After a last place finish this past year for the Buffalo Sabres, it pretty much solidified that they were in full rebuild mode and wouldn’t contend for years. And when they traded Ryan O’Reilly to the St. Louis Blues, it just made it clear that their intention was not to win now. But after a great offseason, snagging 1st overall pick Rasmus Dahlin and acquiring goalkeeper Carter Hutton to replace Robin Lehner, who needed a change of scenery after going 14-26-9 with a 3.02 GAA (goals against average) last year they were showing signs of trying to become a playoff contender. And when Jason Botterill traded prospect Cliff Pu, a 2nd round pick in 2019 and a 3rd and 6th round pick in 2020 for 26 year old Jeff Skinner, it left fans wondering if his intention had in fact changed and he wanted to lead his team to the playoffs now, rather than rebuilding.
In my opinion, it is the wrong move to try to win now in a crowded Atlantic division. The Sabres should just finish their rebuild once and for all. Because in reality, the Sabres cannot compete in the Atlantic division, where there are teams like Tampa Bay and Toronto and Boston who are monster squads. For example, in any other division, the Florida Panthers would have made the playoffs by a landslide. But they didn’t make it because in the Atlantic division, unless your roster is unbelievably good or you squeeze into a wild card, which is hard with teams from the Metropolitan like the New Jersey Devils and the Columbus Blue Jackets basically always getting them, you will probably be hitting the golf course this postseason. And if one of them happened to have an off year and miss a wild card spot, the Florida Panthers will for sure take that place especially with the addition of Mike Hoffman.
So, I think the Buffalo Sabres should be smart like Toronto was a couple of years ago and just struggle for a couple more years to let the young guns like Alex Nylander, Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Eichel (who is already a star at 21, so who knows what is down the road for him), Casey Middelstadt and more develop, and then become a contender near the 2022 season.
So Sabres fans, it looks like a bright future for you, but you need to struggle a few more years to get it. But what do I know? I’m just a random ten year old aspiring GM.
Leave a comment and let me know how you would handle the Sabres situation.
See you next week,
Johnny