The Buffalo Sabres have won two straight after a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators at KeyBank Center on Friday night, but the club’s postseason fate has already been sealed with more than two months left to go in the 2024-25 season after a disastrous first half.
Both the Sabres and Predators are expected to be sellers before the March 7 trade deadline, which was reflected by a dozen clubs having scouts at the game, but GM Kevyn Adams indicated on WGR 550 radio on Friday afternoon that he would prefer to make player-for-player hockey deals instead of trading players on expiring contracts for prospects or future draft picks.
"We're not looking to be sellers. There are deals that you have to do for the organization, depending on certain things, but we're trying to add to our team. We want to make our team better," Adams said. "I'm approaching this as more of if there are deals out there, we're wide open. We have to be willing to look at everything, especially where we are in the standings, but are there hockey trades to make?"
The Sabres made rental deals at the deadline last March, shipping out veterans Erik Johnson to Philadelphia and Kyle Okposo to Florida for low-round draft picks, but the most impactful deal was the one-for-one swap with Colorado of Casey Mittelstadt for defenseman Bowen Byram.
Adams indicated that he is interested in extending wingers Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway, both of whom will become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. The 32-year-old Zucker was signed to a one-year, $5 million deal last July and is currently second on the club with 17 goals. Greenway is currently on injured reserve after having surgery to repair a mid-body injury and has just seven points in 20 games.
"I've connected with both of their agents. These are two guys that we think are important. We'd like to have both of them back," Adams said. "I sat down with Jason in Seattle and just talked about where he's at and where he sees himself fitting in. I like to have those conversations and then actually had a couple-hour meeting with his agent in person out there. He reiterated that he thinks that we can do something special here. He wants to be part of it and I reiterated to him that we'd like to keep him and let's try to figure it out. So for both those guys, we'd like to move forward and try to find a way to get a deal done, and if we can't, it has to work for both sides, but that's why you start these conversations early, and hopefully, we'll be able to work something out, but if we can't, then we'll have to go from there."
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