Buffalo Sabres: 5 players that need to leave in free agency – 2022
By Sion Fawkes
With a younger influx of talent coming aboard for the Buffalo Sabres, we will look at five players they need to cut ties with to make room on the roster
The Buffalo Sabres are still a team in transition, despite their winning ways in March and April 2022. Over the offseason, expect the Sabres to get younger with an influx of prospects looking to make the jump from the AHL to the NHL.
The Sabres have five young defensemen that will be on the roster next season, and that number will turn into six if they re-sign Jacob Bryson. While you can expect them to sign an older, more experienced defenseman to pair with Owen Power, that’s about the only advanced age you will see on the roster outside of Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo.
With new players coming in, it also means that the Sabres will be parting ways with several veterans from this season. And really, the following players will have little impact on the team if and when they do part ways with them.
Five Buffalo Sabres that need to go, Player #1: Will Butcher
I previously wrote an article that it would make no sense for the Sabres to re-sign Butcher, given his $4.1 million base salary and $3.733 million cap hit. The only plausible way to keep Butcher around is to pay him significantly less than the above figures, but there is no guarantee he will take it.
Even then, it is hard to justify keeping Butcher around. In 37 games this season, he logged just 16:29 of ice time, often seeing action on the third pairing. He showed little aggression on the defensive side of things, recording a career-low in blocks per game.
Butcher’s career started off with a bang with the New Jersey Devils when he earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team and finished ninth in the Calder Memorial Trophy voting. He also showed potential to be a two-way player. Since then, Butcher has performed drastically below expectations.