Last Sunday, Six Nations Brandon Montour was traded by the Anaheim Ducks for Brendan Guhle, a first-round draft pick, to the Buffalo Sabres.
Surrounding the trade, there is some unhappiness that the Sabres parted ways with Guhle, who was projected to be a part of the teams long-term future with his build, mobility and physical play on defence.
However, intrigue over Montours oncoming performance has subsided the initial unease as he has 21 games of invaluable playoff experience from his first two seasons in the NHL and his mobility and offence that are considered exceptional. Unlike Guhle, he is also more than capable of quarterbacking the power play.
Although not a perfect player and having some flaws with positioning, the Sabres General Manager Jason Botterill was delighted with the trade, saying: “Brandon is a young, offensive-minded defence-men who can play the uptempo style we are looking to play. He’s a right-shot defence-men that brings additional playoff experience to our club,” to The Buffalo News.
In addition, the Sabres have shown that they still believe they have a decent chance of making this season’s playoffs as well as offering the coaching needed for Montour to mesh. With a couple of impressive performances against the Tampa Bay Lightening and Washington Capitals, they sit six points out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a game in hand.
In 62 games, Montour has earned 25 points and was selected in the second round of the 2014 National Hockey League Draft. The former Brantford Golden Eagle also has 16 goals and 47 assists in 169 career NHL games as a defence-men, and was expected to be in the Sabres lineup on Tuesday versus Philadelphia.
As stated by Knoxx III, a sabre is a weapon carried by a leader that could be used effectively on both offence and defence, which could be used as a comparison to how Montour had played in his time with Anaheim in the past.
