Mark Pysyk

The defensive corps of the Buffalo Sabres underwent a radical transformation over the summer of 2021. Their longtime top pairing of Rasmus Ristolainen and Jake McCabe departed via trade and free agency, respectively, forcing the team into a redesign. One of the first moves it made was bringing back an old friend by signing Mark Pysyk to a one-year deal.

BUFFALO – By the end of the season, after five months of regular duty, Sabres defenseman Mark Pysyk morphed into a spare part. Down the stretch, the Sabres utilized a blue line comprised entirely of youngsters – Casey Fitzgerald, at just 25, was the oldest defenseman – so Pysyk, Will Butcher and Colin Miller rarely played.

Mark Pysyk had just completed the first period of his 500th NHL game when he decided to put his mic holding skills to the test. Pysyk had been asked to do a between-periods interview with Sabres play-by-play voice Dan Dunleavy in which both men would be holding a microphone. Just before the interview went live, Dunleavy's mic experienced techinical issues.

BUFFALO – At first, Sabres winger Kyle Okposo wasn’t sure if Mark Pysyk, his new teammate, might be serious. The defenseman always delivers his quips with a straight face. “If you just met him, you’d probably think he’s not a very nice person,” Okposo said prior to Tuesday’s game at KeyBank Center. “But he is. He’s just goofing around.”

Dustin Tokarski gets the stat in goal after a rough outing Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov is in NHL COVID-19 Protocols and is stuck in Calgary. Cory Schneider has been called up.

Mark Pysyk will be back in the lineup on Tuesday for the Buffalo Sabres and will play his 500th NHL game against the New York Islanders. Paul Hamilton has more details:

Pysyk scored a goal on two shots in Thursday's 3-2 shootout win over the Wild. Pysyk one-timed a centering pass from Vinnie Hinostroza to tie the game at 2-2 in the third period. The goal was Pysyk's first of the season. He's at six points, 36 shots on net, 45 blocked shots and a plus-3 rating through 29 contests, mainly playing in a second- or third-pairing role.

BUFFALO – This season, Rasmus Dahlin’s fourth in the NHL, the Sabres defenseman has been trying to calm down a little. Earlier in his career, Dahlin’s competitiveness often overwhelmed him, and any mistake he made stayed with him. “This is probably the first year I’ve been thinking about it more...

Pysyk produced an assist, three blocked shots, two PIM and a plus-2 rating in Friday's 3-2 win over the Oilers. Pysyk has picked up two of his three helpers this year in the last two games. The 29-year-old blueliner isn't known to contribute much on offense -- his career high in points is 18 in 58 games when he was deployed as winger with the Panthers in 2019-20. He's added 18 blocks, 12 hits, 16 shots on net and a plus-3 rating in 13 outings this year.

BUFFALO – Mark Pysyk hasn’t enjoyed a prominent role like this in years. For two seasons, the Sabres defenseman moved around and out of the lineup, often moonlighting as a winger when he wasn’t scratched. Pysyk, 29, signed a one-year, $900,000 contract to return to the Sabres, in part because...

Don Granato admitted he sees what you see. His defense pairings were in a bad rut that reached its low point when the Sabres ran around in Seattle on Thursday. Things seemed better for about 50 minutes Saturday night until a late collapse against Detroit turned a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 overtime loss.

Granato said, “Players that have a mind like Dahls you have a confidence where you say I know there’s a great play to be made and when you’re looking for it, you force a lot. You say to yourself, ‘I can make this play’ and is closes up.”

BUFFALO – Sabres defensemen Robert Hagg and Mark Pysyk form a no-frills tandem. The newcomers’ simplicity is perhaps their greatest strength. “We try to move the puck up north as quick as we can and try to close plays in the D-zone as quick as we can,” Hagg said following Wednesday’s practice at KeyBank Center. “I think that’s why we’ve been successful so far.”

BUFFALO – Sometimes, Mark Pysyk said, it seems like he only left the Sabres a week ago. Other times, however, he acknowledged it feels like it has been a long time. The Sabres, who signed a one-year, $900,000 contract to return, left in 2016. Only one teammate from the affable defenseman’s first run here, center Zemgus Girgensons, is still with the team.

Mark Pysyk said the move shocked him. He had played defense his entire career, and the Florida Panthers suddenly wanted to utilize him as a forward. But Pysyk had become a spare part in the 2019-20 season under new coach Joel Quenneville. Shifting to wing beat the alternative of remaining a healthy scratch.

A little over five years ago, on day two of the 2016 NHL draft, former Sabres General Manager Tim Murray traded Mark Pysyk – the Sabres’ first round selection in 2010 – for Florida Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and the 33rd selection in the 2016 draft (Rasmus Asplund). The topic of analytics was just beginning to go mainstream in terms of fan awareness and some questioned whether it was a good idea to part with the analytic wunderkind Pysyk for the more truculent Kulikov. Then-coach Dan Bylsma felt the addition of Kulikov was a solid idea to bring some balance to their defensive pairs while also adding a bit of sandpaper.

When another Buffalo Sabres season ended without playoff hockey, and with no clear path to a breakthrough in sight, Rasmus Ristolainen delivered another expression of frustration that made a makeover of the club’s defense seem inevitable. “I'm frustrated,” Ristolainen lamented to reporters after failing to reach the postseason through his...