After narrowly missing the playoffs last season the Buffalo Sabres made several moves in the summer to get them over the hump. One of those additions was veteran defenseman Connor Clifton, who signed a three-year contract with the Sabres after spending the first five seasons of his NHL career with the Boston Bruins.

Clifton joins Rasmus Dahlin on Buffalo's blue line, with the duo expected to create a formidable pairing for the Sabres. Dahlin seems happy or perhaps relieved, to be playing alongside Clifton with the Sabres rather than against him.

“On the ice, you see his toughness,” Dahlin said, per Buffalo Hockey Beat's Bill Hoppe. “I remember playing him in Boston. I was scared of him. I hated to play against him.”

Clifton has built a reputation for being an elite open-ice hitter and finished 10th among NHL defensemen with 208 hits last season. He averaged 157 hits over the last three seasons.

Clifton and Dahlin seem like the perfect pairing, as they two complement each other well. Dahlin is one of the best two-way defensemen in the league having racked up a career-high 73 points last season for the Sabres. Clifton is cut from the more traditional cloth of NHL D-men, racking up the blocks and hits while occasionally contributing on the offensive end.

It's likely that Connor Clifton will continue to strike fear into the opposition in his new Sabres threads. At least one of his Sabres teammates is happy he won’t be the one on the receiving end of some nasty hits from the Quinnipiac University product.