Buffalo Sabres Can Take A Good, Hard Look At Barrie, Landeskog Tonight

The Buffalo Sabres will get to put a potential trade target through the stress test tonight when they host the Avalanche.

Buffalo Sabres fans who dream of the team adding another puck-moving defenseman to the blueline or a solid top-6 forward should be excited about tonight’s game between the Sabres and the Colorado Avalanche.

After all, Avs blueliner Tyson Barrie was one of the names I saw tossed around social media, and a few other blogs, toward the tail end of last season and during the summer months, and left winger Gabriel Landeskog is currently the Avs player whose name is being discussed in every NHL city Colorado visits at this point of the season.

It’s easy to make a case for Buffalo being interested in both Barrie and Landeskog. With Buffalo currently owning only one blueliner who can be counted on creating some offense (Rasmus Ristolainen is the only defenseman on the team with over 20 points and 100 shots), GM Tim Murray has his work cut out for him this summer. Puck-moving defensemen who can run the power play don’t grow on trees, and with Colorado on pace to finish the season with just 49 points, it’s safe to assume that not many players on the Avs roster are considered untouchable at this point.

As a solid second-pairing defenseman who is getting used way too much this season, Barrie should receive a lot of attention from GMTM and his scouts when they take the ice at Key Bank Center tonight. His numbers are atrocious, which means that Colorado GM Joe Sakic is not going to be able to over-hype him to the extent that he can over-hype Landeskog, but there is reason to believe that Barrie is worth the Sabres’ interest. According to the piece, “Tyson Barrie forced to take on too much for the Avalanche” over at The Denver Post, Barrie is -24 on the season when playing more than 22 minutes . . . but only -1 in games in which he has logged less than 22 minutes. That makes Barrie’s league-worst -25 rating a bit easier to swallow: if the Sabres know going into this that Barrie is more of a specialist than a work-horse, GMTM can be smart about what he offers and let the chips fall where they may.

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Now Barrie won’t come cheap, but he’s affordable – if Joe Sakic thinks he can dupe someone into overpaying for the guy with the worst +/- out of the NHL’s 802 players, he is out of his mind. Landeskog, on the other hand, is a former 60-point player who has already hit 20 or more goals 4 times in his young career. Whereas Barrie might be gotten for a high draft pick and a prospect, it will take more than that to pry Landeskog out of Colorado, which is why I suggest people focus more on Barrie. Of course, the Sabres do have a need for Landeskog – he would immediately slide into the starting lineup alongside Ryan O’Reilly and Kyle Okposo, and man, what I wouldn’t give to see that dream become reality. Still, Landeskog is going to be billed as a franchise player, even though his numbers this season (11-12-23, -17 plus/minus) tell you he is not. Sakic is going to want too much for Landeskog, so unless GMTM brings up Landeskog only to soften up Sakic so they can switch their attention to discussing Barrie, I would think the Sabres’ interest should center around Tyson Barrie more than anyone.

Next: Sabres Playing With Fire During Their Playoff Push

The Buffalo Sabres are in a slightly better position right now than they were at this point during the 2015-16 season, while the Colorado Avalanche are in a free-fall. It makes sense to assume, then, that Sabres GMTM will be scouting a few Avs players tonight. Whether he can fleece Colorado just a few years after stealing Ryan O’Reilly out from under their noses, however, remains to be seen.

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