Michael Kesselring is arriving as a potential solution to one of the Buffalo Sabres’ biggest problems. The 6-foot-4 defenseman fills the team’s need for a right shot capable of playing in the top four, preferably alongside 2021 No. 1 overall pick Owen Power. Kesselring’s path to this type of opportunity was hardly guaranteed, however.

The 25-year-old was a sixth-round pick in 2018 by the Edmonton Oilers after a four-year prep career in New Hampshire. He didn’t play a full 82-game season in the NHL until last season. He needed two years in the USHL, two years in college and 141 AHL games to be ready for that. Since arriving in the NHL, he’s already been traded twice.

Northeastern athletic director Jim Madigan, who recruited and coached Kesselring, spent 18 years scouting in the NHL before a 10-year stint as Northeastern’s hockey coach. Most of the players he coached who made it to the NHL did so as late-round picks. He knows how tough that road is and how many players don’t make it to where Kesselring is.

“At the end of the day, there’s not many people who are guaranteed to play in the National Hockey League,” Madigan said. “Not even the 10th pick overall always makes it, never mind a sixth-round pick. Kesselring just used that to motivate him and be a sponge in terms of wanting to get better. After halfway through the first round, everyone is kind of in the same boat, right? What’s the differentiator? For me, it’s the work ethic and the desire to say, ‘I’m not going to be denied.’ That was Michael Kesselring.”

Kesselring hasn’t lost the mentality of the sixth-round afterthought even as he’s developed into a top-four caliber defenseman. He had seven goals and 22 assists last season while playing big minutes for the Utah Mammoth. He helped Team USA win a gold medal at the World Championship in the spring and was a key part of a major trade this summer that sent Buffalo’s 23-year-old forward JJ Peterka to the Mammoth with Kesselring and his close friend Josh Doan coming to Buffalo.

With that chip on his shoulder, Kesselring doesn’t think he’s arrived. He got the news that he’d been traded just before midnight on a weeknight in June. He was up the next morning at 6 a.m., driving from his home in New Hampshire to Haverhill, Mass., for an early morning summer skating session.

That’s what he’s always done. Last season, Kesselring got a chance to play an elevated role in Utah due to injuries. When the 4 Nations break arrived, he didn’t board a plane to a beach for rest and relaxation. Instead, he went home and called Eric Przepiorka, one of his old assistant coaches at New Hampton prep. He wanted to get on the ice.

“I’m like, ‘You’re getting a break here and you want to get on the ice?’” Przepiorka said. “He said, ‘I know I just have these little things I want to work on that I think will help me coming out of the break.’ He’s always willing to put in the work.”

The work ethic is one thing, but Przepiorka is always amazed at how humble Kesselring is. He’s always happy to have Przepiorka’s kids on the ice and takes the time to give them pointers.

“It’s always special to me because he hasn’t forgotten his roots and he’s not too big to spend time with my kids, who have known him their whole lives,” Przepiorka said.

When Przepiorka got to know Kesselring, he was a 5-9 freshman playing at New Hampton. He was a ways away from becoming the towering NHL defenseman full of potential, but he kept growing while in high school. Meanwhile, he constantly looked for the holes in his game and worked to correct them.

After his four-year prep career, Kesselring established himself as one of the best players in the area, committed to play at Northeastern and got drafted in the sixth round of the 2018 draft. Like most players his age, he played in the USHL before going to college, and major junior hockey was a wake-up call for him. He had been playing close to home at New Hampton, and his father, Casey, coached him all four years, so his first full season in the USHL was an adjustment. He started in Des Moines before getting traded to Fargo midway through the year.

“He was a little bit of a lost soul when we got him,” then-Fargo coach Cary Eades said. “Junior hockey is tough coming from the prep level. There are a lot of demands.”

What came next felt like a turning point in Kesselring’s development. He had seven goals and 15 assists in 33 regular-season games for Fargo, but also quickly polished his defensive game. Eades said Kesselring was what he would call “an offenseman” when he got to Fargo. There was a lot of risk in his game. Eades could see his hockey smarts and then got a first-hand look at how willing Kesselring was to be coached hard. Coaches in Fargo didn’t overhaul Kesselring’s game; they just simplified and fine-tuned it. The focus was always on making him consistent and reliable.

“You have to learn when to go and when not to go,” Eades said. “You have to learn when to make the high-risk play and when to throw it in safe. You have to learn how to defend, when to use your stick and body and (how to) not end up in the penalty box. There’s so much to learn. It’s hard to forecast what a teenager is going to be.”

When Kesselring got to Northeastern, he was already 6-4. The skating ability was evident, and so was the shot that helped him score three game-winning goals down the stretch for Fargo. Those traits alone will get you on the NHL radar. In every level of professional hockey, right-shot defensemen are in demand. Right-handed defensemen who are 6-4 and can skate like Kesselring are rare.

What stood out to Madigan about Kesselring, though, was the work. All of the best players Madigan has coached stayed after practice to work on things, but nobody was like Kesselring.

“I can always remember we would have practices over the holidays on Mondays, one in January and one in February,” Madigan said. “They would go from 10 a.m. to 11:15 or whatever. I’d come out of my office at 1 o’clock, and he was still on the ice. He just put the time into it. He was a rink rat. He’d be working on his skating, doing figures and cutbacks and things like that. It was amazing how much time he put into his game.”

That’s how Kesselring kept earning opportunities in his hockey career even while bouncing around the sport. He hasn’t been in a single place for longer than two years since he left home after high school, but that hasn’t altered his development.

Last season was a glimpse of what Kesselring can be. When the Arizona Coyotes first got him in their organization, general manager Bill Armstrong and his staff focused on his skating and strength. The final piece of the puzzle was getting him to play nastier in his own end. That’s not the easiest thing to pull out of a player, but Kesselring responded to the challenge. He showed a willingness to fight and another level of physicality to match his 6-4 frame. He already had the skating size and skating ability. His shot is the second hardest in the league behind Tage Thompson. Adding the nastiness to his game changed who Kesselring is as a player and who he can become.

“It changes his player profile significantly,” Madigan said. “It significantly changed his presence on the ice and the confidence he exudes. He worked at it. Michael was never afraid; he always competed. But now he has an added dimension to his game, which is important.”

Kesselring finished last season sixth among NHL defensemen in primary assists at five-on-five. Utah had 53 percent of the expected goals when he was on the ice at five-on-five. That mark ranked him 30th among defensemen with at least 1,000 minutes played. Utah also had 56 percent of the high-danger chances when Kesselring was on the ice at five-on-five, 10th best in the league. He was the only defenseman among the top 25 in that category who was playing for a non-playoff team.

The question now is what comes next. The Sabres are counting on Kesselring being able to repeat and build on those promising numbers from last season. They see a blend of physical ability, work ethic and maturity that will make him a fixture in their top four and a positive influence on their locker-room culture. On paper, his playing style meshes well with Power.

While you may think a player entering the prime of his career would be disappointed to get traded to Buffalo, Kesselring sees the positives. For one, he’s thrilled to be back closer to the East Coast. He’s played in Des Moines, Fargo, Bakersfield, Tucson, Phoenix and Utah. He’s ready to play in a place where family and friends in both New Hampshire and Ontario can easily come see him play.

Michael Kesselring helped Team USA win a gold medal at the World Championship in the spring. (Michael Campanella / Getty Images)

More importantly for the Sabres, though, Kesselring is hungry to win. He played more than 15 minutes per game while helping Team USA win a gold medal at the World Championship for the first time in 92 years. Like many of his new Sabres teammates, Kesselring has never appeared in the NHL playoffs. That experience with Team USA was the closest thing and helped him mature and realize what it takes to win.

“Worlds fueled the fire to play in big games like that,” Kesselring said. “This year I had a bigger role (at Worlds) and the pressure of the games, every shift counts, every puck touch counts. That experience was really good for me. And playing in a more defensive role, learning how to do that and be shut down and manage the puck was really good for my game. I can play offensively. I know what I can do on that side of the game. I learned a lot about myself, a lot about what it takes to win in high-pressure games. It was an unbelievable experience being on the team that broke that long curse.”

Now Kesselring is joining another team with a long curse. The Sabres’ 14-year playoff drought is the longest in NHL history, but that doesn’t faze Kesselring. His conversations with Thompson, whom he got to know at the World Championship, have him optimistic about how close Buffalo is to finally breaking through to the next level.

“I want to succeed here,” Kesselring said. “I want to be part of the solution here.”

Kesselring knows what he’ll bring is different from what Thompson or Rasmus Dahlin brings, but he’s not just along for the ride. This trade is going to give him the chance to prove he can be a top-four fixture. The opportunity, along with the challenge of turning around a woebegone franchise, is one he’s ready to embrace.

“He wants to be a guy that teams can rely on,” Madigan said. “That’s Michael. He doesn’t just want to be out there for eight or nine minutes a night. He wants to make a difference.”

(Top photo: Chris Nicoll / Imagn Images)