The Sabres saved all the action for the last day of the deadline as they have stayed busy with another trade sending Henri Jokiharju to the Boston Bruins in exchange for what is believed to be a fourth-round pick but nothing is squared away yet.
Henri Jokiharju, acquired by BOS, is a third pairing defenceman. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/j3FEqlDVc8
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) March 7, 2025
This came as a shock as this was the last trade of the day made by Kevyn Adams. Jokiharju has been a Sabre for the past six years of his career, totaling 19 goals, and 74 assists, to go along with 384 hits. Jokiharju had some great moments with and representing the Sabres this year.
This included a goal for Team Finland in the 4 Nations Faceoff and a recent game-winning goal against Anaheim on February 25th. Jokiharju gave the Sabres six solid years of hockey, but this move was a salary dump as I mentioned in a recent article about trade destinations for Jokiharju. The Sabres clear 3.1 million in the deal, and the Bruins give them a decent pick in return.
I didn’t have the Sabres trading Jokiharju inside their division, but with the Bruins clearing house today, and getting rid of many key guys, they had to add some in return. I think this was the correct move from Adams, as it gives the Sabres more cap space for the offseason. It now raises the question of how the Sabres are going to look defensively for the rest of the season.
New Defensive Pairings
Right now the the first line paring that we are glad didn’t break up will be Rasmus Dahlin and Bowen Byram, followed by the second pairing of Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson. It seems that Adams is following through on his confidence in Samuelsson, as he kept him after the Trade Deadline. It looks like the third line will be a mix of Jacob Bryson, and newly acquired Jacob Bernard-Docker from the Ottawa Senators in the Dylan Cozens deal.
We will see how this plays out but I think the Sabres defense did improve as they got slightly better talent-wise and gave up some good salary as well. Jokiharju was solid in Buffalo, but it was time to move on from him and think about the future. This is a good move at the end of the day for the Sabres, and we will see how the rest of the season plays out.