# 2013–14 Buffalo Sabres season

The 2013–14 Buffalo Sabres season was the 44th season for the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise that was established on May 22, 1970. The Sabres moved to the realigned Atlantic Division, which included the previous season's Northeast Division with the addition of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings. Ron Rolston, who started the season as head coach, was fired after 20 games and replaced by Ted Nolan, who had previously coached the team from 1995 to 1997. In terms of point percentage, this is the worst season in Sabres franchise history, and the third worst in the salary cap era behind the 2016-2017 Colorado Avalanche and the 2019-2020 Detroit Red Wings.

## Off-season

Ron Rolston was made the permanent head coach when Darcy Regier removed the interim tag from his title. Regier did not interview any other candidates for the position. Rolston replaced Lindy Ruff who was fired the season before after serving as head coach for nearly 16 seasons.

### Training camp

The Sabres' training camp saw the arrival of many highly touted prospects into the Sabres' lineup. Newly acquired first round picks Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov both made the opening day roster along with 2012 first round picks Mikhail Grigorenko, Zemgus Girgensons and 2011 first round pick Joel Armia. Armia and Zadorov were both injured in the pre-season and would not play right away.
The pre-season saw the Sabres involved in a controversial game. In a road game at the Toronto Maple Leafs, a fight between Corey Tropp and Toronto winger Jamie Devane ended with Tropp injured. On the ensuing faceoff, Sabres' enforcer John Scott lined up opposite to Phil Kessel and attempted to engage him in a fight. A line brawl followed in which 209 minutes in penalties were handed out, including 11 fighting majors and 14 ten-minute misconduct penalties. During the fight, Maple Leaf David Clarkson would leave the bench to fight. Clarkson would later be suspended by the NHL for ten regular season games. Phil Kessel received a three-game pre-season game ban for slashing Scott with the intent to injure. Sabres Head Coach Ron Rolston was fined an undisclosed amount for "player selection." The fine was controversial due to the fact that Scott was on the ice the previous shift and the Leafs, being the home team, had last change. Corey Tropp suffered a broken jaw and concussion in the fight.
The day before the start of the regular season, Rolston named the new team captain. With the trade of team captain Jason Pominville the year before, the captaincy had remained vacant. Rolston used a rotating captaincy in the preseason. Steve Ott and Thomas Vanek were named co-captains for the 2013–14 season. Ott would wear the "C" for all road games and Vanek would wear it at home. Christian Ehrhoff would wear an "A" during all games.

## Regular season

Opening the season with a lineup that featured Zemgus Girgensons, Mikhail Grigorenko, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov, the 2013–14 Sabres were the first team since the 1995–96 season to include four teenagers.
On November 13, 2013, general manager Darcy Regier and Head Coach Ron Rolston were relieved of their duties. Former Sabre Pat LaFontaine was hired as President of Hockey Operations (a position that had been left vacant since the departure of Larry Quinn in 2011) and Ted Nolan was hired as the interim head coach. After hiring Ottawa Senators' Assistant general manager Tim Murray to the vacant general manager position on January 9, Pat LaFontaine resigned as President of Hockey Operations on March 1, 2014, to return to his previous position with the NHL.
The Sabres made numerous trades leading up to and right before the March 5 trading deadline. On February 28, they traded away veterans Ryan Miller and Steve Ott to the St. Louis Blues. Then on March 5, the NHL trade deadline day, they made three separate trades with the Minnesota Wild, Washington Capitals and Los Angeles Kings.

## Standings

Atlantic Division :
| Pos | Team v t e | GP | W | L | OTL | ROW | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | p – Boston Bruins | 82 | 54 | 19 | 9 | 51 | 261 | 177 | +84 | 117 |
| 2 | x – Tampa Bay Lightning | 82 | 46 | 27 | 9 | 38 | 240 | 215 | +25 | 101 |
| 3 | x – Montreal Canadiens | 82 | 46 | 28 | 8 | 40 | 215 | 204 | +11 | 100 |
| 4 | x – Detroit Red Wings | 82 | 39 | 28 | 15 | 34 | 222 | 230 | −8 | 93 |
| 5 | Ottawa Senators | 82 | 37 | 31 | 14 | 30 | 236 | 265 | −29 | 88 |
| 6 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 82 | 38 | 36 | 8 | 29 | 231 | 256 | −25 | 84 |
| 7 | Florida Panthers | 82 | 29 | 45 | 8 | 21 | 196 | 268 | −72 | 66 |
| 8 | Buffalo Sabres | 82 | 21 | 51 | 10 | 14 | 157 | 248 | −91 | 52 |
Eastern Conference Wild Card :
| Pos | Div | Team v t e | GP | W | L | OTL | ROW | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | ME | x – Columbus Blue Jackets | 82 | 43 | 32 | 7 | 38 | 231 | 216 | +15 | 93 |
| 2 | AT | x – Detroit Red Wings | 82 | 39 | 28 | 15 | 34 | 222 | 230 | −8 | 93 |
| 3 | ME | Washington Capitals | 82 | 38 | 30 | 14 | 28 | 235 | 240 | −5 | 90 |
| 4 | ME | New Jersey Devils | 82 | 35 | 29 | 18 | 35 | 197 | 208 | −11 | 88 |
| 5 | AT | Ottawa Senators | 82 | 37 | 31 | 14 | 30 | 236 | 265 | −29 | 88 |
| 6 | AT | Toronto Maple Leafs | 82 | 38 | 36 | 8 | 29 | 231 | 256 | −25 | 84 |
| 7 | ME | Carolina Hurricanes | 82 | 36 | 35 | 11 | 34 | 207 | 230 | −23 | 83 |
| 8 | ME | New York Islanders | 82 | 34 | 37 | 11 | 25 | 225 | 267 | −42 | 79 |
| 9 | AT | Florida Panthers | 82 | 29 | 45 | 8 | 21 | 196 | 268 | −72 | 66 |
| 10 | AT | Buffalo Sabres | 82 | 21 | 51 | 10 | 14 | 157 | 248 | −91 | 52 |

## Schedule and results
### Regular season

2013–14 Game Log Overall: 21–51–10 (Home: 13–21–7; Road: 8–30–3) :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Overtime/shootout loss (1 point) :

## Playoffs

The Sabres failed to qualify for the playoffs for the third straight year.

## Player stats

Final stats

### Skaters

Regular Season :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Cody Hodgson | 72 | 20 | 24 | 44 | −26 | 20 |
| Tyler Ennis | 80 | 21 | 22 | 43 | −25 | 42 |
| Drew Stafford | 70 | 16 | 18 | 34 | −19 | 39 |
| Christian Ehrhoff | 79 | 6 | 27 | 33 | −27 | 38 |
| Matt Moulson$^{†‡}$ | 44 | 11 | 18 | 29 | −8 | 20 |
| Tyler Myers | 62 | 9 | 13 | 22 | −26 | 58 |
| Zemgus Girgensons | 70 | 8 | 14 | 22 | −6 | 14 |
| Steve Ott$^‡$ | 59 | 9 | 11 | 20 | −26 | 55 |
| Marcus Foligno | 74 | 7 | 12 | 19 | −17 | 82 |
| Jamie McBain | 69 | 6 | 11 | 17 | −13 | 14 |
| Ville Leino | 58 | 0 | 15 | 15 | −16 | 10 |
| Brian Flynn | 79 | 6 | 7 | 13 | −10 | 14 |
| Matt D'Agostini$^†$ | 49 | 5 | 6 | 11 | −14 | 22 |
| Thomas Vanek$^‡$ | 13 | 4 | 5 | 9 | −5 | 4 |
| Mike Weber | 68 | 1 | 8 | 9 | −29 | 73 |
| Henrik Tallinder | 64 | 2 | 6 | 8 | −21 | 34 |
| Mark Pysyk | 44 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −11 | 16 |
| Matt Ellis | 50 | 4 | 2 | 6 | −6 | 4 |
| Cory Conacher$^†$ | 19 | 3 | 3 | 6 | −7 | 16 |
| Cody McCormick$^‡$ | 29 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −8 | 45 |
| Rasmus Ristolainen | 34 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −15 | 6 |
| Johan Larsson | 28 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 19 |
| Mikhail Grigorenko | 18 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −3 | 2 |
| Phil Varone | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −3 | 4 |
| Alexander Sulzer | 25 | 0 | 2 | 2 | −3 | 8 |
| Linus Omark$^{†‡}$ | 13 | 0 | 2 | 2 | −5 | 6 |
| Torrey Mitchell$^†$ | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| John Scott | 56 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −12 | 125 |
| Luke Adam | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Nicolas Deslauriers | 17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −10 | 18 |
| Nikita Zadorov | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −4 | 4 |
| Zenon Konopka$^†$ | 23 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −4 | 33 |
| Kevin Porter | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −5 | 2 |
| Jake McCabe | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −3 | 15 |
| Chad Ruhwedel | 21 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −3 | 2 |
| Corey Tropp$^‡$ | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −8 | 0 |
| Patrick Kaleta | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 5 |
| Chris Stewart$^†$ | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 6 |
| Brayden McNabb$^‡$ | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |

### Goaltenders

Regular Season :
| Player | GP | GS | TOI | W | L | OT | GA | GAA | SA | SV% | SO | G | A | PIM |
| Ryan Miller$^‡$ | 40 | 40 | 2,383:47 | 15 | 22 | 3 | 108 | 2.72 | 1411 | 0.923 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Jhonas Enroth | 28 | 26 | 1,574:14 | 4 | 17 | 5 | 74 | 2.82 | 834 | 0.911 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Hackett | 8 | 8 | 426:06 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 22 | 3.10 | 239 | 0.908 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nathan Lieuwen | 7 | 5 | 363:22 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 2.98 | 191 | 0.906 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michal Neuvirth$^†$ | 2 | 2 | 117:03 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2.56 | 98 | 0.949 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Connor Knapp | 2 | 1 | 76:31 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3.12 | 32 | 0.875 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
$^†$Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Sabres. Stats reflect time with the Sabres only. $^‡$Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Sabres only. Bold/italics denotes franchise record.

### Milestones

Regular Season :
| Player | Milestone | Reached |
| Zemgus Girgensons | 1st Career NHL Game 1st Career NHL Goal 1st Career NHL Point | October 2, 2013 |
| Rasmus Ristolainen | 1st Career NHL Game | October 2, 2013 |
| Zemgus Girgensons | 1st Career NHL Assist | October 14, 2013 |
| Kevin Porter | 200th Career NHL Game | October 14, 2013 |
| Nikita Zadorov | 1st Career NHL Game | October 19, 2013 |
| Nikita Zadorov | 1st Career NHL Goal 1st Career NHL Point | October 23, 2013 |
| Rasmus Ristolainen | 1st Career NHL Goal 1st Career NHL Point | October 25, 2013 |
| Tyler Ennis | 200th Career NHL Game | October 26, 2013 |
| Johan Larsson | 1st Career NHL Assist 1st Career NHL Point | November 2, 2013 |
| Tyler Myers | 300th Career NHL Game | January 18, 2014 |
| Steve Ott | 100th Career NHL Goal | January 21, 2014 |
| Phil Varone | 1st Career NHL Game 1st Career NHL Assist 1st Career NHL Point | January 23, 2014 |
| Phil Varone | 1st Career NHL Goal | January 28, 2014 |
| Nicolas Deslauriers | 1st Career NHL Game | March 7, 2014 |
| Drew Stafford | 500th Career NHL Game | March 11, 2014 |
| Matt Ellis | 300th Career NHL Game | March 11, 2014 |
| Nathan Lieuwen | 1st Career NHL Game | March 16, 2014 |
| Rasmus Ristolainen | 1st Career NHL Assist | March 29, 2014 |
| Nathan Lieuwen | 1st Career NHL Win | April 1, 2014 |
| Jake McCabe | 1st Career NHL Game | April 3, 2014 |
| Nicolas Deslauriers | 1st Career NHL Goal 1st Career NHL Point | April 4, 2014 |
| Chad Ruhwedel | 1st Career NHL Assist 1st Career NHL Point | April 4, 2014 |
| Connor Knapp | 1st Career NHL Game | April 12, 2014 |
| Jake McCabe | 1st Career NHL Assist 1st Career NHL Point | April 13, 2014 |

## Transactions

The Sabres have been involved in the following transactions during the 2013–14 season:

### Trades

| June 30, 2013 | To Carolina Hurricanes Andrej Sekera | To Buffalo Sabres Jamie McBain 2nd-round pick in 2013 – J. T. Compher |
| July 7, 2013 | To New Jersey Devils Riley Boychuk | To Buffalo Sabres Henrik Tallinder |
| October 27, 2013 | To New York Islanders Thomas Vanek | To Buffalo Sabres Matt Moulson 1st-round pick in 2015 – Colin White 2nd-round pick in 2015 – Brendan Guhle |
| December 19, 2013 | To Edmonton Oilers Conditional 6th-round pick in 2014 | To Buffalo Sabres Linus Omark |
| February 28, 2014 | To St. Louis Blues Ryan Miller Steve Ott | To Buffalo Sabres Jaroslav Halak Chris Stewart William Carrier 1st-round pick in 2015 – Jack Roslovic Conditional 3rd-round pick in 2016 – Linus Nassen |
| March 5, 2014 | To Los Angeles Kings Brayden McNabb Jonathan Parker 2nd-round pick in 2014 – Alex Lintuniemi 2nd-round pick in 2015 – Erik Cernak | To Buffalo Sabres Nicolas Deslauriers Hudson Fasching |
| March 5, 2014 | To Washington Capitals Jaroslav Halak 3rd-round pick in 2015 – Robin Kovacs | To Buffalo Sabres Michal Neuvirth Rostislav Klesla |
| March 5, 2014 | To Minnesota Wild Matt Moulson Cody McCormick | To Buffalo Sabres Torrey Mitchell 2nd-round pick in 2014 – Vitek Vanecek 2nd-round pick in 2016 – Chad Krys |
Player signings
Player
Date
Contract terms
Matt EllisJuly 3, 20132 years, $1.1 million
Alexander SulzerJuly 5, 20131 year, $725,000
Rasmus RistolainenJuly 12, 20133 years, $2.775 million entry-level contract
Nick CrawfordJuly 19, 20131 year, $550,000
Brian FlynnJuly 19, 20132 years, $1.275 million
Matt HackettJuly 23, 20131 year, $715,000
Luke AdamJuly 23, 20131 year, $735,000
Corey TroppAugust 6, 20131 year, $577,500
Cody HodgsonSeptember 11, 20136 years, $25.5 million
Nikita ZadorovSeptember 25, 20133 years, $2.775 million entry-level contract
Justin KeaApril 1, 20143 years, $1.94 million entry-level contract
Jake McCabeApril 2, 20143 years, $2.775 million entry-level contract
Nicolas DeslauriersMay 26, 20142 years, $1.275 million contract extension
Linus UllmarkMay 27, 20143 years, $2.775 million entry-level contract
Brady AustinMay 29, 20143 years, $1.88 million entry-level contract
Nicholas BaptisteMay 31, 20143 years, $2.7 million entry-level contract :

## Draft picks

Buffalo Sabres' picks at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, to be held in Newark, New Jersey on June 30, 2013.
| Round | # | Player | Pos | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
| 1 | 8 | Rasmus Ristolainen | Defense | Finland | TPS (SM-liiga) |
| 1 | 16 | Nikita Zadorov | Defense | Russia | CSKA Moscow (KHL) |
| 2 | 35 | J. T. Compher | Center | United States | U.S. National Team Development Program (USHL) |
| 2 | 38 | Connor Hurley | Center | United States | Edina High School (USHS-MN) |
| 2 | 52 | Justin Bailey | Right wing | United States | Kitchener Rangers (OHL) |
| 3 | 69 | Nicholas Baptiste | Right wing | Canada | Sudbury Wolves (OHL) |
| 5 | 129 | Cal Petersen | Goaltender | United States | Waterloo Black Hawks (USHL) |
| 5 | 130 | Gustav Possler | Right wing | Sweden | Modo Hockey J20 (J20 SuperElit) |
| 5 | 143 | Anthony Florentino | Defense | United States | South Kent School (USHS-CT) |
| 6 | 159 | Sean Malone | Center | United States | U.S. National Team Development Program (USHL) |
| 7 | 189 | Eric Locke | Center | United States | Saginaw Spirit (OHL) |

### Draft notes

* $^a$ The Minnesota Wild's first-round pick went to the Buffalo Sabres as a result of an April 3, 2013, trade that sent Jason Pominville and a 2014 fourth-round pick to the Wild in exchange for Johan Larsson, Matt Hackett and this pick.
* The Carolina Hurricanes' second-round pick went to the Buffalo Sabres at the draft in a trade that sent Andrej Sekera to Carolina for Jamie McBain and this pick.
* $^c$ The St. Louis Blues' second-round pick went to the Buffalo Sabres as a result of a March 30, 2013, trade that sent Jordan Leopold to the Blues in exchange for a conditional 2013 fifth-round pick and this pick.
* The Buffalo Sabres' fourth-round pick went to the Nashville Predators as the result of a February 27, 2012, trade that sent a 2012 first-round pick (#21–Mark Jankowski) to the Sabres in exchange for Paul Gaustad and this pick.
* $^d$ The New Jersey Devils' fifth-round pick went to the Buffalo Sabres (via Los Angeles and Florida), Florida traded this pick to Buffalo as a result of a March 15, 2013, trade that sent T. J. Brennan to the Panthers in exchange for this pick.
* $^e$ The St. Louis Blues' fifth-round pick went to the Buffalo Sabres as a result of a March 30, 2013, trade that sent Jordan Leopold to the Blues in exchange for a 2013 second-round pick and this pick.