3 former Sabres players playing for division rivals whom we would love to see return
The Buffalo Sabres may need to look outside the organization for some much-needed help, but perhaps they should try to bring back some old faces?
The Buffalo Sabres will go another season without making the playoffs, and that means 13 years without seeing even a First Round matchup. If there is any good news, it’s that what has been the NHL’s youngest and one of its least experienced teams will age up heading into 2024-25, and that should imply better returns.
Plus, the upcoming summer will be huge for general manager Kevyn Adams as he looks to find a way to add more talent that will take the team from just hanging around the Eastern Conference’s two wild card spots to actually sitting inside one of them following the first week of April 2025.
There are quite a few avenues for Adams to take, as he can “weaken” a division rival by signing a player away from them, or he could pull off one of the biggest trades of the summer roughly three months from today and bring a high-end player to town. But what if the missing piece was someone who was once upon a time with the Sabres, and they made a return trip?
It would be great to see some former Buffalo Sabres rejoin the team
It’s not incredibly uncommon to see a player start or play part of their career with one franchise, go elsewhere, and return. We see this happen all across the North American pro sports landscape, and it’s no different in the NHL.
There have been a lot of former Sabres players who have either played well or excelled with other organizations. A few - one defenseman, one goaltender, and one forward, however, stand out above all the rest.
If the Sabres played their cards right from a cap standpoint, there could be a chance to even bring this trio in. But it’s also important to keep in mind that two of the players listed would most likely factor in as stopgaps for the 2024-25 season.
Jake McCabe would add a prime veteran presence to the blue line
Jake McCabe has spent the last season-and-a-half with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and wow, would he bring even more physicality to the Sabres? Rasmus Dahlin, Bowen Byram, and Mattias Samuelsson are a trio of players in the rotation who can already bring an edge to the top-four, allowing Ryan Johnson (should be back in Buffalo next year) and Owen Power to showcase their more finesse games.
But what if McCabe rotated with Connor Clifton on the bottom-pairing, so that there was always an ultra-physical presence? McCabe would immediately take over a role Erik Johnson was supposed to have but did a mediocre job with this season before Kevyn Adams dealt him to Philadelphia.
McCabe has also shown the ability to contribute offensively this season in Toronto, with seven goals and 25 points, implying he would be more than just another physical presence.
Like a pair of players on this list, McCabe is not a free agent, so the Sabres would have to acquire him. It wouldn’t be the easiest endeavor if they were on McCabe’s seven-team no-trade list, but he would be well worth bringing back to the City of Good Neighbors. The Sabres need more hard-hitters, and McCabe is more than able to bring such play every time he’s on the ice.
A Linus Ullmark-Devon Levi tandem would be epic
Linus Ullmark still has another year on his deal, so this one would require a trade. Ideally, the Sabres would keep Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and sign him to a long-term contract, but thanks to the next player listed, you will soon know why Ullmark would make for a great stopgap and for a reasonable salary.
Ullmark has a modified no-trade clause, so that could be an issue if the Sabres are on his 15-team list for 2024-25. It would be an easy move back to Buffalo if the Blue and Gold weren’t on the brink of their 13th-straight season without a playoff berth, but that isn’t the case, and it would be a tough sell to bring back the former Vezina Trophy winner.
But the Sabres are no longer getting younger, and with “playoffs or bust” the likely scenario, a sense of urgency will be mounting in the Queen City. That alone could sway Ullmark, and it’s not like the Bruins were keen on keeping him in town near the trade deadline.
So, what’s not to say Ullmark wouldn’t gladly accept a trade that would bring him back to Buffalo, where he would have a chance to play (and beat) the Bruins often? Such a move would involve the Sabres opting not to bring back Luukkonen, so the chances of this happening are currently slim.
But it would be fun to see Ullmark back in a Sabres uniform with his old team to take on and beat his most recent former team on multiple occasions while helping the Blue and Gold finally return to the playoffs.
Sam Reinhart would reinvigorate the Sabres high-octane play
Oh yes, we’re talking about Sam Reinhart, who will be due for a major lucrative contract extension. Thanks to his next salary likely reaching the eight-figure mark from an AAV standpoint, it would be more challenging to bring him back to the Sabres, especially if Kevyn Adams is seeking to extend more current talent.
But Adams also has to ask himself: Would the Sabres be better off bringing back Reinhart and going the cost-effective route regarding its goaltenders for the time being? As noted above, they could trade for Ullmark, let him play the last year of his deal, and have him factor in as a 1A ahead of Devon Levi while Luukkonen walks, and may create enough room for Reinhart.
At this point, it would still be tough to see Reinhart coming back to Buffalo, but we have seen countless NHL general managers make room for star players to join, or in this case, it would be to rejoin their team, so it’s still worth mentioning. And with 53 goals through 78 games this season, the idea is at least more than worth considering.
Yes, it would take some player movement, but imagine a Buffalo Sabres team with Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuch, Sam Reinhart, JJ Peterka, and a healthy Jack Quinn. On paper, that’s one of the best top-sixes in the game, not to mention Dylan Cozens, Zach Benson, and Jordan Greenway would round out a formidable top-nine.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)