Sabres acquire Eric Staal for Marcus Johansson

When Sabres fans envisioned getting another center over the offseason, not many may have thought of veteran Eric Staal from the Minnesota Wild.

GM Kevyn Adams pulled off his first trade and sent away Marcus Johansson for Staal.

Staal will turn 36 at the end of October but has still put together some strong seasons recently. He’s nowhere near the 100-point player he was in the 2005-06 season, but he has put up at least 52 points in 3 of the last 4 seasons, and he was on pace to top that again this past season.

So, the Sabres believe they can continue to get a similar performance from Staal. They also cleared some salary in the deal as Johansson’s cap hit was $4.5M, but Staal is at $3.25M with one more season remaining on his contract.

 

Kevin Freiheit
Kevin Freiheit
I founded Buffalo Hockey Central in 2008 and have poured hours and hours into this site. Luckily, we have a great team of writers and designers who have helped keep this up and running despite a ton of out-of-pocket costs. We do this because we enjoy it, and we're desperate to see the Sabres win the Cup someday, but they have to make the playoffs first.
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