Buffalo Sabres 2014-15 Season

2014-15 Season Review

In 2014-15, the Sabres finished the season with a 40-31-11 record, good for 91 points.  Unfortunately, it was only good enough for 10th in the conference, 4 points out of a playoff spot.  The goal at the beginning of last season was clearly to make the playoffs.  Even if the Sabres had only missed the playoffs by 4 points, it had been a very difficult and disappointing season since the team struggled all year long.

On offense, Bergeron and Steen had very good seasons.  Bergeron got 39 goals and 90 points, and Steen, 39 goals and 75 points.  Vanek and Eberle also had decent numbers and were able to help out offensively but coach Therrien was expecting a little bit more offense from these guys.

On defense, Keith, Johnson and Doughty, all finished in the 70 points range, which was great, but more were expected from them in their own zone.  The Sabres had the players to be a great team defensively but they only finished 20th in the league for goals for.  That is probably one of the main reasons why the Sabres missed the playoffs last year.

In goal, Luongo had a very disappointing season after the Sabres traded for him.  Luongo finished with 14 wins, 20 losses and a 0.876 save percentage with the Sabres.  In a backup role, Stalock had decent numbers, finishing with 9 wins, 4 losses, a 2.22 GAA and a 0.891 save percentage.

Awards

Bergeron won the Sabres MVP in 2014-15.  It has been a really close race between him and Doughty, but in the end, his 39 goals, 90 points and +22 plus/minus rating were good enough for him to run away with the award.  Doughty finished the season with 15 goals, 69 points and a +16 plus/minus rating.  Those stats helped him win the Sabres Top Dman award for the 4th consecutive year.

The Sabres Rookie of the Year award was given to Tyler Johnson.  Johnson finished with 14 goals and 30 points.

Draft

The Sabres traded a lot of 2015 picks before the draft since GM Blanchard was not planning to be available for the 2-day draft and he is not a big fan of draft lists.  It is always more fun and exciting to make the last minute decision when the team is on the clock!  The Sabres ended up with only three picks but were still really excited leading up to the draft since they had the 12th overall pick in the first round.  At 12th overall, the Sabres would almost be sure to grab a great prospect considering the strong draft this year.

The Sabres finally decided to go with Kyle Connor with the 12th overall pick.  Connor has been selected 17th overall in real life by the Jets but most mock drafts had him a bit earlier than that.  Considering that he was the only guy left on GM Blanchard's 9-guy list for the top of the draft, the Sabres are very happy with this selection.  Connor finished the 2014-15 season with 80 points in 56 games in the USHL.  Then, in the 3rd round, the Sabres were able to select Lukas Vejdemo and Aleksi Saarela.  GM Blanchard really wanted to grab Vejdemo in the draft but he was hoping to get Saarela as well.  After unsuccessful attempts to trade for early 3rd rounders, the decision was made to move down from the 2nd round to pick up an early 3rd rounder and a later 3rd round pick.  The plan worked perfectly as the Sabres were able to pick up both guys.  That being said, the Sabres still paid a 2nd rounder to get those two players.  In all, it was a good draft for the Sabres this year considering that they only had three picks.  Time will tell if Connor is the real deal or not.