@boosbuzzsabres
The Fourth of July has come and gone with fireworks all over the place, except for the offices at KeyBank Center, home to the Buffalo Sabres. General Manger Jason Botterill had plenty of key holes to fill on the roster was relegated to adding some depth for the Sabres and the Rochester Americans so far this off season.
Buffalo has tough road to hoe again as this year's free agent market didn't offer a wealth of higher end players and the ones that were at the top, like Artemi Panarin and Matt Duchene, chose their homes in NY (Rangers) and Nashville (Predators,) respectively. Bot Panarin and Duchene signed seven-year deals as did goalie Sergei Bobrovski (FLA) and Anders Lee, who re-signed with the NY Islanders.
Impact players for the Sabres didn't come from the free agency route, although there's a good possibility they're after one or more forwards still available, but they managed to land some viable NHLers via trade. Botterill sent a second (2021) and a fifth round pick (2022) to the Vegas Golden Knights for RHD, Colin Miller and he also sent a 2021 third-rounder to the Rangers for top-nine forward Jimmy Vesey. Miller adds to a pool of NHL defensemen that's overflowing while the forward ranks still needs a lot of work.
As of today (and if, God forbid, Botterill does nothing else this summer) a potential Buffalo roster construct would look something like this up-front:
Jeff Skinner-Jack Eichel-Sam Reinhart
Jimmy Vesey-Casey Mittelstadt-Tage Thompson*
Victor Olofsson*-Evan Rodrigues-Alexander Nylander*
Connor Sheary-Johan Larsson-Zemgus Girgensons
C.J. Smith
Scott Wilson
Vladimir Sobotka
Curtis Lazar
(*On entry-level deal and waivers-exempt)
Ideally Botterill can find a top-six forward (or two) to move others down the depth chart. As mentioned here on numerous occasions, signing forward Marcus Johansson and plugging him into top-six, right wing role would do wonders for the right side. Free agent forward Ryan Dzingel is another player still available offering plenty of flexibility in a top-nine role. Both might end up playing on a line higher than their ideal spot in Buffalo but with those two in the lineup and a little rearrangement, this is what it could look like up-front:
Skinner-Eichel-Johansson
Dzingel-Mittelstadt-Reinhart
Vesey-Rodrigues-Thompson
Sheary-Larsson-Okposo
Nylander
Girgensons
Smith
Wilson
Sobotka
Lazar
Although it isn't a Cup-contending forward group, it should be enough for them to take a big step in the right direction.
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