After years of trade rumors, it finally happened. The Buffalo Sabres have traded Rasmus Ristolainen to the Philadelphia Flyers. In return, they acquired defenseman Robert Hagg, the 13th pick in tonight’s draft (technically 14th overall), and a 2023 second-round pick. This is an absolutely masterful job by Kevyn Adams and his staff.

On a side note, this is a great situation for Ristolainen as well. Things definitely didn’t go well for him with the Sabres, but both sides could have used a split before this. Now, he gets the chance to have a strong season before heading to free agency next summer.

Back to the trade. Not only do they get the salary cap off their books, but they were able to pick up a top 15 in this draft. They’ve been on the hunt for another high pick of this draft for months.

Options at 13

The draft gets a little more interesting now that the Sabres have two picks (as of now) in the top 15. We’ve talked about the first pick and we know it’ll likely be Owen Power. Now, at the 11th hour, we get to kick around some ideas for this pick.

Fyodor Svechkov

The first player that the Sabres should have their eye on is Russian forward Fyodor Svechkov. I ranked him ninth in the rankings I released earlier today. He may be the best two-way center available in this draft, in my opinion. I know that the Sabres have traditionally gone away from selecting Russian players, but he should be a real consideration for them. They have almost nothing at center in their prospect pool.

Cole Sillinger

Another forward for them to consider is Cole Sillinger. He played in the USHL last year during Covid-19 after playing in the WHL the two years before that. There are some concerns with his skating, but he’s a dynamic offensive player. He has a great shot and sees the ice well with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. His goal-scoring ability has made him the prospect he is, but his playmaking ability is underrated.

Jesper Wallstedt and Sebastian Cossa

You better believe this is the prime slot for the two goaltenders in this draft. The highest-rated one on my board is Swedish goalie Jesper Wallstedt. I had him ranked fifth and there are some that believe he’s the best overall player in this class. The Sabres have been searching for depth in goal almost the entire time Kevyn Adams has been in charge. They could find their guy here in Wallstedt.

The other goaltender mocked to go around this pick is Canadian-junior keeper Sebastian Cossa. His under-18 numbers in the WHL playing for the Edmonton Oil Kings have been impressive. He posted a .941 save percentage this year and a .921 in the 2019-20 campaign.

Some other names to watch for around this pick are Logan Stankoven, Chaz Lucius, and Matthew Coronato.

Robert Hagg

The other piece to this return beyond the picks was a defenseman. The Sabres acquired 26-year-old blueliner, Robert Hagg. He was a second-round pick of the Flyers back in 2013. He has one year remaining on his deal and it carries a $1.6 million cap hit, according to Cap Friendly. Hagg is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent when that deal expires.

He could be the veteran addition of the left side of this blue line to account for the likely loss of Jake McCabe. Let me be clear, Hagg is not as good of a defenseman as McCabe. He has had a lot of struggles defensively with the Flyers, as you’ll see in Evolving Hockey’s goals above replacement model below.

He’s not going to give you much offensively either. The Sabres could see him as a penalty killer, but he wasn’t proficient in that area either while in Philadelphia. We’ll see what the Sabres do with the Swedish defender. By all accounts, he was added to this trade to make the money work on the Flyers’ end. They may see him as nothing more than a third-pair defender to use this season and potentially flip at the trade deadline. He was deployed as mostly a third-pair defender with the Flyers this past season and throughout his career.

An exciting first move for the Buffalo Sabres on draft. We’ll see if they have anything else for us to talk about later today.

Data via: Evolving Hockey

Photo Credit: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images