For a bottom-tier hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres were nowhere near as active as they should have been at the NHL Trade Deadline
You can argue the Buffalo Sabres blockbuster trade came months before the NHL Trade Deadline when they shipped Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden Knights. But this is a team looking to get younger, and they failed to do this next to shipping defenseman Robert Hagg to the Florida Panthers for a sixth-round pick.
Some claim the sixth-round pick wasn’t enough compensation for Hagg. But at least they netted something. With many veterans set to depart this offseason, the Sabres will most likely get nothing for the likes of Cody Eakin, Colin Miller, Will Butcher, and a plethora of other veterans.
Now that Adams did not trade veterans with expiring contracts, he guaranteed a rebuilding team like the Sabres would receive minimal compensation in the short-term. Contenders would have bought in to their services and Adams should have taken the best offer on the table.
After speculating the Sabres would sell at the trade deadline, we now have zero idea of what Adams’ game plan is. Is he looking to re-sign those with expiring contracts, despite the fact none of the above mentioned players lived up to their billings?
Adams has left the Sabres future shrouded in mystery. Even if he acquired something as little as a sixth-round pick, he still got something for those veterans. He had a chance to further maximize the NHL Draft, or at least acquire a few prospects to allocate to Rochester. But now, Adams missed the opportunity so the Sabres could remain “competitive” from now until the end of April.
The overall takeaway is that Adams did not host the sale he should have hosted. Especially since the intent this season was to get younger. So how can we interpret the Sabres performance at the trade deadline? Here are three takeaways that may come back to haunt them this offseason.