Buffalo Sabres players being on various NHL trade rumor boards has been an all-too-frequent sight and with it being American Thanksgiving and the Sabres at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the chatter will begin in earnest now that unofficial trade season has opened. A couple interesting nuggets from Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos in his first trade board that involved the Sabres. 

The first involved winger Alex Tuch. Kypreos echoed Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, who indicated on a recent 32 Thoughts podcast that the Sabres winger has to be looking for a deal in the same neighborhood as Los Angeles Kings winger Adrian Kempe, which would necessitate the Sabres coming off their negotiating stance prior to the season that they balked at a deal with an AAV of more than $10 million per season. Kypreos indicates there is still a large gap between the two sides, which could make the 29-year-old the most sought-after commodity before the March 6 trade deadline.

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 The other involved Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Brandon Carlo. The Leafs acquired the big right-shot defenseman from Boston in March for the playoff stretch drive, but Kypreos reported that Toronto explored trading Carlo to Buffalo for restricted free agent winger JJ Peterka before he was dealt to Utah for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan, and then moved on to defenseman Bowen Byram, before he signed a two-year bridge deal.

While dealing for Carlo is consistent with the Sabres looking for players with term remaining, and the pursuit of a righty to play with Owen Power this season, either trade would have been quite a departure for Buffalo, who have not made a significant trade with their Atlantic Division rival for 32 years (Dave Andreychuk, Darren Puppa, and a first round pick for Grant Fuhr). 

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