Armchair Scout
Conor Sheary

Photo by Michael Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0

Conor Sheary

Buffalo Sabres Left Wing #43

Five foot eight, undrafted, two Stanley Cups, and six hundred and fifty-five games.

SeasonGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2025-266271118+114011818.614:06
Career655131154285+414214322110111.913:57

Last Season

Seven goals and 11 assists in 62 games, plus-one, at 14:06 a night. His five-on-five minutes were played in New York.

The Finesse Game

The quickness is what built the career and it is going. He was a player who arrived in space a half-second before the defence expected him, and at 34 the half-second has closed.

Eighty-one shots and seven goals from a median of 25 feet, with 40 per cent inside twenty. The instincts are intact and the finish is not; 131 goals in 655 games is what he was, and this season was well under it.

The Physical Game

Five foot eight and 180 pounds — the smallest man covered in this edition. Fourteen penalty minutes in 62 games. There is no physical game and there never was; he has spent eleven seasons avoiding the need for one.

The Intangibles

An undrafted forward from Massachusetts who played on Sidney Crosby’s wing for two Stanley Cups, which is not a career anybody projects. The five-on-five results were fine and unremarkable — 49.3 per cent of the expected goals, 47th percentile.

He is 34 and on a young roster that has better options at his position. The value now is a room that contains somebody who has won, and a reminder to every undersized forward on this team that it can be done.