Sabres listening to trade offers on JJ Peterka

The Sabres are listening to trade offers on winger JJ Peterka, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. While they’ve been reluctant to consider moving Peterka as his name popped up in trade speculation over the last few months, “their answer has changed” to teams inquiring about his availability, Friedman said on Sunday’s 32 Thoughts podcast.

“It’s believed he would like to go somewhere else, and I just think that reality is sinking in a bit,” Friedman said. “I think the Sabres realize they have to at least look into it, and I think in the last little bit it’s gone from ’we don’t want to do it and we’re not doing it’ to ’we don’t want to do it but we at least have to look into it.’”

Peterka, a pending restricted free agent, is also viewed as a legitimate offer-sheet target if he becomes an RFA without a new contract on July 1. An offer sheet AAV in the fifth tier of compensation between $7.02MM and $9.36MM, in line with Peterka’s projected cap hit on a long-term extension, per PuckPedia, would net the Sabres a team’s 2026 first, second, and third-round picks. If a trade crosses the finish line, the return would presumably come above that value, considering the Sabres are a virtual lock to recoup those assets in a worst-case scenario.

The Sabres’ top-nine forward group has been in constant flux over the past couple of years. They’ve acquired Ryan McLeod and Joshua Norris down the middle, graduated prospect Zach Benson to NHL duties out of the gate, and shipped out Dylan Cozens, Casey Mittelstadt, and 2022 top-10 pick Matthew Savoie in corresponding deals.

They find themselves in more unfamiliar territory with Peterka. Under general manager Kevyn Adams, the Sabres haven’t let negotiations with an RFA-to-be get to this point. They’ve either parted ways with hopeful core pieces after already signing them to long-term deals that weren’t panning out early on (Cozens) or traded them in-season in the final year of their contract with an advance understanding that they were far apart in talks (Mittelstadt). With Peterka, though, it doesn’t seem to be a case of the Sabres’ willingness to pay or commit to him – it’s the players’ uncertainty about signing long-term with the Sabres preventing a contract from getting done.

Buffalo has $23.2MM in cap space to spend this offseason with seven roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. They have a pair of truly high-priced RFAs to contend with in Peterka and defenseman Bowen Byram, and it looked early on that they may only be able to sign one of them. They’ve been more active in soliciting/listening to trade interest in Byram but could understandably be more incentivized to keep him if they get the sense the situation with Peterka won’t result in him staying in Buffalo.

A trade is far preferable to an offer sheet in terms of compensation for the Sabres, who need at least a top-nine winger in return for Peterka to help them shoulder his loss and keep their postseason hopes alive in 2025-26, in addition to potential UFA signings, as they aim to end their playoff drought at 14 seasons. Peterka, a 2020 second-round pick, scored a career-high 41 assists and 68 points last season to tie for second on the club in scoring. That’s not easily replaceable production, and they’ll need to perform significant roster surgery to compensate if they do end up moving him.