The Buffalo Sabres kept rolling along with a pair of weekend victories over the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning, which further eased concerns about the team's lack of a high-profile addition ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline.
Buffalo, which now owns first place in the Atlantic Division, received strong contributions from new fourth-line center Sam Carrick, who was acquired from the New York Rangers. The club's three arrivals from the Winnipeg Jets (Logan Stanley, Luke Schenn and Tanner Pearson) are still working through visa issues before making their Blue and Gold debuts.
The Sabres are suddenly a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference but, regardless of how this season turns out, they'll probably still be in the market for an elite forward in the offseason.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported Monday that St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas, one of Buffalo's main targets last week, "most likely gets moved this summer" when Alexander Steen is scheduled to replace Doug Armstrong as the organization's general manager.
"The Buffalo Sabres and Utah Mammoth may circle back, but the playoffs also have a way of bringing other teams into the fold," the longtime NHL insider wrote.
LeBrun mentioned the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens as other potential Thomas suitors. The Bruins, Wings and Habs are all division rivals for Buffalo.
The Blues superstar is highly sought after because he's scored 349 points (100 goals and 249 assists) in 343 games over the past five seasons. He's also under contract through 2030-31 with a reasonable $8.125 million salary-cap hit.
A summer trade for the St. Louis Blues' Robert Thomas always made more sense for the Buffalo Sabres
You can't blame Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen for trying to land Thomas before this season's deadline, even with the Blues holding firm on their sky-high asking price.
Yet, the offseason provides a more realistic opportunity to make that type of franchise-altering trade.
Buffalo will have a lot of financial considerations to work through after the season. It must decide whether to re-sign Alex Tuch, whose reported asking price is around $10.5 million annually, and it also features a trio of notable restricted free agents: Zach Benson, Peyton Krebs and Michael Kesselring.
The Sabres also added a few impending UFAs into the equation (Stanley, Schenn and Pearson) to go along with Beck Malenstyn and Josh Dunne in that category. Add in a $6.4 million dead-cap hit from the Jeff Skinner buyout and it's a complicated cap outlook.
Kekalainen will have an opportunity to sort through those matters to achieve a clearer financial picture before possibly circling back to Thomas.
The Blues forward certainly makes sense for Buffalo on paper. He could take over as the team's long-term No. 1 center, with Tage Thompson likely shifting to the wing.
It's too early to figure out exactly how everything would fit together, however. That's mostly because it's unlikely there's a scenario where the Sabres can fit all three of Thomas, Tuch and Josh Norris on the same squad without significant changes elsewhere on the roster.
All told, Kekalainen will be tasked with putting together a pretty complicated puzzle over the summer with an eye toward making the organization a sustainable contender.
It sounds like the Thomas-to-Buffalo idea is still firmly on the radar, though.