Sabres Sign Cody Eakin
The Sabres had added some depth down the middle as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed Cody Eakin to a two-year contract. The deal carries a $2.25MM AAV. TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (via Twitter) that Eakin will receive $2MM next season and $2.5MM in 2021-22.
After sending Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild and letting Johan Larsson leave in free agency—Larsson signed a two-year, $2.8MM contract in Arizona earlier today—the Sabres will have quite a different looking group down the middle next season. Jack Eichel will obviously be the team’s first-line option, but Eric Staal and Eakin will now figure into the middle-six. Where that leaves Casey Mittelstadt isn’t clear and likely confirms what many expected, that Dylan Cozens will start his pro career on the wing (provided he cracks the Sabres roster out of camp).
Eakin is an interesting addition for the Sabres, but not one that comes with any sort of production guarantee. The 29-year-old center has experienced both excellent and terrible seasons over the last few years, alternating drastically between scoring levels. For three seasons with the Dallas Stars starting in 2013-14 he looked like a perfect secondary scoring option, registering close to 20 goals and 40 points each year. But then he fell off a cliff and scored just three goals and 12 points in 60 games during the 2016-17 season.
After a bounce-back in Vegas, many likely considered that 2016-17 season an outlier and his true potential had returned as a middle-six option. Unfortunately, Eakin’s play fell off a cliff again in 2019-20 when he scored just four goals and ten points in 41 games and was traded to the Winnipeg Jets midseason. With Eakin not re-signing with Winnipeg, Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe notes (Twitter link) that Vegas will receive a 2021 fourth-round pick from the Jets; had he re-signed, the pick would have upgraded to a third-round selection.
Frankly, it’s not clear what the Sabres are really getting in this deal. Though Eakin has shown an ability to contribute on offense and defense, his results at both ends of the rink have been inconsistent at best. Believing he will be a substantial upgrade over Larsson, who signed for less money, could be a mistake.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Matt Irwin, Brandon Davidson
Buffalo Sabres fans are still waiting for a difference-maker on the first day of free agency, but the front office continues to add depth to the organization instead. After inking Tobias Rieder earlier today, the Sabres have now signed Matt Irwin to a one-year, $700K contract according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Irwin, 32, has bounced around the league for the better part of a decade now, starting with the San Jose Sharks back in 2012. Undrafted, he now has 359 games at the NHL level, suiting up for the Sharks, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, and Anaheim Ducks.
With Lawrence Pilut playing in the KHL and Brandon Montour still unsigned, the Sabres had a need for some defensive depth. Irwin won’t be a difference-maker for the team, but he can provide stable third-pairing minutes or serve as a capable seventh defenseman.
A little later in the day, the Sabres also signed Brandon Davidson to a one-year, $700K contract, giving them another depth option on the back end. Davidson spent most of the 2019-20 season in the minor leagues with the Stockton Heat but does have 174 NHL games under his belt.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Tobias Rieder
The Buffalo Sabres have dipped into the bargain bin to add a speedy, two-way winger. Veteran forward Tobias Rieder will sign with the team, according to The Score’s John Matisz. It is expected to be one-year, one-way contract for the league minimum $700K.
Rieder, 27, seemingly peaked at a young age, as he has recorded just 21 points over the past two years with Edmonton and Calgary after totaling 117 points in his first four NHL seasons with the Arizona Coyotes. However, a minimum contract is not much of a risk for Buffalo to take on the off-chance that Rieder can return to 30+ point form.
Even if this is just a minor depth addition, Rieder is a good penalty killer and a capable bottom-six forward. Should the Sabres succeed in re-signing non-qualified forward Dominik Kahun, Rieder could also come in handy with furthering the development of his fellow German. Kahun is a similar player to what Rieder was in his prime and the duo could work well together.
Zemgus Girgensons Re-Signs With Buffalo Sabres
Friday: The Sabres have announced the deal, confirming the three-year, $6.6MM terms.
Thursday: While most free agent news has been that impending UFA’s are intending to test the market, at least one player is set to re-sign with his current club before the market opens. Multiple sources, including TSN’s Darren Dreger, report that Zemgus Girgensons is expected to sign a contract extension with the Buffalo Sabres. Dreger expects that it will be a three-year, $6.6MM extension.
Girgensons, 26, is nothing if not consistent. The Latvian native took over a bottom-six role for the Sabres back in 2013-14 and has held tight to it ever since. In seven NHL seasons, Girgensons has played in 69+ games all but once and has always finished with 5-15 goals and 15-30 points. He plays a physical game and provides sound defensive play on a consistent basis.
Dependability like that which Girgensons provides can be hard to find, especially when adding a free agent who has never played with your team. Rather than take that risk, Buffalo has elected to go with a player they know they can trust, even if he might lack upside beyond his current level of production. At just a $2.2MM AAV, the Sabres aren’t spending much to retain a reliable asset who excels in a specific role.
Buffalo Sabres Re-Sign Jonas Johansson
The Buffalo Sabres have completed a bit of offseason work, signing goaltender Jonas Johansson to a one-year contract worth $700K. Johansson was a pending restricted free agent.
If you can remember all the way back to February, you’ll recall that for a little while the Sabres were without both Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark at the same time. That’s when Johansson got his first chance at the NHL level, playing in six games and actually faring relatively well. The 25-year-old goaltender posted an .894 save percentage, stopping 135 of 151 shots.
In the minor leagues, he did much better and that’s where Johansson is likely heading once again in 2020-21. A third-round pick in 2014 he could actually become a Group VI unrestricted free agent when this contract expires, but he’s doesn’t appear to be the answer just yet for the Sabres at the NHL level.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Tage Thompson
The Buffalo Sabres have reached a deal with one of their restricted free agents, signing Tage Thompson to a three-year contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $1.4MM.
Thompson, 22, was a big part of the trade that saw Ryan O’Reilly head to the St. Louis Blues in 2018, but failed to make an immediate impact in Buffalo. In 65 NHL games during the 2018-19 season, Thompson was held to just 12 points, struggling at times to be effective in any way for the Sabres. Starting at the minor league level in 2019-20 he looked to have an extra step, resulting in 12 points in 16 games with the Rochester Americans, but was injured almost immediately after earning a call-up. That injury resulted in season-ending shoulder surgery in early January, basically costing the young forward an entire development year.
With that inconsistent history, it’s easy to ask how he deserves a multi-year deal. The thing is, Thompson still has immense potential as a secondary scoring option in Buffalo. The Sabres and his camp both know that, but a three-year deal works as a nice middle-ground for both sides. The Sabres lock him in at a very reasonable price should he break out in 2020-21, while Thompson receives a nice salary bump and some security as he tries to work his way back from injury and show what he can do at the NHL level.
Standing 6’5″ with strong offensive instincts, Thompson does have 14 goals and 23 points in 24 games for Rochester over the last two seasons. He looked like a real difference-maker at the start of last season, and if that can carry over to give captain Jack Eichel and newly acquired Eric Staal another top-six option on the wing the deal will look like a steal. There’s no guarantee that happens, but the Sabres are looking for any way to climb out of their cycle of losing and taking a chance on a 22-year old first-round pick—instead of a veteran free agent—seems like a good bet.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Andrew Oglevie
The Buffalo Sabres have finished some work, re-signing a restricted free agent before the market opens next week. Andrew Oglevie has signed a two-year deal with the team that will carry an average annual value of $775K.
Oglevie, 25, was an undrafted free agent signing out of Notre Dame in 2018 that showed a marked improvement this season. In 55 games with the Rochester Americans, he scored 15 goals and 29 points, good enough to potentially put himself into a competition for a roster spot with Buffalo next season.
Part of that is the lack of depth on the current roster—the Sabres currently have only five NHL forwards under contract for 2020-21. Oglevie’s signing leaves 12 more pending restricted free agents for the Sabres to deal with.
Several Teams Spoke With Buffalo About Jack Eichel
When a franchise struggles for a long period of time and changes their general manager, installing someone with little front office experience, you can assume that the rest of the league takes flight like vultures to try and pick the roster clean of any talent. That’s exactly what seems to have happened in Buffalo when the Sabres made the move to fire Jason Botterill and hire Kevyn Adams as GM.
Bob McKenzie of TSN tweets that several teams including the New York Rangers called on the availability of Jack Eichel, though none of those conversations resulted in “trade traction” with Adams and the Sabres. McKenzie also makes sure to point out that neither the Sabres or Eichel himself have expressed any desire to part ways, in fact just the opposite appears to be true at the moment.
Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston tweets that he was told the Bruins were also one of the teams speaking with the Sabres regarding Eichel, though again these talks don’t seem to have gone anywhere.
It’s easy to imagine why other general managers will continue to poke at the Sabres on the status of Eichel. Not only is the 23-year-old center one of the best players in the NHL coming off an incredible 36-goal, 78-point campaign, but he’s also a $10MM ticket on a team that hasn’t played a postseason game since 2011 and is reportedly looking at working under a drastically reduced internal salary cap due to recent financial restrictions.
If Buffalo is going to turn things around, it’s hard to imagine it would be without Eichel leading the charge. The young forward is a true franchise talent that now has 337 points in 354 career games, despite often playing with an underwhelming roster. Even at that $10MM cap hit he likely represents excess value for the team, unlike some of his high-priced teammates (Jeff Skinner, who carries a $9MM cap hit through 2026-27, scored just 23 points this season).
All that said, Eichel has been quite clear in the past about his desire to win. His agent Peter Fish even re-upped that stance with McKenzie today, explaining that the star center doesn’t want out but is frustrated with the team’s results so far. If the Sabres can’t turn things around, this won’t be the last time that teams are calling about his availability or his name pops up in trade rumors.
Atlantic Notes: Yzerman, Cholowski, Cozens, Mittelstadt
After a acquiring a 2021 second-round pick from the New York Rangers for taking on the contract of defenseman Marc Staal and his $5.7MM contract for one more year, the Detroit Red Wings still have $27.4MM in available cap space to spend. The question becomes, will general manager Steve Yzerman take more contracts on this offseason or was this a one-time deal?
“There’s so much uncertainty in the league right now,” Yzerman said on a Zoom call to reporters after the trade (via the Detroit Free Press). “We’re heading into the draft, we’re heading into free agency, we don’t really know when we’re starting, what the landscape is going to look like next year. So we’re all kind of going into uncharted waters. And for the Red Wings, we are in a position (where) we do have cap space that we can use it. And I hope to use it wisely. But one way we would like to try and use it is to acquire future assets should any teams be in a position where they really have to move contracts and don’t have any other options.”
Detroit does have some need for some veteran options to help out their young team that finished with a 17-49-5 record and in dead last. Assuming the Red Wings keep Staal, could they find other options to help fill some of those needed players on the roster. Of course, adding more and more picks is another option for Yzerman and the Red Wings.
“Nobody wants to give up picks or prospects, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make your team better, and we’re trying to — I don’t want to say take advantage of that, but find teams that are in a position that need to do that,” Yzerman said. “And again, we’re trying to add picks or prospects, and at the same time ice a team.”
- Sticking with the Red Wings trade, The Athletic’s Max Bultman (subscription required) writes that with the likelihood of the team keeping Staal on the team for next season after Yzerman complimented his penalty killing abilities, it could be bad news for defenseman Dennis Cholowski. The team’s 2016 first-round pick has had two years to establish himself into the team’s defensive lineup, but has been unable to do that yet, spending half a season each year in the AHL. This could be a breakout season coming up for him. However, with Danny DeKeyser and Patrik Nemeth ahead of him on the left-defense depth chart and now with Staal added in, Cholowski will likely have to earn his way into Detroit’s lineup by beating out Staal in training camp. Of course, he could move over to the opposite side of the defense as well, but there are other obstacles in his way there too.
- With the recent addition of Eric Staal as their new No. 2 center, the Buffalo Sabres could have the luxury of easing their two young centers into the Sabres’ lineup this year, according to The Athletic’s John Vogl (subscription required). Before the trade, the Sabres had penciled in 2019 first-round pick Dylan Cozens into the No. 2 center position and 2017 first-round pick Casey Mittelstadt as their No. 3 center. With Staal in the fold for at least one more year, that plan will change. The scribe writes that it’s possible the team could move one or both of them to the wing to add some top-six depth there now that Marcus Johansson was traded to Minnesota. Cozens could move over to the right side, while Mittelstadt could play on the left, giving the team quite a few options in training camp.
Curtis Lazar Signs With Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres have decided that Curtis Lazar played well enough to keep around, signing him to a new two-year contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $800K and allow Lazar to avoid restricted free agency this offseason.
Now 25, Lazar is on his third NHL organization since being the 17th overall pick in 2013. Never developing into the dominant power forward that some expected, he did seem to find a home in the Sabres bottom-six this season. Scoring 10 points in 38 games was obviously enough to show he deserved a new deal, one that will keep him an inexpensive option for head coach Ralph Krueger.
Amazingly, Lazar becomes just the fifth Sabres forward under contract for the 2020-21 season. While prospects like Dylan Cozens are expected to take a roster spot, it’s rare that you see an NHL team with so many pending free agents in one year. Wayne Simmonds, Vladimir Sobotka, Jimmy Vesey, Zemgus Girgensons, Johan Larsson and Michael Frolik are all scheduled for unrestricted free agency, while Dominik Kahun, Tage Thompson, Victor Olofsson and Sam Reinhart are all restricted free agents.
That will situation will offer a ton of flexibility for new GM Kevyn Adams as he looks to right the ship and fix a culture that has resulted in only losses over the last decade. The last time the Sabres went to the playoffs was 2011, something they’ll try to change quickly.