On Thursday, the Buffalo Sabres made a roster move that no one probably saw coming as they sent defenseman Zach Metsa down to the AHL and the Rochester Amerks. However, this shouldn't be the last time Metsa is playing with the Buffalo Sabres this season.
The day prior against the Boston Bruins, Conor Timmins made his return to the ice after missing over three months due to a broken leg. He would replace Metsa in the lineup and play next to Logan Stanley and finished with over 15 minutes of ice time and over two minutes of penalty kill time.
With the return of Timmins, the Sabres have quite the logjam on the blueline with players like Michael Kesselring, Luke Schenn, and Metsa being healthy scratches against Boston. At this point of the season, with only 10 games left, the coaching staff probably will play Timmins a majority, if not all, of the remaining regular season games.
That means that Metsa probably wasn't going to see much ice time over the remainder of the regular season. For a young player, making sure he continues to get ice time is critical, and by sending him down to Rochester, the Sabres are able to achieve that.
Buffalo Sabres would make a mistake not having Zach Metsa back on the roster for the playoffs
While Metsa isn't in the lineup now, that doesn't mean he shouldn't be in the mix come playoff time. In fact, there is a strong argument to be made that he is at worst, the Sabres' seventh defenseman but has made the case to be a consistent presence in the lineup.
During the recent road trip, Metsa was playing some of his best hockey with two points and a +/- of +4 during that stretch. When looking even further back, like over the past 25 games, Metsa has not been on the ice for an opposing team's goal while the Sabres have scored 13 times, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The challenge for Lindy Ruff is that he has a player in Metsa who has definitely earned a spot in the lineup but doesn't give the Sabres the penalty kill ability that Timmins does. In fact, Timmins' performance against the Bruins goes beyond that, and he actually looked good against Boston.
If Timmins keeps this up, the decision is then between Metsa and Logan Stanley, who the Sabres traded for at the trade deadline. It might feel like a waste of a trade if Metsa starts while Stanley and Schenn are inactive, but the whole point of the trade was depth.
There was no guarantee that Timmins would return and play as well as he did. It also doesn't mean that Stanley won't play, but rather it gives the Sabres options for that third pair. However, Metsa has to be one of those options, and hopefully, this move was done to just make sure Metsa continues to get ice time and stay fresh in Rochester to be ready for the playoffs.