It was a little bit of a surprise to find out that Jacob Bryson was going to make his NHL debut on Tuesday night against the New Jersey Devils. The 23-year-old had a strong debut and nearly scored a goal in the first period.

Bryson is a fourth-round pick of the Sabres from the 2017 NHL Draft. He started to show up on the fan’s radar during his junior and senior seasons at Providence University. The Canadian-born defenseman followed that up with a strong rookie season with the Rochester Amerks.

High-Event Style

Bryson has picked up the reputation of being a high-event player in his season and five games of a second year with the Amerks. What this means is that he’ll be on the ice for a lot of shot attempts and quality against. However, he’ll also be on the ice for a good amount of shot attempts and quality attempts for.

Looking at the shot data I tracked over the last two seasons in Rochester, you can see what I’m referring to visually. The first chart will be a look at this season and the second chart is the 2019-20 season.

There’s nothing wrong with that style of play if a player can come out on the positive end more times than not. In Bryson’s case, he has been able to do that the majority of the time in the AHL. In fact, this is a style of play the Sabres could use inserted into their lineup.

We saw this high-event play carry right over into his debut in the NHL. According to Evolving Hockey, he finished the game being on the ice for 18 shot attempts for and 17 against at 5 on 5 (score and venue adjusted). He was once again able to manage shot quality with a 66% expected goal share at 5 on 5 (SVA). The includes leading all defensemen in shot quality for (0.94) by slightly edging out Rasmus Dahlin (0.92). Having an on-ice shot quality close to one in your first NHL game is an impressive start.

Even without the numbers, you can see the high-event nature of his game. Late in the first period, he jumped into the rush and took a feed from Taylor Hall that he rang off the goal post.

Then late in the second period, Bryson gets up the ice on a rush and is caught down low. The Devils come back the other way on an odd-man rush. Nico Hischier gets in alone on Linus Ullmark, but the Sabres goaltender keeps the puck out.

Linus Ullmark stops Hischier in all alone #LetsGoBuffalo #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/mEMTXfqouY

— Buffalo Hockey moments (@SabresPlays) February 24, 2021

Transition Game

One of the areas that Bryson excels is his ability to move and carry the puck. He showcased that as a rookie in the AHL in our tracking data by leading the team in controlled exits out of the defensive zone.

The interesting part is in the five games this season he actually has struggled with zone exits. Bryson has been inconsistent and had the second-highest failed exit percentage on the team.

On Tuesday night I didn’t notice any bad turnovers, so hopefully, that part of his game cleans up. He’s not a strong defender and that’s where he can get into trouble. Especially when he makes it worse by turning the puck over when he has the ability to exit the zone.

One of the areas of his game that is underappreciated and not expected for a player of his size (5’9″), is his entry defense. Through the five games in the AHL, I tracked him second on the blue line behind Oskari Laaksonen in entry defense.

Entry defense is when a defender steps up on a player looking to carry the puck into the zone with possession. The defenseman will disrupt the entry and force the player to lose puck. Thus ending the opportunity to set up the offense.

We saw a perfect example of this last night when he took PK Subban out on the boards and ended the offensive opportunity.

Bryson is an interesting player for the Sabres that could be a nice bottom-pair defenseman for them. They need some depth on their left side with the season-ending injury to Jake McCabe. If he can step right in as a rookie and play like he did in his debut; the Sabres may not be in the type of trouble on the blue line that we initially thought.

Hopefully, Ralph Krueger doesn’t take that high-event style out of him because it’s fun to watch play out.

Photo Credit: Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images