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During his Zoom call on a Monday afternoon, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said he and his advisors would meet this afternoon to discuss which of the team’s restriction free agents would be qualified and which would be signed.
Just as supper hit the table, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Sabres have signed restricted free agent forward Tage Thompson to a theee year contract extension.
Thompson’s new deal carries a team friendly annual average value of $1.4 million.
The Sabres have signed forward Tage Thompson to a three-year contract with an AAV of $1.4 million. pic.twitter.com/I09Ns5m5oj
— Sabres PR (@SabresPR) October 5, 2020
Thompson has a high ceiling and can earn himself a bottom six role with the 2020-21 Sabres if he can demonstrate increased body strength to go along with his excellent hands and skating abilities.
This is certainly a “show me… contract for the 6'6" and 228 lb. Thompson, who was was one the centerpieces of the ill fated Ryan O’Reilly trade with St. Louis in 2017.
Thompson, 22, sustained a season-ending shoulder injury on November 17 in his first NHL game last season. Brutal injury for the kid.
Thompson was the last cut at the 2019-20 training camp pand started the season with the Rochester Amerks where he lit the lamp while playing a heavy game. At the time of his recall to the Sabres, he was tied for Amerks team lead with 6 goals and 6 assists and ranked second in the AHL with 67 shots on goal.
I like Thompson. He's a hard working guy with NHL skills, shot, speed and size. My knock on him is that he tends to be easy to play against prefering to play in space rather than kicking ass and taking names as he bullies to the net front. I want Tage Thompson to play to his size. He's a big, big boy who has to play a man's game on a consistent basis. If he wants to stick and stay in the NHL this season, Thompson will have to live with constant hacks, slashes, and punches to the back. He's a skyscraper on skates and he should be punking smaller opponents while driving the net.
In his first season with the Sabres in 2018-19, Thompson set career-high totals in NHL games played (65), goals (7) and points (12) in his first season with the Sabres in 2018-19.
Thompson, a popular temmate wit hthe Sabres, was a first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues (26th overall) out of UConn in the 2016 NHL Draft.
Kevyn Adams now has to buckle it down and re-sign his RFAs samson Reinhart, Victor Olofsson, Brandon Montour, Dominik Kahun, Lawrence Pilut, and Linus Ullmark.
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GM Kevyn Adams joins us live ahead of the 2020 #NHLDraft tomorrow.@GEICO https://t.co/NoSlhadq0m
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 5, 2020
A potentially franchise-shifting week lies ahead for the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres are owners of the eighth overall pick in Tuesday night's NHL Draft.
The Sabres will be guaranteed to select a difference-making players with the #8 pick as the 2020 NHL Draft doesn't have a fall-off point until pick 13 or 14. Adams said he is willing to listen to offers from rival GMs who want his coveted #8 overall pick. Adams said he is tasked with looking at his Sabres team in the short and long terms. "I'm open to anything that makes us better", Adams said.
On Friday October 9, the NHL unrestricted free agent market opens.
On Monday afternoon, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams met with media via Zoom call. What I witnessed was a an upbeat and excited Adams who is committed to adding value to his current roster be it through the draft, trades or unrestricted free agency.
Adams reiterated his priority by saying he needs to improve his club's roster.
What is Adams’ number one priority for #Sabres at the NHL Draft and in free agency later this week?
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) October 5, 2020
"We need to improve our roster. Period."
Buffalo's goaltending just wasn't good enough in 2019-20. Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark combined on a 3.12 GAA (22nd in NHL) and ,900 SV% (tied for 22nd).
The Sabres offense was 21st in the NHL with only 193 goals scored. The Sabres were nowhere near special in the third phase finishing 20th on the PP (37 PPG scored) and the penlaty kill was 30th in the NHL with 11 shorthanded goals against.
The Buffalo blue line struggled to box out, keep opposing forwards out of the home plate area for lengthy periods of time during games last season.
Adams knew he had his work cut out for himselfwhen he succeeded Jason Botterill on June 16.
Adams said Monday that he speaks with the owners Terry and Kim Pegula daily and that they discuss all things cinnected to the hockey department.
Adams was asked to comment of the recent Jack Eichel "trade" chatter.
Once again, Adams was asked to clarify the Eichel whispers that turned to screams last week.
“I have no concerns about Jack’s wanting to be here...I am clarifying there is no intention of trading Jack Eichel.…
“There’s no intention of moving Jack Eichel and I can make that very clear,… Adams said.
"I have a good relationship with Jack and I am looking forward to getting to know him more."
“I have zero concern of Jack wanting to be here, we’ve had great conversations with him, his representatives. I’m not really sure where that’s come from and I know there’s been even more stuff recently I was told,… Adams emphatically said.
Adams went on to say that he has had "great conversations" with his steam captain and the dialogue can be characterized as being open and positive.
Eichel had a breakout season in 2019-20 when he scored a career hight 36 goals and 72 points.
“I have no interest and no reason as I sit here today moving forward that you’d want to do something like that. So I’m hoping I’m clarifying it for you but to me that’s an easy question because we have no intention of doing that,… Adams said.