In the month of August, as the news in the hockey world slows to a crawl, we will be taking a look at the most consequential deals in Buffalo Sabres history (using the Hockey News Archives as source material) and ranking the 15 best and the 15 worst deals in the club’s 54-year history.
This required the input of a trio of veteran media members (Dave Reichert, Randy Schultz, and Pete Weber), as well as three lifetime Sabre fans (Chuck Bender, Todd Riniolo, and Joe Schwartz).
10. March 5, 2014 – Buffalo acquires forwards Nicolas Deslauriers and Hudson Fasching from the Los Angeles Kings for defenseman Brayden McNabb, winger Jonathan Parker, a 2014 second-round pick (Alex Lintuniemi) and 2015 second-round pick (Erik Cernak).
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READ ABOUT OTHER SABRES TRADES
Best Trades In Sabres History – #10
Worst Trades In Sabres History – #11
Sabres GM Tim Murray nearing the end of the disastrous 2014 season was looking to the future and saw that the club was fairly well stocked at the time on defense with former Calder Trophy winner Tyler Myers just 23 years old, and 2013 first-rounders Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov, and 2012 second-rounder Jake McCabe all making their NHL debuts, but comparatively, the forward prospect coffers were bare.
Murray had dealt winger Thomas Vanek to the NY Islanders in October for Matt Moulson and a pair of high draft picks, and before the deadline had moved Moulson to Minnesota, and veteran winger Steve Ott to St. Louis, so looking to acquire some young forward depth in exchange for someone from his defensive stockpile, the Sabres dealt big 22-year-old blueliner Brayden McNabb, minor league forward Jonathan Parker and 2014 and 2015 second-round picks to the Los Angeles Kings for forwards Nicolas Deslauriers and Hudson Fasching.
McNabb was in the final year of his three-year entry-level contract and coming off a third solid season with AHL Rochester (which likely meant he would have a difficult time getting through waivers the following season) and the two second-rounders had been obtained from the Kings the previous year in exchange for veteran defenseman Robyn Regehr.
Deslauriers was a combative physical 23-year-old forward who had spent three seasons with Manchester of the NHL, while the 19-year-old Fasching (a 6’3”, 209 lb. winger) was coming off a promising 30-point freshman year at the University of Minnesota.
The deal did not have positive results for the Sabres. Deslauriers became an effective physical depth forward for three seasons before being traded to Montreal in 2017 and has been a journeyman since with stops in Anaheim, Minnesota, and Philadelphia.
Fasching played two more seasons at Minnesota before signing with Buffalo in 2016, but in 22 games spread over three seasons, he scored one goal and was subsequently traded to Arizona for two minor leaguers in 2018. After four seasons mostly in the minors, the big winger was signed as a free agent with the NY Islanders and has split time between Long Island and AHL Bridgeport.
The trade on the Kings’ end resulted in players who won three Stanley Cups, but none of them were with Los Angeles. McNabb played three years in Southern California before being claimed by Vegas in the 2018 Expansion Draft, where he won a Cup in 2023.
One second-rounder was used to select Finnish defenseman Alex Lintiniemi, who played three AHL seasons before returning back to Europe in 2020. With the other, the Kings drafted defenseman Erik Cernak, who was traded to Tampa Bay for goalie Ben Bishop, and won consecutive Cups with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.
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