The Sabres off-season has started with a bang. Barely off of their BRHL Cup win the team has moved out a star player, one who scored the cup winning goal no less. Rumours were running rampant that GM Jared Mitchell was shopping Steven Stamkos for some time but when the news came in that Stamkos was moved to Arizona for Ondrej Palat, the RFA rights to Ryan Strome, a 1st in 2017 and a 2nd in 2016 some GM's were caught off gaurd. "We had negotiations with multiple teams that felt they were close." Said GM Mitchell. "The reality was we were quite frustrated with the way those talks were going until Joel contacted me with serious interest." Social media was buzzing after the trade when a leaked offer from the Bruins surfaced, so we brought it up with the man himself: "I saw that, no offer like that has ever crossed my desk." he said.

The next big event for the Sabres will be the 2016 BRHL entry draft where Buffalo holds 7 picks, 6 of which are in the first 2 rounds. Last draft was pretty light for the team with Ivan Barbashev as the only selection, so this many picks early in the draft should give a big shot in the arm to a depleted prospect pool that was traded for immediate help. Because of that there are needs at every position and who their scouts favor is harder to predict. The last pick in the draft is 120th overall and at the end of the 4th round.

Here's a current roster breakdown of who is signed for next year:

Goaltending:

Ondrej Pavelec $1,287,000 1 year remaining (UFA)

Petr Mrazek $810,000 5 years remaining

Tandem Salary: $2,097,000

Defence:

Alex Pietrangelo $6,000,000 1 year remaining (RFA)

Jay Bouwmeester $4,800,000 1 year remaining (UFA)

Rasmus Ristolainen $1,400,000 1 year remaining (RFA)

Alec Martinez $1,287,000 2 years remaining

Nikita Zadorov $1,300,000 2 years remaining

Nate Schmidt $894,000 4 years remaining

Defence Salary: $14,394,000

Forwards:

Sidney Crosby $13,050,000 5 years remaining

Ryan Kesler $6,300,000 1 year remaining (UFA)

Benoit Pouliot $4,876,000 2 years remaining

Boyd Gordon $3,650,000 1 year remaining (UFA)

Ondrej Palat $3,300,000 3 years remaining

David Perron $2,812,500 1 year remaining (UFA)

Dwight King $1,950,000 2 years remaining

Vernon Fiddler $1,500,000 2 years remaining

Gustav Nyquist $1,026,000 4 years remaining

Jack Skille $975,000 2 years remaining

Nick Cousins $894,000 3 years remaining

Ryan Strome $? (Current RFA)

Forward Salary: $40,333,500

Total Team Salary: $56,824,500

The Sabres have a good amount of cap space available for the UFA period with just Strome left to sign on the dotted line. Nick Cousins is eligible to go to the farm so there could be an upgrade on the wing with Stamkos gone, Palat is no slouch but cannot be relied on to match Stammers output. Also Schmidt is penciled into the 6th spot but would probably be best suited as a 7th incase of injury.The GM seems content to not spend much on goaltending, so don't expect much to change there.

The team will also be interviewing for the vacant head coaching position, no news on who they might be interested in yet.