BUFFALO, N.Y. — Even before the Buffalo Sabres season ended, I had been saying that Buffalo only has seven forwards for next season.
For years I’ve been saying they needed to be harder to play against, and it was obvious they needed another top-six forward. I was thinking they needed at least six new forwards, and as of July 6, they have five.
Kevyn Adams has done an excellent job of making this team harder to play against by trading for Beck Malenstyn and Ryan McLeod and signing Sam Lafferty, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and defenseman Dennis Gilbert, who grew up in Buffalo. Adams also signed veteran forward Jason Zucker.
The benefits of all this should be immediate. The additions of these players will make an impact on players like Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Owen Power, Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, and Alex Tuch because now teams won’t be able to take liberties with them with no response. That gives skilled players more room to operate.
These are also players that Lindy Ruff knows what to do with and how to use them to their full potential to help the team. Teams no longer will take the ice in Buffalo thinking it's going to be an easy game.
I know many complained to me about trading a first-round pick like Matt Savoie to the Edmonton Oilers for McLeod and a minor leaguer, but it makes sense. Nobody knows if Savoie will be good or not. He’s small and has had injury problems the past two years, but when he has played in junior, he’s been unstoppable.
When Kevyn Adams drafted Konsta Helenius 14th overall in this year’s draft, he said the 18-year-old will play center. Vinny Prospal, who worked a lot with Jiri Kulich this past season in Rochester, said at Development Camp that he thinks Kulich’s best position is center.
Another first round pick, Noah Ostlund is also a center, so my question is if you don’t make the trade, where are you going to put Savoie? He’s not going to replace Thompson, Tuch, Peterka, Quinn, or Dylan Cozens. You could hope he comes into training camp and takes the one spot that they’re trying to find through a trade, but that’s a lot to put on Savoie.
They needed a center to play behind Thompson and Cozens, and that guy needs to be a very good two-way player. They could hope Peyton Krebs improves enough this summer, but that’s iffy. That is a spot for a two-player, not guys like Savoie and Kulich.
I believe Adams is trying to trade for a top-six forward, and I realize it’s hard with no movement clauses in contracts. He’s already saying that he’s not worried at all about scoring goals because he knows he has the talent and the players to score. Maybe that will happen, but there are way too many “ifs” in that.
It’s if Thompson can get back to 47 goals, if Tuch can get back to 36 goals, if Cozens can get back to 31 goals, if Quinn can stay healthy and get to 30 goals, if Dahlin can reach his potential and become the superstar he’s projected to be, if Benson can improve on his rookie year. Any or all of that could happen, but I would not be staking my job on it like Adams is.
I mean, maybe fans are worried about nothing. Maybe Kulich will rip up training camp and grab that top-six spot. But then again, maybe he won’t.
I think you can see where I’m going with this. Yes, it’s just over two months until training camp opens and there’s plenty of time to make that trade for a top-six forward, but what if that trade isn’t out there. It’s Adams' job to find the right answer, his reputation and his job depends on it.