Without a real hope of the postseason, the Sabres are looking at having a drastically different, and decidedly less veteran roster, by the weekend.
Although the NHL trade deadline is a fan’s favorite time of year, for players it can be a truly mixed bag of emotions.
For playoff and Stanley Cup contenders, the questions are always about who might be arriving to help put their team over the top. For teams in the Buffalo Sabres position, the emotions run from anxiety to gloom to disappointment and ultimately to resignation.
Coming to terms about where the team is and about how there may be some beloved players leaving for good is never an enjoyable moment.
“It’s never stress free,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “Doesn’t matter who you are, what team you’re on, it’s never a stress-free situation, honestly. Unless you have a no-move clause, that’s the only time it’s stress-free. Even if you do have a no-move clause and you care about your teammates, it’s still going to cause some stress because you still have to see some friends get traded. Naturally deadline time is always hectic, a lot of articles. Fun for you guys, not so fun for the team, especially when you’re in the place we’re in.”
By now we’ve heard chatter enough from the NHL’s insiders about the Sabres and that they’re sellers in a weird place. They’re not rebuilding, they’re trying to find the correct formula that will make them a perennial playoff team and Stanley Cup contender. They’re young, they have a lot of talent, but also in a place where patience from outside of the organization for them to take the next step ran out years ago.
That combination of factors creates a particular brand of anxiety around the team and the fanbase, one that will lead, ultimately, to seeing some veterans moving on to this year’s contenders to put them over the top, including the current leadership group.
“It’s different, it’s a position I’ve never been in in my entire career, basically,” Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. “I’ve seen a lot of deadlines come and go and you see guys get moved, you see that it’s part of the business. I’m going to go about my day and be professional and be who I am. I’m not going to change who I am just because of the situation that I’m in. I’m here today and just trying to do the best I can to lead the group.”
Balancing being there for the team now and knowing there might be a new team to be part of by the end of the week is something players have to live with, but it’s something that’s made how tough this season has been that much more difficult to bear.
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Veterans like Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons have been in Buffalo the longest and if anyone’s earned the right to get moved to a contender at the deadline, it’s them. Erik Johnson has too by virtue of being a long-time veteran in the NHL.
For someone like Tuch, who Elliotte Friedman mentioned on the 32 Thoughts podcast has interest from the New York Rangers, and Jordan Greenway who the Sabres added at the deadline a year ago, those two are supposed to be part of what pushes the Sabres to the playoffs eventually. At least that’s the idea on paper, although things can change at any time when GMs get talking.
“I’ve had a couple of conversations with (Sabres GM Kevyn Adams), nothing too extensive,” Tuch said. “This time is very hectic for him and there’s a lot of pressure on him, but it’s not his job to be nice to us and to coddle us and to do that. It’s his job to put the pieces together to make us a winning hockey team and you never know what will happen. Unless you’ve got a no-move clause, anyone can be traded on any given day.”
Even though the possibility of Tuch being traded seems far-fetched, that’s not the case for Okposo. He was asked by Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic after Sunday’s game against Winnipeg if he’d thought about how that very well might’ve been his last game with the Sabres in Buffalo. For a guy who loves the city as much as Okposo does, it’s a deeply sad possibility.
Okposo said he and Adams have spoken about things and they know where each other stands when it comes to the possibility of being traded. Even though he’s keeping those conversations between himself and Adams, all the signs are there that the possibility of Okposo being with a new team by the deadline on Friday is high.
As captain of a very young team, and as a much beloved and deeply respected teammate, Okposo understands how much the trade deadline could have an effect on the younger guys who haven’t been through the cruel rigors of the NHL when a player they look up to is suddenly gone. Providing the guidance needed for those players to better handle losing friends and mentors is important for him.
“You just have to do your best to not think about (trade deadline) or what’s coming, and you have to try and stay in the moment,” Okposo said. “There’s going to be friends that you spent a lot of time with and spend every day with that are going to be moved and you have to just continue to go about your day and do your job. The sun’s going to come up tomorrow no matter what happens. People are going to move, things happen in your life, and you just have to do the best that you can with the situation that you’re presented and that’s all you can do.”
Despite never being traded before in his career, Okposo understands it’s all part of the business. But his career is winding down and getting the chance to return to the playoffs in Buffalo was supposed to happen this year at least. The disappointment that’s been clear in recent weeks about the reality that the playoffs aren’t going to happen has really started to hit home.
Losing their captain will be painful, but the balance between the business of hockey and keeping the room together during an unexpected and unwanted tumultuous time of year is what makes Okposo’s job as a leader so hard, and yet entirely necessary to make sure they can carry on when he’s eventually gone.
“I’ve never been one to want anybody to worry about me,” Okposo said. “I always wanted people in the locker room to feel like I had their best interests at hand, and I had their back, and they didn’t have to worry about anything because I was going to take care of it. And I don’t think that’s ever going to change with who I am as a person. I don’t want anybody to worry about me, I’m going to be fine. As a captain of the team, I just tried to do the best that I could to make sure that everybody felt their best every single day. I hope that you guys have felt that and I’m going to continue to do that. That’s not something that’s just going to stop because of the situation I’m in.
“It’s definitely a bit of a balancing act, tried to do a lot of different things and wear a lot of different hats, but at the end of the day, I can only be in the moment and that is to try to do the best that I can to lead the group.”