Buffalo Sabres Forward Kyle Okposo is Gaining Value
As the Buffalo Sabres press on forwards with their season, Kyle Okposo seems to be finding his stride again, and it will only benefit them for this to happen.
At the start of this season, Buffalo Sabres forward Kyle Okposo was coming off of a major issue that he disclosed to the fans. He seemed to be alright for the first few games of the season as he was working hard, playing big minutes, and playing is heart out each game. Unfortunately, as his production started to slip, so did the rest of his play. He found himself being shuffled from line to line in order to find a good pairing for him, but he hasn’t been able to gain much traction in the scoring department, at least up until recently.
With his limited ice time, his scoring still isn’t going to be fantastic, but he is being more consistent than he was. Okposo sits currently with 21 points (10G, 11A) in 55 games and is a -11. He is also only averaging around 12.5 minutes of ice time per game, so considering that, he is on an upswing.
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The hardest thing to swallow about Kyle Okposo is that he carries a $6M cap hit for this season, and the next four seasons after that. This makes trading him a difficult task for GM Jason Botteril, as many teams will not take a slumping forward with a large cap hit very often. Beyond that, Okposo’s contract has a modified no trade clause in it that won’t allow him to be traded to 15 teams of his choice. He has the option to waive that list of course, but unless something changes in the scoresheet category for him, he will be stuck here for the next four years, or he may get bought out.
With his recent set of games putting him on the scoresheet a little more, it only increases his value as a forward. His trade value will only go up if he gets back to form as a 20 goal, 60 point scorer. He was consistently putting up those numbers prior to his arrival in Buffalo (some might attribute that success to playing alongside superstar center John Tavares) and he hasn’t really found his form ever since. His contract was a product of former GM Tim Murray spending to the cap in order to get good players in Buffalo, so he could try and put a winning product on the ice. Unfortunately for the team, and fans, this did not pan out.
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If Kyle Okposo can at least find his scoring touch a little more, especially on the power play, his big cap hit will be a lot easier to swallow for fans. He is a hard working veteran player and he brings value to this team, but without production, the leadership falls flat. I think he has it in him to continue trending upwards.