It can be argued that in terms on long term value, the Sabres may have won the trade when they sent Ryan O'Reilly to the St. Louis Blues for Tage Thompson in 2018. The Blues did win the Stanley Cup that year with O'Reilly leading the way, but he was dealt before 2023.
Thompson, has been with the Sabres since and has had at least 25 goals and 50 points in each of the last five seasons. He has been one of the bright spots for a team still searching for an indentity. However, if the Sabres have another season where they yet again falter, could he be dealt?
He does have six years remaining on his contract, but the Sabres continue to get younger. If they want to get even younger would a team looking to make a deep playoff run, make a run for a player like Thompson?
Currently a team like the Hurricanes may be an option for a trade partner
They have a lot of cap space and could be looking to make a move to get them over the hump. They played in a conference finals a season ago.
And another question is if Thompson would want to go to a playoff contender like many more players before him such as Jack Eichel or Jeff Skinner. It has to be hard and daunting and several players who have spent much time trying to help the Sabres get out of the basement to no avail.
The Sabres need to continue to look at how to stop rebuilding and how to finally win hockey games and stop trading value. However, it's just hearsay and hard to gauge what they will do if they have another disappointing start to another season this late fall.
Tage Thompson has been a part of least three rebuilds with his time in Buffalo and they and him may be looking to move on. In addition to the Hurricanes, the Minnesota Wild may be an option.
The Wild have not made a splashy move in free agency and maybe a blockbuster trade is in the works. They have not won a playoff series since 2015 and maybe looking for a player of Thompson's caliber to get into a new phase.
If the Sabres do deal Thompson and he helps another team yet again to either a Stanley Cup or appearance in the Finals, how would the Sabres fanbase handle it?
Thompson has been steady but if he is dealt with no true impact in terms of a playoff berth in may be time to look at the trade with Blues and O'Reilly as yet another failure for the Sabres front office.
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