Preseason games, especially the early ones, don't give you a huge window on things. Friday night's affair in KeyBank Center against Pittsburgh was played in front of a January snowstorm-sized crowd and was mostly at a level of a scrimmage next door in LECOM Harborcenter.
So you spend time in practice, rather than games looking for guys to pop. Will the young players be at a different level with their games? You'll be happy to hear Rasmus Dahlin and Henri Jokiharju sure seem to have taken that offseason leap. Do you notice anything from new players, be they draft choices or outside acquisitions?
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Vinnie Hinostroza might be the most interesting NHL journeyman who has been brought in. We've seen him speed down the wing and show a nose for the puck that this club can use more of.
The 5-foot-9 Hinostroza is 26, and the Sabres are his fourth team over the last three seasons – when you combine them with his second stint in Chicago, as well as stops in Arizona and Florida. He had career highs of 16 goals and 39 points with the Coyotes three years ago, but is still trying to find his NHL niche.
One thing Hinostroza can take from his time with the Blackhawks is the experience of being around a culture of expectation. When he made his NHL debut in 2015-16 after 66 games at Rockford of the AHL, the Hawks were the defending Stanley Cup champions. When he played 49 games for them in 2016-17, they were a 109-point team and Central Division champions.
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Hinostroza's first stint with the Blackhawks out of Notre Dame coincided with Buffalo coach Don Granato's time as a Chicago assistant to Joel Quenneville. His takeaway from those times?
"It’s just being a pro. I think you can’t take days off," Hinostroza said Friday. "Whether it’s a practice day or a game day, you got to look at it as an opportunity to get better. I’m a little bit older now, so I’ve seen it a bit where you might take a few practice days for granted here and there, and the next game you don’t feel as good and you end up getting beat pretty bad. So I think it’s just coming every single day and working as hard as you can to get better and I think Donnie’s done a great job of putting that in our brains here."
Granato said he didn't know if his sales pitch to Hinostroza would work because he was blunt that he was looking for role players. Hinostroza had no issue with that. His one-year, $1.05 million deal was the first one the Sabres got done in free agency in July.
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"He's got that dynamic pop, the explosiveness," Granato said. "He's tenacious, he's relentless. ... He's been in three different organizations, but he still hasn't found the level he believes he can find in the NHL. So he's a hungry guy. So that kind of fits our theme of where we're at as a franchise. We have to take those guys, and hopefully they help us forge an identity for ourselves."
Hinostroza started Friday on a line with Zemgus Girgensons and former Notre Dame linemate Anders Bjork. By the end of the game, he was on the top line with Casey Mittelstadt and Jeff Skinner in place of Victor Olofsson. Midway through the third period, Mittelstadt threaded a pass to Hinostroza down low, but Pittsburgh goalie Casey DeSmith made the save.
"I was really pumped up when he signed for sure. He's a great player," Bjork said. "He has a lot more to show than than he has so far, I believe. He has tremendous skill and compete level, so he's a great addition to his team. He plays with speed. He plays tenacious and he's got that skill and vision that was very rare."
Granato is convinced Hinostroza has more to give too.
"I know I do," Hinostroza said. "I think throughout my career I’ve seen spurts of it, a good year here, good year there, a little bit of an off year. I think as you develop as a pro. It’s just finding that consistency, and that’s something that I think I’ve been able to develop over the last year and a half and through the summer."
Specifically, Hinostroza's thinks back to his 2018-19 season in Arizona, where he got into 72 games.
"I was really disciplined, go home, eat the same things, hydrate the same way, get tons of sleep," he said. "It’s just every little thing. You get some opportunities there and you get momentum under your belt and you just keep it rolling sometimes. I think it’s when things go wrong, you’ve got to find a way to get back to that as soon as possible."
Hinostroza had no points in nine games with Florida last year and said he didn't get much of a chance there when reunited with Quenneville. But he had 12 points in 17 games back with the Blackhawks after an April trade, and that gave him some motivation over the summer.
"I just kept working hard every day. I went back to Chicago and got the opportunity to play," he said. "That’s definitely a learning point in my career where you look back on a time like that and you never want to be in that position again. You just want to work hard every day. I had a good summer working out and I’m excited to be here and help this team."
