It didn't take long into Jarmo Kekalainen's press conference on Tuesday to talk about what he wants to see from the Buffalo Sabres. He used words like "work", " compete", and "relentless" to describe what he wants for the Sabres' identity.
There is no question that the Columbus Blue Jackets had that during his 10+ years as general manager there. When someone is a general manager for that long in one place, he draws connections to a number of players, many of whom are still in the league.
Now that he is the general manager of the Sabres, he could be looking to bring some of those players to Buffalo to lead by example in terms of what he is expecting from his players. These are three players that realistically could be trade options for the Buffalo Sabres and Jarmo Kekalainen.
3 former players Jarmo Kekalainen could trade for now as Buffalo Sabres GM
Artemi Panarin
There might not be a bigger splash trade for the Buffalo Sabres than trading for Artemi Panarin. He is currently on the New York Rangers, but prior to that was on the Blue Jackets for two seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Panarin joined Columbus after the Chicago Blackhawks traded him as part of the Brandon Saad, Anton Forsberg trade. As a member of the Blackhawks, Panarin was good with 70+ points in his prior two seasons but only got better on the Blue Jackets with 169 points in 160 regular season games.
He would leave in free agency after the 2018-19 season to sign with the New York Rangers, where he has played the past seven seasons and averaged more than a point per game during that time. Panarin is now set to be an unrestricted free agent after this season and with the Rangers in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference, they might be willing to move him if they believe they can't re-sign him.
The Sabres could use some help in their Top 6, and adding a goal scorer like Panarin would be a huge boost to this offense, especially on the same line as Tage Thompson.
Boone Jenner
If the Sabres want to add some veteran leadership to the locker room and a player who can lead by example, then Boone Jenner would make a lot of sense. He has spent his entire 13-year career with the Blue Jackets and has been their captain for the past five seasons.
He is not necessarily a player who is going to fill up the box score; he has only five goals and nine assists through 19 games, but is constantly referred to as a "glue guy". This is a move that makes a lot of sense for Jarmo Kekalainen to sort of set the tone for the locker room, and probably wouldn't require much in terms of return to get a deal done.
Yegor Chinakhov
Another Columbus Blue Jackets player that Jarmo Kekalainen might target and get a deal done for is Yegor Chinakhov. The forward was a first-round pick by Kekalainen in the 2020 NHL Draft but hasn't really been able to do much in the NHL, with 37 goals in 202 games over five seasons.
However, the lack of production might just be due to a bad fit, and Chinakhov did request a trade this offseason after saying he had 'misunderstandings with the coach'. This season, Chinakhov has only three goals and three assists (although he has had one goal and one assist over the past two games) while averaging only 10:12 of ice time per game.
It wouldn't at all be surprising if Jarmo Kekalainen made a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets that included both players as part of the return.