BUFFALO, N.Y. — It’s been a monumental season of growth for Peyton Krebs, who joined the Sabres back in November via trade for Jack Eichel.

“I’ve learned so much this year,” Krebs, 21, said. “Obviously in your first year pro, you can have a lot of ups and downs, and I tried to minimize that as much as possible. I knew there was going to be some growing pains and I think for me, I just try to learn [to] play the game within the game.”

Granato compares Krebs’ acclimation to NHL play to the path other Sabres forwards took to grow offensively — like Tage Thompson, 24; Casey Mittelstadt, 23; and Dylan Cozens, 21 ­– but puts more onus on Krebs’ skillset.

“It’s actually more challenging for Peyton because he’s an offensive guy,” Granato said. “We need him to produce offensively. In order to do that, you’re trying to make seam passes that sometimes don’t work because guys are smarter at this level, or quicker or just more skilled … We know he has offense gifts that we need to provide him an environment to gain experience, and the term I use all the time is recalibrate to the size and speed and strength.”

Since joining the Sabres, the Calgary native has tallied seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points. The center-wing hybrid has found significant success on the power play unit, with 10 points on the man advantage so far.

“Obviously I enjoy scoring,” Krebs said. “I love passing the puck, finding those plays nobody sees. That’s probably my game and my vision. I try to utilize that to the best I can. Obviously I have some great tools to use, Vics [Olofsson], it’s nice to pass to him. He’s got that one-timer that’s going in most of the time so, and then Cozy [Cozens], Okie [Okposo], Henri [Jokiharju] right now, and all of our unit. You pass to those guys, they’re going to make plays. I give it to them and they do the rest.”

Both Granato and Krebs have expectations for the 2019 first-round draft pick to chip away at the next level of growth through a productive offseason.

“A guy in Peyton’s age bracket, the summertime is huge for them, too, just to step back,” Granato said. “They have the hindsight of the year and they can train their mind and obviously in the weight room and everything else specifically to the challenges they had in the season that just finished in this case. So he will come back even better than he finishes the year. I’m confident in that.”

“I think going into the summer, I’m going to take all of those points and really just hone in on everything I want to come into next year and in these last two games, I want to set the standard for myself and obviously as a team, we want to do the same,” said Krebs.

As Krebs looks ahead to his own evolution, some elements of his game remain unchanged. Krebs is a self-proclaimed creature of habit who has had much of the same pregame routine since he was 14 years old, modeled after an Eastern Conference legend.

“I’ve always loved the routine aspect of it. When I was a kid, I used to watch like the ‘Behind the Scenes Buffalo,’ like those things and I’d watch Sidney Crosby a lot, so you can see behind the scenes. Ever since bantam, I’ve tried to have a routine because I wanted to be like Sidney Crosby.”