Player Profile: Marc-Andre Gragnani

Regular Season (Second line in Portland)

 Playoffs

 Career:

Look Back: The 2010-11 season for Marc-Andre Gragnani will almost exclusively be reflected for his performance in the postseason.  After playing in just nine regular season games this year, injuries forced Gragnani’s insertion into the lineup late in the year and into playoffs.  In 7 games against the Philadelphia Flyers, he posted 1 goal and 6 assists and lead all Sabres in points. He, along with several of his blue line partners, were at times overmatched in their own zone, but Gragnani’s offensive lift to the team set him apart from the group, aside from Tyler Myers.  Gragnani put up huge numbers during the regular season while in Portland with 60 points in 63 games.

Look ahead: Gragnani is a restricted free agent this offseason and it is hard to believe that the Sabres are not going to move swiftly to secure a deal with him after his playoff performance.  He is 24 and as he progresses, he should see more time on the power play and work his way into the regular blue line rotation next season.  Pairing him with Myers seems unlikely, which means that the Sabres are going to have young depth along the blue line going forward.  As an ‘offensive’ defenseman, it will be interesting to see how the organization decides to handle the rest of the blue line this offseason.

Fake Darcy’s Take: We love Gag’s ability to carry the puck and we plan on him being a quarterback for our power play for the next few years.   But more importantly, he will serve as team translator for trips to Montreal and possibly Quebec, if they get another team up there. We don’t want to have another incident at a French restaurant like the time when Myers ordered a heaping bowl of animal private parts.

Up Next: Mark Mancari

Twitter: @brianbund