Through trades and free agency, Adams and his staff sought players they felt could fill specific roles within the lineup. The two moves that made headlines were the acquisition of Eric Staal (a likely No. 2 center behind Jack Eichel) and Taylor Hall (a top-six scoring winger).
But Adams and coach Ralph Krueger have spoken just as highly about the other additions, players they hope will add the sort of matchup depth they envision. That group includes a trio of veterans in Eakin, winger Tobias Rieder, and defenseman Matt Irwin.
"We feel strongly that those guys will be important pieces of the puzzle here moving forward," Adams said.
If one thing was clear listening to the three veterans during their introductory sessions with the Buffalo media Wednesday, it was an awareness regarding the roles they were brought in to play.
In Eakin, it's an added veteran presence down the middle behind Eichel and Staal. Though his production dipped to 15 points in 49 games last season, he showed his offensive ability with a 22-goal, 41-point campaign in 2018-19. Adams also cited Eakin's character as being a fit within the Sabres room.
"I find myself, personally, best as a third-line center than can jump up and down a lineup throughout a season when, say, injuries or anything else happens like that, when things change throughout a season," Eakin said.
"But my most comfortable is good chemistry with your linemates, playing that style of run and gun and not getting outworked, getting a task at hand and just focus on that, focus on being that role player for a team and providing energy."
Rieder adds depth on the wing and an experienced penalty killer to a unit that ranked 30th last season. Rieder averaged 1:36 of shorthanded ice time for Calgary last season after making the team on a professional tryout. He scored a playoff record three shorthanded goals in 10 postseason games.
"We talked about the penalty kill and that they want to improve the penalty kill," Rieder said. "The whole direction the organization is going, I really wanted to be part of it. The interest was there from them and it feels good as a player if you're wanted, so it made my decision pretty easy."
Irwin, meanwhile, adds a left shot to a defensive corps that was heavy on the right side. Coming into the offseason, the Sabres had two left shots (Rasmus Dahlin and Jake McCabe) compared to four on the right (Rasmus Ristolainen, Henri Jokiharju, Brandon Montour, and Colin Miller).
Irwin came into the league with an offensive mindset but redefined himself as a penalty killing, depth defenseman during two-plus seasons with the Nashville Predators. There, he embraced the job of playing responsible hockey to set the stage for Nashville's talented top four, headlined by Roman Josi.
Irwin was acquired by Anaheim at the deadline last season and skated an average ice time of 22:27 in nine games.
"I'm a firm believer you've got to create your own opportunity," he said. "I'm not going in there expecting to step right in. I know damn right I've got to prove myself to get that opportunity."
With up-and-comers at forward (Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens) and defense (Jacob Bryson and William Borgen) potentially joining the mix, Krueger is looking forward to putting the puzzle together.
"Lots of good things being added to pieces that are already strong," Krueger said. "It's all about getting this going now so let's hope we get the call soon and we can put this machine in motion."
