The Buffalo Sabres six-game home winning streak came to an end with a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at KeyBank Center on Saturday night. With less than five days remaining till the NHL Trade Deadline, the outcome of the game for the pair of clubs outside the playoffs was less meaningful than who was watching the contest in the press box.
Scouts for 12 NHL clubs were at the game, including Anaheim, Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Florida, Minnesota, Ottawa, two scouts from the Seattle Kraken, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Toronto, and Vancouver.
GM Kevyn Adams will likely be in sell mode before 3 p.m. Friday, despite indicating before the 4 Nations Face-Off last month that he would prefer to make player-for-player hockey deals instead of trading players on expiring contracts. Adams indicated that he would like to get pending free agents Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway signed to extensions, but that would be contingent on whether they were amenable to staying in Buffalo and agreeing to a contract that made sense for both sides.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier this week that the Sabres were indicating that they were working on a deal with the 28-year-old Greenway, but there has not been any reported progress with Zucker, who missed the last two games with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot.
Both the Panthers and Wild made deals on Saturday, with Florida sending goalie Spencer Knight and a conditional first-round pick to Chicago for defenseman Seth Jones and Minnesota acquiring center Gustav Nyquist from Nashville for a second-round pick. Both deals required the Hawks and Predators to retain salary, and for the Sabres to get top value for Zucker, Greenway, or Henri Jokiharju, they will have to make their cap hits more friendly for contending clubs with limited space.
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