The Buffalo Sabres make of the bigger trades this past offseason when they traded forward JJ Peterka for Josh Doan and defender Michael Kesselring. Doan has been a rock solid mainstay in their forward group all season long, but Kesselring has yet to find his footing. His tenure has been mired by a slew of injuries up to this point dating all the way back to before the season even began, and it has hindered his ability to really get up to speed. Thankfully, he is back in the lineup now, and with the team riding a seven-game winning streak, they need to make better use of him than they are right now.
Kesselring Is More Than a Third-Pair Defender
While Kesselring had not really been used as a top-four defender for a majority of his career, he was brought in to Buffalo with the intention of being used in that role. He was the kind of defender that could be relied on to be positionally sound, shoot the puck with a lot of velocity, and make smart plays all around the ice. He never was much of a flashy defender, but he did what he was good at right, and that is exactly what the Sabres needed. Sadly, he has not been given the chance to step up and do that.
Since being a Sabre, Kesselring has seen his ice time drop by a fair amount. His average career ice time is 16:45, and right now he is averaging 15:25, the lowest average of his entire career. He even played a season low 10:59 on Nov. 15 against the Detroit Red Wings; a game where he played fairly well and even finished with a plus-1 rating. With the way he plays, it does not make sense to keep him buried on their third pairing for a long time — he deserves more opportunity to shine.
This is not to say that he needs to be prioritized for power-play or prime penalty-killing time. The current defenders that run the power play, Rasmus Dahlin and Bowen Byram, are better options there, and the top four defenders in Dahlin, Byram, Mattias Samuelsson, and Conor Timmins (at least until recently when he went down with injury) on the penalty kill are stellar there. Though perhaps, with Timmins out for an extended period of time, Kesselring should get a bigger look in that role. More than anything, Kesselring needs to be moved up from the third pair and given time alongside Byram on the second. It would provide him the partner he deserves and get him up to where he needs to be.
Let Kesselring Loose to Be What They Traded For
As they lacked a presumed partner for Owen Power, Kesselring was seen as the one that would likely fit next to him and elevate his game. Sadly, that experiment is not going well, as Power has regressed on his own terms this season by no fault of Kesselring’s play. He needs to have an opportunity to play his game, and not be tied down and babysitting Power for most of the game. The Sabres should let him off the leash, let us see that big shot that he has, and let him be more than a complementary player.
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Kesselring has the capacity to be the kind of defender who can really lock down a defensive core, and contribute so much more than being a teacher for a struggling teammate. The Sabres would get far more value out of him if they simply allowed him to play the type of game he excels at.
While the current formula of having him on the third pairing has worked in their seven-game winning streak, and head coach Lindy Ruff is not the kind of man to change things up when they are working, we are not likely to see a drastic change in Kesselring’s role. However, long term, Ruff needs to consider getting him more involved, and this team will have a lot more success if he is.
