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The Buffalo Sabres significantly accelerated their rebuild over the summer. Among the many moves, they brought in Ryan O’Reilly, drafted Jack Eichel, and hired Dan Bylsma as the man behind the bench. In a hurry, the Sabres went from the worst team in the NHL, to a respectable, pesky team that is going to make opponents earn points, as opposed to granting them. While the Sabres aren’t on a level with the league’s elite yet, there’s reason to believe they could be there within a couple of seasons.

One of the important building blocks the Sabres have as they try to take steps from being competitive to being a contender is defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. The 21-year-old Finnish born defender is in his second full season in the NHL and showing continued signs of encouraging development. Entering play on Monday, Ristolainen has totaled seven goals and 17 assists, good for eighth overall among all NHL defensemen. At 5v5, his 1.11 assists per 60 ranks fourth and his 1.29 points per 60 ranks ninth among all defenders with at least 200 minutes of ice time.

The workload Ristolainen is being asked to shoulder is impressive, especially considering his age. Ristolainen is skating over 24:30 minutes per night, leading all Sabres’ defensemen by over three minutes and raking 16th among the 202 defenders league wide who have skated at least 200 minutes this season. Not only is the former eighth overall pick being asked to play a lot of minutes, but he’s being asked to play the tough minutes.

The chart below from War on Ice is a usage chart, the concept of which was originated by Rob Vollman. The x-axis shows zone starts. The further to the left a player is, the more shifts he starts in the defensive zone. The y-axis is quality of competition. The higher a player is, the tougher competition he faces. This usage chart shows all Sabres’ defenders with at least 150 5v5 minutes this season:

Ristolainen’s upward and left position on the chart indicates Bylsma uses him against the team’s toughest opponents and entrusts him to start in the defensive zone more than most of the other members of the team’s blue line. This is a significant amount of trust to place in a player as young as Ristolainen.

An initial look at the shot metrics shows that perhaps the Sabres would benefit from spreading out the workload among their defenders. Ristolainen’s shot attempt percentage of 44.84 percent is seventh among the team’s eight qualified defenders and his -5.56 percent relative shot attempt percentage also ranks seventh. These numbers aren’t meant to be suggested as damning evidence.

But, perhaps the Sabres should consider spreading out the heavy workload a bit to try to ease the pressure being put on their young, talented blue liner. One important caveat here is that Ristolainen has spent a lot of his minutes skating alongside Josh Gorges, a player who often struggles in the puck possession game.

In some hockey circles, you’ll hear analysts speak about market inefficiencies. Market inefficiencies are areas that are undervalued by most of the league and allows forward-thinking teams to identify undervalued assets. In a salary cap league, doing so is very beneficial. In baseball, the Moneyball-era identified on-base percentage as a market inefficiency. In hockey, puck possession has become so widely accepted that it can hardly be considered such a thing anymore. But, there are still player contributions that are undervalued by much of the league.

One of areas is penalty differential. This is the difference between how many penalties a player takes versus how many they draw. This is an area Ristolainen shines in. His +4 penalty differential at 5v5 is tied for second among all qualifying NHL defensemen. Defensemen, due to the nature of their duties, are far more likely to have a negative differential, as only 55 of the 202 defenders in the sample drew more penalties than they took.

Ristolainen also contributes on special teams. He skates over two minutes per night on the power play and has tallied four goals and five assists with the extra man this season. He skates more minutes per game on the penalty kill than any of his teammates and is near the best on the team in suppressing opponent’s shot attempts when shorthanded.

The Sabres have taken a lot of steps in the right direction over the past year and there’s reason to believe this team could be a contender sooner rather than later. One of the reasons for optimism is Rasmus Ristolainen. While the young defenders puck possession game isn’t ideal, he’s carrying a very heavy workload and contributing in other areas. He’ll be a big part Buffalo’s success moving forward.