With his second period goal against Pekka Rinne and the Nashville Predators, Evander Kane now has 22 goals this season. Kane now ranks seventh in the NHL with 21 even-strength goals this season despite not scoring until December 3.
Kane's goal gave Buffalo a needed lift and the 3-2 lead.
The Sabres have been dreadful this season in second periods. For some inexplicable reason they tend to sit back and allow opponents to carry the play.
On Tuesday night, the Sabres led the Predators 2-0 after 20 minutes and then coughed up two quick goals to the Preds midway through the second period.
Why the second period collapses?
The Buffalo blue line has been vulnerable to crumbling under aggressive fore checking in the final 40 minutes of games. The Buffalo D corps has been the Achilles heel of the Sabres all season long.
Were I Tim Murray, I would trade Kane to the highest bidder on Wednesday.
The same fans who hate the idea of trading Kane are the same people who complain on Twitter that Tim Murray needs to desperately address the skill and speed quotients on his blue line which has played sub-par all season long.
The Sabres can scratch their chronic itch by trading Kane for to a Stanley Cup contending team for a top pair defenseman.
Kane said Tuesday morning that he hears the trade rumors but blocks them out. His mind is on playing for the Sabres.
"To be honest, I'm really not too worried about it," said Kane.
"I'm OK. I'm focused on tonight. I really don't think about the trade deadline or any rumors at all. As I've said before, if my agent calls me, than I'll know. Other than that, if he doesn't call me I'm not worried about it."
Kane is the owner of a $5.25M AAV. Sabres GM Tim Murray can afford to keep Kane in the fold for the final year of his contract in 2017-18, however, Kane is on pace to score 30 goals and set career goal scoring records. The Sabres can begin negotiating a new deal for Kane on July 1, however, he will be seeking a new multi-year contract in the $6+ million range. If Murray pushes the negotiations to next season and Kane scores himself 20+ goals again, Evander would be a pending UFA next March 2018. Kane would have a ton of leverage and Murray would have a more difficult time trading Kane if he was on an expiring contract.
Kane's value trade value will never be higher than it is today. Colorado GM Joe Sakic is holding hostage coveted forwards Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog. Sakic will not be negotiating for either one of his star forwards who are in hot demand. Over pay or take a lap. The more Sakic drives the hard line on Duchene and Landeskog, the higher Kane's stock has risen. It is not likely that Sakic will trade Duchene and Landeskog on Wednesday. That business will have to wait until after the Las Vegas Expansion Draft.
Kane has been pursued by Anaheim, San Jose, Calgary, Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Edmonton. Tim Murray can get the top pair D-man his team so badly needs by trading Kane now.
I don't see Kane fitting in Buffalo's long term financial future especially when Murray will have to heap fat pay raises on Jack Eichel and Samson Reinhart when their entry level deals expire in the near future
"I think Tim is a straight shooter," Kane said Tuesday. "You kind of know what you're going to get and he has a job to do. He's going to do what he feels best for this team and what he thinks is going to work. We'll leave those decisions to him."
Jake McCabe gave the Sabres the 4-2 third period lead and then the walls fell down. Again.
Nashville tied the game late i the third period. Filip Forsberg scored the OT GWG, his 10th goal in his past 5 games (including 2 hat tricks).
The Sabres have blown three, two-goal leads in their final four periods of play.
Rasmus Ristolainen cannot do it all by himself on the Buffalo blue line.
Tim Murray might want to trade Evander Kane now to get himself the lock down top pair defender that his team has desperately lacked all season long.