The revolving injury door is going to continue to spin for the rest of this Sabres season, but as players return and other players get hurt, Mark Jankowski should have a full-time spot for the remainder of this regular season. 

After starting the season in Rochester on a minor league contract following a season with the Penguins, the 27-year-old has put up two goals and two assists in 14 games through the end of January. He’s also won 75 of 147 faceoffs for a 51% win rate. Considering he started in Rochester this season, that’s not too shabby of a start for his Sabres tenure. Given the depleted Sabres roster, we can’t assign him to a line right now to assign more context to his minutes – he’s been all over the place, but in comparing him to his teammates, or in particular, one teammate, if this version of the Sabres gets healthy as the year rolls on, Jankowski has earned the edge.

Mark Jankowski vs Cody Eakin

Both Jankowski and Eakin aren’t going to wow anyone with their offensive production. Both are above 50% at the faceoff circle. There is, however, one difference that cannot be ignored: Jankowski is a much better defender.

When it comes down to how the Sabres roster is currently constructed, healthy or not, if the bottom line or two is not being expected to have consistent contributions given the personnel, they have to accommodate this with their abilities on defense. Now, we can’t expect the bottom six to be clones of Zemgus Girgensons defensively, but Eakin’s defensive impact compared to Jankowski’s equates to about 0.3 goals per 60 more 0 and the heat map from Micah’s charts don’t hide how the Sabres get attacked in front of the net regularly and at a way higher volume.

Roster Movement

Eakin’s tenure in Buffalo has been rocky, to say the least, and there have been times where Don Granato has had him take some time in the press box, so I don’t imagine that he will be back next season. And who knows, maybe a team wants a faceoff guy for the playoffs who has experience playing well into the spring – crazier trades have happened. With Jankowski, we’ll see what happens this summer, but I think there’s a bigger point here for what he represents.

As the Sabres continue to build their roster back up after last summer’s tear-down offseason, there will still be several roster spots open next season for cameos. Depending on the year, some of them may be near the end of their careers like David Legwand. Some may be fringe NHL/AHL players looking for a bounce-back or a more stable NHL opportunity such as Mark Jankowski.

Whatever status they have headed into upcoming seasons, those cameos need to continue to be one-year contracts or training camp invites. One way to ensure learning from the mistakes of the past will be making sure that when young players are ready to make their next jump, they won’t be stuck in Rochester because a guy like, say, Cody Eakin, has a two-year contract and his veteran experience is keeping him in the lineup.

With a Jankowski-type signing, you get to reassess yearly what kind of holes need to be filled without too long of a commitment, and if a Rochester guy only needs a beginning of the season stint in the minors, they can get NHL playing time by the end of the season because the veteran on a one year deal in a fourth-line role can either become a deadline asset, healthy scratch that returns to the lineup upon injuries and helps maintain stability if the roster gets thin, or if it’s not working out as either side intended, being waived and heading to another team or back to Rochester to be a veteran there.  

This is the beauty of what they’ve gotten out of Jankowski, and they should look to find a similar guy every year until their roster is so deep or talented enough that guys are not signing for extra minutes or revitalization of their careers, but for a chance to play a role on a team expecting to make a run in the playoffs. 

Photo Credit: Micheline Michaelina/Rochester Amerks

Data via: Hockeyviz.com