Buffalo Should Trade Tyler Ennis – But Not For Who You Think!
Word on the street today confirms what everyone already knew: the Buffalo Sabres, who currently are the third-worst team in the entire NHL, are in sell mode. It’s not quite “Everything must go!” time, but it’s certainly a clearance sale with many players up for grabs.
While the latest reports list some usual suspects as players that General Manager Tim Murray would look to move out of the 716 – Jamie McGinn and Mike Weber, for example – many are surprised to hear forward Tyler Ennis‘ name being floated out there, as well.
Naturally, there are many people taking to Twitter in order to condemn the possibility that the Sabres would consider trading Ennis. For every person who does not want to see Ennis go, however, there appears to be another person who is proposing a deal that send Ennis and another player to Tampa Bay in exchange for the Lightning’s Jonathan Drouin, who is toiling away in Syracuse NY, these days.
As it turns out, both of these approaches would be wrong.
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No, the Buffalo Sabres should not hang onto Tyler Ennis, despite the fact that he has been an entertaining player to watch at times. But arguing the Sabres should package Ennis in a deal that would bring Drouin to Buffalo is neither realistic nor entirely wise.
Assume for a minute that the Lightning would consider a deal that involves Ennis and Drouin. For starters, such a trade would not be a simple player-for-player swap such as the Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen trade that recently went down. Drouin was, after all, the third overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft – the same draft that saw Jones picked by Nashville with the fourth overall pick. As many of you are aware, Ennis was the twenty-sixth pick back in 2008 – not terrible, but a 26 year-old player who has never topped 50 points in a season will never be considered equal value for a 20 year-old with the sort of upside Drouin has. Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman is going to look to fleece whichever team wants /needs Drouin the most, and rumors have it that the Lightning are looking for a puck-moving, right-handed defenseman. Does Drouin for Ennis and Rasmus Ristolainen sound like a smart move for the Sabres to make?
Didn’t think so.
Besides, even if a deal that brought Drouin into the 716 could be made that didn’t involve Ristolainen, I’m not impressed with a young player who, having accomplished next to nothing in his career, is already requesting trades – from the team that represented the Eastern Conference in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, no less. The Buffalo Sabres do not need the second coming of Cody Hodgson, so upside be damned: let Drouin stew in the AHL until someone truly desperate comes to get him.*
Rumors of a trade involving St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk are interesting, but there is a team right now who is so desperate for scoring, Tim Murray should have already made a phone call or ten: the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks lost scorers in Matt Beleskey (22-10-32 in 2014-15) and Kyle Palmieri (14-15-29) during the offseason, have scored the fewest goals (76) by far in the league so far this season, and are in real danger of not making the playoffs. For a team that came within a Game 7 loss, at home, of making it to the Stanley Cup Final, this is entirely unacceptable. Trading for a three-time 20 goal scorer is exactly the sort of thing Ducks’ GM Bob Murray will be looking to do as the trade deadline approaches – but who could the Sabres expect in return?
Having covered the Ducks during their playoff run last season, I can tell you that the team is loaded with young blueliners who really know how to move the puck and find the back of the net. While the Sabres could certainly use a winger to replace Ennis, Buffalo would be wise to listen to a deal that involved Anaheim’s Sami Vatanen – sorry, Sabres fans, but Cam Fowler will not be up for grabs. Make no mistake, though – Vatanen is no consolation prize. The 24 year-old actually led all Ducks blueliners with 37 points scored in 2014-15, and was the sixth-leading scorer for the entire team in the 2015 playoffs. Just as Nashville was playing from a position of strength when it traded Jones, so too would the Ducks be able to afford moving Vatanen, since Anaheim would still have Fowler, the stud that is Hampus Lindholm, and the soon-to-be-a-household-name prospect Shea Theodore in their system.
Next: Sabres Slowly Improving January Record
The bottom line is that the Tampa Lightning would be foolish to just give Jonathan Drouin away, and that there are better deals to be made involving the talents of Tyler Ennis. The Sabres may not find a dancing partner in SoCal, but the Ducks – a desperate team – are the sort of team the Sabres would actually have leverage over, not the other way around.