Buffalo made three deals on trade deadline day and held true to what they’ve preached all along.
For weeks leading up to the trade deadline, no matter who you spoke to from the Buffalo Sabres, the message was the same. Be it Kevyn Adams, Don Granato, Kyle Okposo, or any of the other players, they all wanted to be the ones to take on the challenge of getting the Sabres back to the playoffs.
As the games count down and the stakes ramp up and the calls from fans grew louder to do whatever it takes to get back to the postseason, Adams and his excited, yet steely cool demeanor held strong to the plan. He didn’t want to give up young players or prospects and trading away high draft picks didn’t feel right to do right now.
When I took a look back at Adams’ trade history a few weeks ago, what stood about was how he didn’t make a rash decision and if a player needed to be traded or it would do them a solid to go to another team, it would be done. In the three deals completed on Friday, it’s just how things played out.
If there were needs to address on the Sabres roster, one was finding players with physical presence. Adams accomplished that on the defensive end last week acquiring Riley Stillman from Vancouver. Although, it may be a little while before we see Stillman again after he took the worst of a fight against Tampa Bay’s Tanner Jeannot on Saturday afternoon and didn’t return to the game.
But it was up front they could’ve used more size and that’s where Jordan Greenway comes in.
A 6-foot-6, 230-pound winger, he fits the bill in a big way. The Sabres sent a pair of draft picks to the Minnesota Wild, a 2023 second-round pick from Vegas and a 2024 fifth, to bring on Greenway and if there’s a clear role for him on this team, it’s to be the bouncer, the bodyguard, a big brother-type of player.
“What I noticed wasn’t that we were getting pushed around, but that teams were certainly trying to bully us,” Adams said. “I don’t think there’s any way around it when you watch our games, a number of the teams, especially going after our top players and just game after game targeting them. It was clear.
Stillman and Greenway each have years on their contracts, so they’re not hired guns, something Adams said he wanted to avoid. Stillman is signed through 2024 with a $1.35 million cap hit and Greenway is locked in through 2025 at $3 million a year. The Sabres wanted players that can grow with them and create better camaraderie in the room. It’s a smart idea for a team this young.
Having a revolving door of players coming through with a team that’s as tight together as this group introduces a difficult element for younger players to deal with and a throwback to ones the veteran players grew tired of. Continuity from within is seen as a necessary thing to keep the growth going.
There is reason to be skeptical of Greenway’s addition, however.
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From a raw point-production standpoint he peaked in 2020-2021 averaging more than a half-point per game (0.57 PPG). His numbers cooled slightly last season (0.44) and have fallen off completely this year (0.17). For a guy his size and with the physical skill set he has, points aren’t necessarily the main reason he’s out there. His career-high in goals was set his rookie season in 2018-2019 when he potted 12. He’s broken double digits one other time, last season when he had 10 goals.
That’s a range he’s been in consistently through his career and he’s regularly between 20-to-30 points. For a bottom-six forward who’s meant to play the heavy, you’ll take it. But it’s that role he’s vacillated, between being aggressive on the forecheck and able to soften up opponents with the body and not doing it nearly enough or consistently.
He went from not hitting/being credited with hits early on to a guy more eager to dish it out. His 79 hits in 45 games this season indicate he’s been on top of that again, but his game hasn’t been the same. That’s something Granato is eager to get to work with him on.
“When you present something to (Greenway), yes, he is going to lose sleep until he can accomplish it,” Granato said. “We talked about Dahlin, he just wants to do the right thing all the time, and that’s how Jordan is. He has a deep care to do things the right way and do what’s asked of him for his team, for his teammates, doesn’t want to disappoint. He doesn’t want to disappoint you. That’s a really, really high character personality trait if you ask me.”
Granato’s confidence comes from knowing and coaching Greenway for two years with the USNTDP. Greenway was teammates with Tage Thompson while there and while they won’t be linemates in Buffalo (presumably), Granato’s history with him makes him believe he’ll get the best out of Greenway.
“There’s lots of players in the league I’m very familiar with and coached,” Granato said. “And you know the players. You learn them. But the players that you had before they came into the NHL, you get to see them completely different. You get to see their skillset that when a player enters the NHL, you don’t see all the skills they have.”
Adams leaning into Granato’s magic touch with Thompson as well as leaning into what makes Tyson Jost a good player has helped make the Sabres a much better, and deeper, team. Now he’ll have the chance to do it again with a player who could solve an issue that’s not necessarily plagued them but offered an area of weakness that opposing teams exploited.
If Greenway can get back to playing a physical game around the net and keep the star players from getting too much grief, that’s a win. If it can open up some of his offensive abilities while doing that, it’s a huge bonus.
The two other moves the Sabres completed on Friday saw a trade for Rochester in which they sent blue liner Chase Priskie to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Austin Strand. Priskie was injured earlier in the season and struggled to find his game with the Americans.
The thought when he was signed was that among the veteran depth defenders the Sabres signed in the offseason (Priskie, Jeremy Davies, and Kale Clague) that Priskie would be the one who’d be the first guy up due to injury. Instead, he was banged up already when it was time for the Sabres to dip into Rochester for assistance. Timing can be a real bastard sometimes.
What the Amerks will get in Strand is a 6-foot-3 200-plus pound defenseman who’s had a taste of the NHL previous seasons with the Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. It was important for Rochester to get a guy with NHL experience in return for a player that also had the same. Strand is bigger than Priskie and offers a bit more of a physical presence in the defensive end.
The Sabres also traded forward Rasmus Asplund to Nashville for a 2025 seventh-round pick. Adams said they wanted to do right by Asplund and get him a place where he’d be able to play and perhaps fit into another system better. After adding Greenway and with Hinostroza having gotten recalled when Alex Tuch went out and going into the lineup over him, Asplund getting a fresh start with the Predators is good for him.
Personally, it’s sad to see a player you enjoyed talking to, especially one you’ve talked to a lot over the years. He was a second-round pick by Buffalo in 2016 and once he arrived from Sweden and teamed up with Victor Olofsson in Rochester to help Olofsson turn into one of the most dangerous scorers in the AHL, the future looked bright for him in the organization.
Asplund, like everyone else in the organization since then, dealt with different coaches and had to sort through various styles and adjust and going from Phil Housley to Ralph Krueger was a night and day difference. But it was last season where Asplund showed how good of a defensive forward he could be and was an advanced stat wunderkind, but with the emergence of J-J Peterka, Jack Quinn, and Peyton Krebs this season, players from last season were going to wind up out of the mix and Asplund was one of them.
Asplund is a big-hearted guy and an advocate for mental health awareness and support. Adams said when he wished Asplund well on the way out on Friday, Asplund thanked him and said he couldn’t wait to watch the Sabres in the playoffs. Here’s to hoping he enjoys great success in Nashville.