First power rankings of the year has the Sabres at...

No. 28

Out of 30 NHL teams the Buffalo Sabres are ranked above only Calgary and bottom-ranked Florida.

Here's what Brian Stubits of CBSsports.com had to say about the team in his first power rankings of the season:

"Big loss: Nathan Gerbe. Big addition: Henrik Tallinder. The Sabres are going into rebuilding mode, so it's going to get worse before it gets better, especially if they move Thomas Vanek and/or Ryan Miller. Ron Rolston was able to get something out of the group at the end of the season but he'll have his hands full over a full schedule."

Of course, anything more than a shrug at this point in the year is an overreaction to these rankings, but it's a good starting point as we look towards the upcoming 2013-14 season.

The Sabres will have a coach entering his first full season and his two best players may not be on the team at the start of camp.

Rolston will have his hands full. No question about it. But unlike last year's lockout-shortened season, he'll have a full training camp to work with and a full preseason schedule to work out the kinks. He's a teacher who will have numerous players on the roster with whom he's worked with over the course of his two seasons with the organization.

That continuity certainly will strengthen his system. But, then again, will his system work at the NHL level over the course of a full NHL season?

His two key players, Miller and Vanek, single-handedly kept the team from the bottom of the league last year. Despite Miller's numbers, he's still regarded as a top-10 goalie in the league while Vanek is a bonafide top-line winger.

After that, there are question-marks throughout the lineup.

With Vanek still on the team, here's what Rolston might be looking at to start the season up-front:
--Vanek, Cody Hodgson, Drew Stafford
--Steve Ott, Mikhail Grigorenko, Ville Leino
--Marcus Foligno, Tyler Ennis, Brian Flynn
--John Scott/Corey Tropp, Kevin Porter, Patrick Kaleta

--Cody McCormick

On defense, there's a logjam. Nine d-men have NHL experience and there's a chance that the Sabres first-round pick, Rasmus Ristolainen, might make the team.

Here's the potential pairings:
--Tyler Myers, Christian Ehrhoff
--Mark Pysyk, Henrik Tallinder
--Chad Ruwhedel, Mike Weber

--Alexander Sulzer


On paper that group of skaters looks like a 28th place team, with or without Vanek.

The difference between a top-3 pick in the draft and a top-10 pick might very well be between the pipes.

Despite his pedestrian numbers over the course of the last three seasons, without Miller in net, the Sabres would have finished much lower than 15th in the league in 2010-11, 19th in 2011-12 and 23rd last season.

Were it not for Miller (and to an extent Vanek) last season, Buffalo fans might be talking about the players surrounding #1-overall pick (COL) Nathan MacKinnon this season.

There's a long time to go before the team heads to Detroit for their opener on Oct. 2, and there are a number of roster variables as well.

But as of right now Stubits is pretty much right on. This roster, on paper, looks to have a high draft pick written all over it.