Two in the Box

Two in the Mailbox is the somewhat regular mailbag run on the site. This edition tackles a whole bunch of questions regarding Jarmo Kekäläinen’s first offseason in the Sabres’ general manager chair. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions this time around.

Ed Helinski – In your estimation, what’s Jarmo got cooking this offseason? He’s got several meaningful players to re-sign.

It’s a lot more fun to talk about trade targets and what the Sabres can do in order to bring in a big name, but their combination of cap space and free agents makes the task of re-signing players (or letting them walk) a much more important topic. 

Tuch dictates a lot of this. If he’s re-signed his cap hit will account for three quarters of their available cap space. If he walks, the focus shifts to replacing his role. They’ll still be short on cap space since Zach Benson is bound to eat up a significant portion of their space. They also need to make a decision on Peyton Krebs and Beck Malenstyn. Does it make sense to keep both? The most important task for Kekäläinen may be clearing players out before he makes any additions. Deciding on Krebs and Malenstyn plays a role here, as does a decision on Kesselring. I think it’s becoming more and more obvious that someone on the current roster will need to move on if the Sabres hope to make any meaningful additions. 

Keith Page – What are the odds the Sabres lose Malenstyn to free agency? I know the cap is tight and he’s due for a raise. However, I’d hate to see him go. He’s the epitome of a player who lead by example. The perfect 4th liner!

It has to be him or Krebs. It actually could be both if you think about it. Buffalo currently has Jordan Greenway, Sam Carrick, Justin Danforth and Tyson Kozak under contract for next season. All four of them are fourth line staples. In an ideal world, Kozak or Danforth would be extra forwards, but it isn’t unreasonable to suggest that with those four already under contract, the Sabres could let both Krebs and Malenstyn go. 

I do wonder if the Sabres would make a harder push for Malenstyn than Krebs. As an RFA the Sabres could flip Krebs to an interested team for a small return to help recoup some of their lost draft capital. Then, they could re-sign Malenstyn and add him to that mix of depth forwards listed above. Malenstyn is a key penalty killer for the Sabres, while Krebs is not a first or second choice option for that unit. Krebs has also became more of a winger than a center this past season, further impacting his utility with Carrick on board. This all changes if we get to July 1 and someone offers Malentsyn $3 million per year. But I do wonder if he’s ever so slightly more valuable to the Sabres than Krebs.

Frank C. – If the Sabres add to the fringes of the team do you prefer the defense or forward position to be addressed?

Defense for sure. I think we’ve seen the forward group shape up very nicely and you could even argue that Ryan McLeod is the sort of fringe addition the Sabres had failed to make in the past. Between promoting Konsta Helenius and Noah Ostlund to the NHL roster full time and starting the year with Sam Carrick and Justin Danforth, there’s very little room (or need) to try and make fringe additions. But there is going to be at least one hole on defense – third pair left side – and it presents the best opportunity for the Sabres to add an underrated talent who can help stabilize the third pair and make the defense corps even more intimidating. 

Matt Kopnak – Are you on team “wait and see” when it comes to Ostlund and Helenius or should Jarmo use one of them to get a more established top 6 forward?

This is a much harder question to answer than I expected. For one, I don’t really need to see much more from those two. They’ve proven themselves as capable NHL players and they should be locks for the opening night roster next season. But neither of them are established stars either. It’s possible they both become dynamic, 70-plus point players and the Sabres have a one-two punch at center for the foreseeable future. I also can’t think of any teams that consider themselves Stanley Cup contenders who would rely on so many 21 and under players in key positions. 

My ultimate view is that the Sabres need to be aggressive this offseason and they (and we as fans) have to be comfortable with making a tough decision on the trade market. This is especially true if you don’t expect Alex Tuch to be back. Maybe if Tuch is back it would be a little more palatable to run back effectively the same roster but with Helenius added to the mix. But, it looks more likely to me that Tuch will walk and if that’s the case, the Sabres should be aggressively pursuing a replacement. I think about Dylan Larkin’s frustrations after the 2024-25 season when he lamented the lack of help at the trade deadline. To not make any meaningful additions to a team that was one win from a conference final would be hugely disappointing. I’m ready to take some medicine if it means a tangible upgrade is coming back the other way, I just know it might hurt a bit if Ostlund or Helenius is the player going the other way. 

As an aside, I think Ostlund is the guy I’d want the Sabres to move. I’d actually put Jiri Kulich first on the list, but the fact that he missed an entire season will not make his trade value go up. So, Ostlund would be the guy I’d move. This is definitely motivated by recency bias, but I think Helenius’ profile is just slightly more attractive in the long term and thus, worth holding on to. 

James Weise – If they choose not to re-sign Tuch, what do you think is the best path forward to replace everything he brought both from an offensive production POV to his PK minutes, and then his leadership.

They won’t be able to replace everything he does in one season. I think they can make a good run at covering some, or most of his production, with their internal pieces. For the sake of this question, let’s assume they don’t acquire any outside help and Tuch walks. That’s a 33-goal, 66-point deficit in addition to first PK duties and his leadership role. 

Jack Quinn is the first player I’d look at for covering that production. He was already getting power play time and with Tuch gone, he’d be a candidate to move up the lineup at even strength. You’d have to count on him to add at least 7-10 goals to his production, which would bring him close to the 30-goal plateau. Zach Benson would be next on the list. He’ll need to climb above 20 goals and 50 points to eat into the Tuch deficit. Benson would also be a prime candidate for some of Tuch’s penalty kill time along with Josh Doan. I land on the kids after Quinn and Benson. I expect to see Helenius and Ostlund up all season. Ostlund was good for 11 goals in 60 games. If he and Helenius can both contribute 15 goals,  you will have effectively covered the goal scoring lost by Tuch. That doesn’t guarantee any sort of team-wide growth, but at least in terms of production and the lineup, you’d have most of Tuch’s impact replaced. 

Jordan (BSKY) – What’s the most Vegas* way to approach this off-season? 

*Ruthless, reckless abandon, let’s win it next season and who cares about the cap or people’s lives

Vegas has no regard for draft picks or prospects and they almost solely focus on targeting high-end talent via trade. They would be hot on the trail of Robert Thomas, Nico Hischier and Dylan Larkin. If you apply Vegas logic to Buffalo’s roster, they would be pushing hard to get a Larkin trade over the line and they wouldn’t be afraid about losing their 2026 1st, Radim Mrtka, Ostlund or even a notable roster player. Here’s a very broad view of what I would describe as a Vegas offseason for the Sabres:

• Acquire Larkin: Bowen Byram, 2026 1st and an A-prospect. Maybe a roster player as well.  
• Deal Krebs and Kesselring’s signing rights for mid-round picks. 
• Acquire Colton Parayko: Something similar to the deadline offer built around Mrtka. 
• Swap Ukko-Pekka Luukkonnen for Joey Daccord. 

Those trade packages are very loosely assembled, so don’t read too much into them individually but from the perspective of the overall approach.

Note: The podcast version of the mailbag came prior to Larkin’s trade request and included my take that the most Vegas offseason would be to throw a huge offer at Auston Matthews. Since John Chayka has said Matthews is his lone untouchable, I didn’t include anything about Matthews in the written version above. 

Eric (BSKY) – What do you think about rumors of the Sabres Hometown Remix jersey, royal blue goat head jersey? What would you like to see the team do for a jersey in the future, remix, Winter Classic, Stadium Series, 60th anniversary, etc. 

I’ve always wanted to see a red goat head jersey.

Saving the best for last. I’m eager to see the Sabres Hometown Remix after the leaks for Florida and the Islanders’ jerseys. Florida’s is a wild take, while the Islanders have a more subdued look that draws on the fisherman logo. It’s been reported that the Sabres will have a navy blue uniform with further reports saying it will be a goathead pattern. That’s not the most inspiring choice, but it ought to look pretty decent. It will be a little boring to have two very similar jerseys as the team’s alternate, but I think a navy version of the goathead ought to play pretty well. 

The truth of the matter is that the Sabres don’t have a whole lot left to draw on when it comes to uniforms. They did the white butter knives and then a white goathead for the Reverse Retro program. Their one stab at a gold jersey was a flop and the slug logo doesn’t have nearly the same cult following the goathead did before that was brought back. That makes it more likely that future uniforms will need to be novel designs since virtually every other uniform design has been used in some way by the club in recent years. 

I think the biggest potential money maker for them is a remix on the old Bisons bottlecap jersey. There are some obvious challenges to revisiting that design, but if they ever figured it out, they would be massively popular. The best workaround was what they did with the 40th anniversary uniforms. A white version of that jersey (which is barely visible in the background of the photo on this story) would be a great look and I expect a fast fan favorite. For my money, give more attention to the alternate charging bison. That would be an excellent uniform crest and it can play across many different designs. This is what I’d like to see more of well before they explore any prior uniform designs.