A few days ago, we talked about how the Buffalo Sabres may want to think about not trading away any of their defensive depth. Today, we’ll take a slightly different look at the defense by noting that the Sabres have a severe imbalance of left-handed defensemen.
Of the ten blueliners currently signed to the team’s roster, an incredible nine out of the ten are left-handed shots, with Tyler Myers being the only righty. Even in a league that has somewhere between 60-70% left-handed defensemen, that’s a lot of recessive genes to put on one blue line.
Things are slightly better in the minors, but not by much. Of the names most fans would recognize, only Mark Pysyk and Jerome Gauthier-Leduc are right-handers. Jake McCabe, the recently re-signed Drew Schiestel, Alex Lepkowski, and the recently drafted Brady Austin are all lefties. Heck, even all of their top center prospects are left-handed.
A problem like this isn’t a season-ender, but it does make matchups and pairings a bit more difficult for Lindy Ruff. Figuring out who can best play the wall on their off-hand will be a tough task for the Sabres coaching staff, assuming all ten defensemen haven’t been traded away at the start of next season.