It has been a tough season for the Sabres, particularly veteran winger Kyle Okposo. His season has now come to a premature end with the team announcing that Okposo has undergone surgery to repair a broken bone in his cheek and will miss the remainder of the season as a result. The injury was sustained on Thursday after a dump-in attempt hit him in the cheek.
The 33-year-old has steadily seen his offensive output drop since joining Buffalo as an unrestricted free agent back in 2016, a trend that continued this season. Okposo posted just two goals and 11 assists in 35 games, career lows in any of his thirteen full-time NHL seasons which is hardly the type of return they are expecting for someone carrying a $6MM AAV. That deal still has two years remaining on it and a front-loaded, signing bonus-heavy structure that makes buying it out cap prohibitive.
Even so, it’s an avenue that GM Kevyn Adams may be wise to consider this summer. Per CapFriendly, it would yield a $5MM cap charge in 2021-22 which only frees up $1MM on the cap but it’s possible that those savings could still allow them to bring in a better player for next season. From there, the penalty wouldn’t be as steep with a $3MM charge in 2022-23 before dropping to $1MM for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Meanwhile, Steven Fogarty was recalled from the taxi squad to take Okposo’s spot on the active roster. The 27-year-old is in his first season with Buffalo and has a goal and two assists in eight games so far. In a corresponding move, goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was promoted to the taxi squad.
With how well Hall has started out since going to Boston it’s becoming increasing evident that Buffalo is where talent goes to die.
Okposo (along with the classic, Ville Leino) perfectly illustrates why the Sabres have been awful ever since Pegula bought them…
“Wanting to win” so much that they toss big money at any mediocre player they could find.
As far as I know, Babcock, Rutherford, Gallant, Tallon, Julien are available, they should make something happen!! And how about bringing back Hasek to be the goalie coach
Half those dudes are front office guys and the other half are coaches. Strong work for rotating GM/HC though
I thought the team was out for the season.
Krueger did not have his system play to the strengths of his roster.
Okposo was brought in during GMTM decision to “speed up” the rebuilding process.
Every team has a contract (or 2 or 3) that they have regrets on.
Ever since Granato took over from Krueger the team is playing just under .500 hockey & the younger players are playing much better (with no Eichel).
I feel Granato has earned the right to stick around for the immediate future at least.
Outside of the goalie situation & the expansion draft the team just needs to figure out the long term plans of Rhino & Risto.