Kevyn Adams made his first significant offseason move, trading JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth in exchange for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan. Peterka moves to Utah with a five year, $38.5 million extension in his back pocket while the Sabres land the potential partner for Owen Power they have been seeking.
The trade return for the Sabres is underwhelming. There’s no way around it. Peterka is a young, productive forward with team control and he was traded with an extension in place. Peterka’s value should have been sky high after 50 and 68 point seasons that both sniffed the 30-goal plateau. To only pull a middle-pair defender and a bottom six forward leaves an awful lot of value on the table.
Although the return is light, the Sabres come away with a fair bit of utility here. It’s hard to consider when they lose the best player in the deal (with an extension no less) but it’s not all doom and gloom. Doan has exhibited some quality defensive ability, albeit in limited minutes. He played the majority of last season in Utah but he did spend 28 games in the AHL along the way. Doan likely slots in to a wing spot on either the third or fourth line in Buffalo. That could mean playing with Ryan McLeod and Jason Zucker (and perhaps a Jack Quinn trade) or on the fourth line, with Jordan Greenway filling that third line role. Either way, Doan should offer a bit of energy to Buffalo’s bottom six. He has good size and ought to be a positive addition to the bottom six.
Kesselring is a player I’ve been fond of for a bit now. He’s a big, steady, unspectacular righty who has shown a willingness to scrap from time to time. He’s a good enough skater that he doesn’t get into trouble, but he’s also not going to lug the puck end-to-end most nights. Luckily, he’s probably targeted to play as Power’s partner, so Kesselring can leave much of the puck transporting to him. Kesselring ought to bring a fair bit of balance to Buffalo’s top four with a decent mix of physicality and traits that will complement Power’s skill set nicely. His RAPM chart isn’t the sexiest one you’ll find, but his five-on-five xG% was an impressive 54% last season and Utah carried the shot and goal share with him on the ice. He’s also been exposed to Tage Thompson at the World Championships, so perhaps there is some built in chemistry and familiarity once camp opens. Kesselring shouldn’t indicate that the work on their blueline is done, but he ought to be a quality piece of that renovation.
All told, the return for the Sabres is adequate. It’s unspectacular and doesn’t fully take advantage of Peterka’s value, but it checks some key boxes for the club. I don’t think that means Adams did a good job here – Peterka really should have fetched a premium – but the groundwork for a positive outcome has been laid.
There are some other factors at play here. Most notably, the Sabres are off the hook for extending Peterka. That saves them as much as $7.7 million against the cap if they simply retained Peterka on the deal he takes with him to Utah. Peterka, you’ll remember, was one of the key restricted free agents Adams insisted they needed to leave cap flexibility for when asked about not spending the money from Jeff Skinner’s buyout. Less than a year later, Peterka is gone, Bowen Byram may be next and neither Jack Quinn or Devon Levi will command a salary that would apply any sort of upward pressure on Buffalo’s cap situation. Funny how that works out.
This trade also comes hot on the heels of Adams’ pre-draft press conference, where he made a scene regarding all of the misinformation fans have had to sort through ahead of the draft. He went so far as to say he feels bad for the fans because of the misinformation being spread about his players. Adams specifically called out a report from Frank Seravalli on Mattias Samuelsson, though I don’t think it’s a secret that Seravalli had been consistently teasing Peterka as a prime trade candidate this summer. Either way, Adams’ comments at his press conference – just moments after a toothless non-answer about Peterka’s future in Buffalo – look particularly foolish after Peterka was indeed moved and Seravalli was the one to break it.
Adams looking foolish in a press conference isn’t anything new and the cap and roster implications of this are far more interesting anyway. Kesselring and Doan are both extremely affordable players but because Peterka was a restricted free agent, they technically add money in this deal. It’s a small amount, just about $2.5 million in total, so there’s still room to maneuver this summer and moving off Peterka saves the Sabres a more significant cap hit. This leaves the Sabres in need of a top six winger, but by swapping a more costly contract for a pair of more affordable ones, there is an opportunity for Adams to actually flex a bit of financial muscle. Byram is still a viable trade chip as is the ninth pick. There’s room to make a further impact on this roster and things could look a heck of a lot different by Monday morning.
Two in the Box 