Sabres news: Sabres dropped the ball on Taylor Hall trade

For those of you who went to bed early last night, you woke up to the non-surprising news of Taylor Hall being traded. The Buffalo Sabres sent Curtis Lazar and Taylor Hall to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Anders Bjork and a second-round pick. All the rumors from Buffalo over the past week saying they expect to acquire at least one first-round pick for Hall amounted to nothing, and fans are not pleased, and rightfully so.

I understand that the Sabres needed to trade Hall. Chances are he was not going to re-sign with Buffalo after this season if he stayed, and they needed to acquire something for letting him leave. The teams that were interested in trading for Hall were all teams that are trying to compete for a Stanley Cup Championship this year. Given that those teams would be picking late in the first round of the draft, a first-round pick in return was not something that should have been hard to acquire.

But to go along with the theme of this entire season for Buffalo, the Sabres disappoint once again. They were unable to get what they had hoped for in exchange for the former Hart Trophy winner. To make this trade even worse, the Sabres sent Curtis Lazar to Boston along with Hall. It is not that Lazar was someone Buffalo had to keep, but if you are going to trade two players and still not get a first-round in return, you should expect to take some heat.

Instead, the Sabres got a second-round pick and Anders Bjork. For lack of better words, Bjork is basically a more expensive version of Lazar. And speaking of money, the Sabres will also retain half of Hall’s contract for the rest of the season. So we will have the pleasure of watching the Sabres play the Bruins six more times this season, and in all of those games, Buffalo will be paying Hall to play against them.

So, all in all, definitely a bad trade for the Sabres and an excellent move for the Bruins. Buffalo trade Hall about 14 hours before the deadline and still did not receive what they probably could have if they were patient. But, at least we got something, I guess.