{"id":636049,"date":"2026-03-06T09:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/636049\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:52:11","slug":"sabres-to-acquire-sam-carrick-from-rangers-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/636049\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres To Acquire Sam Carrick From Rangers \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sabres are set to acquire center\u00a0Sam Carrick<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>from the Rangers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a> reports. New York receives Buffalo\u2019s third-round pick and Chicago\u2019s sixth-round pick in this year\u2019s draft in return, Friedman added<\/a> later. Carrick was held out<\/a> of tonight\u2019s win over the Maple Leafs for asset protection.<\/p>\n

Carrick, 34, is just past the midway point of the three-year, $3MM contract he landed in Manhattan as a free agent in 2024. At a cap hit of $1MM, he\u2019s been a legitimately impactful fourth-line pivot for the Rangers for the past year-plus. In 140 games for the Blueshirts, he netted 10 goals and 30 points while averaging 11:17 of ice time per game. He went 54.1% in the faceoff circle and put up exceptional possession numbers for his role as a defensive specialist at 5-on-5.<\/p>\n

That last part has been especially true this season. He\u2019s actually managed a cumulative +3 rating despite starting over 75% of his shifts in the defensive zone since arriving in New York, and the Rangers\u2019 most-used fourth-line combo this season of Carrick,\u00a0Adam Edstrom<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Matt Rempe<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has controlled 55.6% of expected goals.<\/p>\n

While Buffalo\u2019s main goal at the deadline is to add right-shot depth at defense, acquiring a #4 center behind their strong one-two-three punch of Tage Thompson<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Ryan McLeod<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Joshua Norris<\/a><\/strong> was likely the second checkbox on GM\u00a0Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s list. They haven\u2019t had a stable option down the middle on the fourth line all year, frequently alternating between\u00a0Joshua Dunne<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Tyson Kozak<\/a><\/strong>. Combined, they have 106 games of NHL experience compared to Carrick\u2019s 380.<\/p>\n

Longevity aside, Carrick is a legitimate upgrade on both sides of the puck. Dunne has just four points for his career in 46 games, while Kozak has four points in 39 games this year. Dunne hasn\u2019t cracked 100 draws on the year, while Kozak has won a respectable but upgradeable 49.1%. Kozak, in particular, has also posted worse possession impacts than Carrick in comparable defensive\/offensive zone splits at 5-on-5.<\/p>\n

Carrick also gives the Sabres a plug-and-play option at the position through next season while being a cost-effective 13th forward if he does fall out of the regular rotation. That latter consideration is important for a team that finds itself in unfamiliar territory close to the upper limit, needing to use virtually all their available space for next season to get new deals done for\u00a0Alex Tuch<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Zach Benson<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sabres are set to acquire center\u00a0Sam Carrick\u00a0from the Rangers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. New York receives…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":636050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[1720,1302,140607,62,1650,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-636049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-sam-carrick","tag-sports","tag-transactions","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116181621013826677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}