Sabres Add Four Players at 2026 NHL Trade Deadline

Hey everyone, this is the Instigator Podcast. I'm going to bring you a brief trade deadline

recap, specifically from the Saper's perspective. According this Friday afternoon, there's

actually believe it or not, still trades trickling in nearly five o'clock in the afternoon

at this point. And the Nazmikadri trade still hasn't been officially finalized at least

as it pertains to social media. Now, the Saper's got most of their work done on Thursday

night, late Thursday night, into early Friday morning, as they acquired Logan Stanley and

Luke Shen from the Winnipeg Jets and Sam Carrick from the New York Rangers on Friday

afternoon. The Saper's made one more acquisition, bringing in Tanner Pearson from the Winnipeg

Jets. So, Yarmul Kekalainen, happy to shop at the Winnipeg Jets store, this deadline, as

he loaded up primarily on depth pieces. That's really the name of the game here. Depth and

Stanley Cup experience, the two big things here. From my perspective, in terms of the theme

of Yarmul Kekalainen's first trade deadline as Buffalo Saper's general manager, Luke Shen

back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019-2020 and 2020-21.

He was brought on for a few playoff runs after those as well with the Leafs, the Predators,

and the Jets. So, he has, you know, copious amounts of playoff experience. He's played 58

NHL playoff games in his career. Tanner Pearson has a Stanley Cup as well. He was 21 years old

when he won it with the LA Kings in 2013-14. He has 59 games of NHL playoff experience. So,

I'm sure the Sabers are hopeful that both Pearson and Shen in particular can impart some knowledge

from those cup runs, from their playoff experience on Buffalo's roster. This is still a young

roster. It's going to get older on average, thanks to Shen and Karrick and Pearson all three of

those guys in their 30s. So, the average age should tick up a bit, but the young roster at its

core and bringing in a few guys who have seen it and done it certainly will help. My expectation

is that Shen probably isn't going to play a whole lot. Even if Conor Timmons remains out for

a longer period of time, just based on how the season has gone, my expectation at least would be

that you'll see Logan Stanley and probably still Zach Matsah get their fair share of the work

on the third pair alongside Michael Kusselring and Shen can serve as an insurance policy.

And even if Matsah were to go back and Conor Timmons comes back, I still think looking at the

pecking order Luke Shen probably at the bottom of the list when it comes to Buffalo's blue line

and when it comes to who's going out on a given night. But Shen, at least in the locker room,

practice, playing rise, boss rise, etc. He can lend a steadying voice. And if he has to play,

he's a heavier guy. He can certainly help out with respect to minimal minutes. If you look at his

numbers at this point in his career, he's not a guy that's going to be able to be relied upon

for any significant amount of playing time. But maybe in a sheltered role,

you can survive a game or two here or there with him getting out on the ice. Logan Stanley,

at least when you look at the first Jets trade, the more serviceable of the two.

If you're looking at his underlying metrics, if you're looking at his microstats,

Chad G. Dumasis from expected Buffalo wrote a great article on them, and Jay Fresh on Twitter,

Jay Fresh Hockey shared some helpful charts with respect to Stanley. His underlying metrics,

his defensive impacts are less than stellar. My hope with him is that in a third line role,

in a role where he's going to be playing sheltered minutes and probably still not playing

anything more than like 14 minutes a night, he can be serviceable. And then if you rely on

Michael Kesselring, who's had his own ups and downs this season, let's be honest, if you rely on

Kesselring to do more of the legwork in terms of breakouts, puck transitioning, things like that,

you know, you won't be asking Stanley to do things that he's not adapted to doing.

My hope with Stanley is that again, in those sheltered minutes, using that reach, using his

size, that he can be an effective not shut down player because I can't imagine they would use

him in that role, but responsible was probably the adjective I'd use for Stanley. And if you're

being optimistic, I'm being cautiously optimistic, using him in that sort of role where you're not

asking him to play big minutes, you're not asking to take on significant matchups that he can be

a worthwhile addition. Now, come playoff time when matchups get more important, and when you're

on the road, and the home team can start to target a deep air, maybe things get a little bit more

challenging, and that's where things get hairy. Again, if I'm looking at a silver lining,

Stanley's, you know, and again, just baseline looking at expected goals, not digging any deeper

into the numbers in terms of matchups, deployment, etc. Stanley actually had decent expected goal rate

in last year's playoffs with Winnipeg. It did not translate to other seasons, but at least looking

at last year, they did a good job of sheltering him perhaps, or maybe he just had a good run, but

you know, his expected goal numbers, raw expected goal number last year with Winnipeg in the playoffs

was pretty strong, whereas prior years, it wasn't. Again, my hope and my read on the Stanley

situation is that he gets deployed in a third pair role, the top pairs, the top four, if you will,

with power, biome, dallium, samus, and probably remains untouched, and so it's going to be on

castle ring to, you know, maybe to carry that pairing. And again, if you've looked at this season

and castle ring struggles, that might be asking a lot of him, but if this pair isn't breaking the

15-minute mark on a nightly basis, but they're at least playing more than the, you know, like the

eight minutes that Bryson and Mezza were getting at times, when Buffalo was, was weathering the storm

on the injury front, they should be able to, to get by just fine. And I would also point out that

while we're waiting to hear an exact return date for Connor Timmons, that he could enter the

picture and even further alleviate concerns when it comes to Stanley and his deployment,

maybe it's even possible that Stanley gets scratched from time to time in favor of Timmons.

We'll see how that all plays out. Once Stanley gets in the lineup, it does sound like there's

going to be some visa processing with him. And so I believe Lindy Ruff said they wouldn't expect to

see him until next week at the earliest. We've, you know, we've seen in the past, the Sabers have

have visa issues with guys and, you know, it takes several days. And so my hope is that those

guys are able to get in sooner rather than later just so that they can get into the system, get into

some games and, and we see how they use them. My big picture take on the, the main defensive

acquisition again is that Shen, probably a depth addition, they're relying on him for the veteran

presence for the experience. I would be very surprised if he is playing a regular shift,

barring a significant run of injuries. I would have to assume Shen is here as kind of a

break glass in case of emergency guy and a guy that they're just hoping can, can bring some

experience and some knowledge to Buffalo's, not just the young D-Core, but the young roster.

As for Sam Carrick, I actually think he's kind of a promising addition. I like that he has

a better than 50% face off rate. If you look at Buffalo's roster right now and just sort by face

off percentage, I think he's like technically third if you're just looking at every single person

who's taken a face off this year. But if you look at Buffalo's true sentiment and the players who

are actually regularly taking draws, Carrick immediately becomes their most successful sentiment

in the face off dot. Now does that necessarily mean he's going to be moved around and put into

high leverage situations? That I'm not quite sure about, but minimally, you can now probably rely

on the fourth line to take a few more defensive zone draws because he's a little bit more reliable

and I wouldn't be surprised to see him slide up with like Ryan McCloud or even Josh Norris at times

to take a draw, kind of play as a foe, go perhaps, but to take a draw late in the game

in a game where things are tight and they're relying on some more face off aptitude. I do think

that's helpful. I'm not a huge face off guy. You know, I'm not going to be pulling my hair out of

if they're 49% versus 51%, but getting a guy who is a little bit more reliable in the dot

just is another option. I do think that's a really valuable addition. And Carrick has some decent

underlines. If you look at, if you're looking at his metrics, he has some good defensive underlines

to the point where I think you could say he helps. I guess like level set, the fourth line right

now. There have been some stretches here where they've really gotten beaten up. This fourth line

as it stands right now with Peyton Crabbs playing higher in the lineup. And so Carrick comes in,

gives him another penalty killing option, maybe gives them a touch more responsibility on that

fourth line as well. So cleaning up the fourth line with him, I think is a great addition,

getting another penalty killer with him as well. Also, I think a really positive

player to insert into the lineup. So I think a good bit of business done by by Kekelein and

Quaid, frankly, with with Carrick. And you could probably say similar of Tanner Pearson. I mean,

Pearson, we'll see how they use him because if you look at the the fourth line as it stands right

now, we're waiting to hear on Justin Danforth, you know, when is he going to come back the last

update that and it was today I should I shouldn't word this as it was an old update. This is new

news. Both Jordan Greenway and Justin Danforth are progressing according to the Sabers,

but they're progressing slowly. So the report that came out today on some of the key injuries,

Yuri Kulik is going to be shut down for the season. He's just not going to be ready

and recovered from his blood clots to come back. And Greenway and Danforth are still coming back.

He they have not been ruled out, but it does sound like the Sabers are being very, very cautious

with those two. Greenway in particular, I kind of wonder if they're just they're expecting not

to see him anymore this year due to the the herni issue that he keeps aggravating. But Danforth

is an interesting one, you know, broken kneecap. That's a that's a pretty serious injury to try to

recover from. But if you look at this roster and even if you just assume full health of all of their

players, I mean, Greenway and Danforth could probably logically slot into that fourth line. It's

hard to imagine that they'd want to break up McLeod Zucker and Quinn, let alone anything higher

in the lineup. So the the fourth line group would include Dunn, Malinstein, Kozak, who's currently

banged up. And now you have Pearson, Karek, and then again, assuming health at some point,

Greenway and Danforth. So that's a that's a big group of players who who would be in the lineup.

And I'm sure Kozak would get slid back to Rochester. If they could again, you know, we'll see what

the injury issue is. I don't know if they're going to paper move him or not. If they did or not,

we haven't seen. But Karek, as I mentioned, certainly helps gives them a more reliable fourth line

center. Kozak has been over his head at times in this recent stretch. And so Karek gives them a

little bit more reliability there. And Pearson now, I would argue, can rotate in with Dunn, with

Malinstein. He may even be another guy that they would they would look at slightly higher in the

lineup. Maybe if they want a more, I guess, a more responsible guy in place of Jack Quinn on a

given night or Jason Zucker, not in love with that idea quite frankly, but it wouldn't shock me

in the least to see them slide like a Pearson in. If they liked the matchup better, but

I'd be a little worried about that quite frankly. And I know Jack Quinn fan, but feel like you're

taking an awful lot of offense out of the lineup to be finger quotes more defensively responsible.

But as it stands with Pearson, first of all, they paid a very minimal price.

Seventh round pick goes the other way to win a pick to bring Pearson in. Even if he is just

their 14th forward or just their 13th forward, he helps them out. And again, I think he

he feels a similar role to what Shen does when it comes to having some playoff experience. He's

been on a couple of playoff runs himself. So he is no stranger to deeper runs. Obviously, like

I said, he was 21 when he won that cup with L.A. Sure, there was a lot of stuff he didn't know

at that time. And I wonder, you know, how much can he relate to it now versus when he was 21. But

even a couple of years ago, I mean, it's five years ago now, but but more recent when he was in

Vancouver in the COVID bubble, they won a couple of series. You know, so he got 17 games of

Vancouver that year. That's a fairly deep run, even though the the format was different.

They did win a couple of series. They did get they did get fairly deep in that season. So

another quality veteran voice, certainly. I mean, all four of the guys at the Savers acquired

are veterans, right? They didn't go after any young players here at the deadline. And I don't

fault them for that. I was certainly hopeful that Kekalainen might try to make a swing. Maybe

they would look at a Bobby McMahon or they might try to find a forward who could give them a little

bit of juice in the top six or even the middle six. Maybe there's someone who would help them

free up Krebs to move back to the fourth line. But maybe they just like that Krebs fit up there

with with Thompson and Tuck and and they're happy to use Carrick and Pierce into kind of

cover for Krebs in the fourth line role that he was playing. So, you know, like kind of the

reach goal that that I would have had for the day would have been like even a Luke of Angelista

out of Nashville. They would have had it anti up for him, but he would have been a pretty

fun guy to go after. I think Bobby McMahon would have been really interesting, especially because

the the price of McMahon got depressed. There was some expectation that the Maple Leafs were going

to try to get or we're going to get a first and like a really good prospect even for him. And

when it was all said and done Seattle got McMahon for a second and a fourth. So an affordable price,

quite frankly. He would have been again an interesting guy for the Savers to go after a little bit

redundant within the middle of their lineup, but at least gives them another guy who has a little

bit of scoring juice, a little bit of offensive pump to you know, to work within the top nine

of Buffalo's groups. But I can I can give Kekelein in a passing grade on this deadline even though

it's not a sexy one. There are some warts on the defensive that they brought in because when I

look at what they sent out, the Stanley and Shen trade is Isaac Roseanne, Jacob Bryson,

a second round pick and a fourth round pick. And Shen comes at 50 percent retained. So I think

you can look at that fourth round pick and check that right off right away to say that's your

that's your toll for the the salary of attention. Now Roseanne, former first round pick, but really

especially here in Buffalo, had become a 4A player. You know, he he hadn't found his footing. He's

been passed on the depth chart by Noah Oslin and quite frankly, I think, Consta Heleneus as well.

Even with Yuri Kulik injured and out, I I would say Roseanne is their fourth best forward

prospect in the pro system. And so a tough path for him to break in for an NHL job here. And while

he did some good things, especially early in the season, when the Savers are struggling, he had

a really nice cameo up here in Buffalo. But I do think his future in Buffalo was very very limited

if not kind of dead on arrival here at this point, just looking at the state of Buffalo's roster

right now. And what Heleneus has done, how Oslin has established himself, it certainly seems to me

that Roseanne was access to to requirements. So inserting him into to any trade is beneficial to

the Savers. And if it helps make up any ground for asking prices, again, I think it's a benefit.

You know, if you look at some of the defensive trades that went down this week,

tell your Myers a second and a fourth, he came at with retention, kind of Murphy goes for a second.

Obviously, the Savers were prepared to spend a first and ready,

Murca for Colton Paraco. That's a very hefty price. And then Justin Falk goes on deadline day.

And I think this price that Detroit paid is way out of whack for what Justin Falk

is as a player right now. The Red Wing is giving up a first, a third, just in whole. And then a

prospect who's still playing in Russia a few years out from his draft. So, you know, four pieces

for Justin Falk, to me is is very steep. Even, you know, and Justin whole, of course, you know,

kind of a salary make way to contract swap. But the first and the third is quite a bit to give

up for Justin Falk. I would argue. And so, I'm content with the price, Kekalainen paid for Stanley

and Shen. Brasen, he helps clear a contract off the books. The Savers were right up against it

with contracts heading into today. So, that's a helpful move. The pick, you know,

second round pick in 2027, it is a fairly valuable pick. And I think you could argue that

Rosanne and that pick alone would have been more than enough to get these two guys. But,

you know, this deadline saw some wacky prices. So, it's not a complete overpay.

But, you know, I still have, I have my concerns about those two defensemen. But,

it's an okay set of acquisitions, or it's an okay transaction overall, I would say, especially

if, as I stated earlier, they do the right thing when it comes to sheltering and deploying Stanley.

If they're asking him to play in too big of a role, it could become kind of a disastrous move.

But, it strikes me that Stanley will be deployed in a third line role. They'll protect him,

or third pair role, I'm sorry. They'll protect him and he'll be an adequate third pair

defender for the Savers down the stretch and into the playoffs. And then for Carrick, third and

the sixth rounder, you know, you could pay that to the cows come home for depth forwards.

And then even so, for the seventh rounder for Pearson, that the Savers didn't go big game hunting.

I am, again, I'm okay with it. I would have loved to see it. It would have made Friday a lot

more fun. This was one of the worst and most boring trade deadlines I've seen in quite some time.

And the deadline has been kind of boring for a while here. Don't get me wrong. It's not as if

every deadline is full of blockbusters, but until the cadre trade went down and the cadre

trade didn't get announced until after four o'clock, I mean, the fault trade and like Cory Perry

going for a second were among the most notable moves of the day. John Carrollson going from

Washington to Anaheim, I would argue is still the biggest shocker of this deadline. You know,

the cadre trades are probably going to go down as like the biggest one, because just looking at

Elliott Friedman's report on it, a conditional 2028 first, a conditional 27 second, Victor Olson,

old friend Victor Olson, Max Curran, and then 20% retention on cadre. Colorado gets cadre,

of course, and then a 2027 fourth. So like, that's the biggest trade of this deadline,

and as good as cadre is as a player, it's not, you know, it's not Robert Thomas, right? There's

not a, there was not a lot of big movement going down this year. And so I can, I can

deal with what the savers have done, knowing that they've held on to Merca. They've held onto

their first run pick. They've held on to Constantinius, if they care to make a big deal at the

trade table in June, and maybe they revisit the Robert Thomas option at that time. Who knows?

So what I'm now looking forward to here, what the savers is, how they're going to deploy and

utilize these players, but also now, how do these players affect how the savers play? Because if

there's one thing that would be of mild concern, specifically with the defensemen, I'm not as

concerned about the forwards. I think you can largely plug and play fourth line forwards. They,

they can all adapt about the same. And as I mentioned about Carrick, I actually think he, he

should improve some of the fourth line's play in terms of what he's good at. But Shen, Shen in

particular, you know, is, is very much a, you know, showing his age. He is not a reliable defender.

I know I mentioned that earlier in this recording. And Stanley doesn't quite fit the puck

transitioning pace pushing traits that bi-room power and dolline have in excess.

And you can apply that to Castling too, probably. He's, you know, he's a quality skater. He has

the ability to, to be a transporter as well. So that's where I think you can see the difference

in profile where the savers current top five, if you will, all pretty strong puck's transporters.

Maybe with the exception of Matthias Samus, but obviously he's having, you know, such a great

shooting ear that it kind of gets erased. Stanley doesn't quite fit that mold quite as well.

And so that's where one of the potential issues or, or red flags gets raised is that he just

doesn't have that same puck transporting ability that the others do. But he is touted as a strong

skater. And I'll say at one last time, if they do a good enough job sheltering him and putting him

in situations to be successful, I do think his profile as a big, heavy, long defender will be an

asset to the savers when it's all sudden done. So I'm cautiously optimistic on Stanley. I hope we

don't see Luke Shen more than a token gamer to down the stretch. Certainly hope we don't see him in

the playoffs. And I think both Carrick and Pearson give them some quality depth at the bottom of

the forward group. So I'll close us up by saying that Kekalainen did a very passable job at this

deadline. I would look at the prices paid by other teams as a benchmark for what could have gone

wrong, I guess, for the savers. Buffalo could have really gone crazy. Dillon out first round picks,

given away, America and Hellenius for average to below average rental players. Or they could hold

their cards and see what comes back in the summer. Now we've had similar conversations about

Kevin Adams in the past. So it will be on Kekalainen to act. And with a playoff team in the off season,

he's going to have to act. I mean, we'll see what the spring brings here in Buffalo. Are they

going to win around? Are they going to want a deep run? You know, we'll see how this all plays out.

I certainly hope that Logan Stanley and Sam Carrick and Tanner Pearson unlock something in this roster

that we still haven't seen. And we're talking about planning parades and eastern conference finals

and in the whole nine yards. So we'll see what what comes here in the in the following weeks

and months as the playoffs approach. And I would even add that I think these additions

help the Sabers close out this playoff push. I don't know if they take them to the next level. But I do

think that they help them close out the playoff push, particularly Pearson and Carrick. And so

what I'll reiterate now is what I look to on Kekalainen's part is what does he do as GM given

that he held his most valuable trade assets, being that the first run pick, Merca and Hellenius.

And what does he do come summertime to supplement what is almost certainly going to be a playoff

roster because that will be the first chance he gets now or the next chance that he has. I should

say to really put his stamp on the roster because Carrick has another year on his deal. They could

in theory re-sign Stanley if they liked him. I suppose we'll wait and see on that. But he hasn't

made a big acquisition to bring a player in who has term. He almost did it. Of course with

Preko, he almost did it with Thomas. Obviously it's on his radar. And now we need to see if he can

get one of those deals over the line. And yes, if that sounds familiar, like I just said a few

moments ago, we had a very similar conversations about Kevin Adams. So that's something to keep in the

back of your mind because it's been a breath of fresh air here since Kekalainen took over the

team's playing great. They're right on the doorstep of a playoff birth. And yet Kekalainen has been

very cautious, has not acted rashly, but he also hasn't extended himself with a big deal. He almost

again almost did, but he didn't get it done. A lot of the same things happen with Adam. So let's

see what the summer brings us because Kekalainen could very quickly fall into the same lockstep

that Kevin Adams was in where you just feel like they're spending their tires on potential big

swing acquisitions. And so these next few weeks I think will probably help tell the story

for what sort of next steps are to come for the savers. But we don't have to look that far ahead

right now because this is not the deadlines of the last five, 10, 15 years where it was all about

the future. It was all about, okay, how can they translate these assets into improvements? This

team is now improved. They're a playoff contending team. As I record this, they're tied for first

in the Atlantic. And Tampa comes to town this weekend for what could be a game that would put one

of the two teams over the top in the division race. So this is all about this season. It's all

about this year's playoff push. The savers acted accordingly. They brought in rentals who can help

on the fringe with the exception of Carrick. They brought in players who can help on the fringes

of the roster, help improve their depth, at least help boost their depth. And so now we see

how it all translates to the ice. And hopefully we'll see it as soon as Saturday night because I believe

Sam Carrick is expected to be in the lineup on Saturday against Nashville. And then we'll have to

wait and see, of course, for the trio of players acquired from Winnipeg as they sort their visas out.

So I appreciate you guys tuning in to this episode. Tyler and I will be back with a more detailed

in-depth post-mortem on the deadline and the weekend's worth of games when we reconvene next week

for our regularly schedule episode. Appreciate tuning in and we'll talk again soon.