We’re less than a week away from the NHL Trade Deadline. We’re starting to see some movement between teams as we close in on next Monday. Once again the Buffalo Sabres will be “sellers” in the market. They have unrestricted free agents they could look to move such as Colin Miller, Robert Hagg, Vinnie Hinostroza, Will Butcher, Cody Eakin, Craig Anders, and Mark Pysyk.

We’ll see who in that is sent out by the deadline. I wouldn’t anticipate all of them being moved. We could also see the Sabres acquire some players to help them now and in the future. They could get creative with their rentals and cap space.

Like I do in the offseason, I’m going to put together a mock trade deadline for the Sabres. Remember, this is mostly for fun and to generate conversations. I put logic and reasoning behind these ideas. However, most are just ideas with a few sprinkles of chatter I’ve been hearing mixed in.

Trade 1: Pittsburgh Penguins acquire Vinnie Hinostroza in exchange for a 2022 fourth-round pick

We’ll start with a simple one. This is just a straight rental move of a forward to a playoff club that is looking to add some depth. Hinostroza would bring some speed to the Penguins and depth scoring for what they hope would be another long playoff run.

Anthony wrote a good piece yesterday about what the Sabres should do with Hinostroza. I fall on the side of moving him if the value is there. If they want him back, they can talk to him again in July.

Trade 2: The Boston Bruins acquire Colin Miller in exchange for a conditional 2023 fourth-round pick and Zach Senyshyn.

This next one has a little more meat to it. The Bruins are looking for help to add to their blue line and missed out on Josh Manson after he was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche yesterday. If John Klingberg is off the market, Miller is arguably one of the top right-handed defensemen remaining.

The injury adds some uncertainty to this deal. If Manson was worth a second-round pick and a mid-level prospect, a healthy Miller is probably worth just below that. An unhealthy or at least a just returning Miller had me drop his draft pick value down to a fourth-round pick. The added condition to this pick is that it would become a 2023 third-round pick if the Bruins made the Eastern Conference Finals and Miller played in at least half of the games.

The other piece in this deal is another Bruins reclamation project. Zach Senyshyn was one of three first-round picks they made in 2015. The 24-year-old recently requested a trade to get a new opportunity somewhere else to spark his career.

He has only played 14 games in the NHL in his career. He has spent this entire season in the AHL with the Providence Bruins. He’s having his best pro season in the AHL with 18 goals and 30 points in 48 games. I’m not sure if he’s an NHL player, but he’s a right-handed forward, which is an era of need in this organization. At the very least he would provide some forward depth for the Rochester Amerks in the AHL that they badly need.

Trade 3: The Los Angeles Kings acquire Robert Hagg and Anders Bjork in exchange for a 2022 fifth-round pick

The Kings have some injuries on their blue line and could use some depth. Hagg makes sense as a fit for them to fill out the bottom of the roster.

It never worked in Buffalo with Anders Bjork and I would imagine that they would like to get out from under the final year of his contract. He’s no longer a regular in the Sabres lineup and is blocking a roster spot for younger players to come up from the AHL.

Trade 4: The Three Way Deal

I saved the most interesting move for last. This one is a three-team trade that involves the Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, and of course, the Sabres. I have them using their cap space to act as a broker in this deal and acquire a right-shot defenseman for the future at the same time. Here are the details:

• Chicago Blackhawks acquire: Conditional 2023 second-round pick (Oilers), 2023 second-round pick (Flyers via the Sabres), Oskari Laaksonen, Mikko Koskinen, and retain 25% Marc-Andre Fleury’s contract

• Edmonton Oilers acquire: Marc-Andre Fleury and Cody Eakin

• Buffalo Sabres acquire: Connor Murphy, a 2024 second-round pick (Oilers), retain 50% of Marc-Andre Fleury’s contract

Alright, so there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, the conditional pick from the Oilers. That would become a first-round pick in 2022 if the Oilers reach the Stanley Cup Finals and Fleury starts at least half of the games in the playoffs.

Now, for the Sabres’ end of things, we’ll break it into a few parts. The easiest part is they move Eakin to give the Oilers depth in their bottom six.

The big part here is the acquisition of Murphy. The 28-year-old is a right-shot defensive defenseman that could be an ideal partner for Owen Power when he arrives in a month. It’s no secret that the Sabres are actively searching for this type of player.

As you can see above in Evolving Hockey’s models, he grades out strong defensively. He’s also a veteran that can bring some leadership qualities to the club. Another important area for Kevyn Adams.

Murphy has one more year remaining on his current deal and then a new four-year contract that carries a $4.4 million cap hit kicks in July. The importance of that is his new contract carries a modified no-trade clause. However, his current one does not. I’m sure the Blackhawks would clear it through him as a courtesy. He did sign a new deal with them in the offseason, but this was before Kyle Davidson took over as general manager with talk of a rebuild.

The Avalanche helped set the market for right-shot defensemen last night. It costs the Sabres a 2023 second-round pick that they picked up from the Philadelphia Flyers and Oskari Laaksonen. It’s not a huge cost to pay, but it’s still something.

The good news is that the Sabres make up the second-round pick by acquiring a 2024 second-round pick from the Oilers because they retained 50% of the salary on Fleury.

I know, there’s a lot here. It’s fun to talk about out-of-the-box ideas though, correct?

Well, that’s it. If you’re itching for more trade ideas, check-in tomorrow morning with the latest episode of Expected Buffalo The Podcast. Anthony will be the general manager as I run him through trade deadline scenarios.

Data via: Cap Friendly and Evolving Hockey