Sabres turned down three huge offers for JJ Peterka before settling on Utah trade

In case you missed it last night, the Buffalo Sabres traded 23 year old RFA forward JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth in exchange for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan.

It's believed that Peterka wanted a change of scenery and wasn't willing to re-sign with the Sabres. He immediately signed a five year deal worth $7.7 million with Utah upon completion of the trade.

Sabres fans were nearly unanimous in their negative reactions to the deal, saying that Sabres GM Kevyn Adams failed to deliver a fair return for Peterka.

Kesselring and Doan are both NHL quality players, but they don't have the pedigree or the production that Peterka has shown to this point in his career. The thing is... there were rumors that five or six teams had submitted offers for Peterka and this is the best that Adams could do?

Ouch...

Today NHL insider Frank Seravalli reveals that the Sabres did indeed receive some better offers, offers that could have provided the Sabres with some higher quality players on their roster. In particular, Seravalli reports that the Sabres received an offer from the Minnesota Wild involving Marco Rossi, an offer from the St. Louis Blues that involved Jordan Kyrou and an offer from the New York Islanders that involved Noah Dobson.

From Seravalli:

"There were so many interesting offers on the table, I'm surprised Buffalo went with this one; Wild offered Rossi plus, Blues put Kyrou on table, a team offered two 1sts plus; Isles' Dobson was in the conversation."

Uh... excuse me?

Two 1st round picks? And Adams chose Doan and Kesselring?

Double ouch...

Read below for last night's trade report from Hockey Feed staff writer Chris Gosselin.

Late on Wednesday evening, Frank Seravalli reported that the Buffalo Sabres have agreed in principle to trade forward JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth. There was reportedly a contingency holding up deal, but moments later, Seravalli got the confirmation that the trade call was going through and a deal between the Sabres and Mammoth had been agreed upon.

The trade involves Peterka going to Utah in return for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan, per Elliotte Friedman.

“Three players, no picks.”

Peterka, who was a pending RFA, has also agreed to an extension with Utah as part of the trade, which is a 5 years x $7.7 million = $38.5 million contract, per Seravalli.

The addition of Peterka to an already promising young forward crop in Utah that includes the likes of Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther is quite exciting and a significant move pulled off by general manager Bill Armstrong.

Going back to Buffalo, Josh Doan, the son of Shane Doan, is a second round, 37th pick overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2021 NHL Draft. Last year in 51 games with the Utah Hockey Club, the young winger collected seven goals and 19 points.

Michael Kesselring is a defenseman, who played all 82 games of last season with Utah. He posted seven goals and 29 points, along with 89 penalty minutes and a rating of +4.

Peterka is in line for a significant new deal after he had 27 goals and led all restricted free agents with 68 points in 77 games this season. He is coming off of his three-year, entry-level contract that carried a cap hit of $855,833 and was a pending restricted free agent looking for a change of scenery, out of Buffalo.

The Mammoth, with their new name, are trying to build up their organization, and Peterka is a great addition to bring in some secondary scoring.

The trade has gone through and now Peterka is moving to Utah.