Buffalo Sabres News: Team Gets Scott Wilson From Red Wings For NHL Draft Pick, Waives Veteran Forward
With the Buffalo Sabres part of a rough stretch and currently sitting in last place in the NHL standings, the team has recently made several moves to try to invigorate their roster. Among those moves were waiving and demoting one veteran forward, while bringing in the Stanley Cup Championship experience of another forward. Here’s the latest update on what the Buffalo Sabres team is doing to try to give new life to their team as the 2017-18 NHL season is already one-quarter of the way completed.
As ESPN reported on Monday, the first of the big moves made was to waive Matt Moulson as the veteran forward is being demoted to save money and clear space. Moulson will now be demoted to the NHL minor league as he was not being used much by the Sabres. In another recent move, Sabres general manager Jason Botterill also pulled off an NHL trade with the Detroit Red Wings to bring in some more experience. That trade will bring forward Scott Wilson to the Buffalo roster, while the Detroit Red Wings will now have another 2019 NHL Draft pick in the deal. Detroit is currently 10-12-5 and in fifth-place in the Atlantic Division.
Wilson has now been in the league since the 2014-15 NHL season. Formerly a seventh-round pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins, he spent his first three seasons there before being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings earlier this season. The championship-winning center has only had one season where he played for the majority of the season, as he participated in 78 games for the 2016-17 campaign. Wilson has racked up 13 goals and 19 assists for his career, but beyond that season pointed out, he hasn’t had a season with more than 24 games played.
The 10-year veteran Matt Moulson has tallied 176 career goals and 193 assists. He had a decent number of games played over his last three seasons, but the team has felt he is less needed this latest campaign. Moulson participated in 14 games but has no goals or assists to show for it. As Buffalo News reported, Moulson won’t be demoted to the Rochester team. Instead, Moulson will head to the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League as part of a loan arrangement with the Los Angeles Kings.
Rodrigues is set to make his season debut; Wilson his #Sabres debut.
"Hopefully we can bring a new energy."@dan_dunleavy's #BUFvsCOL preview. pic.twitter.com/asFIyItZsl
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) December 5, 2017
A shake-up definitely seemed to be in order. As of this report, the Buffalo Sabres are looking pretty bad with a 6-17-4 overall record which has them eighth in the Atlantic Division. The team is currently in a 12-game slump with a 1-9-2 record over that stretch. The Sabres also rank at the bottom of the league in both goals per game (2.1 per game) and goals against (3.4 per game) as well as No. 30 in power-play percentage. Buffalo was slated to take on the Colorado Avalanche later on Tuesday night.
