That\u2019s exactly how the Sabres\u2019 defensemen play, and as the forwards learned to cover for them at the blue line last season, it became a winning formula.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all really good skaters, they all have a great head for the game. Lots of really good puck decisions,\u201d Zellweger said of his new teammates on the back end. \u201cThey kind of quarterback the whole system. I love watching all those guys. \u2026 All just great players, high skill, and I think lots of potential to get better as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zellweger set career highs last season in games played (76), points (22) and blocked shots (85). He also added two points in three playoff games.<\/p>\n
The left-shot Calgary native played almost exclusively with right-handed partners, like heavy hitters Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas. But he already has some familiarity with the left-shot Power, having played with him at the IIHF World Junior Championship and World Championship. Combine that background with Zellweger\u2019s skillset, and it hints at a possible second-pair role this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrading Bo Byram obviously created a hole,\u201d Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen said. \u201cThis is a young player that has a lot of the same qualities. Really good skater, speed, puck play, ability to move up the ice, whether it\u2019s with a pass or carrying the puck out of the zone. We see a lot of potential in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna come in there,\u201d added Zellweger, \u201cand I\u2019m gonna put my best foot forward and try to earn the most opportunity I can. Show what I can do, show that I\u2019m ready for that bigger role starting right away this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That\u2019s exactly how the Sabres\u2019 defensemen play, and as the forwards learned to cover for them at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-842825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842825","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=842825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}