Buffalo Sabres free agency: Connor Clifton, Erik Johnson signings should upgrade defense

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres’ blue line got a lot deeper on Saturday with the start of NHL free agency.

The Sabres announced the signing of former Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson to a one-year deal worth $3.25 million and quickly followed that announcement by signing former Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton to a three-year contract worth $3.33 million per season.

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Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams didn’t make a big secret about needing to upgrade the team’s defensive depth. He mentioned this week at the NHL Draft that there wasn’t a defenseman available that he hadn’t called about both via trade and free agency. What Adams and his staff were weighing was the cost of acquisition. Should the team give up assets to trade for a defenseman who has an expiring contract? If the Sabres added a player with a long-term contract, what else might that prevent them from doing?

Adams found a way to strike a balance on Saturday. First, he signed Johnson to a one-year deal. He’s 35 years old, so he’s not the player he once was. But the Sabres couldn’t ask for a better veteran to add to a young locker room. He was Colorado’s longest-tenured player prior to signing with the Sabres and was with the Avalanche for every step of their rebuild from a last-place team to Stanley Cup champions. Prior to signing Johnson, the Sabres didn’t have a single player on their roster with a Stanley Cup ring, and that perspective should make him worth the price tag.

Last season, Buffalo had three defensemen under 24 years old (Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson) playing huge roles for them. That those three now have a player like Johnson to lean on for guidance is valuable, especially during a season in which expectations will be rising for the Sabres.

Sabres blue line

As a player, Johnson will likely end up with third-pair minutes when everyone is healthy. He played just over 17 minutes per game last season, a career low. While he has definitely taken a step back, he’s adjusted well to playing more of a defensive role and has plenty of experience as a penalty killer, too.

The Sabres shouldn’t have to force Johnson up the lineup too often because they also signed Clifton, who is fresh off the best season of his career with the Bruins and just turned 28 years old in the spring. The Bruins had 52 percent of the expected goals when Clifton was on the ice at five-on-five last season, according to Natural Stat Trick. That was the best mark of his career. Even more encouraging, though, is that the Bruins had 67 percent of the expected goals in the 77 minutes Clifton was on the ice with Dimitry Orlov. It’s a small sample size, but that could be a hint at what Clifton could do with a better defensive partner.

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Clifton’s playing style would be a nice match for Power on Buffalo’s second defensive pair. Power has already shown signs of being an elite puck-moving defenseman with offensive instincts beyond his years. Clifton had 185 hits at five-on-five last season. That’s more than double the 91 hits Dahlin had at five-on-five to lead all Sabres defensemen last season. Clifton also led the Bruins in blocked shots last season and was a consistent presence on their second penalty kill unit.

Physicality is clearly a strong point of Clifton’s game despite the fact that he’s only 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds. He also has experience playing for Don Granato at the United States National Team Development Program, so the Sabres know the type of person they are getting. His transition to the locker room and system should be a smooth one.

While Clifton would be a match with Power, these two signings also give the Sabres a lot more options on defense than they had last season. Dahlin and Samuelsson formed a strong pair, but the Sabres could split them up if they wanted to create more balance throughout their blue line. At times, Dahlin, Samuelsson and Power were playing a heavy percentage of Buffalo’s minutes on defense. Now, the team should be able to spread out the workload more evenly.

The Sabres will also need to make another roster move at some point. At the moment, the team has nine defensemen on one-way contracts for next season. Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson, Johnson and Clifton are all locks to have a role. That leaves Ilya Lyubushkin, Henri Jokiharju, Riley Stillman and Jacob Bryson competing for two or three spots on the roster depending on whether the team keeps seven or eight defensemen.

Bryson looks like a logical odd-man out. He skated to a minus-24 rating in 59 games last season and has one year left on his contract that pays him $1.85 million. It’s tough to envision a spot for him in Buffalo’s lineup next season.

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Lyubushkin is the most experienced of the bunch and his play seemed to even out toward the end of the season when he was 100 percent healthy. His hard-hitting nature is something the Sabres needed last season, and his $2.75 million cap hit for another season could help him stick around.

Stillman (25) and Jokiharju (24) are both still young enough to have some upside. They each had promising moments last season but have struggled to maintain consistency during their respective careers. Jokiharju would probably have the most trade value if the Sabres wanted to recoup some value while opening up roster space.

This surplus on defense could also take the Sabres out of the running for a top-end trade target on defense like Noah Hanifin. But Adams still accomplished a few goals by signing Johnson and Clifton. One is that the team is much deeper on the blue line than it was 24 hours ago. The other is that this group should be tougher to play against. That both Clifton and Johnson both bring the experience of playing in winning dressing rooms is an added bonus for a Sabres team that is trying to reach the postseason for the first time since the 2010-11 season.

(Photo of Connor Clifton: Eric Bolte / USA TODAY Sports)

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