The Buffalo Sabres once again find themselves approaching the NHL trade deadline in a position of weakness and will likely be selling off their unneeded assets before they walk for nothing and attempting to move other pieces for roster players that may be in play from other teams as well. While a number of great arguments can be made that they should not be selling off anything, and instead should be standing pat their current general manager (GM) should not be running their franchise for much longer (especially considering the massive continued failures), there are still a few players on their roster that have garnered interest and could easily be moved for decent prices.
Henri Jokiharju’s Time Is All But Over
Between his limited playing time this season, and his overall struggles in recent years, Henri Jokiharju has clearly fallen out of favor in Buffalo and is easily one of their top trade candidates going into Friday. Even despite his decent showings since the very popular 4 Nations Face-Off, he has not done well enough this season to warrant a new contract in the offseason. With that contract expiration lingering, and potential playoff teams looking to shore up their defensive depth, he would be an easy and fairly cheap pickup for any one of them.
His value is not likely to garner the Sabres much as his numbers have not been anything to write home about. In 42 games played this season, he has three goals and three assists, while maintaining a plus-6 rating and averaging 16:18 of ice time. These would land him a bottom pairing role on most teams, and if he would be given an opportunity, he could do fairly well away from the Sabres. The return for him would likely be just draft picks, if not just a single one, despite GM Kevyn Adams wanting more NHL players for his roster. The pick or picks would likely be in the mid-round range at the highest considering his production, but crazier things have happened on deadline day.
Sam Lafferty Needs To Be Moved
One of the Sabres’ biggest sells for this season was that they revamped their fourth line, and a big part of that was from signing Sam Lafferty. He was coming off a career season with the Vancouver Canucks in 2023-24 when he put up 13 goals and 24 points, and early on he looked very good for the Sabres. As time went on, after a couple of unfortunate injuries, Lafferty just has not looked like the same player. His defensive awareness is essentially non-existent, his finishing ability is not there, and he is not playing with the same kind of speed that he was early on. The 29-year-old veteran has also very clearly fallen out of favor with head coach Lindy Ruff as the lineup spot is regularly given to the likes of Peyton Krebs, frequent call-up Tyson Kozak, or even defender Jacob Bryson so the team can deploy 11 forwards and seven defenders.
With one year left remaining on his contract, a playoff team may take a flyer on him, especially since his $2-million cap hit will not break the bank by any means. The return will not yield anything spectacular, but what it will do is free up the organization from the little bit of cap hit he will have, open up a roster spot for Kozak to play full time in the NHL, and allow Lafferty to move on to a team that can better utilize his talents. Should the Sabres decide to move him at the deadline, it would not be for more than a late-round pick.
Jason Zucker Is the Sabres’ Golden Ticket on Deadline Day
Nobody expected Jason Zucker to perform as well as he has for the Sabres this season, but with that level of surprise has come a very important choice. The Sabres need to get him re-signed, or they need to take the clear value that he has and move him off to a playoff contender for an absolute haul. There are plenty of players who have already been on the move before the deadline, and for what Zucker has been producing, he would be able to be moved for a good price. He has 18 goals and 44 points in 54 games this season and has been an exceptional power play contributor, netting nine power play goals and seven power play assists. Any contending team would pay a premium price for that kind of production right now.
Should the Sabres decide they cannot re-sign him to a reasonable contract extension, and they do move him, he should easily fetch them a first-round pick along with another asset. They do not really need any additional prospects to add to their pool, but loading up on a few extra picks as capital in order to make additional moves in the offseason would likely be the end goal. Should they get a player in return as well, they should be targeting a veteran third-liner with some term if possible. Shoring up their veteran presence NS getting some good energy in the room while also adding more assets will be important for their home stretch. Trading Zucker can accomplish all of these goals.
Sabres Have to Make the Right Choices
By “the Sabres” I mean the team as a whole, not just Adams. One of the right choices includes getting him out of the GM’s chair as soon as possible, but since he will still be the man in charge going in to this deadline, the key is to make the simple moves and to not make any core changing moves before the offseason. Getting the pending unrestricted free agent players moved before they are lost for nothing is important, and dumping off dead cap space are the only two things that Adams needs to do before his time in Buffalo should end.
Related – 2025 NHL Trade Deadline Tracker
This deadline needs to be easy, quiet, and basic, and it needs to be about moving assets, not about changing the team at its core. The trade rumors surrounding the likes of Bowen Byram, Dylan Cozens, Owen Power, JJ Peterka, and even Alex Tuch should not be coming in to play during this time since all of them either have term left and do not need to be moved or are restricted free agents who the Sabres retain their rights going in to the offseason. Now is not the time for the big move; that time has come and passed them by a long time ago. Now it is time to accept what this team is, bide their time until summer, and hopefully a new GM can be brought in to clean up the mess that is this team with the new assets acquired from this deadline.
