The first quarter of the NHL season is quickly arising. In just three games the Sabres will break for US Thanksgiving, and many teams are looking to make hockey trades. One of those teams is the Buffalo Sabres, but one thing stands in the way for the Sabres if they want to make a hockey trade, the playoffs.
Right now the Sabres are just getting by in the first quarter of the season 8-9-1 and sit sixth in the Atlantic wild card race. A hockey style trade can boost the team, but Adams has to press the right buttons to make it happen.
Can Adams make a blockbuster trade?
Kevyn Adams has been on the selling side of the trade market. Many of his biggest trades, like Jack Eichel to Vegas and Sam Reinhart to Florida, have helped the Sabres regroup and retool on the youth. Now it’s time for Adams to hit the buyers’ market. Adams’ recent buyers’ trades have fizzled out. Bowen Byram isn’t playing up to standards, and we all know that Taylor Hall was his worst move. Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun says the Sabres are one of the “busier teams” and are “looking to do something big if they can.”
So why not just go all in and make that move? Kevyn Adams is just not interested in moving on from “The Primary young guys in their core” according to NHL insider David Pagnotta. The Sabres general manager seems adamant about keeping the core together, but maybe it’s time to break up the core again. This time around for the better good of turning the drought around.
Two players in contention are Dylan Cozens or Jack Quinn. Both have been a nightmare this season offensively, not generating enough scoring and find it hard to defend in the defensive zone. The Sabres are weak in the center position. The aggressive tactic here would trade for Trevor Zegras, who you can get probably on the cheap since the last two seasons have been underwhelming.
Anaheim will look to sell, so why not maybe bump a prospect and a few draft picks and slot him on your second line and move Cozens to the third? If Buffalo doesn’t feel comfortable with that, instead of a prospect, you send Cozens in the deal for Zegras. A swap for Quinn could be Nikolaj Ehlers from the Winnipeg Jets. A trade for Ehlers will be hard to pull with the Jets doing so well. Gustav Nyquist, a less aggressive offer, could easily be your third line center behind Thompson and Cozens. The veteran center will also bring playoff pedigree to the Sabres lineup.
The West Coast will teach us the truth about this Sabres team
After a three-game winning streak, the Sabres have found themselves in a lull, winning a game then dropping the next one. Buffalo has also been giving up way too many goals a night to be comfortable. The Sabres should be able to get points in all three games during their first trip out west this season.
Meaning picking up two against the bottom feeders in the Pacific, the Ducks on Friday and on Saturday against the Sharks. The inconsistent play has to stop against the bottom tier teams in the NHL losing to Montreal and Flyers are not acceptable in a playoff push. The power play scoring has been on the uptick converting on a 30% rate since October 26th boast the Sabres fourth-best in that time span, but on the flip side 5v5 scoring has been down sitting 29th in 5v5 expected goals per 60 minutes only scoring 2.17.
The San Jose Sharks are the only team worse than the Sabres on this trip. Finally, getting themselves into a hole quickly hasn’t favored the Sabres either. They are now 0-4-0 when trailing after one period of play this season.
Conclusion
Lindy Ruff and his team have to make Kevyn Adam’s job easier by playing well on this west coast trip, and hopefully Adams can catch the Sabres a new forward or defenseman for 50% off on Black Friday next week.