The Buffalo Sabres did pick up a player at the trade deadline after moving three off of their roster. By now, I’m sure you’re aware that they acquired forward Anders Bjork from the Boston Bruins as part of the Taylor Hall trade package. The 24-year-old was a fifth-round pick of the Bruins back in 2014 and this is his fourth season in the league.

To this point he hasn’t reached the potential of the player he was hyped up to be coming out of Notre Dame as a Hobey Baker finalist. He can be an interesting player for the Sabres if he can add some offense with a new opportunity and usage that allows him to move around the lineup.

Role in Boston

Bjork carved himself out a role as a forechecking winger with the Bruins, but struggled to stay in the lineup consistently. While expected offensive production never showed up, he did succeed in the defensive deployment he was given. Over the last two years he has been utilized on Charlie Coyle’s checking line. According to Evolving Hockey, Coyle was his primary center over the last two seasons. His other most common linemates were Sean Kuraly and Danton Heinen.

This year, Bjork was deployed in the heaviest defensive usage of his career. Through 30 games he had a 42.67% offensive zone start rate. You can see in Micah McCurdy’s individual impact chart that he was succeed playing as a defensive forward.

He has good defensive impacts, but was below average in generating offense with essentially a league average finishing ability. Bjork gives the Sabres the ability to utilize him up and down the lineup. He can be the type of forward to be placed on a line with a player like Dylan Cozens or Casey Mittelstadt as a defensively responsible winger. Also playing him with some offensively talented players could unlock some of that scoring potential. We saw some of it in his debut with the Sabres. He picked up a secondary assist and almost won the game in overtime.

Transition

One area that Bjork does excel is in transition. I looked into Corey Sznajder’s tracking data and noticed that he was one of the better Bruins players in a few areas that would help the Sabres generate more offense.

The first area he graded out well was in creating offense off the rush. This is a part of the game that the Sabres have struggled with throughout the season. It has improved under Don Granato, but could still use some help.

You’ll see in Corey’s chart above that he was the second-best forward on the Bruins in controlled entries with a scoring chances per 60 minutes. Not many players on the Sabres exceed in this area. One is out for the season (Jack Eichel) and the other was sent to the Bruins (Taylor Hall). Bjork and Cozens as linemates has the potential to be a dangerous rush line.

Bjork also was impressive in high-danger passing in Corey’s data.

Again, you’ll see here that he was one of the better players on the Bruins in shots off high-danger shots and shot assists per 60 minutes. The point of these last two charts is to show that there may be some offensive upside in Bjork. The question is where is that ceiling?

At 24-years-old it may not be much higher than what we’ve seen throughout his career. However, if he turns into solid two-way winger that can produce 30 points a season that could be a useful player. Especially at a cap hit of $1.6 million for the remainder of this season and next.

Bjork had a good debut with the Sabres and can be an intriguing player for them. He’ll get the opportunity to play in a top six role for the remainder of this season and then we’ll see where they fit him in next season. He’s not a player that has a high-end ceiling, but he can be a player that is an important part of the lineup on a playoff competitor.

Data via: Natural Stat Trick, Corey Sznajder, Hockeyviz.com, and Evolving Hockey

Photo Credit: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images