Buffalo Sabres Made A Big Mistake Letting Chad Johnson Walk

The Buffalo Sabres let a proven goaltender walk in favor of an unproven netminder

Buffalo Sabres fans knew that it was coming: GM Tim Murray was not going to re-sign backup goaltender Chad Johnson.

Never mind the fact that Johnson had played more games in the 2015-16 season than any other season in his career (45).

Forget about Johnson’s 22-16-4 record for a Buffalo Sabres team that finished one game under .500 last season.

Ignore Johnson’s .920 save percentage and 2.36 GAA – solid numbers for a team that, again, finished below .500, was outscored by 21 goals over the course of the season and failed to make the playoffs.

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Better still, let’s act like GMTM’s starter of choice, Robin Lehner, wasn’t injured for most of 2016-16, playing in only 21 games, compiling a record of 5-9-5, bringing his career record to 35-45-18 (compared to Johnson’s 50-30-11).

Yep – why would GMTM bother thinking about any of those pesky little statistics and facts when it came to dealing with UFA Johnson, who wound up signing a one-year, $1.7 million contract with the Calgary Flames?

Ugh.

Look – I know I’m not a GM (as one of my favorite readers likes to point out to me as often as he can!).  I don’t know what went down during the talks between Johnson’s camp and the Sabres’ front office (assuming they had any talks).  Maybe Johnson just wanted to return home to Calgary – it happens.  But I have a sinking suspicion that the Sabres could have re-signed the veteran goaltender with the right offer, and if that is the case, GMTM could very well regret letting the fan favorite walk.

Sure, the Sabres replaced Johnson pretty quickly, acquiring Swedish goaltender Anders Nilsson from St. Louis in exchange for a 5th-round draft pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.  Nilsson has a lot of qualities that GMTM admires in a netminder: he’s Swedish; he’s big (6’5″, 227 lbs.); he’s Swedish; he hasn’t proven much of anything yet at this stage in his career; and have I mentioned that he is Swedish?

Sounds like the perfect goalie for the Sabres!

I don’t want to condemn the trade for Nilsson – the guy has not played one game in a Sabres sweater, and it sounds like he has the tools to become a solid netminder.  Still, this a case of choosing the unknown over the known.  The Sabres knew what they had in Chad Johnson, and they chose to let him walk away in favor of an entirely unproven plan B, who for all we know might spend most, if not all, of the 2016-17 season toiling away in Rochester.

Next: Buffalo Sabres Face Tough Cap Decisions

The Buffalo Sabres made a lot of progress in 2015-16, and are a better team in every area right now . . . except for goaltending, which is kind of important.  I’ll be the first one to hail GMTM as a genius if Anders Nilsson turns out to be every bit as good as Chad Johnson was, but today, the Sabres are worse off in between the pipes than they were last season, which is a big step backward for a team that is hoping to fight for the playoffs in 2016-17.