The Buffalo Sabres rebuild is well on course with the success of Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel, among others. However, there is still a desire within the organization to add offense to a team that still struggles to score.
According to those with knowledge of the situation, the team has sent out trade feelers to both the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes regarding a pair of pending free agents.
In Calgary, the team has sent an inquiry about the availability of David Jones. This is more along the lines of an seeing what the price is. It doesn’t appear the talks will go anywhere unless the price is extremely low. Where the interest really lays is with Arizona’s Mikkel Boedker.
The 26-year old winger is set to hit the free agent market, which is sure to make him a hot commodity as the trade deadline approaches. The Sabres have reached out to see what it would take to get negotiations started for the Danish scorer. This includes whether Arizona wants players over draft picks, and what positions they are looking to acquire. The Coyotes are currently in a playoff spot in the weak Pacific Division, which has general manager Don Maloney hesitant to make any deals right now.
That being said, there is the expectation among those within the league that Maloney will look to get something for players sooner rather than later. Should the team fall out of the playoff race, which could happen with goaltender Mike Smith’s recent injury as well as the fact they are tied with three teams in the division, moves may happen as soon as the middle of January. The Coyotes were expected to compete in the Auston Matthews sweepstakes this season, but started better due to rookies Max Domi and Anthony Duclair as well as the play of Smith. No one fully expects it to last, but stranger things have happened.
The Sabres have struggled to find a winger to play alongside Eichel and Evander Kane. Adding a scoring forward could help push Buffalo into playoff contention sooner than expected. There is nothing close in the form of actual negotiations, but Tim Murray is starting the process of improving his team even more.
[quote_center author=””]Important reminder: Rumors are just that — rumors. They are great to discuss, but nothing is close to concrete right now. Remember, take it all with a grain of salt.[/quote_center]