On Tuesday morning, Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill attended the NHL general managers meetings in Toronto.
On Tuesday night, Botterill met with media before the Sabres hosted the Minnesota Wild.
Botterill let it be known that he is actively shopping for a top six forward that can skate into the Buffalo lineup and add scoring punch.
"We are actively looking to see if we can make our team a little better and find a forward out there to help our group," Botterill said.
Botterill's comments have confirmed what I have been saying for the past two and a half months. Which is to say Botterill had been patiently scouting a few teams prior to the injury insect took a bite out of Buffalo's ass.
In the past six days, the Sabres have lost five different forwards to injury. What is more confounding is that the Rochester Amerks have also suffered injuries to three of their forwards.
Losers of seven of their last eight games to begin the month of November, the Sabres are in dire straits right now.
The Sabres are struggling to score at even strength. Prior to the game with the Wild, the Sabres had scored just 20 even strength goals in the first 20 games of the Golden Anniversary season.
The Buffalo power play was forst overall in the NHl at the end of October. Today it is ranked 11th. The Buffalo penalty kill is 26th in the NHL.
So much so that Ralph Kreuger is rolling an 11 forward, 7 D formation with defenseman John Gilmourskating at fourth line winger tonight vs. Minnesota.
Botterill said he has been in conversations with a few NHL teams in hopes of making a trade for a difference making forward.
Which forwards can skate right into the Buffalo lineup and help out immediately?
Taylor Hall. Jamie Benn. Rickard Rakell. Chris Kreider. Jason Zucker. Tyler Toffoli. Andreas Anthanasiou.
The Devils, Stars, Ducks, Rangers, Wild, Kings and Red Wings have been scouting the Sabres consistently for weeks.
Hall, 27, is a pending UFA and will not be re-signing with New Jersey. Hall earns $6M AAV this season.
Benn, 30, has six years remaining on his deal at $9.5M AAV.
Rakell, 26, has three years remaining on his contract at $3,789,444 per copy.
Kreider, 28, is a pending UFA playing on an expiring $4.625 million contract.
Toffoli, 27, is a pending UFA in July and is earning $4.6M AAV this season.
Athanasiou, 25, is a pending RFA earning $3M AAV this season.
Zucker, 27, has four years remaining on his contract at $5.5M AAV.
Jonathon Drouin was a candidate until he was sent to the surgeon after getting run over by Alex Ovechkin last Saturday night.
Botterill ruled out making an emergency call up of 2019 first round pick center Dylan Cozens who has 15 goals and 15 assists for the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL.
Botterill has the NHL caliber defenseman prospects and draft picks needed to fund a trade to deliver a high quality forward to Buffalo for the holidays.
Thanks, Matt Bove
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