BUFFALO, N.Y. — KeyBank Center was silent Monday morning and afternoon ahead of the 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline, as the Buffalo Sabres decided to keep their team as it is.
The only trade the Sabres made ahead of the deadline was sending defenseman Robert Hagg to the Florida Panthers for a 2022 sixth-round pick on Sunday.
"At the end of the day for me, it was always about what was best for this group moving forward. What was the best thing for the development of this group? And really wanted to be mindful of putting these players in a position to keep getting better. Keep getting better," Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said when he spoke to the media after the deadline.
"I like what I’m seeing in terms of our team and the dynamic in the locker room and that growth of players and so that was the balance as we went into it, as we went through the last few days.”
Buffalo has eight players on its current NHL active roster set to become unrestricted free agents in the offseason. Adams said the picks being offered for those players simply weren't enough to mix up the dressing room.
"Would we have been open to doing more? You know, for sure. Making more moves. But we had a plan, we were going to stick to the plan. We weren’t gonna let the emotion of a deadline or any sort of pressure change our plan. And that’s what we did."
Adams is relieved to have the veteran leadership from some of those pending free agents while the young core of Sabres is learning how to win."
"Take Craig Anderson and Mark Pysyk. Those would be the two examples I would use to say, what those guys do every day and what they’ve done every day and the impact they’ve had on the culture of our team and then certainly the way they’ve performed, but it’s bigger than that for me, it’s really powerful," Adams said.
"I just really believe these next 19 games for our group are so important. It’s important that we continue to push ourselves, continue to hold each other accountable, continue to grow, and I felt that the position that we’ve put ourselves in with the group we have will allow us to keep doing that.”
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