Despite signing a pair of defensemen earlier this month, The Athletic still lists the Buffalo Sabres as a possibility to land Brett Pesce.
Although we’ve seen most offseason moves made, there are still a few blockbusters that may occur. One of which involves Brett Pesce, who at this point still has not received an extension from the Carolina Hurricanes.
And recently, Shayna Goldman of The Athletic listed five teams who should consider landing the highly-coveted blueliner, including the Buffalo Sabres. Goldman writes:
"“If management wants to keep both Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power on their natural side and take their blue line up a notch further, someone like Pesce could be an ideal top-four righty. He and Clifton could balance out the Dahlin and Power pairings, or he could take on a total shutdown role with Mattias Samuelsson against top competition to free up their two stars.” via The Athletic."
While I’m not a fan of making huge trades, I will be real here and admit that even I would be excited about a lineup that contained someone like Pesce on the top four while the incoming Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson comprised the third pairing. However, the move wouldn’t come without serious drawbacks, and those are something we all need to be aware of.
Buffalo Sabres could land Pesce, but should they?
Let me start off by saying that I am 99.9% sure general manager Kevyn Adams isn’t making this trade thanks to the fact he signed Johnson and Clifton, and they are more than enough to bolster the Sabres blue line. While Pesce is more than capable of playing top four minutes, given his career average total ice time of 21:11, his overall durability should still be a red flag.
While he’s played in 152 out of a possible 164 regular season games over the past two seasons, Pesce’s multiple shoulder surgeries are the overall reason surrounding these durability issues. Plus, the Sabres also need to consider what a potential contract extension would look like for Pesce, and they need to do this with their young core in mind.
We know they need to extend Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, but there are also a few more potential RFAs that include Peyton Krebs, Casey Mittelstadt, and even Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen they may be also interested in extending and giving pay raises to. Should the aforementioned trio enjoy productive seasons and entice Kevyn Adams to keep them around, they also deserve priority in becoming part of the Buffalo Sabres core for at least the mid-term, roughly three seasons.
Clearly, there is an upside to acquiring Pesce if Adams is still interested, but there are also more than a few downsides. Overall, the Sabres are better off focusing on developing and retaining the players they got before they bring in any more outside help, even if the thought of bringing in someone like Pesce is enticing.
Source: Brett Pesce trade destinations: 5 teams that could (or should) be interested by Shayna Goldman, TheAthletic.com