The Sabres paid a steep price to acquire Brandon Montour from Anaheim last February with young defenseman Brendan Guhle and a first-round pick going the other way. He was expected to be a core part of their back end but has struggled the point where he was considered a possible candidate to not be tendered a qualifying offer back in October. The two sides eventually settled on a one-year, $3.875MM contract, walking him to unrestricted free agency next summer.
Part of the reason for his struggles may have been the fact that he often played his off-side. Accordingly, with Buffalo’s back end remaining intact for the upcoming season, he has spent a lot of his extended offseason training with a focus on playing that off-side, notes Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. Montour will need a strong season to have a chance of commanding his current salary on the open market next offseason, one that will likely be as tough to navigate as this one so there is definitely plenty at stake as he tries to re-establish himself as a core defenseman for the Sabres.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller is expected to be ready to suit up on opening night, whenever that day comes, relays Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic (Twitter link). The veteran missed all of last season due to recurring knee injuries and wound up re-signing for a guaranteed $1MM plus another $250K roster bonus and $750K in games played in playoff bonuses. While he’s a right-shot defender, he could be called upon to help cover the departures on the left side of Torey Krug (St. Louis) and Zdeno Chara (still unsigned).
- TSN’s Travis Yost profiles the tricky decision that the Maple Leafs will soon face regarding goaltender Frederik Andersen, a pending unrestricted free agent. With so much of their money tied up in their top forwards, they’re not in a position to be able to afford a high-priced goaltender but before last season, he had put up some strong numbers. Now 31, Andersen will be looking to show that his dip (which included a career-low .909 SV%) was an outlier and not a sign of things to come.
Just because Miller is healthy enough to suit up on opening night doesn’t mean he will. He has to prove he can play. He was slow before all of his knee injuries. He has to earn a spot.
The pick Buffalo traded was 29th overall.
Was it another team’s pick because I don’t gather Buffalo would be picking in that slot with their own picks?
Montour will probably correct things should a season progress reasonably smoothly. Or he will continue to struggle on his off side and some team will hope to catch a bargain by letting him play on his strong side (is Buffalo so dumb). Credit to him for trying to make the best of a bad situation by training on his weak side.
Correct, that pick originally belonged to SJ. Buffalo’s own pick was 7th.