Sabres Shakeup More Likely as Playoff Hopes Dwindle
Despite pre-season promise, the Buffalo Sabres have underperformed greatly. And with a playoff berth seeming further and further from reality, the top brass may need to shake things up, writes Adam Proteau.
Of the many NHL disappointments this season – the New Jersey Devils, Minnesota Wild, and Ottawa Senators chief among them – the Buffalo Sabres are particular buzz-kills. Before the start of the year, the Sabres were expected to contend for a playoff spot, but right off the hop, they underachieved, going 7-9-1 in their first 17 games. They’re the embodiment of inconsistency, and they're now 10 standings points behind Detroit in the wild card race. And while we predicted Buffalo would shake that off and go on a late-season drive to qualify for the post-season, we’ve seen enough now to rescind that prediction.
Why? Well, because the Sabres haven’t put together even a modest three-game win streak thus far this season. They’ve won two games in a row on four different occasions, but otherwise, they’ve flopped after every win, always taking a step back after a half-step forward. And with the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline fast approaching, Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams has some major decisions to make about his team, both for the remainder of this essentially lost season and next season as well.
It’s true the Sabres have had health issues this year, with just three skaters appearing in all 50 games they’ve played. But even when they have had most of their players in the lineup, Buffalo simply hasn’t been good enough in every element of the game. Their offense has produced just 2.94 goals-for – the 19th-best number in that category – and their defense has been equally mediocre, allowing 3.12 goals-against per game, the NHL’s 18th-best number in that category. Any way you slice it, the Sabres have been wishy-washy, and that’s led to them being in seventh place in the Atlantic Division.
In the end, coach Don Granato may be sacrificed in the name of a fresh start, but the problems with the Sabres lineup run deeper than the coach. And they’ve got a number of pending unrestricted free agents to potentially trade – most notably, defenseman Erik Johnson and forward Victor Olofsson. However, instead of being sellers at the trade deadline, Buffalo may be a buyer with an eye toward next season. Adams is under enormous pressure to produce positive results this season, and now that there’s virtually no hope the Sabres can make the playoffs this year, Adams has to change up the mix. And that might lead to a trade for top winger Jeff Skinner, although Buffalo would have to retain a good portion of his $9-million cap hit to make him palatable to a trade partner.
Buffalo still has a good deal of elite talent on the roster, but the NHL is a zero-sum business, and once again this season, they’ve failed to ascend to the top of the Atlantic. Someone has to pay a price for that, and the odds are it won’t be Adams. He’s going to get another shot at getting it right, but the way he approaches the deadline in the next few weeks will dictate how much of a rough ride he gets from Sabres fans. For too long, they’ve heard the hype about things being different and much more positive, but the reality is there are too many passengers on this team, and the status quo can’t be an option for them.
With stars including Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power on board, the Sabres have key cogs that are non-starters on the trade front. But after that, just about everyone on the roster should be mentioned in trade talks. There shouldn’t be a reward of job security on a team that is constantly a letdown, and whether that means buyouts or trades, very little should be off the table for Adams.
It’s long past time for Buffalo to take that next competitive step, and they won’t be able to take it unless there’s serious changes made to the organization.