The Buffalo Sabres signing of winger Josh Doan is the first major move made by Jarmo Kekalainen with the club he inherited from deposed GM Kevyn Adams, signing the young winger to a to a seven-year, $48.65 million contract ($6.95 million AAV). The Sabres before their Saturday afternoon matinee against the New York Islanders, were the hottest team in the NHL, with a 17-3-1 record in the last 21 games.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his recent 32 Thoughts podcast theorizes that since the Sabres have had nothing but success since Kekalainen took over last month, that he would be hesitant to tinker with the club’s roster for fear of messing up their mojo, but Buffalo faces a deadline when it comes to winger Alex Tuch, who is a pending unrestricted free agent this summer.
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Friedman indicated that the fact that Doan, forward Zach Benson, and defenseman Michael Kesselring were to be restricted free agents at the end of this season, as well as the dead money on Jeff Skinner’s buyout increasing to $6.44 million next season were factors in negotiations with Tuch, with who the Sabres reportedly were not willing to go over $10 million per season on a new contract, but believes that the Sabres could push the Benson and Kesselring contract talks to the summer and get Tuch signed to a long-term extension.
There have been no indications that Tuch’s camp is willing to come off their ask of more than $10 million on an eight-year deal, similar to the contract signed by LA forward Adrian Kempe earlier this season, which would put the Sabres in the dilemma of keeping the 29-year-old winger as an own-rental and risk losing him for nothing on July 1. That would be counter to what Kekalainen said at his opening press conference in December, where he said he would not make any moves just to snap the club’s 14-year playoff drought, but now that doing that is a reality, it may change the organization’s calculations.
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