As the 2024 NHL Entry Draft (June 28 and 29) and the opening of free agency on July 1 approaches, offseason decisions are on the horizon for the Buffalo Sabres who must end their 13-year playoff drought in 2024-25. Here are three restricted free agents (RFAs) who may not receive qualifying offers from the Sabres.
Henri Jokiharju
The Sabres acquired the Finnish blueliner from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Alex Nylander on July 9, 2019, a deal that ended up being a slam dunk for the blue and gold given the fact that Jokiharju has now played five seasons in Buffalo, and Nylander only suited up in 65 games for the Blackhawks. The 24-year-old has been a mainstay on the Sabres’ blue line since the trade, and this season was Jokiharju’s best with a career-high 20 points in 74 games and a plus-14 rating.
After seeing that kind of production, the Sabres would be able to justify keeping him, but with a healthy top four consisting of Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, and Mattias Samuelsson, then all of a sudden, Jokiharju finds himself on the outside looking in.
Jacob Bryson
The London, Ontario native was drafted by the Sabres in the fourth round of the 2017 Entry Draft, a pick that hasn’t looked too bad thus far. He can move the puck up the ice with pace, can show an element of shiftiness in the offensive zone, and plays bigger than 5-foot-9. After 73 games in 2021-22 and 59 in 2022-23, he became a victim of the Sabres’ log jam on defense with only 36 games under his belt this season. However, he showed well with eight points, a plus-5 rating, and an impressive month of March in particular. If the Sabres choose to bring Bryson back for depth, that’s fine, but the player and team may decide that a bigger opportunity elsewhere would be better.
Kale Clague
Here we have another depth defenseman who could be looking for more of an NHL opportunity with another team. The 26-year-old was selected in the second round of the 2016 Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings, but it didn’t last after being claimed off waivers by the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 4, 2021, followed by another new start in Buffalo ahead of the 2022-23 campaign. That season, Clague was able to suit up in a career-high 33 NHL games due to injuries on the Sabres, but like Bryson, that total went down significantly to just three games this season due to a crowded defense corps.
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That said, Clague is a top defender in the American Hockey League who has played very well for the Rochester Americans these last two seasons. If the Sabres wanted to re-up with Clague, it wouldn’t cost much, but the NHL club doesn’t need to qualify the pending RFA.
An honorable mention for players who may not receive a qualifying offer from the Sabres would be Peyton Krebs, but it’s hard to imagine the organization giving up on a young player who was a big part of the Jack Eichel trade (Nov. 4, 2021). As for the names above, Jokiharju would be the only one who you’d want to get some sort of an asset for, but with regards to Bryson and Clague, the Sabres could certainly afford to let them walk away if the organization so chooses. Thankfully, the Sabres have most of their young core locked up for a long time and with the exception of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, these other contractual decisions are minor at best.
