The Buffalo Sabres have officially made a trade. They have traded center Eric Staal to the Montreal Canadiens for a 2021 third-round pick and a 2021 fifth-round pick in the upcoming NHL Draft.
It seemed apparent that this trade was going to happen today as Kyle Okposo returned to practice and said that the team wished Eric well at the end of practice. This all but confirmed that this trade was going to happen sooner rather than later.
The Sabres traded for Staal this past offseason. They sent Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild and got Staal in return. Staal had played in 32 games so far this season for the Sabres. Through those 32 appearances, he tallied three goals and seven assists. Pretty underwhelming stats for such a proven player, but the whole team has been underwhelming to this point.
With this trade, the Sabres add two draft picks for the 2021 NHL Draft. After this trade, the Sabres now own one pick in rounds one through five, including the Canadiens third and fifth-round picks, two sixth-round picks, including one from the Colorado Avalanche via the Jonas Johansson trade, and one seventh-round pick. So as of right now, the Sabres own eight picks in this upcoming draft.
With the trade deadline approaching quickly, it is almost certain that we will see more trades involving Buffalo within the next couple of weeks. The theme leading up to the deadline for the Sabres will be to acquire as much young talent and draft picks as they are willing to take.
We have already seen that Taylor Hall seems to be open to leaving Buffalo, so I am willing to bet there will be plenty of trade offers for Hall within the coming days. It seems likely that multiple Sabres will be on the move before April 12th.