The Buffalo Sabres should be in the market for an impact top-six forward after dealing winger JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth for defenseman Michael Kesselring and winger Josh Doan. The opening weeks of free agency did not provide GM Kevyn Adams with an opportunity to replace Peterka’s production, and with the two-year deal signed last month with defenseman Bowen Byram, Adams will have to try to acquire a scoring forward with younger players, prospects, and/or draft picks. With just over a month before training camp, the odds are that an addition like that will have to happen during the season.
Eeli Tolvanen is an example of how one team’s impatience can turn into another’s opportunity. A 2017 first-round pick of the Nashville Predators, the Finnish winger played parts of five seasons in Music City, but when the Preds attempted to send him down to AHL Milwaukee, he was claimed off waivers by the Seattle Kraken. The second chance with the Kraken paid immediate dividends, as he scored 16 goals in 48 games to finish the 2022-23 season.
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The 26-year-old followed that up with 41 points (16 goals, 25 assists) in 2023-24, and last season, Tolvanen scored a career-high 23 goals in the first year of a two-year bridge deal. The Kraken are a club poised to be a big seller at the trade deadline if they do not manage to get back into playoff competition, as they have five players entering the final year of their contracts. Being the youngest of the group, former Sabres GM Jason Botterill may be more willing to offer a long-term deal to the winger, but he will also be the easiest to move since he does not have any trade protection.
What Would It Cost?
Adams interest in Tolvanen would definitely be linked to the Sabres being in the playoff race and his level of desperation to snap the club’s 14-year postseason drought. The amount that Botterill would expect in return would depend on what kind of season the winger is having, If he is scoring at a 20-goal pace – as he has for his entire tenure in Seattle – the cost would likely either be a conditional first-round pick or a player close to the NHL, like Isak Rosen, Devon Levi or Noah Ostlund. Levi would be particularly enticing as a younger counterpart to Kraken starter Joey Daccord.
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