Sabres Summer Trade Target – Andrew Mangiapane
Flames winger scored a career-high 35 goals in 2021-22
Sabres Summer Trade Target – Andrew MangiapaneThe Buffalo Sabres face a season where accountability will be stressed under head coach Lindy Ruff and areas of need will have to be addressed by GM Kevyn Adams for the club to snap their 13-year playoff drought. We have been taking a look at players who could be potential trade targets this summer over the last few weeks in advance of a year that has to be considered playoffs or bust.
Andrew Mangiapane – Winger (Calgary Flames)
Contract status – $5.8 million AAV signed through 2024-25, unrestricted free agent next summer
The Sabres will likely target a top-six winger or center capable of filling the hole created by shipping out Casey Mittelstadt in the trade market for cost-certainty reasons and because they would prefer to add someone with a limited term remaining on their contract instead of a longer-term deal in the free agent market.
A potential fit for that is Mangiapane, a 28-year-old winger entering the final year of a three-year, $17.4 million contract with the Calgary Flames. first-round pick of the Flyers (the same draft that Mittelstadt was selected eighth overall). Philadelphia opted for the patient developmental approach with the speedy forward, keeping him in the OHL for two seasons after his draft year with the Soo Greyhounds. A late-round pick in the 2015 Draft, the 5’10”, 184 lb. winger split time between AHL Stockton and the NHL until his third pro season, when he scored 17 goals in 68 games before the league was shut down due to the pandemic. He scored 18 goals in the shortened 2021 campaign and was signed to an extension and in 2022 registered a career-high 35 goals with the high-powered Flames club that included Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau.
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Their departures severely hampered the Flames and Mangiapane’s production declined accordingly, with 17 goals in 2023 and 14 goals last season. Calgary is undergoing a reset, as they dealt Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, and Nikita Zadorov last season and will likely trade goalie Jacob Markstrom this summer.
GM Craig Conroy would likely be open to moving a still effective winger and possibly even retaining salary for a prospect ready to step into the NHL since the Flames have eight picks in the top four rounds of the 2024 Draft and five first-round picks over the next three seasons. Buffalo with prospects like Matthew Savoie, Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund, and Isak Rosen could make an offer that Calgary finds palatable.
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