Buffalo Sabres LHD Options: Is Evander Kane The Key?

The 2015-16 Buffalo Sabres may have been much-improved, but this team still lacks an elite defensive unit.

If the Buffalo Sabres want to be playing this time next year – as in, if this team wishes to qualify for the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs – the front office needs to pull a Super Mario Bros and give its defensive corps a major power up.

Why?  For starters, Buffalo’s defensive unit can’t score worth a  ****.  Rasmus Ristolainen ranks 24th among all NHL defensemen, but after Risto, scoring from the blueline drops off the face of planet Earth.  Buffalo’s next two most offensive blueliners rank 66th (Zach Bogosian) and 100th (Cody Franson) in the NHL, with three more players falling within the 126-150 range (Jake McCabe, Josh Gorges and Mark Pysyk).

Consider that while you take a gander at this:

Playoff Team          Number of Top 50 Defensemen

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Nashville Predators                           4

Los Angeles Kings                              3

St. Louis Blues                                    3

San Jose Sharks                                 2

Washington Capitals                         2

New York Rangers                             2

Florida Panthers                                2

Chicago Blackhawks                          2

Dallas Stars                                         2

Tampa Bay Lightning                       2

Are you seeing where I’m heading with this?  Extend this chart to the top 60 defensemen, and we would add the Anaheim Ducks (who have one top 50 defensemen but three in the top 60), the Minnesota Wild (same as Anaheim), and the Pittsburgh Penguins (two top 60).

That’s 13 of the 16 teams playing in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs who skate at least two top-60 blueliners – and if you’re curious, the Detroit Red Wings just barely missed the cut, who have Mike Green (38) and Niklas Kronwall (61).

Is there more to playing defense than just scoring?  Duh.  But for a team that finished the 2015-16 regular season with a -16 goal differential, more scoring from the blueline could literally mean the difference between the post season or hitting the links in April.

Since the Sabres are loaded with right-handed defensemen, it’s clear that the team would benefit from having a left-handed shot to pair alongside Ristolainen – Cam Fowler, for example, or Hampus Lindholm, who both play for the Ducks, rank in the NHLs’ top 60, and could become available should the Ducks lose in the first round of the playoffs.  (Believe me: there WILL be roster changes in Anaheim if this team flames out in the first round to Nashville.)

Being able to acquire an LHD that would rank around the league’s top 50 would be a huge get for the Buffalo Sabres, but it would cost the team a top-six forward and then some . . . which brings me to Evander Kane.

Let’s say the Anaheim Ducks wind up losing their first-round series with the Predators.  Hell, let’s say the Ducks lose at any point before the Stanley Cup Final.  For a team that has won three consecutive Pacific Division titles, there is a definite sense that anything less than lifting Lord Stanley’s Cup is going to result in changes, so maybe Tim Murray makes a call inquiring about Lindholm or, more likely, Fowler.

The Ducks, who spent the first half of the regular season struggling to score and finished with the league’s 17th-best offense, would be wise to consider a trade that sent a young defenseman out of town and brought a 20-goal, 40-point per year player like Kane into SoCal.  (Kane missed 17 games this season, so I feel good assuming that his 35 points would have been 40+ had he played closer to a full 82.)

After all, the Ducks are loaded with young blueliners and drafted a potential stud in Jacob Larsson in the 2015 draft – but if the Ducks can afford to lose someone like Fowler, can the Sabres say the same thing about losing someone like Kane?

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the million-dollar question that the Buffalo Sabres are going to have to ask themselves if they are serious about filling that gaping hole on the left side of the blueline.

Just from a points perspective, a trade that sends Kane and whomever else out of town pretty much hurts the Sabres offensively, at least on paper.  Kane’s 35 points in 2015-16 were better than anything that Lindholm or Fowler did, as they each scored 28 points for the Ducks – but that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, as the Sabres will have swapped offense for defense.  If the Sabres feel like Tyler Ennis, Hudson Fasching, Justin Bailey, or any combination of those players can make up for Kane’s scoring, then this trade essentially keeps Buffalo’s offensive production intact AND improves scoring from the blueline, making it a win, overall.

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Trading Kane becomes even easier if the Buffalo Sabres pick up a top-6 forward, either through another trade of free agency – but this is by no means necessary.  The Sabres have the pieces to offer a team such as Anaheim a package for a top-4 LHD.  Such a trade may put the team in a holding pattern, as I find it hard to see the Sabres making up for Kane’s scoring in 2016-17.  In the long run, though, as Fasching and the rest of the young players develop their offense, losing a top-6 forward for a top-4 defenseman will ultimately make the Buffalo Sabres a more competitive squad.