A quiet night off for the Buffalo Sabres got interesting late Saturday when they became the latest club mentioned as a possible suitor for Jakob Chychrun of the Arizona Coyotes.
On Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts intermission segment, Jeff Marek wondered aloud if the Sabres could be a “dark-horse candidate" to acquire Chychrun, a 6-foot-2 left-shot defenseman who has two years remaining on a contract that carries a bargain price of $4.6 million per season.
Marek’s comment is more than speculation, though. Sources told The Buffalo News on Sunday that the Sabres are among several teams that have discussed Chychrun with Coyotes General Manager Bill Armstrong. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman wrote recently that the price tag for Chychrun is expected to include a pair of first-round draft choices, either prospects chosen in recent years or future selections, plus "something else."
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Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams declined to discuss Chychrun when asked by The Buffalo News on Sunday, but Adams reiterated that he’s always seeking ways to improve his roster in the short- and long-term.
“I guess what I would say to that is my job is to talk to every team and look at every possible situation of how we can move our roster forward and move our organization forward,” Adams said. “So, I'm not doing my job if I'm not having those discussions, and, you know, like anything, you're always going to be looking at what you can do. But there's certain things that, for me, we can't get away from our plan in the way we are building this.
“If something makes sense and it's within our vision and our plan, we would be willing to do it. But if it gets us outside of that, that's where we'd have to be very careful.”
Cap space isn’t the issue for the Sabres. They’re still $17.438 million away from the ceiling this season. The NHL’s salary cap is expected to rise again this summer when the club could have as many as six notable unrestricted free agents coming off the books.
Chychrun also fits perfectly with how the Sabres play and want to build their roster. He’s a big, strong, mobile defenseman who frustrates opponents away from the puck and possesses high-end offensive talent. In 340 regular-season games across seven years in Arizona, he has 54 goals and 91 points while averaging 20:52 of ice time. He led all NHL defensemen with 18 goals in 2020-21.
The 2016 first-round draft choice is under contract for multiple years at a reasonable price. He would fit well in a defense corps that includes Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Owen Power and Henri Jokiharju. The Sabres have only one high-end defense prospect outside the NHL in 2019 first-rounder Ryan Johnson, who has yet to sign with the club and can become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
By acquiring an experienced, top-four defenseman like Chychrun, the Sabres would be able to better distribute ice time and responsibility. Their defense depth would be arguably among the best in the NHL. Right now, they’re leaning too much on Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power and Jokiharju. Casey Fitzgerald was in the lineup Friday for Jacob Bryson, who is week to week with a lower-body injury.
Ilya Lyubushkin has played through a lower-body injury since the third game of the season. Rochester’s blue line includes some capable depth options on two-way contracts, but none is going to transform the roster like Chychurn would.
The Sabres aren’t going to pay a king’s ransom, though. Adams has spoken publicly about his desire to maintain a stockpile of high-end prospects. He doesn’t want to deplete his draft capital, either, not when his hockey operations department is still in the process of building around corps players like Dahlin, Samuelsson, Power, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Jeff Skinner and Dylan Cozens, among others.
Though the Sabres are trying to snap a league-record 11-year playoff drought this season, they are still evaluating their roster and prospect pipeline to determine who will be long-term members of the roster. Matt Savoie, their top draft choice in 2022, is still with the Winnipeg Ice of the Western Hockey League.
Center Noah Ostlund, who the Sabres chose 16th overall in July, plans to spend one more season in Sweden. Winger Jiri Kulich, signed by Buffalo after his selection at No. 28, is playing in Rochester with 2019 first-round pick Isak Rosen. Though none are guaranteed to make an impact with the Sabres soon, trading one or more too soon could deliver a serious blow to the organization’s depth up front.
And Chychrun’s price tag is likely rising by the day. After all, he is finally back in the Coyotes’ lineup after missing the first five weeks of the season with a wrist injury. His 2021-22 season was cut short because of an ankle injury. Teams across the league are searching for defense help, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the trade deadline isn’t until March 3.
The Coyotes aren’t going to rush to trade Chychrun. He is under contract for two more seasons and the club is exceeding expectations with a 7-9-3 record entering Sunday. Chychrun quickly showed that he is healthy and able to contribute. In three games back in the Coyotes’ lineup, he has one goal and three points while averaging 23:13 of ice time.
There's also a Buffalo connection for Chychrun. In Boca Raton, Fla., he was high school classmates with two of the Pegulas' children: Kelly and Matthew.
This would fall under previous win-now, long-term moves completed by Adams, most notably the addition of Tuch through the Jack Eichel trade. As we’ve seen in recent years, every playoff team needs a deep, talented stable of defensemen. The Sabres’ top four are talented, and still not close to reaching their respective potential, but making a trade for Chychrun would signal that Adams has moved into the next phase of his plan to build a consistent winner in Buffalo.
