{"id":528568,"date":"2026-03-17T10:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/528568\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:21:15","slug":"what-are-sabres-getting-in-logan-stanley-jay-mckee-and-matthew-barnaby-have-an-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/528568\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Sabres getting in Logan Stanley? Jay McKee and Matthew Barnaby have an idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 On Friday afternoon, Logan Stanley was sitting leaning back into his stall in the Buffalo Sabres\u2019 dressing room with a black eye and a few stitches over his right eye after a fight in his Buffalo debut against the Sharks. It was his first practice day with the team after playing in two games since coming over in a trade from Winnipeg ahead of the NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n

He made his debut Tuesday, hours after his visa got approved, without joining the team for a morning skate, and\u00a0played on a pair with Michael Kesselring in a win over the Sharks<\/a>. In Thursday\u2019s loss to the Capitals<\/a>, he was with his old Winnipeg teammate Luke Schenn, who also came over in the trade with the Jets. And then on Saturday, he was again on a pair with Schenn as the Sabres beat the Leafs 3-2 in overtime.<\/p>\n

This has all been a lot. He\u2019s learning new faces and names, a new city and maybe most strikingly, a new style of play. The Sabres play fast, and their defensemen are heavily involved in the offense. The way Buffalo\u2019s forwards play, defensemen always need to be ready for the puck.<\/p>\n

After the Sabres\u2019 win on Saturday<\/a>, coach Lindy Ruff said of Stanley and Schenn, \u201cI think they\u2019re still understanding how we try to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanley and Schenn have been on the ice for two goals against in their two games playing together. At times, Stanley has looked a step slow to react, and his puck movement hasn\u2019t been crisp. But as the game went along on Saturday, there were some subtle signs that he is getting more comfortable. In the third period, he made a decisive play in the neutral zone to eliminate time and space, a hint that he\u2019s more confident in his reads.<\/p>\n

Ruff is deploying Stanley and Schenn with heavy defensive-zone starts, and still, the Sabres have 53 percent of the expected goals during Stanley\u2019s five-on-five minutes in three games. Both players have gotten time on the penalty kill.<\/p>\n

The additions of Stanley and Schenn have created a logjam on Buffalo\u2019s blue line. Zach Metsa, a 27-year-old rookie, is exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. Kesselring, a big offseason acquisition, battled injuries early in the season and struggled to find his game. Now he\u2019s been scratched for two straight games. And Conor Timmins has missed nearly three months with a broken leg and is about a week away from returning to action. Those three, along with Stanley and Schenn, are competing for two spots in the lineup when everyone is healthy.<\/p>\n

But Stanley has the potential to solidify himself as a regular in the lineup. He was the main piece of that trade<\/a> with Winnipeg. His 6-foot-7 frame and the toughness to match were obvious draws. Ruff has also stated he thinks Stanley has the puck skills to fit in with Buffalo\u2019s fast-paced style of play.<\/p>\n

The Sabres are still waiting to see the best version of Stanley, but two former Sabres have seen it. When Stanley was playing his final season of junior hockey in Kitchener, his head coach was Jay McKee, and one of the team\u2019s assistant coaches was Matthew Barnaby. His size created an immediate fear factor in the OHL, but McKee saw more than just a big body.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what surprised me most about him was the way he could move and handle the puck for a guy his size,\u201d McKee said. \u201cTypically, guys with size like that, it takes more time to settle into their bodies and have everything connected in their movement. But he moves really well and has the long stick to close quick in the corners. That makes him really difficult for the opponent to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanley came to Kitchener with a built-in reputation as the No. 16 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Barnaby wondered how he would be as a teammate and whether he would be coachable. He saw a lot of players come through junior feeling like they had it all figured out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was not that guy,\u201d Barnaby said.<\/p>\n

Stanley welcomed criticism, was eager to help out younger players, played every situation and was always willing to work. He never hesitated to fight, either, putting up 111 penalty minutes in 61 games to go with 41 points. But Barnaby also remembers a game where he settled things down just by skating by the opponent\u2019s bench and delivering a firm warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was another hit in that game,\u201d Barnaby said. \u201cHe\u2019s a presence. When you have a presence, that alleviates a lot of things. The presence of him alone is going to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabres general manager Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen said he noticed teams trying to push the Sabres around in games. Stanley was part of the solution to that problem. But he knows he needs to bring more than that to fit in with one of the best blue lines in the NHL. That\u2019s why this week has been a crash course in Stanley getting used to Buffalo\u2019s system and style of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every team has the luxury of two No. 1 overall picks on their back end and a No. 4 in Bowen Byram,\u201d McKee said. \u201cLogan can move well and make the plays. I\u2019ve seen from watching their games how the D are sliding over and getting pucks to the net. There\u2019s some creativity back there. As a coach, you need some guys that can provide that, and I\u2019m not speaking for Lindy, but I wouldn\u2019t expect he wants every one of his D playing that way. They have to play to their strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a month until the Stanley Cup playoffs, there\u2019s still time for Stanley to figure out how his strengths fit into Buffalo\u2019s style of play. And Ruff has to decide where he fits best in the lineup. Will he keep playing him with Schenn? Will he try the Stanley-Kesselring pair again, or will Metsa get a shot to play with Stanley?<\/p>\n

Those answers will play out over time, but there\u2019s a lot about Buffalo that has been an easy fit for Stanley, who is in the final season of his contract. His family is two hours away in Waterloo, Ontario, so his mom, dad and brother have all already been able to see him play live. His parents are excited about the prospect of seeing Stanley\u2019s 3-year-old daughter more often, too. Stanley already sees some similarities to Winnipeg, where he made his NHL home for the first six years of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey care about the sports teams and love when they\u2019re good and kind of let you know when you\u2019re not so good,\u201d Stanley said. \u201cHardworking middle-class town where they work all week to go to the game on Saturday and have a few drinks and hang out.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKee still lives in Wilson, N.Y., north of Buffalo. He made a life here after playing in Buffalo for a decade. He\u2019s spent most of his adult life in the area and thinks this town will embrace \u201cexactly what Logan Stanley brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a player and a human, when you feel that love and respect from the organization and city that you\u2019re an athlete for, it drives you and makes your experience even more memorable,\u201d McKee said. \u201cPlayers who have never played in Buffalo or did but didn\u2019t have the success, they\u2019ll never understand. To me, it\u2019s not a sports town. It\u2019s a hockey town and a football town. They\u2019re going to love Logan Stanley, and he\u2019ll probably end up loving the town as much as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 On Friday afternoon, Logan Stanley was sitting leaning back into his stall in the Buffalo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1809,385,99],"class_list":["post-528568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}