It’s not much of a shock that the Buffalo Sabres are shaping up to be sellers once again at the trade deadline, but one name floating around is a bit surprising.
The Sabres are prepared to listen to offers on forward Tyler Ennis, according to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun.
Ennis has three years remaining on his contract with a $4.6-million annual salary cap hit. The 26-year-old is coming off back-to-back 20-goal seasons but has just three goals and 11 points in 23 games this season. Ennis was drafted 26th overall by the Sabres in 2008. He is currently listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
The Sabres have a handful of pending unrestricted free agents that could be moved by the Feb. 29 trade deadline. Forwards Jamie McGinn, David Legwand, defenceman Mike Weber and goalie Chad Johnson all hit the open market at the end of the season and Sabres general manager Tim Murray told LeBrun he’s taking the same approach he did last year when he made four trades on deadline day.
“We’re in 29th place,” he said. “I do stress that we think we’ve improved greatly everywhere but in the standings. This is the process. If I can acquire younger assets or future assets for some of our veterans, especially veterans on expiring contracts, I’m going to pursue that for sure.”
The Sabres were reportedly one of the teams scouting Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin during his AHL stint.
