Daniel O’Regan will be assigned to the Rochester Americans.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The NHL Trade Deadline has passed and Buffalo will welcome one new player into the organization: forward Daniel O’Regan.
Sabres general manager Jason Botterill acquired O’Regan, a conditional first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for forward Evander Kane.
The status of the first-round pick is contingent on the Sharks either re-signing Kane during the offseason or winning the Stanley Cup this spring. If neither of those conditions are met, it becomes a second-round pick in 2019.
The Sharks have the option to push the fourth-round pick in 2019 to the third round in 2020.
Here’s what you need to know.
On O’Regan
O’Regan has appeared in a career-high 19 NHL games with the Sharks in his second professional season in 2017-18, tallying four assists.
Last season, in his first professional season with the San Jose Barracuda, he earned the Red Garrett Award as the AHL rookie of the year with a team-high 58 points (23+35) in 63 games.
The Berlin, Germany native (who grew up in Needham, Mass.) has totaled five points (1+4) through 22 NHL games in two seasons with San Jose, adding 83 points (30+53) in 94 AHL games.
Prior to beginning his professional career, O’Regan played four seasons at Boston University, totaling 154 points (66+88) in 154 games. He was linemates with Jack Eichel and Evan Rodrigues during the 2014-15 season. They were 1-2-3 in team scoring with Eichel winning the Hobey Baker Award that year.
Here’s what Jason Botterill had to say about the trade.
“We are very impressed with his skill level, certainly his hockey sense,” Botterill said. “You look at last year, the success he had at the American Hockey League, we think he’s ready to make the jump here.
“We’ve tried to build Rochester up to have a winning environment down there. He’ll certainly help them there down the run and we’re hopeful that, once he gets into our organization and plays some games, he’ll be in the mix for a call-up.”
On the trade, Botterill said that they had one “legitimate offer” for Kane.
“We certainly had a lot of interest, a lot of discussion with different teams,” Botterill said. “The bottom line is we had one legitimate offer for Evander, and that’s why we worked off of it with San Jose.”
His willingness to trade players with term stems from the same hard truth that convinced him to trade Kane rather than pursue an extension. The current mix of players, he said, has not worked
“I’m not putting the blame all on Evander Kane,” he said. “There’s a lot of blame to go around – coaching staff, management, players – we have to be better in certain situations. The bottom line is the mix that we have right now was not working, so we had to make adjustments.
“So yes, Evander Kane was [traded] because we were able to get some assets back that were very helpful for our organization. Throughout the summer here, spring and summer, we’ll be making more adjustments to help our organization.”
When it comes to the spring and summer, Botterill will be (among other things), looking at signing college free agents, the NHL Draft on June 23 in Dallas, and the opening of unrestricted free agency on July 1.