NHL tradition dictates that when a longstanding player returns to his former city for the first time, the team shows a tribute video in his honor.
While it usually makes for a heartwarming moment of retrospection, it can also turn ugly — especially if the player’s departure was under unfavorable circumstances.
There’s no telling how the people of Buffalo will treat JJ Peterka on Tuesday when he takes the visitors’ locker room at KeyBank Center for the very first time.
Peterka, who became a restricted free agent this summer, reportedly used his leverage to request a trade. While Sabres GM Kevyn Adams never confirmed the rumor, he did pull the trigger on a deal that sent the German winger to the Utah Mammoth in exchange for Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring.
It’s the latest edition of a decade-old story for the Sabres. As soon as they get a promising-looking player, he leaves and achieves his full potential elsewhere. If you need examples, just look at:
- Jack Eichel
- Sam Reinhart
- Ryan O’Reilly
- Linus Ullmark
- Brandon Montour
- Brandon Hagel
- Evan Rodrigues
Eichel, who served as the Sabres’ captain for three seasons, was greeted with boos when he played his first game in Buffalo as a Vegas Golden Knight.
Eichel’s divorce with the team stemmed from a disagreement on which surgery he should get for a herniated disc. The player and external medical specialists wanted one particular procedure, but the Sabres’ team doctors recommended another.
At the time, the collective bargaining agreement dictated that the team had the final say in terms of medical procedures. Eichel was so sure, though, that he opted to sit out, rather than agreeing to a surgery that he felt was not in his long-term best interest.
The team eventually stripped him of the captaincy before ultimately trading him to the Golden Knights, who signed off on the surgery immediately. Eichel had never participated in a playoff game at that point, but just two seasons later, he was hoisting the Stanley Cup.
That’s part of what makes Sabres fans bitter about all these star departures — five of the seven players on the list above have hoisted the Cup since leaving, and two of them have done it twice. It’s too early to tell whether Peterka will join his predecessors in that regard, but the Mammoth are a promising, young team whose rebuild was only accelerated by Peterka’s arrival.
Who won the JJ Peterka trade?
The team that receives the best player in a trade is usually considered the winner in the court of public opinion. Peterka was always expected to claim that title, but Doan and Kesselring are working to prove themselves.
Doan is doing particularly well so far. Through 12 games, he has tallied four goals and nine points — not too far off from the seven goals and 19 points he managed in 51 contests last season. He’s also matching Peterka in goals and is one assist shy of Peterka’s point total, which has Sabres fans declaring their team as the early winner.
Kesselring started the season on injured reserve, but he’s now three games into his tenure as a Sabre, playing on a pairing with 2019 fourth-overall pick Bowen Byram.
“It’ll be cool. Obviously, definitely a little nervous,” Kesselring said through the smile that always seems to be on his face. “I have some really good friends on that side, and those were the guys that helped me kind of get into the league and show me the way and how to handle myself and be a professional at this level.”
For a franchise in the midst of an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought, with a market that infamously has taxes instead of palm trees, the Sabres fanbase needed a morale boost. Doan and Kesselring are good with both the media and the content creators. Sabres fans took a liking to them for that reason, even before they’d ever suited up in the blue and yellow.
A major part of Peterka’s success has been how well he fits with Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley. Peterka is only 23 years old, but he’s the most senior member of that line. The three of them have single-handedly won Utah a number of games already in this young season, combining their speed with high-level playmaking, making it one of the most fun lines to watch in the NHL.
They’ve also been some of the Mammoth’s best defenders this season.
“That line is three guys who are fast, who can make plays,” said Mammoth coach André Tourigny. “We like the way they think the game and they can play both sides of the puck.”
It’s still several years too early to crown the winner of the trade, but through the first month of the season, neither team has any regrets.
Utah Mammoth vs. Buffalo Sabres preview
The two teams meet for the first time since the trade in Buffalo on Tuesday. Eight days later, they’ll reconvene in Salt Lake City.
Both teams are hoping to end playoff droughts this year, so the game matters for much more than the bragging rights the winning players will get to dangle over the heads of their former teammates.
“It’s a game that’s been circled for a while,” Doan said. “Obviously, it’s a big one for us in the way the year’s been going where it’s a tight Eastern Conference, so every point matters right now.”
While the Mammoth currently sit in seventh place league-wide and third in the Central Division, the Sabres have seven teams standing between them and a playoff spot. But that’s no indication of failure. In fact, the Eastern Conference is so tight that a win on Tuesday could slingshot them into third place in the Atlantic Division.
“I was texting Cooley last night,” Kesselring said. “We were chirping back and forth, me, Josh and Cools. It’ll be fun.”
Special thanks to Bill Hoppe of BuffaloHockeyBeat.com for sharing interview files with the Deseret News.