Sabres make a Splash

Logan Thompson. That’s a name GM Stu says you’ll be hearing from next season. Believing he is already a starting goalie in the RHL.

If that’s the case, why did Thompson just move to divisional rival the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Sabres got back essentially prospects. The key to that query is the salary cap.

The Sabres, up to two days ago when the trade was made to ship Logan Thompson out, had a wealth of goaltending talent. Jake Oettinger is having a rocky start to his Sabres season but is an elite goaltender. Semyon Varlamov is more than capable of taking on extended starting goalie duties as well. What the general presumption was in Buffalo is that Varlamov would play out his 5,000,000 contract this season and leave to UFA and Oettinger-Thompson would become a duo next season. Although Thompson is an RFA next season, he couldn’t command up to 5,000,000 as Varlamov did and therefore it’s a cost savings right? Well not exactly. The Sabres have the additional issue of some of their young talent coming out of their first or second contracts and blossoming into everyday NHL’ers and even stars.

Nick Suzuki at 4,075,000 is scoring at an over a PPG clip and will likely command a raise and a long contract.

Adam Boqvist, while up and down, has a very nice 2,200,000 deal going into RFA and he may double that.

Joel Farabee, Oliver Wahlstrom., Sam Blais…. I think you get the picture. It becomes dollars and SENSE. What makes more sense? A backup goalie who is likely a starter making 4,000,000 as a backup or taking that additional money and spreading it around.

Of course, there is the issue of exactly who will play back goaltender next year. Sabres have indicated they are hopeful they can sign Varly for a more team friendly number going forward.

Trade:

To Buffalo: Reid Schaefer, Artemi Knaizev, Keith Pertuzzeli, Tucker Robertson, Year 13 Round 3, Year 14 Round 2

To Toronto: Logan Thompson, Year 14 Round 4 and 6, Year 15 Round 5.