Can the Sabres trade the pick?
Having laid that foundation to the prospect pool, Adams said during an appearance on WGR 550 in May that the team will be open to the possibility of trading the 11th pick in a move that benefits the NHL roster.
“You need a deep prospect pool,” Adams said. “You need a pipeline of players that can come through your system and replace players that either you have to trade for financial reasons, or they’ve just fallen off, they get older. So, that’s critical. But I laid a plan out three or four years ago now and we stuck to that. We’ve been disciplined. I think our amateur scouts have done a great job of identifying some really good hockey players that we’re excited about.
“We’re in a different phase right now. We need to look at every possible scenario to help our team get better. So, when I talk about winning now, that absolutely comes into play. We’re still not going to do something that doesn’t make sense, but we will definitely talk about that type of move, and does that make sense? And maybe it makes a lot more sense now based on where our roster is and where our prospect pool is than it did one, two, three years ago.”