Buffalo also added minor league forward Tyler Tullio in the move.
Buffalo Sabres fans have been begging general manager Kevyn Adams to make a trade and on Friday, that’s exactly what he’s done sending Matt Savoie to the Edmonton Oilers for forwards Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tullio.
Since the official start of the Sabres offseason, Adams made it clear they’re very happy with the depth of prospects they have in the system and because of that, he felt it put them in a position of strength to use those prospects to acquire players that can help the current roster. In this case, mission: accomplished.
There will be shouting about this one.
Savoie was the Sabres’ first-round pick (ninth overall) in 2022 and he’s spent the past two seasons lighting up the Western Hockey League and also helped Moose Jaw to the Memorial Cup this season. Next season was going to be his first as a professional with the Sabres organization, but now he’ll relocate to Edmonton (probably Bakersfield in the AHL) to see how far he can go.
The Sabres add an absolute third line center in McLeod after pondering the possibility of Peyton Krebs being their No. 3, especially after they signed Sam Lafferty to a two-year contract on July 1 to be their fourth-line center. McLeod is one of the fastest skaters in the NHL and he’s a fancy stats dreamboat in his role.
More on Savoie, McLeod, and Krebs ahead…
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I was in the process of detailing what the Sabres have done (or not done, depending on your opinion) since the start of free agency when this trade broke, so there will be a fuller view on what they’re doing to come. But this trade with Edmonton is fascinating.
In terms of the raw information, it looks like the Sabres took a bath.
Savoie was the No. 9 pick in the draft two years ago and in the two years since, he’s put up 166 points in 96 games (1.72 points per game) with Wenatchee and Moose Jaw in the WHL playing as a center. At 5-foot-9 and 179 pounds, playing center in the NHL would be a much more difficult thing to do, but in junior hockey that’ll play every day.
Savoie’s numbers this season are gaudy with 71 points in 34 games and 24 points in 19 playoff games with Moose Jaw. Flashing back to training camp in September when the debate was whether or not the Sabres would seek an exception for Savoie to play in the AHL as opposed to going back to the WHL as a 20-year-old seems pertinent here.
For a guy Savoie’s age playing against a lot of players younger than him, it’s good that he flattened the competition, he was supposed to. Getting traded to Moose Jaw and helping them win the WHL playoffs was important as well. I guess we’ll find out whether or not another year of junior hockey did him well or if it delayed his acclimation process to professional hockey.
We’re not about to judge him for how he did in a handful of minutes in his NHL debut or how he looked in the AHL playoffs last season when he joined Rochester after a full WHL season. It was expected he’d move to wing in the pro ranks and there’s no reason to think that will change in Edmonton. Best of luck to Matthew as he heads back home for pro hockey. That’s pretty cool
McLeod has been a depth forward for Edmonton the past few years and settled in as their third-line center in the past couple seasons. The offensive numbers don’t pop (75 points in 219 games in the NHL), but with what he’s tasked to do when it comes to driving possession and defending, he’s been very good.
McLeod’s advanced stats jump off the page and he’s been able to do that independent from Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Over the past three seasons at 5-on-5, McLeod has played 344:43 with (and over 1,900 minutes without) Draisaitl and 123:13 with (and more than 2,100 minutes without) McDavid (via Natural Stat Trick) and his shot attempts-for and expected goals-for percentages were either better or virtually even without each of those all-world players.
McLeod has been north of 53 percent in shot attempts-for each of the past three seasons and was better than 56 percent this year. His expected goals-for percentage each of the past two years were 55.5 and 56.7 respectively. He may not have been facing the top lines each and every night, but whoever he was up against he was able to control the run of play against them.
McLeod is an excellent addition for the Sabres and had they addressed questions about their top-six forwards already, most fans would be fully on board with the move.
Unfortunately, the view of McLeod is going to be skewed and compared with how Savoie performs in Edmonton. Right now, that comparison exists solely as NHL third liner with tools versus a No. 9 pick in the draft who scored a boatload of points. Who he scored them against means nothing in the public eye, only the bountiful total number of goals and assists.
With McLeod in place to run the Sabres third line, you’re looking at this being their bottom-six forward group as the roster sits right now:
Zach Benson/Jason Zucker — Ryan McLeod — Jordan Greenway
Beck Malenstyn — Sam Lafferty — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
I’ve put Benson and Zucker as a toss-up on that third line because they’re probably a toss-up on the second line as well with Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn. JJ Peterka with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch seems like a given as well. With Krebs still unsigned as a restricted free agent, we’re leaving him out of the line discussion, but when he does re-sign…where does he fit?
Adams mentioned Krebs as a center first and foremost but also mentioned the possibility of him playing on the wing more often. Perhaps playing the wing for Lindy Ruff would go a lot smoother than it did under Don Granato but based upon what we saw of Krebs on the wing before, that’s almost a non-starter for him to play there.
Once Krebs is signed and if he’s not traded and he’s not playing the wing, you’re looking at a line setup somewhat like this:
Zach Benson/Jason Zucker — Ryan McLeod — Jordan Greenway
Beck Malenstyn/Sam Lafferty — Peyton Krebs — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
This would offer the Sabres the ability to change things up and adjust given the opponent. Malenstyn hits everything he sees and is the most physical addition they’ve made this summer, but that’s not always necessary against every opponent. They signed Lafferty for two years and sitting him out on occasion probably isn’t their plan either. Aube-Kubel is one of the better defenders up front in the league.
It’s the fourth line so it’s malleable by nature in how they want it to work, but there’s little doubt now that Ruff (and Adams by proxy) viewed the Sabres as a team in desperate need of a physical element and that’s not entirely wrong. They also view them as a team in need of more speed to be able to do what Ruff wants of them on the forecheck and all over the ice. Previous iterations of the fourth line with Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo played heavy, but not fast and overtly physical. This group is set up to correct all of that.
All last season we seemed to ask ourselves what the plan is with Krebs. He has the offensive smarts and skills to be a solid setup man at center but plays best in a way that allows him to be aggressive all over the ice. If they have doubts about how best to make him work on any of their lines, it’s something they have to recognize means moving him elsewhere or further degrading his skill and crushing his perceived value.
If the Sabres have run out of patience for Krebs, no longer wish to be more hands-on with how to help grow his game, or don’t know how to make it work best for him in the lineup, it would be time to move on.
Forward Tyler Tullio who they also added in the trade will go to Rochester and help fill out their forward group. He was a captain for Oshawa in the OHL as well as their leading scorer in 2021-2022. He’s 22 years old and a bit on the lighter side, size-wise. Maybe he can find his way with the Americans.
The Sabres also announced the re-signed defenseman Henri Jokiharju to a one-year, $3.1 million contract. He was a restricted free agent this summer and this contract will walk him straight to unrestricted free agency next summer.
Barring any trades that shake things up, the Sabres defense corps is set:
Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bo Byram, Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju, Connor Clifton, Jacob Bryson, and Dennis Gilbert
How Ruff wants to arrange this group will be interesting because of the eight defensemen that will vie for the roster, six of them are left-handed shots. Dahlin playing the right side seems like an automatic decision, but who plays on his left will be interesting. It’s a deep group and should work out well enough to succeed.
Whether they have Byram work with Dahlin or reunite Dahlin with Samuelsson is a likely debate in the coach’s office. Whatever they decide on, be it on defense or their forward lines, they should get to working on it immediately as opposed to trying a bunch of combinations throughout camp. The lack of chemistry, particularly with the forwards, contributed to their slow start to the season, something they cannot afford to have happen again, especially since they’re headed to Europe.