Sabres Rumors: 4 Teams Eyeing Erik Johnson

While the Buffalo Sabres aren't completely out of the race for a playoff spot just yet, it is very unlikely that they will be able to make up enough ground. Even if they do, they are not equipped to make any noise in the playoffs. That being said, there are some players that other teams have shown in ahead of the deadline that could be moved.

The Sabres brought in Erik Johnson in the offseason on a one-year deal to provide some veteran leadership to a young back-end. I think he has done his job well enough to this point and now the team can use him as a trade asset.

Johnson would be a rental for any contender looking to pick him up and has a cap hit of $3.25 million AAV. While no contender is going to take on his full cap hit, the Sabres should have no problem retaining half since they have a ton of cap room to work with this season.

According to Michael Augello, there are four teams who could be eyeing Johnson - the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vegas Golden Knights. Three of the four teams have injury troubles on the back-end and it makes sense to add a bit of depth. The team who doesn't, the Avalanche, could look to bring a longtime veteran of theirs and slot him back in on the third pairing in place of Jack Johnson.

While the Golden Knights just got healthy with Shea Theodore's return, this doesn't mean that something can't happen again to any number of the team's defensemen. There just became a ton of cap space freed up, so the Golden Knights can go address their holes and plan for the worst in order to repeat.

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