The NHL will see a flurry of deals in the final 24 hours leading to the March 7th trade deadline, and the Buffalo Sabres could be very busy. The Sabres avoided one possible trade scenario, as they agreed to a two-year contract extension with winger Jordan Greenway, but in their final update before the deadline, four Sabres players are on The Athletic’s Trade Board.
The Sabres are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with a 24-30-6 record and have lost four straight games. GM Kevyn Adams has indicated that he is open to making deals but is more interested in making hockey trades and not selling off assets for prospects or future draft picks.
Four players — defenseman Bowen Bryam, winger Jason Zucker, center Dylan Cozens, and winger Alex Tuch – are on the list. Byram is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent this summer, Zucker is a pending unrestricted free agent with a $5 million cap hit, Cozens has been the subject of trade speculation all season in spite of having five years remaining on a seven-year, $49.7 million contract, and Tuch has a one year left at an AAV of $4.75 million.
Byram was acquired last March from Colorado for Casey Mittelstadt and has a career-high 29 points in 54 games. The Sabres could be looking up the BC native long-term, but they have time since the 23-year-old is two years away from hitting the open market.
Adams said last month that he is interested in re-signing Zucker and that he spoke to his representatives during a Western road swing, but that an extension would have to make sense to both sides. If the Sabres cannot get the 32-year-old extended, it is assumed that they would be moved for the best return available before 3 pm Friday.
Cozens is in the midst of a second-straight underachieving season after scoring a career-high 31 goals in 2023 and has been linked to a number of clubs in trade speculation, including the Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings. Tuch had been linked to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights, but both clubs have already made their major deadline moves.
The odds of a larger hockey deal including Byram, Cozens, and Tuch is more likely to occur this summer, when teams are more willing to deal players on existing contracts, but barring an extension being announced, Adams may be relegated to dealing Zucker and pending free agent defenseman Henri Jokiharju in the next 24 hours.
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