The Buffalo Sabres have traded forward Evan Rodrigues and Conor Sheary to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Dominik Kahun. The 26-year-old Rodrigues has five goals and nine points in 38 games so far this season. He is not having a good year but he has the potential to do good things outside of Buffalo’s poor system.

For his part, Sheary has scored nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points in 55 games. Sheary returns to the Penguins after spending just under two seasons in Buffalo.

Sabres Trade Evan Rodrigues and Conor Sheary

Rodrigues will hopefully have an opportunity to thrive in his new city. His best season was in 2018-19 when he scored nine goals and 29 points in 74 games while averaging 15:49 per night. However, it seems as though Buffalo never really trusted him to do more. He’s had a positive Corsi For most of the past three seasons without any sort of real reward.

Rodrigues has never shot the puck particularly well with a career average of just 6.8 percent but fans can hope for more with his new team. However, he has potential as a secondary scorer since his best year goals-wise was last season when he fired 168 shots on net. His new coaching staff should give him a shot as their third-line centre with better linemates than what he had. Rodrigues’ most frequent linemates in Buffalo included the underwhelming Conor Sheary and Jimmy Vesey. Those are certainly fine players in their own way but not especially exciting in Buffalo’s system.

The two frequent line mates will now head to the Penguins and get a legitimate shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

What This Means for the Future

It is hard to say how Rodrigues’ new team is evaluating his potential. He might get stuck on the fourth-line again but he should receive a shot in a middle-six role with time on the penalty kill. There really doesn’t seem as though there is a good reason not to play him more than Buffalo did.

This trade also represents part of a partial Sabres rebuild. They’re eliminating a few pending free agents and bring in a younger Kahun, who is also a pending restricted free agent. The team seems to be preparing for now and the future as they acquired Wayne Simmonds earlier on Monday as well. The team traded Marco Scandella earlier this year. They have also had Rasmus Ristolainen on the trade block at various points over the past year. Buffalo needs a way to acquire more talent around star Jack Eichel. The return for Rodrigues will go towards that effort.

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