remaining years of Moulson's contract and instead asked the left winger to help him recruit Okposo to Buffalo. The acquisition of Okposo has helped transform Moulson back to the player he was on Long Island. Moulson has scored 7 goals, 6 on the power play, and has 5 assists. He is averaging 13 minutes a night and appears to have found the fountain of youth. Moulson did the work last summer. Okposo gets credit for helping Moulson to re-ignite the burner on his offensive furnace.
“I’m never going to be that guy who says something to a rah-rah sort of person,… Okposo said. “That’s how I’ll always be. But I’ve been in the league a long time now and I’ve been a part of something that we built on the Island, so I know my job is pass along what I can to some of our guys and make that jump to being a good, consistent team every night.…