The Buffalo Sabres made a few big additions this offseason in Taylor Hall and Eric Staal. They finally have a roster that you can reasonably argue has playoff potential. With that being the case, I don’t see any particular player on the roster that carries more impact than Krueger.

For example, the Sabres need Jack Eichel to be at the top of his game. However, if he plays to a similar level to what we saw last season, it doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot. Krueger, on the other hand, has an impact on multiple areas of the club that could sink them or set them up for success.

While Krueger isn’t the one on the ice, it’s his decisions that will impact team success. There are a handful of things that if he doesn’t make the proper choices or fails to utilize players properly that it could derail the entire season.

Let me show you how far the reach of Krueger goes into impacting the team by going over key decisions he needs to make.

1. Time for a Change in Top Pair Defender

Krueger became another coach in a long line of coaches that felt the need to play Rasmus Ristolainen as the top-pair defenseman. Admittedly, for a short period of time, it seemed to be working out for him. Then as the calendar flipped to 2020 and Ristolainen reverted back to the player we’ve watched for years.

It’s time.

Now is the time for someone else to get an opportunity to play top pair minutes on the blue line for this hockey club. Krueger has a 20-year-old defender that has the potential to be one of the best at his position. Rasmus Dahlin is going into his third year in the league and it’s time to take the training wheels off.

This should be a sink or swim season for him playing the most minutes on the blue line. Not only because of how long he has been in the league, but his contract situation comes into the picture as well.

There are some difficulties when you attempt to compare the 5 on 5 on-ice impacts of Dahlin against Ristolainen. While Dahlin’s numbers are better, the two were deployed different situationally. Having said that, there is a way to take a sample of ice time that can begin to paint the picture of the type of improvement the team would see transitioning from Ristolainen to Dahlin as a top-pair defenseman.

I posted this chart on team performance when Ristolainen and Dahlin are on the ice with Eichel in a recent post about Dahlin taking over this role. I’ll refresh your memory below:

The sample size is different, but situationally, the ice time with Eichel is comparable.

At the end of the day, the Sabres simply cannot run Ristolainen out again as their number one defenseman and expect good results. The concerning part is that Krueger is a fan of the player and showed a willingness to do it last season. He has to avoid the urge to make the same mistake again.

Any situation where Ristolainen plays top pair minutes would only be slightly acceptable if they’re with Dahlin. That pair hasn’t had a lot of success in the past, but if this is the avenue to get Dahlin more ice time so be it.

Under no circumstances can Krueger fall into the decision to play Ristolainen and Brandon Montour as their top pairing again. The impacts below from Micah McCurdy give you an idea of how big of an error that would be.

You have to hope that they don’t look at the pairing’s unrepeatable 5 on 5 goals differential (64%) that was buoyed by an on-ice save percentage of .950 and a shooting percentage of 13.74%, according to Natural Stat Trick.

2. Spread Out the Scoring at Forward

One of the benefits of adding more depth to the roster is that Krueger will have the potential to roll out three lines that could be scoring threats. There’s no longer an excuse to deploy a lineup that is top-heavy. The good news is that Krueger showed signs of understanding this by keeping Jeff Skinner away from Eichel. On the flip side, he was stubborn about taking Sam Reinhart off Eichel’s wing to see if he could kick start another line. Especially when the team was going through injuries at forward.

Rolling out a lineup that consists of the following as the top two lines is counterproductive:

• Hall – Eichel – Reinhart
• Skinner – Staal – Olofsson

It leaves the bottom of the roster vulnerable and doesn’t fully utilize the team’s ability to be a deeper lineup with proper line construction. They can’t leave Dylan Cozens to cut his teeth in the NHL on a line with Cody Eakin. He needs to play up the lineup and it makes to most sense to play him with Staal. A veteran centerman that can take him under his wing.

3. Jeff Skinner Dilemma

I can transition right into the next topic because it connects to the one above. Krueger can’t leave Skinner on an island with Eakin and Tage Thompson. If that’s the case, we’re going to see similar production to what we saw last season with him. They need to put their $9 million winger in a spot that he can get back to being productive.

There was something that went on last season between Krueger and Skinner. His quality of teammate was poor throughout the season and when he had success with Johan Larsson, Krueger didn’t stick with it. Last year was also the lowest time on ice per games played at 5 on 5 (13:28) for Skinner since the 2014-15 season, according to Natural Stat Trick.

He had a down year, but there were still signs of an impact player there. According to Evolving Hockey, he still led the team in 5 on 5 goal scoring per 60 minutes among players to play at least 100 minutes. Combine that with the fact that he shot 2.2 goals below expected in all situations, you can see signs of a bounce back.

Deploy him accordingly.

4. Embrace a Higher Event Style

Since it appears as though the same blueliners will return this season, Krueger needs to change his playing style. His blue line exceeds in transition and he needs to let them do that. Allow Dahlin to get involved in the rush and allow Montour to play in the one area of the game that he succeeds.

If the roster was constructed differently I could get behind a dump and chase approach again. They targeted speed and players that are better with the puck on their stick when they enter the offensive zone.

Krueger didn’t have the horses to play an up and down the ice game last season. That isn’t the case this year and he needs to embrace that. Trying to play a different style doesn’t fit the abilities of his roster and will once again restrict offensive output.

5. Get Creative Situationally

This is actually an area that Krueger showed some positive results in last season. He was willing to adjust his lineup based on game situations. The Sabres coach also embraced pulling the goaltender early and was beneficial for his club at times as you’ll see below at the bottom of Meghan Hall’s data visualization.

He needs to continue with this and also bring that willingness to try new things to the penalty kill. Hall and Eichel should both see time on the kill next season to bring more speed and offensive ability to that unit.

6. Don’t be Afraid to Play Inexperienced Players

This basically comes down to don’t be afraid to put Arttu Ruotsalainen into the lineup if he shows in training camp he can play. He’s playing top line minutes for Illves in Liiga and oh by the way is leading the league in scoring.

There will need to be some adjustment for him coming to North America, but he’s 22-years-old. The need to adjust doesn’t mean he should be ticketed for the AHL. Krueger can’t be afraid to play him over veterans on the roster like Curtis Lazar and Kyle Okposo.

Thompson is another player that falls into this category. If he has a strong camp, put him in a spot to succeed.

While this roster is improved, it’s still not talented enough to overcome poor coaching decisions and lineup construction. There isn’t a lot of room for error here and that’s why Krueger is the most important piece to success next season. His impact is felt in so many areas on the roster that it’s really not even close, in my opinion.

If he pulls all of the right levers or at the very least just makes the logicial choices, this club can compete for a playoff spot.

Data via: Evolving Hockey, Hockeyviz.com, Meghan Hall, Moneypuck, and Natural Stat Trick

Photo Credit: Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images