What to make of Sabres trading Erik Portillo and passing on a Jakob Chychrun deal
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Earlier this season, Erik Portillo informed the Buffalo Sabres that he didn’t think it was in his best interest to sign with them when his college season at Michigan is over. The Sabres drafted him in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft, and since he’ll be four years removed from his draft year, he has the right to test free agency if he chooses. Once he made clear to the Sabres he planned to do that, general manager Kevyn Adams started trying to find a trade partner.
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On Wednesday, he succeeded, trading the rights to Portillo to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2023 third-round draft pick. For Adams, recouping Portillo’s original draft position is a win. Portillo has a 3.01 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage this season, and Michigan is 19-10-2 when Portillo starts this season. He’s 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds and has put together an impressive college resume in three seasons with the Wolverines. The Sabres were still high on Portillo and made attempts to convince him to join the organization, but Portillo made his intentions clear.
The Sabres’ goalie pipeline is still in good shape. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has started 25 games in the NHL this season and is only 23 years old. Devon Levi is having another stellar season at Northeastern, and the Sabres are excited about the possibility of him signing with the team when his college season is over. Levi has expressed nothing but positive feelings toward the organization, including when we spoke in November about his week in Buffalo at development camp.
“It was unreal,” Levi said. “It was the best week ever. It was so fun. Everyone there was so nice, the players and the staff. It was great meeting fellow prospects and fellow players who already play in Rochester and Buffalo. It was great to meet everyone and compete with them. It just felt like home being at the rink, meeting and hanging around everyone, whether it was on the ice or off the ice. It was just very homey … I had a really great time and I’m excited for the future.”
Buffalo also used a second-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft on Finnish goalie Topias Leinonen, adding more depth to the organization’s goalie depth chart. That made this an easy trade to make. Earlier this week, the Sabres gave up 2021 third-round pick Josh Bloom, a forward prospect, to upgrade their blue line by adding Riley Stillman. This helps them get some of that future value back for a player who wasn’t interested in being in Buffalo.
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The other big trade news of the day for the Sabres was a trade they didn’t make. The Arizona Coyotes finally traded 24-year-old defenseman Jakob Chychrun. The Senators sent a 2023 conditional first-round pick, 2024 conditional second-round pick (originally from the Capitals) and a 2026 second-round pick.
On the plus side, in an era where the NHL trend is toward lighter, quicker, more mobile defensemen, Chychrun is simply a big, strong, physical presence, writes @eduhatschek.
More analysis on the trade:
— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) March 1, 2023
A lot of Sabres fans had Chychrun at the top of their wish lists. The Sabres had discussions with the Coyotes about Chychrun multiple times this season, but the feeling was always that the price was too high. But the Senators ended up paying a reasonable cost to acquire the established defenseman who is under contract through 2024-25 at $4.6 million. The Sabres had the assets to beat that offer with three second-round picks in this draft and plenty of prospects.
Adams repeatedly said he wasn’t going to “compromise and do anything short-term that sets us back long-term.” Granato has expressed similar sentiments about not wanting to push young players out of the lineup. Chychrun would have been a worthy addition that could help both short and long-term. But it’s tough to fault Adams for wanting to hold onto his first-round pick, which should be in the top half of the first round in what is considered a strong draft class. The Senators gave up a pick that is only top-five protected, and they are behind the Sabres in the standings.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that the Senators became an attractive trade partner for the Coyotes because they didn’t need to retain money on the contract and had the most appealing first-round pick offered. The Sabres wouldn’t have needed retention on Chychrun’s contract with all of their cap space, and while it’s unclear whether the Sabres offered a first-rounder, Ottawa’s looks a bit more appealing, though that could change.
As appealing as Chychrun is, the Sabres already have two high-end, offensive-minded defensemen in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power. Both Dahlin and Power are going to need new contracts, possibly as soon as this summer. It’s not crazy to think the Sabres will need to commit at least $17 million per year combined for those two deals. Dahlin and Power also both occupy the power play quarterback spots on the power play, a role Chychrun would have wanted if he was going to commit to signing somewhere long-term.
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The Sabres were still interested enough to stay engaged in the trade talks until the end. Eventually, this is the type of deal Adams may need to make to boost this roster. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s staying the course, though. Too often, past general managers have rushed and made trades that looked good in the moment but hampered the team’s future flexibility. Buffalo has a chance to make the postseason, but in a loaded Eastern Conference, their championship window hasn’t yet arrived.
Adams and Granato have both shown patience previous regimes lacked. They have the team in playoff contention and have gotten notable improvement through developing the talent on the roster. The Senators, another team trying to climb the standings, has taken a different approach, aggressively acquiring proven NHL players like Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux last offseason and now Chychrun this week.
Time will tell which approach works better, but the Sabres haven’t veered off course from the message they’ve consistently and clearly stated. They had the tough task of changing the narrative about the franchise and making it a place players in the league want to play. They’re starting to see the results of that. They’ve locked up Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and Mattias Samuelsson to long-term extensions. Their reputation as a team is starting to change.
“You hear it more and more, players saying things either to me or to teammates and those teammates or guys on our team refer it,” Granato said. “Agents are calling more to see what openings we may have and availabilities we may have. It’s been, I don’t want to say a 180, but the volume of that has increased. That’s a credit to our guys to create the environment they have and the identity they have. We do see it here lots more.”
The next step will be capitalizing on that interest by adding talent from outside the organization. The Chychrun trade was the latest example that the Sabres don’t yet feel a desperate need to do that.
(Photo: Dave Reginek / Getty Images)
