In Part 1, I tried to make the case that GM Kevyn Adams has done what he had control over, and did a lot of it pretty well. (Quick positive recap: Good coach hire, development of guys is back on track, signed some strong key free agents. Quick negative recap: Failed inparts beyond his control like regression of young players, not signing a top 6 scoring winger, missing top right shot defender.)
In Part 2 I have some ideas for steps he needs to explore next. I am going to ignore next season for now, and throw some thoughts out for the rest of this season.
Who can we get and how? For this and the immediate future, we are trading with teams from the bottom of the race or out of the playoff mostly. (Would not have been the case if we had gotten Pettersson, but I am afraid our chance is gone with them already moving JT Miller.) Good teams are not going to part out their NHL ready top 2 lines of players without strong reason. We may flip Joker or Zucker or Greenway (not while hurt) near the deadline for a second or third or fourth round pick, but we do not need prospects or picks. We need players who score and backcheck (so I am not trading for Jeff Skinner back). We could use them now, (likely too late) but next year for sure.
If you want to trade, you have to have something the other team wants or needs. For assets, the Sabres have:
– Cap space – but that usually nets you older expensive guys on their way out, or picks. Neither is the immediate help we needed this year, or will need next year.
– Picks – We have pretty much our standard allotment. We have an extra 4th in 2025, and 2 extra 7ths. No one will care, they have essentially no value for what we need. We do have some pretty high “normal” picks potentially, heck our first might be in the lottery (cue sad trombone)! A downside of trading picks in the upcoming draft is losing the ability to offer sheet (has to be done with your own picks). As offer sheets are traditionally underused, this is an asset we have, and using it likely hurts the team very little because we also have:
– Young developing players with high upside. This is where it’s going to hurt, but winning a cup (or making the playoffs) is going to hurt. We all have out list of guys we consider off limits. But trading Savoie for Malenstyn was great – we got a player in spot we needed for a guy who will not be on an NHL roster for at least a year (maybe never), in a spot where we had multiple guys developing. When you have guys like Levi, Rosen, Rousek, Fiddler S, Kozak, Ostlund, and Helenius in Rochester, only so many of them will turn into NHL roster players. The problem is we tend to overvalue them and refuse to want to let them go – but we have a good number, and some are redundant. They are assets we need to use to win NOW. Not 2-3 years from now when these guys are ready. Yes, you want to maintain a pipeline, you have to give value to get value.
– Players on bargain contracts. Again, these might hurt to let go of. If we trade them, any of the guys I mention will come back to haunt us many times in the future (Eichel and Reinhart anyone?). But there is no doubt Tage is on a great team friendly deal, and Quinn likely will be (not signed, but his bargaining position is likely shot for this year), JJP, and Benson come to mind. Kulick and to some extent Kozak are young but producing, but may not be what we need in the short term if we are in Win Now mode. All possible up and comers (who I do not want to see go) that are or could blossom, for us or someone else. With improvement Power might fit in there as well as he has an incredible upside even though his contract is pretty high. And with the right deal maybe Byram fits this description as well (although I anticipate he will be signed for pretty big $, along the lines of Power).
So turn make his seat a little less hot, Kevyn needs to use the biggest assets he has (young quality players, players on good contracts, some picks) to get what we need – top scoring, quality right hand D. And no more prospects or picks – we need players!
In Part 3 I am going to explore some trade options. Hope you all are enjoying my thoughts!