Drake Caggiula provides the Sabres some post-deadline depth Archive by Chad DeDominicis - April 9, 2021April 9, 20211 The Buffalo Sabres made a roster move today, but it wasn’t a trade. Instead, they claimed forward Drake Caggiula off of waivers from the Arizona Coyotes. The last time the Sabres claimed a player off of waivers was Remi Elie in October of 2018. Don Granato said today that Caggiula would fly from Glendale (Arizona) to Buffalo commercial. Therefore, he’ll need to complete a quarantine period before he can join the Sabres on the ice. Post-Deadline Depth The 27-year-old will provide the Sabres with some depth in their lineup after the trade deadline on Monday. Caggiula carrier a $700k cap hit this season and will be an unrestricted free agent in July. The Sabres and Caggiula have some history going back a few years. He was invited to their prospect development camp in 2014 and the team was in on trying to sign him as a college free agent out of North Dakota in 2016 before he signed with the Edmonton Oilers. There’s not a lot to get excited about in his game and he’ll likely only be with the Sabres for less than 20 games. He offers them some flexibility to play either wing or center in a pinch. The Canadian-born winger can also kill penalties. That may have appealed to the Sabres. Their penalty kill has gone backward for over a month now and they like to chase specialty forwards. As you’ll see in Micah’s chart above that Caggiula is an average offensive player in his bottom-six role. He’s a below-average finisher which will fit perfectly with the Sabres roster. His career-high of 13 goals came in the 2017-18 season with the Oilers. He’s not a great defensive player as you’ll see above. His defensive underlying numbers in Evolving Hockey’s RAPM data are especially poor with the Coyotes this season. His most common teammates this year with the Coyotes according to the twins’ site have been Nick Schmaltz and Phil Kessel. Neither of them is known for their defensive abilities. The Sabres would be wise to avoid putting him with Cody Eakin as a linemate. He would likely net better results with a defensively responsible player like Riley Sheahan if he’s on the team after the deadline. Like I said, not much here to dig our teeth into. He’s not going to move the needle for the Sabres and is just a body to fill out the roster for the remainder of the season. We’ll see at the end of the year if we love or hate The Drake. Data via: Evolving Hockey, Cap Friendly, and Hockeyviz.com Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images This content is available exclusively to members of Expected's Patreon at $5 or more.