BUFFALO, N.Y. — This past season, the Sabres’ main problem was the blue line.
The team entered the offseason with the goal of adding defensemen both in the draft and free agency.
In the draft earlier this month, the team selected four defensemen with its eight picks. On the first day of free agency, the Sabres signed two defensemen — Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton — with the hopes that they could lead the young group.
Now the front office finds itself with a different problem: too many defensemen.
In fact, the Sabres now have nine defensemen with NHL contracts — three more than can dress on a given night and will have to shed one or two in the near future.
That group is made up of Johnson, Clifton, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju, Ilya Lyubushkin, Riley Stillman, and Jacob Bryson.
But according to Adams, the surplus is a situation he’s happy to be in right now.
“The way I look at it is you need depth,” Adams said. “It’s a long season. Hopefully, we're a team that's going to make a deep run, and you need good solid players that can play and you never know, look what's already happened this summer in terms of one of our players that goes down and these things happen.”
The GM said heading into training camp, competition is never a bad thing, and could very well see himself entering September with nine defensemen.
He also said if the offer presented itself, he could consider a possible trade.
