If there were any doubts about how real this Buffalo Sabres team was, they were erased in a dominant win on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Sabres are expected to be players at the NHL trade deadline as buyers for the first time nearly 15 years, not simply satisfied with making the playoffs.
What their plan will be depends on who you ask. They have a litany of assets to work with, including a few who may already be on the roster. This isn’t necessarily indicative of players who have performed poorly (in some cases), it may also be a matter of who is most expendable to upgrade the roster as it currently stands.
Jack Quinn
Of all the players on the current roster that will generate buzz, Quinn may be the most thought-provoking. At 24 years old, Quinn may still have his best hockey ahead of him. He has flashed the skill required to be a 30-goal player in the NHL but hasn’t quite found that next gear.
With 38 points in 60 games, he is well on pace to top the career-high 39 points he put up last season. But will he ever the top-six scorer we all envisioned? His inconsistency has been a major issue, and he’s been mostly healthy since recovering from an Achilles injury.
Quinn could be enticing to another team with fewer options in their middle six. There is just enough there to make him look like a promising player right on the cusp. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be the player the Sabres imagined when they took him 8th overall in 2020.
Jordan Greenway
Greenway is disappointing in a completely different way than Quinn. He wasn’t expected to be a legitimate top-six scorer, but has brought with him size, speed, and tenacity that you don’t find in every NHLer.
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Unfortunately, Greenway has dealt with the same kind of injury history that has plagued Quinn. He has suited up in just 67 games over the past two seasons, largely having to do with hernia surgery he had in 2024.
Greenway is a valuable bottom-six role player with some decent offensive upside. If someone is buying on the skill set and potential, he could find himself dealt at the deadline even though he won’t be ready to step right into the lineup.
Jacob Bryson
This spot almost went to Josh Norris but his contract (four years remaining at $7.950 million per season) makes him an extremely difficult player to move. For that reason, we went with the most obvious candidate after that: Bryson.
Thankfully for the Sabres, one of their biggest disappointments is a No.6/7 defenseman, so the impact hasn’t been catastrophic. That said, Bryson has been largely hideous this season even in a limited role.
He’s averaging a career-low 10:02 of ice time per game and clearly doesn’t have the trust of head coach Lindy Ruff. Bryson isn’t the kind of asset you can really move for more than a late-round pick and will likely be sent down if the Sabres acquire more defensive depth.
Relatively Few Disappointments
The Sabres have largely gotten strong performances from the entire roster this season, with major success stories like Mattias Samuelsson. When you factor in the troubles the Sabres have had with injuries, it goes to show how good this team has actually been.
The only one even remotely likely to be traded is Quinn at this stage. The Sabres don’t want to make the current roster worse, and they will likely be hard-pressed to find takers for Greenway and Bryson at this point, but their time in Buffalo is almost certainly limited.
