Saturday night in Columbus, or even tonight (Monday) in Pittsburgh could in fact be Ryan Miller’s swan song as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.
FanSided has learned from multiple sources that late last night, the Minnesota Wild made a major offer to the Sabres to acquire the services of the 33-year old US Olympic Goaltender. The offer on the table includes a 2014 first round draft pick, expiring winger Dany Heatley and a prospect, either Mikail Granlund or Charlie Coyle have been brought up by Buffalo. In order for Buffalo to not retain any salary of Miller’s in the deal, Heatley has to be included as cap dump for the Wild.
Sabres general manager Tim Murray is expected to go to St. Louis, the other team heavily involved in trade talks for Miller, at some point today to see what their absolute best offer could be. Murray wants the Blues to include Ty Rattie which GM Doug Armstrong as been set against doing in any deal for a player not guaranteed to re-sign.
Murray has an offer from the Wild that he very well could pull the trigger on. Now, it’s a matter of if he truly believes that the offer is the absolute best he can get, or if he thinks Miller will be worth more at midnight on February 24. Another hurdle to potentially jump is the fact that Heatley does have a No Movement Clause in his contract which could cause a snag in this deal. That’s something to keep an eye on, and could become a deal killer should he not consent to the deal. We should know later today.
Buffalo is set to have a morning skate in Pittsburgh this morning. We’ll see if Miller is on the ice when the time comes.
More to come.
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Michael Straw is a freelance sports journalist based in Buffalo, NY who has covered the Buffalo Sabres for four years. His work has been featured on WGR-550AM-Buffalo and Yahoo’s Puck Daddy blog. You can follow Michael for the latest NHL news and rumors on Twitter @TheMikeStraw
