Riding a 13-year playoff drought, the Buffalo Sabres find themselves still struggling to make meaningful progress.
This past season, the Sabres finished 12th in the East. With a young core established though and an abundance of cap space, free agency seemed like a good opportunity to make improvements to their roster.
However, Buffalo stayed relatively quiet, only making a few supplemental additions. Below, we take a look at the Sabres' moves, and assess their free agency.
Jason Zucker added, Jeff Skinner bought out
The team's free agency was headlined by the addition of Jason Zucker and the departure of Jeff Skinner.
Zucker signed a one-year deal with the team, at a $5 million cap hit. The winger is coming off a year split between the Arizona Coyotes and Nashville Predators. Between the two teams, he managed 14 goals and 32 points in 69 games.
The winger is 32 years old, but Zucker is still able to add some secondary offense, and can likely be counted on to score at a pace of between 40 and 50 points per 82. At the same time though, Zucker being the biggest addition in free agency is somewhat curious, especially on the heels of buying out Skinner.
While Skinner wasn't worth a $9 million cap hit, he was still producing. Yet with three years remaining on his contract, the Sabres opted for a buyout. As a result, they'll face a cap penalty for six years, with the size of that penalty varying by year.
When you break down the numbers, the buyout really doesn't make a ton of sense. Skinner's buyout penalty will count as almost $1.5M against the cap this season, but the Sabres then allocated $5M to Zucker, and still have about $15 million in cap space, per PuckPedia. So there certainly wasn't any immediate need for a buyout.
Then next year, Skinner's buyout penalty will rise to nearly $4.5M. Compared to Skinner's original $9M cap hit, it's going to be difficult to find a winger carrying the same value with just the additional $4.5M left over. Then in 2026-27, the penalty will go as high as nearly $6.5M, before the penalty drags on for three additional years at about $2.5M per year.
That's also not to mention that Skinner has outproduced Zucker in recent years. So the Sabres lost out on offense, and didn't utilize the cap space they gained to make a bigger move.
Sabres add depth
In addition to Zucker, the Sabres added some pieces to help down the lineup. Up front, the team added Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel, in addition to goaltender James Reimer.
Lafferty is 29 years old, and can play either down the middle or on the wing. This past season, Lafferty scored 13 goals and 24 points in 79 games with the Vancouver Canucks. His deal is for two years, carrying a $2 million cap hit.
Aube-Kubel is 28 years old, and is likely to join Lafferty on the fourth line. This past season, Aube-Kubel managed 16 points in 60 games with the Washington Capitals, and his deal is for one year at $1.5M. Both Lafferty and Aube-Kubel will be effective on the forecheck and add physicality, making the team's bottom-six more formidable.
James Reimer also signed a one-year deal with the team, worth $1M. Reimer is 36 years old, and posted a .904 save percentage across 25 games with the Detroit Red Wings this past season. It'll be interesting to see what the team's plan in net is, with all of Reimer, Devon Levi, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen available for the coming season. Luukkonen still needs another deal, but enters the year as the team's starter. His contract is arguably the biggest item left on the team's offseason to-do list, likely to come in between one and three years in length.
While the Sabres brought in some additions though, there were also a couple of departures. In addition to Skinner, other departures included Zemgus Girgensons, Eric Robinson, and Eric Comrie. While Robinson and Comrie were fairly recent adds, Girgensons had been with the organization since he was selected 14th overall by the Sabres in 2012.
Other moves
The team also re-signed defensemen Henri Jokiharju and Jacob Bryson. While Bryson has seen his role with the Sabres decline, Jokiharju remains the teams' top right-shot defenseman. This past season, the defenseman managed 20 points in 74 games, while averaging about 19 minutes per game. His deal is for one year, and came in at $3.1M.
In addition to free agency, the team was also active on the trade front. The team notably added Ryan McLeod and prospect Tyler Tullio from the Edmonton Oilers, sending Matthew Savoie the other way. McLeod fills a need as a third-line center, but Savoie has massive upside, as a ninth overall pick in 2022. This past season, Savoie scored at over two points per game in the WHL. The team had also previously acquired Beck Malenstyn from the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick. The moves are clearly an effort to improve now, but the Sabres paid a steep price to do so.
Of course, the Sabres are banking on internal improvement, in the way of their young core taking another step. They also didn't get worse in free agency, just arguably didn't improve significantly, despite having the means to add bigger pieces.
The moves leave Buffalo maybe a little better off in the short-term, but still potentially not good enough to avoid a 14th straight playoff miss.
FINAL GRADE: C+
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