Rapid Rewind: Grading the Sabres’ Offseason Moves
The Buffalo Sabres are coming off yet another disappointing season of not making the playoffs. The 2018-19 season started well for the team, but they just couldn’t sustain it for the entire year. Buffalo picked in the top seven of the draft instead of playing postseason hockey.
The Sabres started the offseason by firing head coach Phil Housley and hiring Ralph Kruger. The main goals of the offseason were to re-sign Jeff Skinner, improve the defense, and get some secondary scoring. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the team was sticking with the goaltending tandem of Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark. The Sabres managed to get most of these things done via free agency and trades but didn’t leave themselves any wiggle room as far as cap space.
FREE AGENCY
The first order of business was to get forward Jeff Skinner signed to a new deal, and the Sabres did just that with a new eight-year, $72M contract for the goal scorer. Skinner and Jack Eichel had good chemistry last season. The Sabres needed to add some scoring depth since the line of Sam Reinhart, Eichel and Skinner scored a majority of the points for the team last year. The defense needed to be tweaked and top four guys added to the roster.
The Sabres managed to sign left winger Marcus Johansson to a two-year, $9 million deal with a $4.5M cap hit in free agency to help with the top nine depth. The rest of the free agency period was used re-signing current players and improving the Rochester Americans, the American Hockey League Affiliate of the Sabres.
TRADES
The team made three big trades this offseason, and two of them were to improve the defense. The Sabres managed to acquire defenseman Colin Miller from the Vegas Golden Knights for two draft picks. The Golden Knights were experiencing some cap trouble and had to make someone expendable. The other trade for defensive improvement could be more of a benefit for the Sabres than the Miller trade. The team acquired defenseman Henri Jokiharju from the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Alex Nylander.
The other trade was to re-acquire forward Jimmy Vesey from the New York Rangers for a 2021 draft pick. The Rangers were looking to dump salary in an attempt to land free agent Artemi Panarin. Vesey’s speed and goal-scoring ability will help to establish a solid top nine for the Sabres. He will also help improve a struggling power play from last season.
OVERALL OFFSEASON GRADE: B
The team had an offseason plan and went out and executed it. They re-signed Skinner to a new contract. Yes, he may have been overpaid, but that’s the name of the game in free agency. The top nine depth was improved with the additions of Vesey and Johansson. The defense is much better with the acquisition of Miller and Jokiharju. The Sabres also made a point to re-sign some of its restricted free agents to one- or two-year deals. They also improved the Americans with some of the signings in free agency.
