While the Buffalo Sabres made a couple of decent trades in the 2024 offseason, trading for this recently re-signed top-six forward would have launched them into playoff contention.

If there’s one trade the Buffalo Sabres should have made this past offseason, or at least attempted to make, it was for Pavel Buchnevich. You might remember me talking about this months ago before he signed an extension with the St. Louis Blues, but had the Sabres added Buchnevich with all things being equal, below is what their projected lineup at forward may have looked like.

As you can see, I have the Kid Line staying ‘as is’ in this scenario, while Buchnevich would have forged quite an entertaining trio with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch. If Buchnevich stayed on form while Tage and Tuch returned to form, that would have made one scary first line.

It would have also freed Jason Zucker and Zach Benson to comprise the third line while Ryan McLeod took up the mantle at center. This wouldn’t have made just a compelling top-six, but one remarkable top-nine, with a gritty third-line playing a striking two-way game.

And look at the fourth line and the overall projected rotation – assuming Peyton Krebs remains in town. You got five heavy hitters rotating in and out here, or however the Blue and Gold would have drawn it up.

Not landing Pavel Buchnevich hurts the Sabres, but…

As I’ve said time and again, there’s still a lot of time left in the 2024 offseason for the Sabres to land a top-six scorer, and even someone like Patrik Laine should get the fanbase buzzing if a trade occurred. Laine, though a risk, could make for a good consolation prize should Kevyn Adams pick up the phone and call the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Laine’s not the only player the Sabres could still acquire, so not landing Pavel Buchnevich when there was still a chance he could have gone elsewhere may not haunt the Sabres to the extent I initially thought, or to be more accurate, am currently thinking.

Still, you can’t help but think he’s a better option than Laine or any of the other players I’ve discussed in the past. And who knows? Maybe Jack Quinn or Zach Benson will take the next step and put up those top-six numbers we’re craving someone from the Sabres to register?

That’s why I headlined this article as ‘could’ and not ‘would’ haunt the Blue and Gold. We’ll most likely know the definite answer come December 2024 or January 2025, but until then, all we can do is watch and hope.