During the NHL Draft on Wednesday, the Buffalo Sabres announced qualifying offers to six RFAs. Unfortunately, Dominik Kahun wasn’t one of them.
The Buffalo Sabres gave fans more heart attacks than they would’ve liked on Tuesday and Wednesday. It started with the team passing on Marco Rossi and Cole Perfetti for the likes of Jack Quinn, a move many fans didn’t like, and ended with the team passing on a qualifying offer for Dominik Kahun.
It hadn’t even been 24 hours since their first round pick when the Sabres struck again with the Kahun announcement. The announcement came right as the deadline struck at 5:00PM ET on Wednesday, making Sabres’ fans wait last-minute.
Aren’t you supposed to save those last-minute surprises for the good news?
All in all, the Buffalo Sabres tendered qualifying offers to Sam Reinhart, Victor Olofsson, Brandon Montour, Linus Ullmark, Casey Mittelstadt, and Lawrence Pilut. There were four players in total that didn’t receive a qualifying offer — Dominik Kahun, Matthew Spencer, Brandon Hickey, and Remi Elie.
Those that were sent a qualifying offer can begin accepting them on Friday, or choose to enter arbitration.
To be honest, I’m a little disappointed about Dominik Kahun not being tendered. He has a lot of promise in this league, has been eager to land a long-term role with an NHL team, and will likely draw a lot of interest from around the league. Not tendering him means he is set to become an unrestricted free agent in a few days.
Kahun seemed like the perfect fit for Buffalo. He was due to see some valuable time on the ice, would make an excellent middle-six option, and showed a lot of promise in the six games he played in a Sabres’ jersey towards the end of last year.
For those that don’t remember, Dominik Kahun was sent to Buffalo in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins before the trade deadline last season. The Sabres sent Evan Rodrigues and Conor Sheary to the Penguins in exchange.
Just two minutes into his debut with the Buffalo Sabres, Kahun scored a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights. They ended up losing that game 4-2, but it was a great way for Kahun to show his worth.
He went on to play 6 games with Buffalo before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short. Kahun finished with 2 goals and 2 assists with the Sabres, as well as 10 goals and 17 assists in 50 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins before the trade.
Before making it to the NHL, Kahun showed a lot of promise in several leagues, including the DNL, OHL, and the DEL. He spent four years with EHC Red Bull München in the DEL and finished his career there with 39 goals and 72 assists in 157 games — he also recorded 9 goals and 29 assists in 49 playoff games.
Over the last few years, he has developed his skills, become bigger, faster, stronger, worked on his reactions, decision, and is always two steps ahead of the defense. He continues to improve and that’s exactly what the Buffalo Sabres need right now.
Not to mention, Ralph Krueger has had an eye on him since he was a teenager — dating back to when Krueger was in Europe.
It’s definitely weird that the Buffalo Sabres weren’t willing to do more to lock him into a contract for several years. It makes you wonder what else the Sabres are going to screw up when it comes time to talk contracts. It makes you a little nervous.
The good news is Dominik Kahun has expressed interest in continuing talks, but he’s going to need a better offer from the Buffalo Sabres. If they’re smart, they won’t hesitate to get a deal done before another team swoops in for the steal.
It looks like the ball (or puck) is in the Sabres’ court (or rink). What do you think they’re going to do in this situation?
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