Dahlin trying to step into larger leadership role with Sabres

PRAGUE -- Rasmus Dahlin wants to step up as a leader and help the Buffalo Sabres turn themselves around, so the defenseman organized a weeklong training camp for a group of his teammates in late July in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The players would skate, work out and then play "some terrible golf," goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said with a laugh Wednesday during the European Player Media Tour, a day of interviews and video shoots here to promote the upcoming NHL season.

No, Switzerland is not exactly a tough place to be in the summer.

"Can't complain," forward JJ Peterka said with a smile.

But it says something about Dahlin, the Sabres' chemistry and their hunger to improve.

"What this says most is about 'Dahls,' how much he wants to win, how much he wants to do stuff right and how much he wants to take care of everybody else in the team and make sure that we're in the best shape to start the season," Luukkonen said. "I think it's a lot from him and how well he does things for us [that the players were] able to come there.

"It also shows how good of a group of guys we have. Everybody wants to get better, and everybody's more than happy to see each other in the summer and come to Switzerland to practice. Overall, I think there was a lot of positive things out of it."

Buffalo has missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 13 seasons, the longest drought in the NHL. Dahlin, the No. 1 pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, has been part of the past six seasons. He has been an alternate captain the past two.

Now he is 24, and the Sabres don't have a captain after the departure of forward Kyle Okposo, who was traded to the Florida Panthers on March 8 and won the Stanley Cup.

"Dahlin had the idea that it would be cool for all the European guys to have a little training camp in Europe, to come all together to work out," Peterka said. "That was the plan.

"It was a lot of fun. A bunch of guys came. Even guys from North America flew over to come practice for that week. I think that also shows how tight the group is. We even want to work out together in the summers."

The practices were run by Peterka's skills coach and Dahlin's father, who is a coach in Sweden.

"It was really good stuff," Luukkonen said. "It was fun skating for the players, and I got a lot of shots, so it was good stuff for a week."

The group included Dahlin, Luukkonen, Peterka, forwards Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen, and defensemen Henri Jokiharju, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson. Each is 25 or younger.

"I think what it shows too is how much the younger players are really willing to step up right now," Luukkonen said. "For example, Dahls, he doesn't want to be in the background anymore. He wants to take more responsibilities and make sure that we do as well as we can during summers. I think it shows how we have a lot of younger players who are ready to kind of take a bigger role now and take more responsibility."

The Sabres (39-37-6) finished seven points behind the Washington Capitals for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference last season.

Peterka said they can’t write off missing the playoffs to being a young team like they have in the past.

"It's not an excuse anymore," Peterka said. "We're all a year older than we were last year, so I think for us it's just time to take the next step right now."

Luukkonen echoed that.

"You're a young team, you're an old team," he said. "In the end it doesn't matter. You're in the League to win. You're in the League to make the playoffs. You can't hide behind it forever. It's an easy way out from it.

"Even though we're a young team, there's a lot of players who have a lot of NHL games already, so it's kind of now our time to prove everybody wrong and just make the playoffs."

NHL.com independent correspondent Heather Engel contributed to this report