By Brandon J. Koch
The Buffalo Sabres have traded Ryan O’Reilly in a locker room culture change.
What comes back to the Sabres is a couple of draft picks, a prospect and two established NHL players.
What do they bring? Here is some stats that can help tell the story:
Patrik Berglund: A 30 year-old who can play both center and the wing. Let’s take a look at the last two seasons from a scoring standpoint:
Scoring chance percentage
2016-2017: 49.9%
2017-2018: 54.1%
High danger scoring percentage
2016-2017: 52.2%
2017-2018: 44.2%
In the 2016-2017 season, Berglund played 92 games and scored 15 even strength goals, compared to his 11 even strength in 57 games last season.
Berglund will help boost bottom six production for a team that hasn’t had any for years.
Vladimir Sobotka is another player who should be able to help boost the bottom six.
In 78 games, Sobotka scored 9 even strength goals and had a scoring chance percentage of 50.4%
High danger scoring chance percentage? 44.1
Botterill took in some salary back, but he had to have the intention of improving the bottom six. Watching Johan Larsson Benoit Pouliot, Jacob Josefson and Jordan Nolan last season wasn’t pretty.
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