- Josh Doan says the Sabres are a better team even after losing Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram
- Byram’s June trade to Chicago blindsided him, and he says the room still has to replace that voice
- Read below for what Doan said about Olen Zellweger, Louis Crevier and Buffalo’s Sept. 17 camp opening
Buffalo lost two of its best players this summer. Josh Doan thinks the Sabres got better anyway.
The winger met with reporters at Sahlen Field on Saturday before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Bisons’ Hockey Night at the Ballpark, and he was asked how he reads the outside view of Buffalo’s offseason. His answer, per Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat, was not complicated.
“Everyone’s got their own opinion on us again this year on whether or not we’re going to take a step, or whether or not we lost and got worse this summer, which, I mean, you can guess all you want, no one really knows what anyone’s done,” Doan said. “I think our group’s pretty confident in that we’re a better team heading into this year.”
Watch the whole session:
Check out the pitch itself:
Alex Tuch’s exit was the one everybody saw coming. Washington landed him in a sign-and-trade on June 24 after weeks of noise about whether he would stay, and he is already part of the Capitals’ camp line shuffle.
Bowen Byram was the one that stung. Buffalo shipped him and Jordan Greenway to Chicago on June 23 in a package that returned the fourth overall pick, used on defenseman Daxon Rudolph, plus 6-foot-8 blueliner Louis Crevier.
Doan admitted that one blindsided him. “Bo was tough,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t know that one’s coming.”
He kept going on what Byram meant away from the ice. “(Byram) means a lot to our group,” Doan said. “His personality, obviously, is huge, and he’s someone that we’re going to have to fill in terms of the locker room as well and just being a little bit more vocal.”
Olen Zellweger came over from Anaheim to take on some of that offense, and Doan already knows him from offseason skates in British Columbia. He called Zellweger “a pretty special hockey player” and said the offense will show up right away. Crevier caught him off guard in a good way. “He’s someone that’s so hard to play against,” Doan said.
Carrying more of the load falls partly on Doan himself. His first season in Buffalo produced 25 goals and 52 points in 82 games and earned him a seven-year, $48.65 million extension, and the Sabres need Konsta Helenius, Jiri Kulich and Noah Ostlund to cover the rest of what Tuch took with him. Zach Benson has talked up the same belief in the group.
Sabres camp opens Sept. 17, and Doan gets to start proving Buffalo is better.
