Are The Sabres And Flyers Potential Trading Partners?

Buffalo scout in Philadelphia on the weekend, as the club likely moves into sell mode

The Buffalo Sabres have unofficially moved into the seller’s market less than a month before the NHL Trade Deadline, as their 3-1 loss on Saturday to the St. Louis Blues saw them fall 12 points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings for the two Eastern Conference wildcard spots.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday that the Sabres are looking to shake up their roster, but unlike most clubs that are selling over the next 3+ weeks, GM Kevyn Adams is looking for help that can step into their NHL lineup immediately and not prospects and/or draft capital. Buffalo has five prospects drafted in the first or second round in the last three drafts (Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich, Matthew Savoie, Isak Rosen, Noah Ostlund, and Anton Wahlberg) in the pipeline playing in the NHL, American Hockey League, or SHL, and with a young core group, they are looking for players who provide aspects of toughness and experience that the club is currently lacking.

Just as several NHL scouts were in Buffalo to observe the game against the Blues, the Sabres also had their watchful eyes out looking at other clubs. Sportsology’s Russ Cohen, who covers the Philadelphia Flyers, spotted a Buffalo scout at the Flyers - Seattle Kraken game on Saturday.

The Flyers, who are surprisingly still in a playoff spot, are a club that might be both a buyer and seller before March 8 and could have interest in centers Casey Mittelstadt or Peyton Krebs. Krebs, 23, has been underutilized by the Sabres as a fourth-line center and plays with the kind of sandpaper that might be a fit with head coach John Tortorella.

Buffalo is looking for more physicality, and the likes of defenseman Yegor Zamula or center Scott Laughton could be of interest to the Sabres. A deal for Mittelstadt, who is on pace to exceed his 59-point career high set last season, would likely require an upgrade in another area that the Sabres are lacking in, like their blueline.

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