Slowly but surely, the branches on the Rick Martin tree are thinning out. There are only a few areas left where additional trades could extend the tree even further. Rasmus Asplund was one of those few players and his move to Nashville keeps the trade tree going until at least 2027, if not longer depending on the outcome of the seventh round pick they received. The updated version of the trade tree is below. Open the image in a new window if you want the high-res version.
The deadline deal to ship Brandon Montour to the Florida Panthers and the subsequent selection of Stiven Sardarian in the 2021 draft added another leg to the continually expanding Rick Martin trade tree. Given the scope of the image and the generally confusing nature of the layout I chose to use originally, it seemed like it was time to revisit the format and recreate it in a manner that would be easier for people to digest.
This new format follows a more traditional trade tree layout – something I originally avoided because of how much length it would add to the image. While it did increase the image size by quite a bit, making it easier to decipher the outcome of each trade was more important. This also made it a little easier to separate the Don Edwards trade tree from the Martin tree while combining the two players that link them (Ryan Miller and Steve Ott). You’ll now see the Martin tree is indicated by the blue branches while the Edwards tree is represented in gold. The branches which belong to both have blue and gold accents.
As you can see, there are still a handful of branches that can keep this thing going for a few more years as Sardarian, Rasmus Asplund, Aaron Huglen, Colin Miller and Ukko Pekka Luukkonen should all project out additional growth in one way or another.
The massive Rick Martin/Don Edwards combined trade tree got a couple of new branches this offseason. The official designation on San Jose’s pick saw the selection moved to Anaheim as part of the Brandon Montour trade. The other pick from the Evander Kane return, a 2019 fourth, was eventually moved so the Sabres could select Aaron Huglen in that same round. Ryan Johnson was picked with the 31st pick, received from St. Louis.
Colin Miller also became part of the trade tree as the 2021 second rounder included in the Ryan O’Reilly trade was sent to Vegas in exchange for the defenseman. This is sure to grow even larger in the coming years, we’ll see how long it takes for the next branch to sprout .
Over 30 years have passed since Rick Martin was traded to Los Angeles on March 10, 1981 and there are trades being made today which can be traced directly back to that move and the trade of Don Edwards and Richie Dunn a little over a year later.
There’s little sign of this massive trade tree petering out any time soon as acquisitions of picks and prospects over the last couple of years will extend it’s life for at least five more seasons. If not more. The most recent, was the acquisition of Brandon Montour from the Anaheim Ducks. Acquired for Brendan Guhle and a conditional first round pick, the Sabres will part ways with one of the first round picks they acquired from either the San Jose Sharks or St. Louis Blues. Regardless of which pick the Ducks end up with, Montour will slot in as part of long list of players who can be traced back to Martin’s trade.
For those of you who are new to this image, a few quick notes:
There’s not a whole lot to love about what came from the original trade of Thomas Vanek but Brandon Montour might finally change that. Brendan Guhle was pretty much the last remaining vestige of the original trade and there’s more life given to this trade tree’s longevity thanks to the acquisition of Montour. 
The Rick Martin trade tree’s life got a big boost when Evander Kane was dealt for a pair of draft picks at the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline. Little did we know that it would get an even bigger boost this summer as Ryan O’Reilly was dealt for a big package of players and picks.
Tage Thompson and the pair of picks the Sabres acquired give the team a trio of solid assets to build with and all three could one day contribute to future growth of the trade tree below. We’ll probably see a branch or two more from this tree before it finally runs its course.
Underwhelming return aside, the trade that sent Evander Kane gave added life to two of the biggest pieces of Sabres history. The Rick Martin and Don Edwards trade trees, which converged with the deal that sent Ryan Miller and Steve Ott to St. Louis in 2014, will roll for quite a bit longer now that the Sabres have two more 2019 (or 2020) picks in their pocket.
The Sabres didn’t fetch a king’s ransom for Dominik Hasek but it feels as if Hasek has claim to the highest profile trade in franchise history. Maybe the LaFontaine/Turgeon or Andreychuk/Fuhr swaps earn the title given their blockbuster status, but it’s not every day a team trades away of the greatest to ever pull on the crest.
The Hasek trade was pretty underwhelming, more so given Slava Kozlov’s disdain for the area and limited production on the ice. Of course, the Sabres paid pennies on the dollar for the greatest player to ever play his position. So even though the return from dealing Hasek pales in comparison to other marquee deals, Hasek’s on-ice contributions more than make up for it.
Phil Housley sits at the center of one of Buffalo’s more interesting trade trees. A memorable player in his own right, the tree includes three, maybe four, of the most iconic players to ever suit up for the Sabres.
Housley’s tenure in Buffalo was somewhat rocky, with complaints about his lack of physicality and grit overshadowing his prowess as a play driver.
After being selected with the pick acquired for the 1975 Cup team’s favorite players, Jerry Korab, Housley was included in a blockbuster that brought the Sabres one of the league’s best scorers. Housley had blossomed into one of the game’s most dynamic offensive defensemen and Dale Hawerchuk was a bona fide superstar. He had scored 35 or more goals in eight of his first nine NHL seasons – seven with 40-plus goals – and had six 100-point seasons. The pair came with a swap of first round picks in 1990, moving the Sabres up five spots. This is where the Jets wind up winning the trade, as they say.
The Sabres selected Brady May with the 14th selection and he’d become a fan favorite and score the most famous goal in franchise history. The Jets wound up picking 500-goal and 1,000-point club member Keith Tkachuk at 19. From there the rest is history. Tkachuck would twice score 50 goals for the Jets/Coyotes before moving on to St. Louis. May was turned into a key member of the 1999 Cup team, Geoff Sanderson.
This one doesn’t have the legs of something like the Martin tree or even the (spoiler alert) Dominik Hasek trade tree. But it stretches over three decades of team history, an impressive span considering the low number of players involved.
Note: I made one slight alteration to this tree compared to the others: splitting Scott Arniel off separately. While he was a simple throw in to the Housley/Hawerchuk deal, I chose to include his branch to make the tree more robust.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle the Sabres have faced as they slog through their rebuild has been the inability to turn the mountain of assets they originally acquired into tangible NHL talent. Some of that has been inflicted on the trade market – packaging assets for NHL talent – while some has come at the draft table.
The picks and players that can be traced back to the original trade that sent Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders have offered the Sabres very little in the end. This was one of the first trade trees I had ever explored, intrigued by the stacked deck Tim Murray and Darcy Regier had combined to create. At one point the Sabres had turned Vanek and a pair of second round draft picks into Matt Moulson, Torrey Mitchell, Josh Gorges and four draft picks (a second and third in 2014 and a first and second in 2015).
Now that the trade tree has aged (poorly) the Sabres are looking at a fairly lackluster return for what they’ve sent away. Torrey Mitchell was a terrific fourth line asset but not exactly a long-term option for the Sabres. He only yielded a seventh round pick and although Vasily Glotov is an extremely fun prospect to have in the pipeline, the chances that the Sabres see much of anything come of that trade are minimal. The same can be said of nearly every other portion of the tree. Moulson and Gorges hit the wall hard and Robin Lehner’s days in Buffalo seem to be numbered. The only player in this entire trade tree who has the opportunity to offer the Sabres any long-term return is Brendan Guhle.
The Vanek trade tree went south in a hurry, with the prospects attached to the numerous picks failing to develop in a meaningful way while the Sabres opted to flip the premium pick they received for a goaltender whose future in Buffalo appears to be questionable.
*One quick note on the format of the trade tree. I’ve added logos next to the players selected with the respective picks used in the deals displayed. This was meant to add some clarity to the layout as not every pick was used by the team which acquired it. For example, the Canadiens sent the pick they acquired for Gorges to the Chicago Blackhawks, who picked Chad Krys with the selection. This came in handy on some of the larger trees which I’ve worked on as it illustrates the end point for some of the draft picks which, at times, traded hands multiple times.
Two in the Box 