The Sabres deal team captain Pominville to Minnesota
In the month of August, as the news in the hockey world slows to a crawl, we will be taking a look at the most consequential deals in Buffalo Sabres history (using the Hockey News Archives as source material) and ranking the 15 best and the 15 worst deals in the club’s 54-year history.
This required the input of a trio of veteran media members (Dave Reichert, Randy Schultz, and Pete Weber), as well as three lifetime Sabres fans (Chuck Bender, Todd Riniolo, Joe Schwartz).
14. April 3, 2013 – Sabres acquire Matt Hackett, Johan Larsson, and a 2013 first-round pick (Nikita Zadorov) from the Minnesota Wild for Jason Pominville and a 2014 fourth-round pick (William Lagesson).
The Sabres were a .500 club in the shortened 2012-13 season and at the end of Lindy Ruff’s first tenure as head coach. With the club out of the playoff race and Ruff being replaced by Ron Rolston, GM Darcy Regier decided it was time to reset the roster and move out one of the key contributors of Buffalo’s consecutive Eastern Conference Final runs in 2006 and 2007, team captain Jason Pominville.
Pominville was a consistent scorer (ranging from 20 to 34 goals over six seasons) and a leader but was making $5.3 million and had a year remaining on his contract. In the deal, the Sabres retained 15% of his salary, and got goalie Matt Hackett, forward Johan Larsson, and the Wild’s 2013 first-round pick.
Hackett was 23 and had played mostly for Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in Houston for three seasons. He played only 13 games for Buffalo for the next two years and then split time between various clubs in the ECHL and AHL before heading to Europe for two years and retiring in 2019.
Larsson played seven years with Buffalo as a solid bottom-six defensive forward, before spending two years in Arizona and Washington before heading back to Sweden.
Zadorov was selected 16th overall in 2013 and played only one season with the Sabres before being included in the 2015 trade with Colorado to acquire Ryan O’Reilly.
Pominville in the final year of his contract scored 30 goals and earned a new five-year, $28 million contract from the Wild. He scored 18 goals in the first year, but trailed off to 11 and 13 goals the next two seasons, before being traded back to Buffalo along with Marco Scandella for Marcus Foligno and Tyler Ennis.
LATEST THN BUFFALO STORIES
Follow Michael on X @MikeInBuffalo