Going into the offseason the belief of many is that the Buffalo Sabres won’t be making any big splash moves. After going through all of their restricted free agents, they won’t have a lot of cap space available and it’ll probably be difficult for them to convince high-end players to sign with them.

However, it doesn’t mean they won’t have an interest and try to get involved in a few big-name players. One player, in particular, is defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. I’ve heard from multiple people over the last few weeks that the Sabres will have an interest in the St. Louis Blues defender if he hits the open market.

Ownership

It sounds as though signing him would be one of their priorities if he’s available and it’s being driven by a desire from ownership. My understanding is Terry Pegula has expressed his admiration for Pietrangelo and a willingness to spend the money needed to bring him to Buffalo.

That second part shouldn’t be overlooked. We’re all well aware of the cost-cutting moves of the last few months with this organization. It should be comforting to see that ownership is still willing to spend on player acquisition costs.

While the Sabres will attempt to bring the 30-year-old defender to Buffalo, the likelihood of it happening still seems slim at this point. The primary reason is that it’s unlikely that the Blues will let their top defenseman and captain leave the organization. Both sides seem to want to get something done there to keep him with the Blues. Having said that, Elliotte Friedman in his latest 31 Thoughts did add some caution to it being a lock he returns. Here is the excerpt from his article:

“St. Louis and Alex Pietrangelo met this week as the grind begins on extension attempts in St. Louis. As I’ve said many times, I believe the captain wants to stay a Blue. But a couple of sources warned that it hasn’t been easy for Pietrangelo to see extensions elsewhere along the lineup (Justin Faulk, Marco Scandella, Brayden Schenn) while his talks completely stalled. A lot of emotion here, and that makes talks more difficult.”

If he does make it to free agency, they could have a hard time convincing him to spend what will likely be the remainder of his career in Buffalo. The Sabres are a club that hasn’t made the playoffs in nine years. The benefit outside of money the Sabres could off him over other teams is playing close to home. Pietrangelo is from King City, ON, Canada, which is about 30 minutes North of Toronto.

Elite Defenseman

Some may have their reservations about paying a player at 30 the type of contract that Pietrangelo could receive in free agency. Evolving Hockey project on a seven-year contract a cap hit of $8.3 million. If you add in the boost for the Sabres likely having to overpay to get it done, he’ll likely command a deal with an annual average value closer to $9 million.

While it may not seem like a good approach to make that investment in a defenseman when the obvious need is at forward, Pietrangelo isn’t just any defenseman. He’s arguably a top-five defender in the NHL and is impactful at both ends of the ice. He’s one of the few defenders in the NHL that make a similar impact to high-end forwards.

You can see above in Micah McCurdy’s isolated impact chart that he is excellent at the offensive end of the ice and is one of the better defenders in the league impacting scoring. When you look at Corey Sznjader’s tracking data, Pietrangelo stands out as one of the top blueliners in the league in primary shot contributions, which is why his impacts are so strong on scoring.

When a player like this becomes available, a team should try to be involved. He has been one of the best at his position for years and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down to this point.

There may be some concern about what that contract looks like as he ages, but I wouldn’t be worried about that in this case. He would likely be paired with Rasmus Dahlin and it’ll give the Sabres a legitimate top pair for the first time in a long time. As Pietrangelo ages, you’d hope that Dahlin can carry the weight on the pair as he enters the prime of his career.

This is probably a lot of discussion about something unlikely to occur. However, if it did, it would be a move to fast forward the Sabres window to win and appease Jack Eichel’s desire to play for a competitive hockey club.

Data via: Evolving Hockey, Hockeyviz.com, and Corey Sznjader

Photo credit: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images