It is just not a secret to anyone that the Buffalo Sabres have been terrible this 12 months. They’re stapled to the underside of the Eastern Conference and can miss the playoffs for the 14th straight season. But when Paul Bissonette of Barstool Sports said defenseman Rasmus Dahlin requested a trade from the Sabres, fans were stunned. On Thursday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman cleaned up the reporting and took the blame for the confusion.
“That is type of my fault, okay, I’m not entering into it any deeper than that but it surely’s type of my fault,” Friedman said of the Dahlin trade rumors. “So last week Dahlin requested a gathering with [Sabres general manager] Kevyn Adams and I feel he just desired to know what’s our direction?
Friedman continued, “I heard that Dahlin left that meeting satisfied with what he heard and now they only should put it into motion.”
Dahlin publically pushed back against Bissonette’s report before this Friedman clarification. So whether the Sportsnet insider got bad info or the Barstool personality misunderstood what was told to him we may never know. However the implication here is that Friedman gave Bissonette some info that perhaps wasn’t presupposed to go public.
The Sabres cannot trade Rasmus Dahlin
Before this season, the Sabres named Rasmus Dahlin their captain. He’s in the primary 12 months of an eight-year extension value $11 million per season and is one in all the top-scoring defensemen within the league. Trading him now, even when he requested it, wouldn’t make any sense.
This meeting happened before the NHL trade deadline, in response to Friedman. So the direction that Adams sold Dahlin likely included trading Dylan Cozens. The 23-year-old center was not living as much as his $7.1 million deal and needed a change of scenery. He has played well in Ottawa for the reason that trade that brought Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker back to Buffalo.
Hopefully for Sabres fans, Adams’ plan includes spending big in free agency. They need top-end scoring to complement Tage Thompson’s output and there are two guys available on the market. Could Mitch Marner or Brock Boeser come to town to bring Buffalo to the postseason? It feels unlikely, as each players are chasing their first title, but they should try.
Sabres fans can breathe easy knowing that captain Rasmus Dahlin is just not going anywhere despite erroneous rumors. He’s solid on Buffalo’s plan that may finally break the playoff drought.
