The Buffalo Sabres are in the middle of another miserable season. With 53 points out of 56 games, they are dead last in the Eastern Conference and close to extending their playoff drought. The NHL trade deadline is approaching and the Sabres should make trades and there are definite dream and nightmare scenarios.
The Sabres have ten pending free agents and six of them are unrestricted. At the very least, those six players should be on the trading block along with anyone who can bring back value. Buffalo should be willing to trade anyone who can bring back a top-end prospect or high picks at this point in the rebuild. They have picks to trade if it comes down to that but those should not be on the table.
There is a clear way for the Sabres to win the trade deadline and it would not take their wildest dream. But a nightmare could continue to set the franchise back for years to come.
The dream: The Sabres trade Dylan Cozens and all free agents
All of the unrestricted free agents have to be traded before March 7. That includes forwards Jason Zucker, Jordan Greenway, and Nicholas Aube-Kubel. The defensemen are Henri Jokiharju, Jacob Bryson, and Dennis Gilbert. If you wanted to really sell and push the envelope, restricted free agents Bowen Byram and Ryan McLeod could be out the door. Even after giving Dylan Cozens a massive contract, the Sabres should look to trade him too.
Cozens is just 23 years old and under contract through 2030 with a $7.1 million cap hit. But he is having a miserable season, with 11 goals in 55 games. He got the contract based on a 30-goal campaign in 2022-23 but has not been the same since. Sending him out while he still has some value will help fix some of the problems with this roster.
The Sabres have to send these players out, give their prospects space to play in the NHL, and amass picks. This core has not proven anything at the NHL level and, outside of Tage Thompson, doesn’t look like a special group of players. GM Kevyn Adams has a chance as one of the few sellers at this deadline to reset the roster.
The nightmare: No additional picks in the first three rounds
But there are two sides to every coin and the Sabres have routinely landed on that side in the past 15 years. If their luck continues to go that way this year, they will strike out at the trade deadline. If they do not get a pick in the first three rounds of the draft, they will have failed this deadline. Their pieces aren’t great, which is why they are in last place, but they can amass some serious draft capital.
The Sabres could package two of their players to potentially bring in a first-round pick. Before the international break, the Sharks did this by sending Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci to the Stars. They got a first and a third-rounder out of that deal, but Granlund is much better than all of Buffalo’s free agents.
Zucker and Jokiharju are the two most valuable pending free agents they have and could be sent together to a Western Conference contender. If the Minnesota Wild want Zucker back, they could both help fill some injury holes. The Vegas Golden Knights will have cap space after Shea Theodore’s injury. And the Canucks could swing a deadline-day move.
The Sabres have had a brutal history in the trade market since their last playoff appearance in 2011. They dealt Ryan O’Reilly right before he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2019. Jack Eichel asked out and immediately won a Cup in Vegas. Sam Reinhart was a Sabre and then scored 57 goals for the Panthers. So dealing players is a sore subject for Buffalo fans but it has to be done for high draft capital at this deadline.
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