Buffalo’s bottom-six upgrade makes them more complete, but not improved enough
The Buffalo Sabres have gone down the road they chose not to last summer after missing the playoffs by one point, making additions through free agency and the trade market to improve the depth of their forward group, but the move to add scoring help after a significant decline in their offense has not occurred to this point, which may be the step that GM Kevyn Adams needs to make to snap their 13-year playoff skid.
Friday’s deal that sent prospect Matthew Savoie to the Edmonton Oilers for center Ryan McLeod and minor leaguer Tyler Tullio further bolstered the Sabres bottom six after adding forwards Beck Malenstyn, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Jason Zucker, and Sam Lafferty, but the club has yet to replace 24 goals lost with the buyout of winger Jeff Skinner, and the offense generated by the swap of Casey Mittelstadt to Colorado for defenseman Bowen Byram.
Buffalo has $13.7 million in projected cap space left, but less than one week into free agency, every impact unrestricted free agent has been signed. The Sabres have to get Malenstyn and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen uder contract, and Adams is likely limited to a scenario where the club is hoping to flip another young prospect (Jiri Kulich or Noah Ostlund) and/or an NHL roster player (Henri Jokiharju or Peyton Krebs) for a scorer with some term left on his contract.
Some players who were thought to be options for that type of deal (Pavel Buchnevich, Tanner Jeannot, Andrew Mangiapane) were either signed to contract extensions or traded to new clubs, but there are still avenues for potential upgrades (Nikolaj Ehlers, Martin Necas, Trevor Zegras) whose situations are still unresolved. It will be interesting to see whether the Sabres will go for any of these outside options or hope that youngsters like Jack Quinn, Zach Benson, or a veteran like Zucker can step into a primary scoring role.
