'Such a threat': JJ Peterka is starting to live up to 'unicorn' projection

Midway through a game in Los Angeles last week, Sabres forward JJ Peterka lurked as linemate Jack Quinn dove for a loose puck, whacking it forward. The puck wobbled through the neutral zone and onto Peterka's CCM Tacks stick.

Without missing a beat, Peterka entered the offensive zone with full command of the puck and nothing but ice between him and Kings goalie Cam Talbot.

Three strides. One deke. A wrist shot from the hash marks. Goal, Buffalo.

"As soon as JJ gets the puck," Sabres center Dylan Cozens said in a recent interview, "his feet start moving a million miles per second. His hands, too. He's such a threat once he crosses the blue line with speed and possession."

Peterka, who, according to NHL Edge, routinely reaches skating speeds of 18 to 22 mph, hit the brakes at the last possible moment in that sequence. He collided with Talbot before calmly untangling himself to celebrate the goal with teammates. It was a very on-brand five seconds for the 22-year-old German.

Through a season and a half, Peterka has established himself as a full-throttle winger tailor-made for the modern NHL. He finished the L.A. game - a 5-3 victory for the underachieving, 22-23-4 Sabres - with career highs in points (three) and penalties drawn (three). Each scoring play came off the rush, and each penalty was drawn because he kept his legs moving in high-traffic areas.

"It's just ... go," Quinn said of Peterka's assertive style.

"JJ has that confidence to just go," added Peyton Krebs, another Sabres forward. "Every time he has the puck, he's going to make a play and then get to the net. A lot of guys hold back and take it easy sometimes. But not JJ."

Peterka leads the Sabres with 18 goals. His 34 points are tied for third on the team - even though he ranks seventh among forwards in ice time at 16 minutes a night. Impressively, Peterka's inflicting most of his damage away from the power play, pacing all Sabres in several five-on-five categories: shot attempts (207), shots on goal (113), expected goals (11.5), and goals (16).

The sophomore's gone from generating the fifth-most scoring chances off the rush on last year's team (0.65 per game) to being the outright leader this year (0.98), according to Sportlogiq. He's lapping his teammates in penalty differential, too. At plus-16 in 49 games, he's tied with Connor McDavid and two others for the league lead.

As Quinn puts it, when Peterka's flying, it can look like defenders around him are suffering mini panic attacks. He's that dangerous, that deadly in transition.

"He's learning the other side of the game - other than offense - which is going to get him more offense," Sabres head coach Don Granato said of Peterka's Year 2 breakout. "The less time you spend defending or on the defensive side of the game, the more you're going to have the puck, the more you're going to be on offense. I think he's made really significant strides in that regard."

The 2020 draft was Kevyn Adams' first as general manager of the Sabres (or any NHL team). He chose Quinn eighth overall, then traded the 38th and 100th picks for 34th so he could cut the line and nab his next target: Peterka.

A product of the famed Red Bull soccer and hockey academy in Salzburg, Austria, Peterka was drafted out of Germany's top pro league. He had posted 11 points in 42 games for Red Bull Munich, the DEL club in his hometown.

Fast forward to July 2022, and Michael Peca, the former Sabres center turned coach, was labeling Peterka a "unicorn" within the sport. "I can't find anybody I've ever played with or against, even in today's game, that resembles the type of player he can become," Peca told reporters. (Then an assistant coach for the AHL Rochester Americans, Peca's now an assistant for the Rangers.)

Unicorn? It was heady praise, given Peca's reputation as a player (long career, two Selke Trophies, captain) and his quick ascension in the coaching world.

"He has no idea how good he can be yet, which is scary," Peca said at the time. "It's the blend of power and speed, and the skill set with his hands and his shot, and his ability to play in a physical game. He can play in any environment, and he can dominate in any environment."

Peca and Americans head coach Seth Appert tag-teamed Peterka's development during the 2021-22 AHL season. Peca would run the individual video sessions one week, Appert the next. They focused primarily on Peterka's off-puck habits - how he supported the puck carrier, how he battled for net-front real estate, how he angled opponents into the boards, and so on.

Much of Peterka's trajectory rests on how he uses his legs - "his money makers," as Appert calls them - to impact the game in non-scoring situations. For instance: "He's a good forechecker right now," Appert said, "but he can become an elite forechecker in the NHL because of that speed."

North American rinks are 13 feet narrower than the surfaces Peterka was accustomed to skating on in Europe. Typically, smaller rinks demand a more direct, attacking game, especially at the pro level. While this change suits Peterka's skill set wonderfully, there was still a steep learning curve on the ice.

"You have so much less time than you do in Europe," Peterka said. "You've gotta read quicker. You've gotta read earlier where the next play's going to be because you know you're going to get jumped right away. In Europe, you have that extra second, where you get the puck, and then you can have a look."

In the 23 games before the AHL's Christmas break, Peterka scored four times, or on average about once every five games. In 57 regular-season and playoff games after the break, he scored 31 times, or roughly once every other game.

"We were pretty demanding of JJ in the first half of the year in terms of habits and details away from the puck," Appert said. "But the thing with JJ is that you can be really demanding with him, hard on him, and he's never resentful of the coaching. He was still able to have a fun, playful relationship with us coaches, and that's not always the case when you really push young players."

Peterka would turn to his roommates Peter Tischke and Linus Weissbach - then 25 and 23, respectively - for tips on rounding out his game, improving his English, and cooking basic meals in their downtown Rochester apartment.

At the arena, Peterka and Quinn would spend an inordinate amount of time in the team's designated shooting room. Some 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, the converted storage area is nothing fancy, just two hockey nets, boards, and loads of pucks deep in the bowels of old Blue Cross Arena. "Go in there, rip some pucks," Peterka said of his affinity for the room and its equivalent in Buffalo's KeyBank Center. "Feel good. Put some music on. Try to get better."

Peterka's first name is John. His middle name is Jason. He's the oldest of three children - Tiffany's 18, and Jack's 15. Dad Dennis and mom Natalie, lifelong German residents, were drawn to common American names. They'd make notes inside the movie theater while watching the end credits roll by.

Peterka has been called JJ by everyone in his orbit since he was a young, sports-obsessed kid. He was so enamored by sports that at age six, he tried to pitch his mom on an idea only a six-year-old would dare pitch. What if I spent less time at school? he asked. Then I can play sports all the time, right?!

"Everything I tried when I was younger, I liked. So it was hard for me at first to cut down on sports," Peterka recalled with a smile. "I ended up doing soccer, hockey, and short-track. But I was into everything."

Peterka would finish hockey practice, remove his equipment, and immediately slip on his speed-skating suit and skates. A session on a track in the same facility awaited. He believes speed skating helped develop his leg muscles as well as a strong base for his hockey skating. Working closely with skating and skills coach Yanick Dube - a former pro forward - was also transformative.

"I spent all of my time on his skating because the hands were there and the feel for the game - the timing and reading of the game - was there at a young age," Dube said when asked about those first hours on the ice together.

"I figured, if this kid wants to make it, he needs to focus on his skating. I first worked with him to weight shift and get his mass working for him instead of him pushing his mass. That can help create separation, create speed."

It's fitting that Peterka enjoyed the most productive game of his NHL career at Crypto.com Arena, only seven miles from Hollywood. From his slicked-back hair and designer game-day fits (which sometimes include a bucket hat and travel toiletry bag) to his yellow-accented custom skates and oft-tucked jersey, Peterka doesn't shy away from expressing himself through fashion.

(Peterka says his Wayne Gretzky-like tuck isn't a statement. He simply doesn't use the strap for fastening jerseys to hockey pants. The jersey "just goes in there automatically" as he skates. "The refs don't like it, but it happens.")

Teammates are attracted to Peterka's positive energy. They say he's funny, goofy, happy, laidback - and you can see it in the behind-the-scenes content produced by the Sabres and the comments section of his Instagram account.

Teammates are equally quick to bring up his serious side. Peterka's an extremely hard worker who takes his job seriously and analyzes the game at a high level. "There's two different sides to JJ," Cozens said. "We love both."

Peterka, who recorded 32 points in 77 games as a rookie, is one of only nine active NHLers from Germany. He dazzled at the 2023 world championships, earning best forward honors for himself (12 points in 10 games) and the silver medal for his country. It was Germany's first medal at the worlds since 1953.

The Peterka family is in the middle of building a small private arena on Dennis and Natalie's property about 40 miles outside of Munich. It'll be a permanent, year-round indoor facility for two-on-two and three-on-three games, plus skills work. The ice surface will be roughly the size of one zone in an NHL rink.

Peterka's invested some of his own money into the facility, which he hopes will be operational by summer. He's motivated by the idea of owning his own offseason training center. Growth is the other driving force behind the project.

He wants the next generation of German players to reap the benefits of his success. He wants the next jersey-tucking, full-throttle, scoring-chance-generating machine to feed their insatiable hunger and hone their skills locally.

"When I look back, I wish there was a little rink to go to in the summers. When I was younger, we had to always drive three, four hours to Czechia to go to camps," Peterka said. "If there would have been a rink an hour away, I would have been there almost every day. I want to give that opportunity to kids growing up in Germany who want to get better and better."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).