Zach Bogosian
Position: Defense
Age: 25 (turned 25 during our countdown)
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 225 lbs.
2014-15 team: Winnipeg/Buffalo
Acquired: Traded from Winnipeg along with Evander Kane and Jason Kashdorf for Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, Joel Armia, Brendan Lemieux and a first-round pick
Last year’s ranking: N/A
Bogosian may not have the potential upside that Myers had, but he still is a sound defenseman that should be a nice player on the blue line in the coming years. The former third-overall pick isn’t a superstar, and like Myers he’s flawed in his own ways. You do see glimmers of why the Thrashers were so sold on him in the 2008 draft.
He feels a bit older than he actually is, likely due to him starting his professional career at 18-years-old. He’s faced some serious injuries that have slowed him down since then. He broke his leg during his rookie season. A year later he played through a broken thumb. He had quite the scoring touch when he first arrived, scoring nine and ten goals his first two seasons. Since suffering the thumb issue he hasn’t scored more than five in a season.
Bogosian plays a more physical game than Myers. In the end the two are rather comparable in talent, they just play different styles. Myers found his groove with a much better blueline in Winnipeg. If Bogosian finds his scoring touch again, he has a chance to be a much more consistent player than Myers.
There were times last season where Bogosian looked rather good, using his body pretty effectively. In time the enormous workload started to get to him, and he began making sloppy plays. That will be a questionmark going into the season if Bogosian is going to be a top pair defenseman, and the way things are shaking out that seems very likely. The Sabres will likely need to ignore handedness and use Bogo as the veteran presence alongside Rasmus Ristolainen. Bogosian isn’t the type of player you’d want out there 20+ minutes, but the Sabres might have to bite the bullet anyways.