Update: Sabres trade Rasmus Ristolainen to the Flyers for a 2021 1st round pick (# 14), a 2023 2nd round pick and Robert Hagg.
Buffalo Sabres and where players slot in…
John Vogl of The Athletic: It is time to take a look at future Buffalo. Where do Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt figure into the lineup? With Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel moving relatively soon, there will be openings. Mittelstadt is improving nicely but is not ready for the number one center position yet.
Neither is Dylan Cozens, so Kevyn Adams may have to split their time up or acquire a stopgap top-line pivot.
The left-wing position needs Jeff Skinner to play like the Skinner who scored 30 goals. After that, it is a dearth of hopefuls trying to generate more offense. They run the gamut of college sparkplugs to players just trying to hold on.
Right-wing is not much better but Victor Olofsson is slowly improving at even-strength and is already a power-play staple. That is good news for a core that sorely needs offense. Tage Thompson seeks consistency.
Then, there is the defense which is its own mess. Will Rasmus Ristolainen finally be traded to let players develop? Goaltending is not much better. Only Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is left and Buffalo prays he develops into the number one they feel he is.
Time will tell.
The Vancouver Canucks after Kole Lind went to Seattle…
Patrick Johnson of The Province: The Seattle Kraken picked Kole Lind to fill their roster with their final pick on Wednesday night. Lind was knocking on the door for a regular spot on the Vancouver Canucks lineup.
Lind is big, has a nice shot, and was improving skating-wise. It made sense. Seattle has $29 million to spend still while Vancouver did not lose much of consequence.
One player that has come up in interest to the San Jose Sharks is Braden Holtby. Holtby would backup the newly acquired Adin Hill from the Arizona Coyotes. Again, now we wait for the draft weekend to come and go to see what may happen next.