The Buffalo Sabres have gotten a head start on Monday afternoon’s NHL trade deadline, sending a second-round pick to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for forward Brad Boyes.
Boyes has 12 goals and 29 assists in 61 games this season for St. Louis. Boyes has been with St. Louis for the past five seasons and has also spent time with Boston and San Jose throughout his seven-yaer career.
Boyes scored 43 goals for St. Louis during teh 2007-08 season and had 33 goals the following season. His production dropped to 14 goals in 82 games last season.
Don’t consider him merely a rental player. Boyes is signed through next year and is slated to make $4 million in 2011-12. His salary this year is $4.5 million, though Buffalo won’t be on the hook for much of that.
Upon taking over the team, new owner Terry Pegula said the team would be active to add players for both the short and long term and wouldn’t restrain general manager Darcy Regier financially. It looks like Pegula wasn’t joking.
While the Boyes transaction is a done deal, rumors about other moves are just rumors and should be treated as such, but with the NHL trade deadline set to expire at 3pm this afternoon, you can expect plenty of significant Buffalo Sabres chatter over the next several hours.
Bruce Garrioch from the Ottawa Sun had some interesting Sabres trade tidbits in his Sunday evening column on the eve before deadline day. Among them is Buffalo, along with the Kings and Rangers being in “hot pursuit” of Dallas Stars center Brad Richards. Richards turned down a contract extension offer from the Stars recently and would also have to waive a no-trade clause to get moved.
Garrioch also has Florida Panthers winger David Booth and center Stephen Weiss linked with the Sabres, writing that they “might be attractive to Buffalo GM Darcy Regier, with the blessing of new owner Terry Pegula to spend money.”
Lastly and perhaps of most interest, Garricoch wrote that Nashville Predators called about Sabres winger Thomas Vanek.
All we can say is stay tuned, Monday could turn into a very fun day for Sabres fans. Boyes is definitely a good start.
