The Buffalo Sabres made a pair of trades before and during the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles which were as much about changing the makeup of the roster as they were about trimming the budget of the club in advance of the beginning of free agency on July 1. The JJ Peterka trade brought back two players in defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan under contract for 2025-26. Kesselring will make $1.4 million and is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer, so the Sabres have control over him for two seasons. Doan is on the final year of his entry-level contract, and after this season Buffalo has four years of control over him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Other Sabres Stories Sabres Summer Dilemmas - Bowen Byram [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/buffalo-sabres/latest-news/sabres-summer-dilemmas-bowen-byram] Sabres Facing An Off-Season Of Change [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/buffalo-sabres/latest-news/sabres-facing-an-off-season-of-change] Peterka obviously wanted out of Buffalo, but it is not clear if it was an issue with the organization being a perennial non-playoff club, if it was that the Sabres would not give him a significant raise and a long-term contract or all of the above. Clearly, the Sabres were not willing to pay a 23-year-old who at this point was not a complete two-way player the five-year, $38.5 million deal that Utah signed him to, and they did not want draft picks had Peterka gone the way of an offer sheet. The trade sending a 2025 second round pick and defenseman Connor Clifton to Pittsburgh for defenseman Conor Timmins and minor leaguer Isaac Beliveau was an obvious salary dump. GM Kevyn Adams indicated that it was likely that Clifton would not be back after the final year of his three-year, $10 million deal, and that the Sabres had coveted Timmins for awhile, but not mentioned was the fact that they gave up a high draft pick to save likely $2 million in salary if Timmins takes his qualifying offer. After re-signing winger Jack Quinn to a two-year, $6.75 million contract extension, the Sabres now have just under $21 million going into free agency on Tuesday, but it remains a question whether this summer will be different than other recent ones where Adams is on a budget and leaves significant cap space unspent. Follow Michael on X, Instagram, and Bluesky @MikeInBuffalo [https://twitter.com/MikeInBuffalo]
