Welcome to the 2022-23 season preview as brought to you by Betway Sports. We’ll be taking a dive into each teams offseason and what their Stanley Cup odds are for next season from the worst odds to the best. All odds current as of the time of writing.
Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Odds: +8000
All things considered, the Buffalo Sabres had quite a quiet offseason.
They only made one trade acquiring Ben Bishop from the Dallas Stars for future considerations in a move to help them inch towards the salary floor. His career is all but over after battling through a knee injury.
At the draft, the Sabres had three first-round picks taking three centres in Matthew Savoie ninth overall, Noah Ostlund 16th overall and Jri Kulich 28th overall.
In free agency, the Sabres were relatively quiet, too. They made a few moves though bringing in defencemen Kale Clauge and Jeremy Davies on one-year deals and defenceman Ilya Lybushkin and goaltender Eric Comrie on a two-year deal.
Buffalo also re-signed Victor Olofsson on a two-year deal, and Riley Sheahan on a one-year deal. The moves were minor, and it’s clear the Sabres didn’t want to make any big moves.
As it stands, they’re sitting just under $2-million above the salary cap floor.
All things considering, the Sabres didn’t have a terrible year last year. They posted just a 32-39-11 record with 75 standings points, but they were a highly competitive team despite 40-year-old goaltender Craig Anderson playing the bulk of games.
Comrie, meanwhile, will get his first chance at being a starting goaltender in the NHL. He appeared in 19 games last year for the Winnipeg Jets posting a 16-10-5 record, a 2.58 GAA and a .920 save percentage. I’m curious to see what he can do playing the bulk of games.
Are we betting on the Sabres to win the cup? No, we won’t be. They’re still a young team who’s getting a bit older, and I think that can go along way.