Buffalo Sabres Draft Options: Trading No. 8 To Anaheim

The Buffalo Sabres need help on defense; the Anaheim Ducks need young scorers. Match made in heaven, or pure fantasy?

To trade, or not to trade?

That is the biggest question the Buffalo Sabres will have to ask themselves in the days leading up to the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. If Sabres GM Tim Murray feels he can acquire a few impact players through free agency or other means, there really is no need to do anything but stand pat and use the 8th pick that the team already holds.

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However, a team that is looking to make the playoffs sooner than later can’t always rely on draft picks to blossom. Some players, such as Jack Eichel, make an impact right away. Others, such as Rasmus Ristolainen, need a few years in the minors to continue developing their game, and still others, such as Mikhail Grigorenko, never pan out like the team had hoped. There’s no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to drafting young talent, so there’s always the chance that the Buffalo Sabres could trade their first-round pick.

I’ve already covered the possibility of the Sabres using the 8th pick in a deal that gets them Taylor Hall (highly unlikely), and a scenario in which the Sabres swap places with the Edmonton Oilers (quite likely). Today we look at a scenario that falls somewhere in between the Hall trade and the move up in the draft trade: including the 8th pick in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks.

In many ways, the Ducks are the polar opposite of the Buffalo Sabres. For starters, they are a perennial playoff team, which is something the Sabres are aspiring to become. However, the Ducks are also perennial playoff busts, so you know they are not going to be satisfied with simply firing head coach Bruce Boudreau. They are stuck with an aging core of forwards – Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler – and need to begin thinking ahead to life without the Twins. Anaheim is loaded with solid young blueliners, but needs to start picking up some forwards with top-6 potential if they want to be more than just the NHL’s poster child for teams that can’t close out playoff series.

Meanwhile, the Sabres are not a playoff team, but have a young core of forwards who certainly have the potential to do great things in the postseason. Buffalo is thinnest at the blueline, where it needs at least one puck-moving LHD. While the Ducks and their aging trio might be on a downward slope, then the Sabres are on an upward slope, but the Sabres can only rise so far with the weak-ass defensive core you can currently find on its roster.

Since both teams are in a position to help each other, it makes sense for GMTM to get Ducks general manager Bob Murray on the line and see if something cannot be worked out, right? Certainly it is worth a try, but the two names that I hear Sabres fans constantly talking about are Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm, and I just don’t see Anaheim moving these two guys. Lindholm is most likely going to be signed to a long-term contract this summer, and honestly, even though the Ducks should be looking ahead to their post Getzlaf & Perry days, this team isn’t ready to enter a rebuild just yet. Any trade involving Fowler would have to benefit the Ducks now, and unless the Buffalo Sabres are willing to trade Evander Kane (a possibility we have already discussed here), the Ducks are not going to say yes to a trade that sets them back a year or two.

The Anaheim Ducks might consider trading Sami Vatanen, a player I would love to see play for the Sabres, but he is a right-handed shot, which doesn’t address the gaping hole on the left side of Buffalo’s blueline. (Yes, I am aware it is possible to be a right-handed shot on the left side of the ice. No, that’s not preferable.) Maybe GMTM could get Bob Murray to part ways with 20 year-old LHD Shea Theodore, because losing him won’t hurt the Ducks in 2016-17. Realistically, that is probably Buffalo’s only play if all they are willing to trade are draft picks and young players, and Theodore is a promising specimen. Anaheim is pretty high on him, but with the pressure on the organization to at least make it to the Stanley Cup Final in the next 2-3 years, maybe the Ducks would consider a deal that included the 8th pick and a player they felt they could plug into their system sooner than later.

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If you sit down and think clearly, it is pretty evident that the Anaheim Ducks are not going to trade Cam Fowler to the Buffalo Sabres straight-up for draft picks. The Ducks may be playoff underachievers, but let’s face it – the team is still good enough to make the playoffs in 2016-17. Rather than tear down, the team will most likely seek to improve in key areas, and losing Cam Fowler in exchange for draft picks does not improve the team fast enough. Unless GM TM is willing to give up a top-6 forward or a top-4 blueliners to get Fowler (which obviously just sets the Sabres back in other areas), this trade is only slightly more realistic than one involving Taylor Hall.

All in all, Edmonton and Buffalo are more likely to dance on draft day, but as there is a left-handed defenseman to inquire about in Shea Theodore, nothing is out of the question when it comes to how Buffalo will use their first-round draft pick.

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