Former Sabres watch: A complete turnaround for Eric Staal this season

This past offseason, we saw the Buffalo Sabres make a move to trade for Eric Staal. The Sabres sent Marcus Johansson to the Wild in exchange for who they thought would help fix their lack of center depth problems. But less than a year after being traded to Buffalo, Eric Staal has gone from playing for the worst team in the league, to having a shot at the Stanley Cup.

Before being traded by Buffalo, Staal had played in 32 games for the Sabres. In those 32 games, he scored only three goals and had seven assists. As the season progressed and the trade deadline grew closer, it was obvious that the Sabres were not where they wanted to be. And the possibility of trading veteran talent during the season for draft picks was very much a possibility.

Staal has played 21 games for the Canadiens, and his production has not gone up since getting there. In those 21 games, he only has three points on two goals and an assist. But I am willing to bet he does not care as much about his production anymore now that he has a shot at winning his second career Stanley Cup Finals, and first since 2006 when he did it with the Carolina Hurricanes.

In exchange for Staal, the Sabres received a third-round draft pick and a fifth-round draft pick in this upcoming 2021 NHL Draft. There will be a lot of pressure on the Sabres and GM Kevyn Adams going into this draft.

They will likely be adding even more picks before the first night of the draft on July 23rd with all of the trade rumors floating around in Buffalo. Players such as Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, and Rasmus Ristolainen could all be on the move before the draft if Buffalo expects to maximize this offseason with an abundance of draft picks.