Training camp is almost upon us after a long, eventful off-season which saw some long-time Sabres leave, some new faces join, and one disgruntled captain remain with the team. The most anticipated storyline ahead of camp is tomorrow’s pending arrival of Jack Eichel to take his team physical ahead of the true camp festivities beginning in earnest. It’s widely assumed that Eichel will fail that physical and then be placed on injured reserve while the two sides continue to negotiate the path forward as it relates to Eichel’s surgery. Is it possible he passes the physical though? We’ll get to that and more with 10 burning training camp questions.


10.) Who will win the first line center job if Eichel is unavailable?

This figures to be a two-horse race between Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens vying for the top-line job. The Sabres are pretty thin on the wings currently, so there will be a sizable drop-off in quality of linemates from Jeff Skinner on the top line to Anders Bjork or Rasmus Asplund on the second line. Winning the top job will probably mean the difference between 60+ points on the top line or 40+ points on the second line. It looks like Mittelstadt has the inside track currently due to his strong offensive showing at the end of the season.


9.) Who will play third-line center and fourth-line center?

I had penciled in Rasmus Asplund to hold down the third line job, but the Sabres moved Arttu Ruotsalainen to center during the prospects challenge which adds some more possibilities here. Ruotsalainen had played center in Europe but transitioned to the wing in North America. Vinnie Hinostroza is also a possibility here. It looks like Cody Eakin and John Hayden will be battling for the other job. Eakin fell out of favor with Granato toward the end of the year so it’s entirely possible that Hayden scores the upset win here.


8.) Who are the goalies?

Veteran Craig Anderson seems like a lock to occupy one of the spots. He’s the most proven goalie and he still put up some decent numbers last year at age 39 in a small sample size. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (UPL), Dustin Tokarski and Aaron Dell will battle amongst each other for the other spot. UPL posted a shutout against the Devils prospects on Friday and then was given a rest day Saturday which may be an indication that they’re already minding his workload in anticipation of the young goalie joining the big club.


7.) Are the Sabres going to be the worst team in the league?

I don’t think so. That’s not to say they’ll be good though. This roster is comprised mainly of real NHL players unlike those notorious tank teams of the past. It looks like a 30th place roster to me with a chance to be better if the goaltending isn’t totally atrocious. This question won’t be answered totally in the pre-season but the games should give fans an indication as to how the season will go.


6.) Will Mattias Samuelsson make the Sabres roster?

The Sabres are sorely lacking in size and physicality on the back end with the departures of Jake McCabe and Rasmus Ristolainen. The 6’4” Samuelsson would fill that gap nicely with his size and also the physical edge that he demonstrated last Friday at the prospects challenge when he leveled a huge hit at the blue line to break up a rush. Samuelsson’s biggest competition is newly acquired defenseman Robert Hägg who currently figures to be the third pairing left defenseman at the moment. A good camp showing could catapult Samuelsson past Hägg and into the top-6, although a full year in Rochester playing all-situations minutes wouldn’t be the worst thing, either.


5.) Can a sleeper candidate make the Sabres roster?

The odd paradox of this Sabres team is that they have a pretty well-established roster heading into camp despite the fact that most assume they’re going to be a terrible team. JJ Peterka played well at the prospects challenge and will likely be given a look despite only being 19 years old. The German winger will be a Sabre someday but perhaps it’s more realistic that someone like Brett Murray could make the roster as an extra forward. Murray offers size on a very small team and he too had an excellent prospects challenge. Jack Quinn needs more seasoning. There are too many questions about which position he’ll play, whether it be center or wing, and these questions need to be answered at the AHL level.


4.) Can Jeff Skinner re-discover his goal scoring touch?

Finding a center who can mesh with Skinner needs to be priority one for Don Granato heading into camp. It’s unacceptable to have a $9m player languish in the bottom-six as was often the case under former coach Ralph Krueger. Skinner will be asked to carry a large portion of the goal-scoring duties on this team, and he no longer has the Krueger excuse built in to bail him out should he falter. It’s not like Skinner would be able to singlehandedly bring the Sabres to respectability this season, but he needs to show that he can still contribute moving forward.


3.) Will Rasmus Dahlin have a contract before camp?

Dahlin is still without a contract currently. The former first-overall pick could hold out of camp similarly to Casey Mittelstadt last season until he puts pen to paper. Dahlin will need ample time to get acclimated to game speed and also to learn the defensive system the Sabres will deploy this season. His presence will be sorely needed at camp as soon as possible. It’s unacceptable to head into the preseason without their number one defenseman.


2.) Will the Sabres have a captain this season?

This question is inextricably linked to the next question and Jack Eichel’s status heading into the season. It’s almost impossible to imagine the Sabres bringing Eichel back into the fold at any point this season without him retaining the “C” on his jersey. Kyle Okposo would be a natural candidate to assume the captaincy on an interim basis should Eichel be traded prior to the beginning of the season along with the very young Dylan Cozens. The Sabres look to be grooming Cozens to be their future captain after sending him to the NHL media week last week as their representative. If Eichel can’t go this season then it seems likely that they would roll with 3 alternate captains: Okposo, Cozens and perhaps Rasmus Dahlin or Colin Miller on the defense.


1.) Will Jack Eichel pass his physical?

This is the most intriguing question and it’ll be answered tomorrow before training camp even officially opens. On the surface it seems incredibly unlikely that Eichel will be cleared to play hockey with his neck issue, although this situation seemingly gets more bizarre by the day. There will be 100 more questions to follow up with if he does indeed get the green light to proceed with hockey.

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