Maple Leafs interested in Montour, Zadorov, and Joshua on July 1.
The Buffalo Sabres have to be primarily concerned with improving their own roster in hopes of snapping their long playoff drought but also have to keep an eye on their rivals inside the Atlantic Division in hopes of locking down one of the top three spots or an Eastern Conference wildcard spot next season.
The Ottawa Senators got an early jump on the summer moves by acquiring former Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark from the Boston Bruins for a 2024 first-round pick, center Mark Kastelic, and goalie Joonas Korpisalo. The Senators finished six points behind Buffalo last season and expect that the former Vezina Trophy winner will provide an upgrade between the pipes over Korpisalo, who struggled in his first season with Ottawa.
The Sabres are not expected to be involved in the highly competitive and costly defensive free agent market next week with a blueline corps including Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, a healthy Mattias Samuelsson, Connor Clifton, and restricted free agent Henri Jokiharju needing a new contract.
The club that could be heavily involved in the pursuit of blueline upgrades is the Toronto Maple Leafs. GM Brad Treliving attempted to make trades with his former club (Calgary) during last season to acquire Chris Tanev and former Sabre Nikita Zadorov. According to Jonas Siegel and James Mirtle of the Athletic, the Leafs will be in hot pursuit of both on July 1, as well as Brandon Montour, who could be on the move with the Cup champion Florida Panthers in a severe cap crunch.
Toronto could also bring back former Sabre Ilya Lyubushkin depending on how things break in the defensive market. One player with who the Sabres and Leafs could be in direct competition is free-agent forward Dakota Joshua. The 6’3”, 206 lb. center had a breakout 18-goal season and an excellent playoffs for Vancouver and both Atlantic Division clubs are looking to get bigger and tougher under new head coaches Lindy Ruff and Craig Berube.
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