Sabres Defenseman Owen Power Cannot Be a Bystander in 2026-27

I have both defended Owen Power against the knee jerk reactions of saying that he isn’t good enough to live up to his “first overall pick” status, and found myself making arguments for that exact reason. With yet another season having passed for him, and with him still not making significant strides in his development or gameplay, there needs to be some significant change, or growth in his game in the 2026-27 season. Without it, he may stagnate, and be a simple case of “what you see is what you get”.

Power Cannot Fall Into Old Habits

As long as he has been a regular in the NHL, Power has found this strange balance between trying to be offensive minded, and trying to hold down the defensive side of the puck. He has struggled immensely to figure out how to do both in the same game, or even be doing both on a regular basis for a streak of games. He typically can only attempt to do one or the other. He is either making great passes, and taking good shots from the offensive zone, all while having one defensive lapse after the next, or he locks down his defensive effort, and has no capacity for making an offensive play.

The bad habits plague him far too often, and he needs to find the way to balance everything out and do both to become the defenseman that he is supposed to be. The reality of the situation is that Power is a 23 year old 6-foot-6 defender who was drafted to be an offensive mind and run plays from the blue line. While criticisms can come in all they want about wanting him to be more physical, it just is not the type of player he is. Since making it to the NHL he has not deviated from how he played, and now it is just about giving him good new habits to make him the best version of himself that he can be.

Power Has To Be More Active

Last season he had the crutch of Bowen Byram being ahead of him on the depth chart and doing all the things that he was expected to do. With Byram officially out of the picture, all eyes will be looking to Power to fill the hole left in the defense. With his couple of games in the pre-season, while they are not games that necessarily count, he did not show that he was ready to take on the responsibility of being the Sabres’ #2 defender.

Too many times he made simple errors in the defensive zone. Too many times he could have stepped up to make an offensive play, but he shied away. I specifically even remember one play where a loose puck was still up for grabs on the offensive zone, and Power was the closer man to the puck. Rather than having the confidence to step up and take the puck for himself, he hesitated, got flat footed on the blue line, and ultimately had to retreat against the opposing pressure; doing nothing for the play other than be on his heels. If he wants top be successful, and be a contributor on their second power play unit for once, he is going to need to be much more decisive, and definitive with is gameplay. No more passiveness. It is time to be a little aggressive and believe in the play that is developing in front of him, or that can be caused by him.

Failing To Step up Will Spell Doom for Power, and the Sabres

If Power ends up being a dud again on the stat sheet, and only average for the rest of his gameplay that doesn’t translate to the scoreboard, the Sabres are in for a rough season. With 5 seasons left on his contact extension that he signed in 2023, he is still going to be looked at as a core piece of this hockey team, but his value on any market, or his stock on the depth chart will only go down. He needs to prove that he can be a difference maker. He needs to prove that if at any point, Rasmus Dahlin (God forbid), goes down with an injury, that he can step up and be the difference making defenseman that they chose him to be.