Which veteran forward would be a good addition for Buffalo in return for Byram?
The Buffalo Sabres made their first big move of the summer, finally moving on from JJ Peterka by sending him to the Utah Mammoth. One of the pieces is return was defenseman Michael Kesselring, which now opens the door for Buffalo to see what they can get for Bowen Byram.
Matthew Fairburn of the Athletic joined Daily Faceoff Live to talk about what the Sabres should do with Byram, and who they should possibly trade him for.
Matthew Fairburn: Bryan Rust is the name I’ve had circled for the Sabres as an ideal player-type in terms of [being a] veteran, productive, just a true pro. They need more adults in the room, more pros guys that have been through it, guys that have played in the playoffs and that know what it looks like.
That trade clause of his expires at the start of the new league year, and that’s a [Pittsburgh Penguins] team looking to get younger. Byram is a weird fit there because they’ve got a crowded blue line. I’m sure they’d like to have Byram instead of some of the guys that they have, but they’re not gonna be easily moved to those other guys. So that’s a little bit tricky.
I don’t know that they’ll do this, but the idea of keeping Byram is not the worst idea in the world either, if you can convince him to buy in for a couple of years. He’s a couple of years away from unrestricted free agency, but a top pair of Byram and Dahlin with Power and Kesselring. That’s a good top four. That’s a strength.
Who’s playing with Dahlin if you trade Byram? That becomes the next question. Every move requires you to make another move to backfill what you’ve just done. So I think if they are trading Byram, they have to have a plan to fill that spot because Mattias Samuelsson next to Dahlin, it’s just not the best plan. It’s worked at times in the past, but given his injury history and the results he’s had over the last few years, I think you’re taking a huge risk if you’re starting the season with Samuelsson and Dahlin.
So, Rust is the first name that comes to mind when you’re talking about forwards, but they’ve got to thread the needle there with an experienced guy. You want to get to the net, a guy that can forecheck, a guy that has experience, which by the way all those are things that JJ Peterka didn’t really have. So that’s why I say I’m not opposed to the idea that they can come out of all of this a week from now as a better team than they were at the beginning of the week.
You can watch the full episode here…