Brandon Montour has been traded.

We have our first trade of the day, on this day before deadline day.

According to a breaking news report from Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, the Anaheim Ducks have just traded one of their young defensemen to the Buffalo Sabres. Friedman reports that the Ducks will be sending 24 year old Brandon Montour to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for another young defenseman, Brendan Guhle as well as a first round draft pick. The Sabres own mutliple first round picks but according to Friedman it will be either the pick that previously belonged to the St. Louis Blues, or the pick that previously belonged to the San Jose Sharks.

Montour is clearly the best player in this trade and he also comes as the most NHL ready player in the deal with a total of 169 career NHL games under his belt already. He appeared in 62 games for the Ducks this season prior to today's trade and over those games he recorded 5 goals and 20 assists for a total of 25 points. He also earned a total of 40 penalty minutes as well and boasted a plus minus rating of -16 on a Ducks team that was admittedly struggling in all aspects of the game. 

The only other player in this trade is 21 year old Brendan Guhle. Guhle has spent nearly the entire season with the Sabres American Hockey League affiliate team the Rochester Americans. He has appeared in 50 AHL games recording 2 goals and 22 assists for 27 point and boasts a plus minus rating of -11. In his 2 NHL appearances for the Sabres this season he has no points and has a plus minus rating of 1.

Stay tuned for more detail.

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Update: Sabres might not be done according to Buffalo Sabres insider John Vogl

Source says "definitely more talk happening even after the Montour trade"

According to Vogl the Sabres are already carrying too many defensemen on their roster and that would appear to indicate that he expects the organization will move one or perhaps several of their current defensemen off the roster in some way or another. 

"Though it's not immediately clear with who (or when), the Sabres had too many NHL defensemen even before adding Montour. They still need second-line center and scoring wingers."