Ask aSabres fan if they can recall the last time their team had a franchise defenseman, and youll probably get a variety of answers.Of course, every person has differing criteria for affixing the franchise label on specific players. With all due respect to the likes of Jason Woolley or Brian Campbell, however, the most likely common answer you would get isSabres head coach Phil Housley, Dalton Keene Jersey a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee who holds the franchise record for career points by a defenseman.The problem with that is its been nearly 30 years since Housleypatrolled Buffalos blue line. Although the Sabres have iced a handful of contending teams since, they have always lacked that go-to defender who can simultaneously excite the fans and fill the score sheet at the same time.That likely will change June 22, when the league converges on Dallas for the draft.GOLDEN STANDARDBuffalo, , will have the first crack at Rasmus Dahlin, a dynamic puck mover with highlight-reel moves. The Swedish wunderkind is the overwhelming favorite to become just the 14th defenseman to be taken first in the NHL Draft, but you have to go all the back to 1973 and Hall of Famer Denis Potvin to find a defense prospect who had such a tremendous following before ever skating in an NHL game.Dahlins blend of skill and smarts should make his transition to the NHLs up-tempo style as seamle s as it was for Housley,a fine se defenseman himself who made his Sabres debut immediately after he went sixth overall in the 1982 draft.Housley was only a few months removed from his 19th birthday when he was named runner-up for the Calder Trophy. One year later, he received a significant amount of Norris Trophy votes, finishing for the NHLs best defenseman.Whether its stylistic or situational, parallels most certainly can be drawn between Housley and Dahlin.Although Sabres fans are understandably giddy at the prospect of seeing yet another young star added to their growing arsenal of explosive talent, expectations probably should be tempered. Questions already are abounding in regardto how Housley and Sabresgeneral manager Jason Botterill intend to use Dahlin if he is, in fact, their first pick at the draft. We probably wont find out until the days leading up to opening night of the 2018-19 season, but here are several areas where Dahlin should help the Sabres improve from their disastrous season a year ago.NHL DRAFT 2018:|1. The power playIt would be folly for Housley to not name Dahlin as his opening night power-play quarterback for a variety of reasons.For one, the best power-play sniper in the Swedish Hockey League is Victor Olof son,a Sabres prospect who was Dahlins teammate with Frolunda in each of the last two seasons. While Dahlin did not produce during the man-advantage (only John Hannah Jersey three power-play points and 10 shots in 41 games), his breakouts and ability to distribute the puck properly were critical to Frolunda finishing second in the circuit with a 25.7 succe s rate.Olof son recently signed a two-year contract with Buffalo and will compete for a spot on next years squad. The Sabres also signed free agent Lawrence Pilut, who was named the best defenseman in the SHL. These two roster moves, plus the expected arrival of Dahlin, should give Buffalo two legitimate power-play units.MORE:Second, the Sabres went from first to almost-worst on the power play, placing 20th in efficiency a year after boasting the leagues top unit with the man-advantage. As putrid as they were for most of the season, the Sabres actually spent more time on the power play this year than last, finishing 10th in opportunities. The knee-jerk reaction to the dip in efficiency would be to point the finger at Housley himself,a former power-play specialist who before joining Buffalo as head coach was diagramming Nashvilles 5-on-4 unit while serving as an a sistant to Peter Laviolette.However, shot distribution on the struggling power play under Housley reveals that he leaned on team captain and leading scorer Jack Chase Winovich Jersey Eichel about as much as former coach Dan Bylsma did the year before. The primary point man for each coach was defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who like Eichel fired roughly the same amount of shots when the power play was cooking under Bylsma in 2017 (1.43 PP shot attempts-per-game) than he did when it struggled under Housley (1.42 PP shot attempts-per-game).Even after factoring in the increase in team power-play opportunities from 233 to 257, Eichel wired close to the same amount of PP shots-per-60 minutes as he did a year ago. The biggest difference, however, is in Eichels shot inaccuracy, which increased from 8.57 mi sed shots-per-60 minutes to 9.88.MORE:We can speculate that puck luck and Eichel trying to be too fine with his attempts on a struggling power play had more to do with the misfires than any tactic employed by Housley. The eye test revealed a group that knew how to move the puck around and create quality chances that were neutralized far too often.Is Eichel better at acting as a shooter than a playmaker? Therein lies the rub, as it appears Eichel tried to super fine-tune his shots in 2018 to make up for his teammates consistently failing to cash in on his world-cla s set-ups a season ago. The addition of Dahlins vision and shot accuracy Matt Light Jersey , plus a full season of prized forward Casey Mittelstadt, should not only help increase the power plays lethality, but also keep Eichel from forcing shots that have a high probability of mi sing the net.It should be noted that the Sabres went 10-for-29 (35 percent) on the power play with Ben Mason Jersey both Mittelstadt and Eichel in the lineup. Granted, its a small sample size and these still are kids were talking about, but Buffalos collective skill during the man-advantage should not be taken lightly, especially with Dahlin inthe fold.2018 DRAFT RANKINGS:2. Sheltered minutesIf Housley wants to maximize Dahlins puck effectivene s, he should consider giving Dahlin the lions share of offensive-zone starts (oZS). In other words, most of the draws taking place in the opposing zone should have Dahlin on the ice. This tactic is common for a coach with a gifted defenseman because it not only increases the likelihood of a quality scoring chance, but also ensures his most skilled puck distributor will have close to a 50/50 chance of immediately controlling the puck in enemy territory after a faceoff.This is a nice way to describe sheltering, which also saves a coachs more defensively responsible rearguards for defensive-zone draws. The last thing you want to do is tire out your fine se players in a muck-and-grid battle 150 feet away from the opposing goal. By employing a defenseman like Dahlin during the majority of offensive-zone draws, Housley can keep his foot on the proverbial throat of opponents more than he did a year ago, especially with