The surging Sabres should be trade deadline buyers
It feels like it was only yesterday that the Buffalo Sabres were back in their familiar spot at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
It certainly wasn’t long ago. It’s been just over two months since we here at Daily Faceoff published a piece that turned out to be quite prescient, entitled: “There’s still time for the Sabres to rebound after another tough start.” At that time, the Sabres were last in the East with a 7-9-4 record and had just been blown out on home ice by the lowly Calgary Flames.
But there were always signs that things could change.
For starters, the Sabres were still within striking distance of a playoff spot despite that tough start, and their team shooting percentage was unsustainably low. They were also dealing with more than their fair share of significant injuries.
Since then, the Sabres have gotten many of their key players back from the IR, and those players have helped them to score far more often (both in terms of volume and proportion). In 29 games since that particular article went live, the Sabres have gone 20-8-1 and now occupy the first wild-card playoff spot in the East.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround and one of the best stories of the entire NHL season to date. The Sabres haven’t made the playoffs since 2011, and what was starting to look like yet another lost year has become the most exciting hockey season in Buffalo in quite some time.
It’s probably safe to say this 180° turn wouldn’t be happening to this extent if the Sabres hadn’t made a key change to their executive group back in December, firing general manager Kevyn Adams and replacing him with former Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen. That move immediately seemed to raise the spirits of the Sabres’ core players, and it just so happened to coincide with the club going on a 10-game winning streak.
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin was smiling quite a bit during his fiveish minute session with reporters on Wednesday. His initial thoughts on the GM change: "Excited. Turning a new page. Looking forward to the future."
These Sabres are different. Their underlying results, while somewhat weaker of late, have been perfectly solid for most of the season. Their forward group is deeper and more well-rounded than we’ve seen in the past, with newcomers Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod driving much of that growth. And their defense, while somewhat top-heavy, is now a strength instead of a weakness.
We’ve become accustomed to the Sabres being perennial sellers, or at least standing pat, at the trade deadline. But this year offers a real opportunity for them to flip that script, especially with how competitive the Eastern Conference has become. With the number of teams out there looking to improve by any means necessary, the Sabres can’t afford to squander the momentum they’ve generated by sitting tight. It’s time for them to buy.
In an ideal world, the Sabres would find a way to strengthen their center depth. Tage Thompson has spent a decent chunk of this season playing on the wing, and Josh Norris is back on the shelf on a week-to-week basis. Finding the right external candidate to bolster that position is easier said than done, though, and the Sabres might already have a tailor-made solution in the form of 2024 first-round pick Konsta Helenius, who scored three points in a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
The easier positions for the Sabres to address might be their wings and defense. They could really stand to upgrade on one (or both) of Jack Quinn and Jason Zucker, the two incumbents on either side of McLeod, both of whom have struggled to stay afloat at 5-on-5 at various points this season. Of course, there’s also the lingering question of what to do with Alex Tuch, who has 41 points in 48 games this year and is due for a new contract between now and July 1.
On the blue line, the Sabres have relied almost exclusively on their top four of Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, and Bowen Byram to do the heavy lifting, with each of them logging more than 23 minutes in that win against Nashville (Dahlin ended up over 28). That’s clearly unsustainable, and even if Michael Kesselring can relieve those four to a certain degree when he gets healthy, the Sabres still need more help.
In that game against the Preds, the Sabres went with Jacob Bryson and Zach Metsa on their bottom pairing, and both played very little. If the Sabres truly aspire to make noise in the playoffs this spring, they’ll be aggressive in pursuing potential upgrades. There aren’t many clear-cut sellers around the league yet, but even so, Calgary has Zach Whitecloud and Joel Hanley, the Winnipeg Jets have Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn, and Nashville has Nick Perbix and Nick Blankenburg — just to name a few.
One major obstacle the Sabres (and other uncompetitive teams) have faced in the past is convincing players to waive their no-trade or no-movement clauses to come play for them. With those restrictions becoming more and more common around the league, it can be difficult for teams like Buffalo to wheel and deal. But winning cures all ails, and either way, all six of the potential defense targets listed above have no NTC whatsoever.
The Sabres might finally have to put an end to their strange three-headed goaltending monster to create roster flexibility for themselves, but if that means putting Colten Ellis back on waivers, it’s likely something they’d be comfortable with. In any event, they certainly have the pick and prospect capital required to pay for roster upgrades, although it’d be nice if they still had the 2026 second-round pick they inexplicably gave up in the Norris-for-Dylan Cozens swap.
It’ll be fascinating to watch everything unfold in Buffalo between now and the March 6 trade deadline. First and foremost, they have to keep winning games to stay in the playoff picture, and that all begins on Thursday evening as they take on the similarly ascendant Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
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