Connor Clifton knows what a fourth line can bring to a hockey team.
When Clifton was with the Boston Bruins during their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019, Boston’s fourth line was Joakim Nordstrom, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari with Chris Wagner rotating in. That was the group that wore teams down, matched up against the top line and didn’t give up chances. Clifton lights up talking about that line that played to a 54 percent expected goal share at five-on-five during that playoff run.
“It’s invaluable to a team,” Clifton said. “They just grinded, they didn’t give up chances, finished hard and played hard.”
Clifton sees similar qualities in his three new teammates making up the Buffalo Sabres’ fourth line. In the span of a week this summer, the Sabres traded for Beck Malenstyn and then signed Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel in free agency. The three will make a combined $3.8 million this season. They may not score a ton. But it hasn’t taken long for them to show what they can add to Buffalo’s lineup. In the preseason, that trio has been the Sabres’ fastest and most physical line. Lindy Ruff has likened that line to a running game in football because of how they can wear down opponents.
“You can’t measure it,” Clifton said. “The way they play is contagious. You want to follow guys like that. You want to play a little more physical and faster because of it.
“They’re getting the puck low and getting to the net and making it really hard on the other team. It’s huge. It’s exhausting. It’s like, man I want to stay away from that line. They’re exactly like that. They have so much speed and they just play the game the right way. It’s a lot of fun to watch those three work the way they do.”
In two preseason games, the line was dominant. When they were on the ice together at five-on-five, the Sabres had nine high-danger chances for and only two against. Buffalo’s expected goal share in those situations was just shy of 80 percent.
“They’ve been bullying guys out there,” Clifton said. “They’re going to finish hits. They’re going to make D look twice or three times. Maybe those defensemen are going to take a different route where they don’t have to take as hard of a hit. Then they’re going to win some puck battles and maintain O-zone pressure. I think they’re going to be great for us and a lot of fun to watch.”
Rasmus Dahlin has played against all three of Buffalo’s new additions and laughed when saying he’s happy he’s on their team now. He said they do everything right on the ice and make life tough on defensemen because of it.
“You always have it in the back of the head when you’re on the ice,” Dahlin said of their physicality. “You skate around thinking about it more than you relax and play your game. It’s hard to play against those guys because you’re kind of in your own head when they’re on the ice.”
At the trade deadline in March 2023, Buffalo general manager Kevyn Adams asked then-captain Kyle Okposo if he thought the Sabres were getting pushed around by other teams. Adams’ response at the time was to trade for Greenway, a physically imposing forward who led the team in hits last season. But the Sabres still weren’t a physical team last season, ranking near the bottom of the league in hits. When Ruff joined Buffalo’s staff, he, Adams and the Sabres’ front office went through the process of evaluating the roster. Three things stood out.
“We identified speed, size and physicality,” Adams told The Athletic before a recent Sabres practice in Prague.
Adding these three players to the roster took a week, but it felt like it took years because of how long they’ve needed players like them. The Sabres have been near the bottom of the league in hits in each of the last four years, according to MoneyPuck. All Buffalo forwards who played a game last season combined for 991 hits last season. Malenstyn, Lafferty and Aube-Kubel had 592 hits between the three of them. All three of them would have led the Sabres’ forwards in hits last season.
Oftentimes, Don Granato and his assistants would sit in the office before a game and wonder who to match up against another team’s top line. The Sabres’ top two lines had defensive deficiencies. The fourth line was responsible defensively but lacked the speed to match up with the league’s best players. Buffalo started slow in games, in part, because they didn’t have an energy line that could set the tone. Too often teams walked into KeyBank Center feeling like they could bully the Sabres.
“I felt like watching last year, I wouldn’t say we got pushed around, but I didn’t think that we wore teams down enough,” Adams said. “I didn’t feel like we had enough of these types of guys in the lineup, where when they’re on the ice, the other team knows they’re on the ice. The puck is going deep, they’re going to work, they’re going to finish checks, they’re going to hold on to pucks and really wear teams down.”
Adams knew with the way Ruff wanted to play, he needed to add players with the speed and physicality of Malenstyn, Lafferty and Aube-Kubel. All three were among the fastest players in the NHL last season, according to NHL Edge tracking data.
So Ruff shouldn’t have the same problem when game-planning this season. He was recently talking about the team’s depth and referred to the fourth line as the bottom line but caught himself.
“I don’t even know if I should say bottom line,” Ruff said. “They’re playing in a bottom position, but they’re playing like a top line. I think any coach is happy when all four lines play the same, determined to be as good offensively and away from the puck as the other lines.”
The third line has also gotten faster and better defensively with the additions of Jason Zucker and Ryan McLeod to go with Greenway. Greenway might have been Buffalo’s best defensive forward last season. Now they have four other contenders for that title.
The fact that Ruff values that so much has been energizing for the new players coming in. Malenstyn was sitting down for breakfast with his in-laws when he received the call that the Capitals had traded him to the Sabres for a second-round pick. He was shocked. A restricted free agent at the time, Malenstyn knew his offseason wouldn’t be completely peaceful. He just wasn’t expecting this.
A conversation with Buffalo’s staff eased his mind. Ruff made it clear he had a clear vision for the role he could play and that that role was important. Malenstyn, who is 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, led the Capitals in hits and blocked shots while playing a key role on the penalty kill.
“It’s a brand of hockey that not everybody wants to play, it’s not always the prettiest,” Malenstyn said. “It’s easy to veer away from it because you want to score. To be able to swallow that pill and take pride in that role and then have it viewed and valued on the other side of it by a coaching staff is incredible.”
Malenstyn got even more excited about his trade to the Sabres when he got a call from Aube-Kubel, his teammate in Washington. Shortly after free agency started, Aube-Kubel phoned Malenstyn to tell him he saw two apartments next to one another in Buffalo and then let him know he had signed with the Sabres. Not only were Malenstyn and Aube-Kubel linemates last season, but their wives are close and their sons are around the same age.
That familiarity has helped on the ice. And Lafferty has been a seamless fit at center. Malenstyn said their mission as a line is to “suffocate” teams with pressure. Aube-Kubel said every time he is on the ice he wants to impact the game with his body. Lafferty described what they bring to a game as “tilting the ice” when they can get after it on the forecheck.
“It was a big selling point to come play for the Sabres,” Lafferty. “Looking at their lineup and playing them over the years, you understand how much firepower and skill they have. They just needed a little bit more depth and energy down the lineup. I felt like I could contribute.”
In recent years, the Sabres’ bottom two lines were filled with players who were having to adjust to being in that role. Okposo was once a top power-play guy and goal scorer having to play on the fourth line. Peyton Krebs was a prolific junior scorer and first-round pick who was learning to hit and fight just to carve out a regular role. Zemgus Girgensons seemed like the only natural fourth-liner of the bunch.
But these new additions all come by this job innately. Lafferty was coached by his stepdad as a kid and his main coaching point was to play your heart out every shift, regardless of the score. Malenstyn said he’s only ever played a physical style and knew as far back as junior that this would be his path to the NHL. Aube-Kubel almost seemed thrown off by the question of how he developed this physical style of play.
“It’s always been part of my game,” he said with a shrug.
Adams wanted players who were at a point in their career where they know who they are. He didn’t want the third and fourth lines to simply be filled with players who had been pushed down the lineup by other skilled players.
“That happened to some extent (the last couple of seasons), but that’s not the way we wanted it,” Adams said. “That’s why we spent the summer focusing on the third and fourth lines.
“I think it sends a message to guys in the locker room when guys are all in and they play the same way every time they’re on the ice. I think it gives the rest of the guys a little bit of a lift.”
How much of a lift remains to be seen. But the early signs are that it could be significant. Players have gushed about that line since the start of camp. Everyone can stand a little taller knowing that group is coming over the boards to set the tempo. Last season, a player like Dylan Cozens felt compelled to fight, be a scorer and an energy player. He wasn’t shy about expressing the fact that the Sabres needed more pushback in their game. He was grinning ear to ear talking about the way this line plays and how they’re helping the Sabres build an identity as a team already.
“I’ve loved watching those guys play,” Cozens said. “They all just fly up and down the ice and blow guys up. They really have an identity. It’s awesome to watch and I can’t wait to see them play against real NHL teams here and just roll over them. They all love what they do and it’s going to be so fun to watch them roll over guys, buzz up and down the ice and be hard to play against. I would not want to play against them.”
