Buffalo Sabres coach likely back next season even if a change is justified
Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic: (mailbag) Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said at the trade deadline that he expects head coach Don Granato to be back with the team next year. Don’t think they will make a change but they’d be justified to make one. If Granato is back, they may want to reassess their assistant coaches.
Don’t think that there will be any major ramifications if the Sabres miss the playoffs but it might create some though decisions for Adams on who he wants to include in their core group for the future. Decisions like he made with trading Casey Mittelstadt.
NHL Rumors: The Toronto Maple Leafs Likely Can’t Afford Both Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi
Toronto Maple Leafs Nick Robertson not enough to land an impact player
Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: (mailbag) The Toronto Maple Leafs might have been able to get a second-round pick for Nick Robertson but there aren’t a lot of teams that would give up an impact-type player for him.
The Calgary Flames will have cap space for free agency
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff: Craig Conroy has had a lot of work to do since taking over the GM position nine months ago. He added a bunch of assets by trading pending free agents Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin, and he knows there’s a lot more work to do.
Last season when free agency started, the Flames didn’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with. This year will be a little different as they have around $19 million in projected cap space, but they’ll be concerned about term.
NHL Rumors: NCAA Free Agents, New York Rangers, and the Calgary Flames
“If there’s the right length of a contract, if there’s a need that we have, we’ll do that. It’s hard to find certain players,” Conroy said. “Maybe to add a veteran or two would be something nice. We have a good mix. We’re trying to let the young guys play, and that’s still the priority, but if we can find help for two or three years, that’s what we’d be looking for because it’s hard to make trades for certain players and we still want to be competitive.”