The Buffalo Sabres were expected to be busy at the NHL Trade Deadline, but they took an unexpected route, re-signing pending free agents Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway to two-year contract extensions. The club did make three trades on deadline day, the largest being the swap of Dylan Cozens and Dennis Gilbert to Ottawa for Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker.
The club’s other moves were less impactful, as winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel was sent to the NY Rangers for defenseman Erik Brannstrom, and defenseman Henri Jokiharju was dealt to the Boston Bruins for a 2026 fourth-round pick.
The 25-year-old blueliner played six seasons for the Sabres after being acquired from Chicago in 2019. Jokiharju never bloomed into a top-four defenseman with the Sabres, with his best campaign coming last season under former coach Don Granato, with 20 points (3 goals, 17 assists) in 74 games and a +14 rating.
A restricted free agent last summer, the Sabres signed Jokiharju to a one-year, $3 million contract, but under head coach Lindy Ruff, the right-handed Finn has been a part-time player, playing just 42 games and posting just six points (3 goals, 3 assists). After a slew of injuries to their blueline, Finland tabbed Jokiharju as a replacement for the recently completed 4 Nations.
With the Sabres blueline being primarily left-handed, Jokiharju was given a chance to play on one of the top two pairings to start the season but quickly found himself either on the bottom pairing or in the press box. In spite of his young age for a player with nearly 400 games of NHL experience, there were questions of whether there was any interest on either side of a future in Buffalo past the end of this season, and once the Sabres healthy-scratched him prior to the deadline, Jokiharju’s fate was sealed.
Sabres GM Kevyn Adams would not comment on the trade with the media in Florida.
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