Buffalo Sabres: 2 Players Who Will Bounce Back Next Season

With the off-season starting to slow down a bit, we now have a better idea of every team's roster going into next season. Of course there will be other moves, but the craziness from the Expansion Draft and first day of free agency is officially done.

In this segment, we will be taking a look at two players from each NHL team who are set to bounce back next season. Sometimes players will have down seasons, but end up completely turning it around in the following one. This will inevitably happen for this upcoming year, too. With this specific piece, we will be focusing on the Buffalo Sabres.

Last season was a complete disaster for the Buffalo Sabres, so it makes sense that a lot of their players had off years. This upcoming season also will bring upon many changes, as they have already traded Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen. Jack Eichel also should be traded before the start of the season, so there are more changes to come. Yet, even with that being so, there is hope that some of their players can bounce back next season. Here are two who specifically come to mind.

Rasmus Dahlin D: Rasmus Dahlin showed signs of getting back on track nearing the end of the season, but his final statistics were still rough. In 56 games, he had five goals and 23 points to along with a disastrous -36. He was playing top-pair minutes on a historically bad Sabres team, so that certainly played a role in that last stat. Yet, he also noticeably declined in offense this year, too. In 59 games the season before, he had four goals and 40 points. He also had 44 points in his rookie season in 82 games. Next season should see his offensive totals shoot back up, as he is a real talent when on his game. He also is just 21-years-old, too.

Jeff Skinner LW: It's impossible to envision Jeff Skinner ever hitting the 40-goal plateau again like he did in his first season with the Sabres. However, it is fair to assume that he can perform better this upcoming season than he did this past one. In 53 games, he only had seven goals and 14 points. Although he is a veteran, he is still just 29-years-old, so there is reason to believe that a bounce back of some kind could be in order. He's had too much past offensive success to produce such low numbers on a consistent basis. These past two seasons have just been uncharacteristically rough for him.