The 22-year-old winger scored a career-high 28 goals last season
In a season filled with disappointment, the growth of Buffalo Sabres winger J-J Peterka was one of the few positives. After a promising 32-point campaign as a rookie in 2023, the 22-year-old put on a show at the 2023 World Championships, scoring 12 points for Germany and being named the tournament’s top forward.
That seemed to catapult the Munich native, who more than doubled his goal total last season, finishing second behind Tage Thompson with 28 goals and fourth in Sabres scoring with 50 points.
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After the trade deadline, former head coach Don Granato demoted veteran Jeff Skinner and promoted Peterka to the top line with Thompson and Alex Tuch. The youngster scored eight goals in the final 18 games and based on the combinations that new head coach Lindy Ruff is using early in training camp, it appears that the young German will start the season on the Sabres top line.
"I think from game one on, we kind of like clicked (and) had good chemistry," Peterka said on Saturday. "It was always dangerous. We (built) momentum and had really good chances. So I'm just super happy we can continue that and just build from the end of last season."
The progress of Peterka, along with a bounce-back year from Thompson and Tuch could be critical to Buffalo’s postseason aspirations. Thompson dropped from a career-high 47 goals in 2023 to 29 last season, while Tuch declined from 36 to 22 in 2024. The Sabres are hoping that inserting a dynamic scorer on the top line will help bring back some of the offensive firepower that disappeared in 2024.
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