Who Do The Buffalo Sabres Trade Now That They Have Casey Nelson?
Is the right-handed blueliner a sure-fire thing, or a juicy piece of trade bait?
The Buffalo Sabres signed Minnesota State defenseman Casey Nelson to an entry-level contract last Tuesday, just one day after signing forward Hudson Fasching, who just finished his junior season with the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The 24 year-old Nelson is a highly touted right-handed defenseman whom the Buffalo Sabres are going to roll out as the season winds down, much to the dismay of Carlo Colaiacovo, whose reward for scoring his first goal with the Sabres Wednesday night was a nice, comfortable seat in press row when the Sabres faced the Winnipeg Jets Saturday afternoon – but I digress.
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Nelson looked pretty good against the Jets, setting up Hudson Fasching‘s first NHL goal and emerging from the contest with a +1 rating. Granted, this is the Jets we are talking about, but still: if Nelson is anywhere near as good as the Buffalo Sabres think he is, he has a strong chance of becoming a top-four defenseman, which means that something – in this case, someone – has to give.
As anyone who follows the Sabres already knows, this team is loaded with right-handed defenseman, but is utterly lacking when it comes to left-handed defensemen who can produce points. Buffalo only has three left-handed shots – Jake McCabe, Josh Gorges and Colaiacovo – whose goals scored resemble a preschooler counting backwards: 3, 2, and 1. Meanwhile, the Sabres have generated 20 goals from right-handed blueliners this season. It’s not like the team cannot ask right-handed shots to play on the left side of the ice, but clearly doing so is not the optimal solution, and when you are a team that is fighting to get back into the playoff picture, you don’t want to settle for anything less than the optimal solution.
Like I said: someone has to give – so which current member of the Buffalo Sabres’ defensive corps can we expect to see playing elsewhere in 2016-17? For starters, I think it is pretty safe to say that the Sabres will not resign Colaiacovo, who becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. As popular as he may be in the locker room, there’s zero reason to hold onto a 33 year-old blueliner who gave you five points and a -9 rating this season. Good-bye, Carlo – but please stay in touch!
Taking Colaiacovo’s salary off the books gives Buffalo more spending power, but I feel like the Sabres will be pursuing offense in free agency (no, we won’t discuss Steven Stamkos today!), which means the team may still wind up trading a defenseman or two in order to bring a true top-4 LHD into the 716. Of course, if the Sabres want a true top-4 blueliner to skate on the left side of the ice, it will take more than just Mark Pysyk, Jake McCabe or even Chad Ruhwedel – not that I am saying these are the guys that Tim Murray should consider trading, although Ruhwedel is having a career year with the Rochester Americans. We all know that a healthy Tyler Ennis is probably Buffalo’s best bargaining chip, so a deal involving him and a young defenseman could bring Buffalo the top-4 LHD it covets.
Another option that Buffalo has, now that it has an abundance of players at the center position, is to evaluate where Zemgus Girgensons and Johan Larsson fit in the Sabres’ long-term plans. So much depends on who the Sabres can go out and snag via free agency – a top notch left winger clearly would make Larsson expendable – that it is impossible to be certain about anything right now, especially when you consider that this team is arguably a healthy Ennis away from fighting for a playoff spot. Still, Buffalo needs another top-4 defenseman more than it needs a third-line forward; no one outside of the top-six is safe at this point.
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Want to get really crazy? Throw out the idea of Nelson himself being used to bring a left-handed defenseman into Buffalo – now there’s a fun topic of conversation to pursue!
Any way you look at it, the addition of Casey Nelson to the Buffalo Sabres’ roster brings the team one step closer to being able to acquire one of the major pieces this team needs if it wants to become a playoff team. It would be surprising if the Sabres decide to flip Nelson himself in exchange for such a player, but you can bet your bottom dollar that someone at the blueline is going to be wearing different colors when the 2016-17 season starts.