Activity around the league has picked up this week, heading into the NHL Draft on Friday night. The Buffalo Sabres joined in on Tuesday night with the trade of Bowen Byram to Chicago. However, prior to that, they completed a trade when they sent defenseman Michael Kesselring and the 27th overall pick to the San Jose Sharks for the 20th overall pick.
It may not seem like a lot to move up only seven spots, but recently, assistant general manager Jerry Forton was on Sabres Live to provide the reasoning behind the move and why it actually could be impactful.
"We don't have our second or third round pick this year but I would venture to say if we had our second or third, that wouldn't have been enough to get up from 27 to 20, so I consider it high value getting up those seven spots," Forton said.
He went on to explain why getting up to 20 was so important, and it seems that if the Sabres do make their pick, they could find some serious value.
"I think there is a good chance at 20 we get one of our players that we have in the 13, 14, 15 rankings. I think the Top 10 or 11 of this draft is almost set in stone. If we were picking 27th, we had no chance we would get someone in our 13,14,15 range."
Buffalo Sabres should still trade this first-round pick, but have given themselves more options in the NHL Draft
While Forton is confident that the Sabres could get a player in their Top 15 rankings with their current pick, the focus for Buffalo should still be to move that pick for an NHL player who can help them now. Their roster from last season appears set to lose Alex Tuch, as he will become a free agent, and already lost Bowen Byram
Even though it is early in the offseason, the Sabres seem to be ending up with more holes in their roster than upgrades. However, the Bowen Byram trade now sets them up to not only add an elite prospect with the fourth overall pick but also use the 20th overall pick in a trade to improve the NHL roster.
While the free agent class doesn't have a lot of top-end talent, they have cap space to also fill in some of these gaps if they can't make a trade with the 20th pick as part of a package. There is no question that the NHL Draft has become much more intriguing for the Buffalo Sabres after these recent moves and something fans will have to watch closely.
Add us as a preferred source on Google