It’s no secret that the 2020 offseason has to potential to create a lot of roster turnover for the Buffalo Sabres. One of the few depth forwards who is a near certainty to return next season is trade deadline acquisition, Dominik Kahun. The pending RFA should see a significant raise from his previous salary of $925,000 AAV. According to Evolving Hockey’s contract projections, he is expected to receive a two-year deal for a little under $3 million AAV.

With so many “unknowns” regarding how the forward depth chart will look in 2021, Kahun gives the Sabres some degree of flexibility. Though Ralph Krueger didn’t use him this way during his six games with the team prior to the suspension of the NHL season, the 24-year-old is a natural centerman. While his presence certainly doesn’t negate the need to acquire a second-line center, his versatility in that regard gives Jason Botterill some flexibility.

After acquiring Kahun, the Sabres’ general manager did mention the potential to try him as a pivot down the stretch, but as has been the case on more than a couple of occasions, Botterill’s words didn’t match Krueger’s deployment actions. For that reason, Kahun is a bit of a “wild card” for next season. Let’s take a look at some ways he could be aptly utilized given what we know about his skill set.

From an analytics standpoint, his versatility extends beyond where he lines up on the ice. When looking at his transition numbers, he appears to be the type of player who could handle a wider-than-average range of zone-deployments. As a talented zone-entry passer (as well as a very effective possession-exit player), he is the type of forward who could really help facilitate offensively talented linemates despite not necessarily posting gaudy base statistical numbers of his own.

This skill set follows Botterill’s trend of seeking out players with strong transitional ability. It’s one of the few things he’s actually been successful at. The only problem is, his coach’s system and subsequent utilization tactics are stark in contrast to this approach (a topic Chad outlined pretty thoroughly last month). At one point in the middle of a post-game interview, Krueger even admitted to forgetting that Kahun was on his bench… so, there’s that.

Last season between his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins and his short run with the Sabres, Kahun was deployed very similarly from a zone-start standpoint. On the year, that mark stood at just under 67-percent. Given his strong underlying metrics as both a zone-exit, and zone-entry asset, perhaps a more balanced deployment (or even slightly defensive), would have been a better approach.

Even at such a high OZS rate, the Penguins’ offense saw a seven-percent reduction in their average offensive xG rate with him on the ice. Conversely, their opponent’s xG average saw a two-percent reduction.

In 2018-19 with the Chicago Blackhawks, Kahun’s OZS rate stood at 55.93-percent, while his relative xG and Corsi percentages were significantly better than we saw in 2019-20. Obviously, there are a lot of factors to consider here, including the types of linemates he succeeded with.

In Chicago, his primary linemates were Alex DeBrincat and Jonathan Toews. Given the talent level of those two players, it’s not hard to see how Kahun was so successful. In just over 217 minutes with Toews and DeBrincat, he posted a relative Corsi of 3.18, and an xG percentage of 3.62.

Interestingly enough, in the 417:03 he spent away from both of them, those same metrics actually improved to 3.54 and 5.81, respectively. Circling back to the zone-deployment theory we suggested above, Kahun started in the offensive-zone over 63-percent of the time when skating with DeBrincat and Toews. Away from them, that ratio dropped down to 52.17-percent, fortifying the aforementioned theory that his skill set could be further optimized with a more even zone-start ratio.

This season with the Penguins, Kahun bounced around the lineup, playing on lines with Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Jared McCann, and Partic Hornqvist. Alongside Malkin and Rust, he produced nicely, posting a relative xG mark of 1.89 in what was once again, a very offensively-tilted role. The same goes for McCann and Hornqvist, with whom his xG rate improved to 4.07-percent.

The good news is that Kahun has shown some level of success alongside both highly-skilled, and middle-six caliber linemates. Again, this speaks to his versatility, and how his strong transitional ability can help facilitate offensive-zone entities.

One interesting thing to consider is what Kahun could contribute alongside a player like Jack Eichel on the top line. If Krueger does not plan to try him as a centerman, perhaps his ability as a puck-mover could allow the coaching staff to move Sam Reinhart down to the de facto second-line, and help balance the Sabres’ scoring depth.

As someone who has played under three head coaches over his two seasons at the NHL level, much of this is speculative. In theory, the Sabres would be wise to test Kahun’s skill set in a variety of different roles and deployments to see where he fits best.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. Still, his role and subsequent production is a sneaky wild card of sorts for the 2020-21 Sabres. Botterill does deserve some credit for this acquisition, which could quietly become a cost-effective steal for the Sabres over the next few years.

Linemate, Corsi, and xG Metrics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick

Transitions and Linemates Charts courtesy of Charting Hockey

Shot Heatmaps courtesy of Hockeyviz.com