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…
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