The NHL offseason is more than in full force for the soon-to-be 28 teams that will be watching the Conference Finals, and the Buffalo Sabres are one of them. Of course, with the offseason comes a plethora of trade rumors, and since the Blue and Gold have a good deal of capital saved up, don’t be surprised if general manager Kevyn Adams is the one making a big trade this year.
Recently, we talked about a potential trade involving Pavel Buchnevich, but he’s just one player and Adams doesn’t need to key exclusively on the St. Louis Blues star winger. If Adams also wants more security involving a player’s contract and someone younger and with more years remaining in their respective primes, there may be three better options available than Buchnevich.
Each player we’re discussing will be heading into their age-27 or under season, and they all have multiple years left on their respective deals. And thanks to the Sabres current cap space, these are all players they can afford to keep long-term.
Trevor Zegras could actually wind up in the top-six
There isn’t another youngster whose name is being thrown around more than Trevor Zegras’. And it may sound counterintuitive for the Anaheim Ducks to potentially shop him, considering Zegras’ age, early-career success, and the fact he signed a new deal back in October 2023.
But Anaheim is also deep in the prospects pipeline regarding its centers, and the organization also needs a larger quantity of prospects plus all the draft picks they can attain, so there are more than a few pros when it comes to moving Zegras in the coming months. Plus, if the Sabres inquired and ultimately acquired Zegras, they would have a potential top-six center.
Bringing someone like Zegras in would allow the two-way player in Dylan Cozens to drop to the ‘checking line,’ where presumably Zach Benson and Jordan Greenway await. We already saw that Benson was arguably the Sabres most fearless player last season, while Greenway evolved through his first full year with the Blue and Gold, taking his aggressive style up another rung.
Cozens brings that same mentality, so trading for and placing Zegras onto the Kid Line would more than make sense if you’re Kevyn Adams. There are quite a few players he shouldn’t be shy about moving the 11th overall pick for, and Zegras is one of them - and doing so in this draft would give the Ducks two selections in the top 11.