Konsta Helenius among Sabres’ major offseason decisions

BUFFALO, NEW YORK — Even before the Buffalo Sabres The season ended, I said that Buffalo only had seven forwards for next season.

For years I’ve said they needed to be tougher to play against, and it was clear they needed another top-six forward. I thought they needed at least six new forwards, and as of July 6, they had five.

Kevyn Adams has done a great job of making this team tougher to play against by acquiring Beck Malenstyn and Ryan McLeod and signing Sam Lafferty, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Buffalo-raised defenseman Dennis Gilbert. Adams also signed veteran forward Jason Zucker.

The benefits of all this should be immediate. Adding these players will impact players like Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Owen Power, Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch, as teams will no longer be able to take liberties with them without an answer. This gives talented players more room to maneuver.

These are also players that Lindy Ruff knows how to use to their full potential to help the team. Teams will no longer show up on the ice in Buffalo thinking it will be an easy game.

I know many have complained to me about trading a first round pick like Matt Savoie to the Edmonton Oilers for McLeod and a minor leaguer, but that makes sense. No one knows if Savoie will be good or not. He’s small and has had injury problems the last couple of years, but when he’s played in the junior leagues, he’s been unstoppable.

When Kevyn Adams selected Konsta Helenius with the 14th overall pick in this year’s draft, he said the 18-year-old would play center. Vinny Prospal, who worked extensively with Jiri Kulich last season in Rochester, said at development camp that he thought the best position for Kulich was center.

Noah Ostlund, another first-round pick, is also a center. So my question is, if you don’t trade, where do you put Savoie? He’s not going to replace Thompson, Tuch, Peterka, Quinn or Dylan Cozens. You could hope he comes to training camp and takes the one spot they’re trying to find through a trade, but that’s a lot to put on Savoie.

They needed a center to play behind Thompson and Cozens, and that guy has to be a very good two-way player. They can hope Peyton Krebs improves enough this summer, but that’s uncertain. This is a spot for a two-way player, not guys like Savoie and Kulich.

I believe Adams is trying to trade for a top-6 forward, and I know it’s difficult with no-movement clauses in contracts. He’s already saying he doesn’t care about scoring goals because he knows he has the talent and the players to score. Maybe it will happen, but there are way too many “ifs” in this deal.

It’s a question of whether Thompson can get back to 47 goals, whether Tuch can get back to 36 goals, whether Cozens can get back to 31 goals, whether Quinn can stay healthy and reach 30 goals, whether Dahlin can reach his potential and become the superstar he’s supposed to be, whether Benson can improve on his rookie year. Any or all of those things could happen, but I wouldn’t risk my job on it the way Adams is.

I mean, maybe the fans aren’t worried about anything. Maybe Kulich will tear it up in training camp and earn that top-six spot. But then again, maybe he won’t.

I think you see where I’m going with this. Yes, there are a little over two months left until training camp and there’s plenty of time to make this trade for a top-six forward, but what if this trade isn’t possible? It’s up to Adams to figure out the right answer, his reputation and his job depend on it.