Buffalo, NY - The Buffalo Sabres have dropped in the standings, and are now at .500, leaving them in the 10th spot in the tough Eastern Conference. Also hurting the team, is low attendance recoreds so far through the first 1/3 of the season. Becasue of that, the Sabres have decided to start sheeidng som salary, as they are currently projected to lose over 1 million dollars this season.
However, management has made three moves recently to ensure that they not only lose money, but still bring in quality assets to keep them a succesful franchise. The first move saw the Sabres Ship off a 3rd rd pick in 2005 plus bruiser LW Peter Worrell for fiesty C/LW Steve Avery from Chicago. Avvery leads the league in PIM this season, but not because he is a goon, but because he is a hard hitter and is sometime penalized for this tpe of play. Avery wil switch back to center for Buffalo, and move Adam Mair over tho RW on the fourth line. The coupling of Mair and Aery will make the Sabres 4th line one of the most aggresive forechecking lines in the league. This trade also set up the move of sending veteran RW Rob Ray to chicago for a late pick in 2010. LW Jason Peters will be called up fro Rochester to play alonbg side of Mair and Avery, adding some size and toughness to the already nasty 4th line.
The third move the Sabres made just occured a little while ago. Defenseman Alexei Zhitnick was shipped out to Florida in exchange for Phoenix's 1st Rd pick in 2005 and an undisclosed amount of cash. This is the move that will now allow Buffalo to turn a profit this season, and allow the Sabres to get the youngster Henrik Tallinder into the lineup, who recently becasue of injuries has been lighting up the score board. Getting back a first round pick will only help add a talented palyer to the abres growing prospect list.
The Sabres are off for the next few days, having so far played the most games out of anyohter tem in the OTHL. They plan on taking Sunday off, and then practiving Monday afternoon as usual.