BUFFALO – The Sabres wasted no time getting newcomer Matt Grzelcyk acclimated. Without the benefit of a practice or pregame skate, they threw the defenseman into the lineup for their preseason finale.
Grzelcyk, who on Friday signed a one-year, $850,000 contract, looked comfortable throughout Saturday afternoon’s 3-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, skating 16 minutes, 48 seconds, mostly alongside Conor Timmins.
“It almost helped, honestly, just having no pregame skate, nothing – just go right into the game, didn’t have time to think about anything,” Grzelcyk said in KeyBank Center following his first game action since March 22.
Less than a week ago, the Sabres’ blue line appeared to be set. Then in the second period of Tuesday’s 5-1 preseason win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Mattias Samuelsson and Olen Zellweger went down.
Samuelsson suffered a lower-body injury blocking a shot that will sideline him week to week before a hard hit left newcomer Olen Zellweger concussed. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Zellweger is in concussion protocol and has been skating.
Losing two defensemen in about a 13-minute span so early in the season clearly forced the Sabres, who aiming to win the Stanley Cup, to reevaluate their depth.
Instead of relying on a journeyman or youngster to fill valuable minutes, they infused experience by inking the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Grzelcyk, a veteran of 662 total NHL games.
Grzelcyk, 32, said he tries “to make a great first pass, use my legs to my advantage and be shifty.”
“But in the D-zone just compete,” he said. “Obviously, I’m not the biggest guy in the world, but just compete hard, be smart, use your hockey IQ to your advantage.”
The Boston native played 20 games during the Bruins’ run to Game 7 of the 2019 final and was also a regular in 2022-23 when they earned an NHL-record 135 points in the regular season.
Among players expected to make the Sabres’ 23-man roster, his 66 career postseason appearances are the most.
While they advanced to the second round last season, the Sabres, remember, ended an NHL-record 14-year playoff drought. They’re still light on postseason experience.
Adding a seasoned and respected player like Grzelcyk can go a long way.
“They’ve been through some tough times here,” he said. “But a lot of the group has been through it together. So (it) seems like they have a very tight nucleus here, a super tight team. You lean on that.
“I thought last year was just great to watch them battle through (the) playoff series. That’s where you see growth in (an) organization. They’re on the right track.”
The waiting and uncertainty Grzelcyk experienced throughout the offseason and into training camp was nothing new.
A year ago, fresh off registering a career-high 39 assists and 40 points with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he settled for a professional tryout with the Chicago Blackhawks that he parlayed into a one-year deal at the end of camp.
This year, as the weeks dragged into months and he hadn’t found a new team in free agency, he leaned on his experience from last summer – “(I) knew what to expect a little bit,” he said – and stayed ready by working out with other players at Boston University, where he played four years for the Terriers.
When the Sabres called Wednesday, Grzelcyk said he felt “pure excitement.”
“The way that they have turned things around here, just from the outside, looking in, looks like such a fun group,” he said. “A group that works hard and is, obviously, super hard to play against.”