Rasmus Dahlin, the Buffalo Sabres, and logic

Whether or not the team captain made an ultimatum with the general manager, sense says the threat is there in an unspoken way.

It’s not quite an annual tradition for speculation to begin about when a Buffalo Sabres superstar player asks to be traded if the organization doesn’t figure things out and gets back to the playoffs regularly, but it’s more of an overarching sense of time.

When Paul Bissonnette shared during a recent episode of “Spittin’ Chiclets” that he heard from an inside source that Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin met with general manager Kevyn Adams and said that if they don’t figure things out, he’s going to ask to be moved. Obviously, this kind of thing was a surprise and Dahlin strongly denied that he said that, and it made him mad to hear it even suggested.

Dahlin did share that he met with Adams but there was nothing said at all about wanting a trade. Which, yeah, of course he’s going to say that. The Sabres season is going poorly enough without having a five-alarm blaze to worry about concerning the team’s captain, but whether or not Dahlin made the demand is irrelevant.

Common sense says that if the Sabres don’t get things turned around and Adams and owner Terry Pegula can’t figure out the right way to put a winning team together, there will be a day when Dahlin and others will be ready to cash out and demand to go somewhere else where it’s not a multi-generational project to just get into the playoffs.

What’s upsetting for the Sabres in this situation should be that a private one-on-one chat between the team’s captain and general manager was known about so soon after it happened and that it became an instant top-of-the-news moment. The GM and team leaders having discussions isn’t uncommon, mind you, and reconvening at the trade deadline, especially when a seismic deal is made that changes the core of the group occurs, is the right thing to do.

It’s not that Adams has to consult with Dahlin about the moves he’s going to make but keeping the leadership group in the loop when there’s the possibility of a move like trading Dylan Cozens to Ottawa is one of the basics of doing the job. It’s also important for Dahlin to keep the GM apprised of how he and the other players feel about how things are going.

In this case, the Sabres are one of the five worst teams in the NHL again and poised to have yet another high lottery pick in the draft. This comes 10 years after they bottomed out to secure the best odds in the lottery to get the No. 1 pick and the opportunity to select Connor McDavid. We all know how that went and even with Jack Eichel, they weren’t able to get everyone on the same page to have their rebuild evolve to a place in which making the playoffs regularly was the standard.

That was the hope and the promise back then with Eichel and Sam Reinhart. It was trending towards becoming an unfulfilled promise, but then the Sabres won the lottery to pick Dahlin and the stars seemed to be aligned to kick it into gear. Three top picks together? It’s got to work… or else.

It didn’t click right away, and it cost Phil Housley his job as coach and then Jason Botterill his GM job a year later when things continued to not improve and that’s when Eichel had enough. Too much turnover, too many different voices, and most importantly, zero progress made.

There’s been somewhat less turnover in recent years with Dahlin as the top guy on the team, but even still he’s working with his fourth different coach since he entered the league in 2018-2019 and he’s had Adams as his GM since 2020. That kind of consistency helps make the lines of communication stay open and more honest, blunt or otherwise. Dahlin doesn’t have to tell Adams that if things don’t improve, he’s going to want out. It should be understood.

No amount of player loyalty would be able to hold up through year after year of not making the playoffs, especially when former teammates got out and played for and won the Stanley Cup almost immediately. It’s one thing to think the grass is greener on the other side, it’s something else to know that it absolutely is and it’s even better than you thought it would be.

It’s understood by the players that if they’re able to get the Sabres back to the playoffs, the love, admiration and appreciation from the fans would be well beyond what it would be in other cities. It’s a small-time way to be a legend and hyper localized, but those players have seen how the city is with the Bills and who wouldn’t want even a fraction of that? The boost the team that breaks through would get in the playoffs would be monstrous from having the fans back in full.

The problem is, as much as the team can’t sell hope to the fans anymore, selling it to the players rings hollow, too. Fourteen years is a long time to go without the playoffs in any league, but especially the NHL and it carries an odor that’s hard to ignore.

Players don’t want to see their careers go unfulfilled without having the chance to compete in the playoffs, to have that opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. It shouldn’t be as hard of an ask to make that happen as it’s been in Buffalo and as much as the guys on the team want to make that happen, everyone has a limit and that’s just logical.