One of the more intriguing players to hit the rumor mill in the days leading up to Friday’s deadline was Sabres winger JJ Peterka. Amid yet another disappointing season in Buffalo, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff initially reported last week the pending RFA was drawing interest on the market and then seconded a report from Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News that the Rangers were interested in making a deal for the 23-year-old.
Of course, the 2020 second-round pick stayed put in Buffalo. It was still an eventful deadline for Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams, who extended wingers Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker while swapping Dylan Cozens for Joshua Norris down the middle in a trade with the Sens. However, he reiterated Friday to Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald that he was never interested in nor close to moving Peterka.
“Zero, zero truth to that, anything around JJ in terms of looking to move him or any of that stuff,” Adams said. “I think JJ’s a guy that’s a young player still. We’re going to sit down after the season, we’ll get to his agent immediately, say, ‘OK, where do we go from here?’ I just think he’s one of our core young guys. We need him to continue to get better, and we need to make sure that we’re also explaining to him how we’re going to make the team better.”
That extension could be a rich one if Buffalo hammers down on a longer-term deal with Peterka, a prudent decision to ensure they avoid a contentious negotiation in a few years amid what’s hopefully a rise back to playoff relevance. AFP Analytics projects a six-year deal worth north of $6.5MM per season, but with Peterka now producing at a 26-goal, 70-point pace over 82 games this year, it’s easy to imagine him landing more.
The Munich native is arguably the only member of Buffalo’s young core forwards that have met or exceeded expectations this season. He’s already set a new career-high in points (51) in 60 games, eclipsing last year’s 50-point breakout. He’s done so while playing over 18 minutes per game, earning his way up to a consistent top-line role for much of the campaign. A good chunk of his production has come at even strength, and he’d likely be hovering around a point per game if the Sabres had a league-average power play instead of their 27th-ranked 16.8% success rate.
His 14.1 shooting rate this year is also a career-high but doesn’t jump out as being particularly unsustainable. He’s also been one of Buffalo’s best possession players, controlling 52.4% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength. That’s fourth on the team behind Zach Benson (56.3%), Rasmus Dahlin (55.5%), and Tage Thompson (52.7%).
All of that points to Peterka as an undeniable top-six piece long-term for the Sabres, one they’d struggle mightily to replace if they dealt him. While little has gone right for Buffalo in their continued attempts to exit rebuild mode over the last decade, he’s proven himself a must-have contributor as they look toward next season.