Season in Review | Beck Malenstyn

Every day through early May, Sabres.com will be recapping each player’s performance with all the numbers, highlights, quotations and content that tell the story of their 2024-25 season.

Beck Malenstyn, LW

76 GP | 4 G | 6 A | 10 P | -16

Season at a glance

No moment better encapsulated Beck Malenstyn’s approach to hockey than his blocked shot early in a game against the Panthers on April 12.

With the Sabres on the verge of killing a penalty, Malenstyn blocked a hard shot from Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe near the throat area. Clearly shaken up, he dropped to the ice – but, as he was going down, he stuck his leg out in an attempt to block yet another shot from Verhaeghe. He briefly left for the dressing room but was back for his next shift.

“He’s a warrior,” Alex Tuch said of Malenstyn afterward. “That guy will jump in front of any puck.”

Malenstyn finished the season with 63 blocked shots, second among Sabres forwards behind Tuch. He also led Sabres forwards with 191 hits and ranked seventh on the team in shorthanded time on ice (109:52).

Number to know: 35.9

Malenstyn had one of the highest defensive-zone usage rates in the NHL with Washington in 2023-24, when his 562 defensive-zone faceoffs at 5-on-5 ranked third in the NHL.

While that total dipped this past season, Malenstyn still played a heavily defensive role in his first year with the Sabres. He took 35.9 percent of his faceoffs at 5-on-5 in the offensive zone, the lowest mark among regular Sabres forwards, and was a regular on the penalty kill.

They said it

Malenstyn in December on the physicality in his game: “It’s a part of my game that I think I’ve continued to work on and tried to grow for a while. It was really easy to just be really, really simple, just chip pucks in, just go around bodies. It got me where it got me, and that was great, but then I started to realize there were opportunities for me to take another step as a player and be able to execute in those scenarios and maybe make a little more of an opportunity than it was. So that’s just been the focus to me for the offseason. Just continue to work on those little played, little skilled plays, and it just allows us to have more time with the puck. You create a lot of space with speed and physicality, so it’s great to be able to maximize those opportunities when you create it.”

Ruff on Malenstyn: “He’s a really hard competitor. Like, he makes people pay a price. If you’re going to move a puck and he’s near you, he’s going into you hard. And he’s got a really good burst skating, so he can get to you. I mean, it’s one thing to be able to be physical, but he can get to you and he knows how to hit.”

Watch this

What's next

Malenstyn signed a two-year contract prior to this season, keeping him in Buffalo through 2025-26.