Lyons' Look: How does the offseason look for the Buffalo Sabres?

So the season is over. It was a fun ride for the Sabrehood, but all good things come to an end. After processing the Game 7 loss on Monday, it is time to look ahead to what the offseason will look like for the Sabres.

Lots of money, lots of decisions

Going into the offseason, the Sabres are projected to have just under $13 million in cap space to spend in the offseason.

The team has a lot of money to play with, but with that comes a lot of decisions. Starting with the elephant in the room, what should the Sabres do with Alex Tuch?

I have been on team do not re-sign Tuch all year and after the series against Montreal, my position has solidified. Tuch is 30 and while he is still good, he will be passing his prime sooner, rather than later.

The rumors are that Tuch wants around $12 million on his next contract. To cough up 92.3% of your remaining cap to an aging player is insane, no matter if he grew up a Sabres fan.

There are countless examples of players signing mega deals around the age of 30 just for them to blow up in the teams' face (see Ville Leino and Kyle Okposo). Tuch is only going to be a 70ish point player for two, maybe three more years and with him wanting an eight year deal, the contract is going to be awful by year three, or four.

With the Sabres youth movement actually showing promise for once in the last 15 years, the team can replace Tuch from within for much cheaper.

Speaking of the youth movement, Zach Benson needs to sign an extension as soon as he is eligible to.

Benson was by far the Sabres best player in the playoffs and showed a lot of improvement in the regular season. He will never be a huge point scorer, but if he can average 40-50 points and be a defensive monster, he will be well worth a lucrative extension.

Noah Östlund and Jiri Kulich will also be up for extensions soon and they have also proved they earned it. In only three games in the playoffs, Östlund proved how valuable he is to the team. So, to lock him up now before his value rises any higher, would be a smart move.

Kulich is a little different. He missed the entire year with a blood clot and even though he is healthy and back skating again, blood clots are difficult to come back from. Kulich has proved in his NHL experience that he will be a good asset for the team, so while Kulich continues to recover, a bridge contract should be in order.

Benson, Östlund and Kulich will not come cheap, so the Sabres need to shed some money.

Who needs to go?

First to go is obviously Jordan Greenway. As much heart as he has, he is not good enough to be on a true cup contender. I am sure you could trade him to a team near the cap floor for future considerations, but you could also buy him out to save $2.6 million instantly.

Another contender to save money is Josh Norris. He can be good, but he is way too injury prone and vanished in the playoffs. Reportedly at the deadline, Norris was someone the Blues wanted from the Sabres in return for Robert Thomas. If that is in any way true, the Sabres need to add whatever else the Blues want for him. Either way, getting Norris off the team in any way saves almost $8 million.

Jack Quinn is another whose time should be up in Buffalo. He had a good season and played well in the playoffs, but it is just time for him to go. There are better options in the Sabres system and frankly, Quinn makes too many bone-headed decisions for me to want to see him back. Lots of teams would pay a few assets to get him and with him gone you save $3.3 million.

Michael Kesselring is a Sabre who is almost certainly gone. He is a restricted free agent and was healthy scratched for most of the season and was jumped on the depth chart by Logan Stanley, Luke Schenn and Zach Metsa. One can assume he is not happy with his deployment and with the Sabres having one of the best top four defense cores in the league, they can afford to trade Kesselring.

Justin Danforth is another who can easily be shipped off. He played four games for the team, before suffering a season-ending injury. He did not have a real place on the team before his injury and he certainly does not have one now. Someone will take him, giving the Sabres another $1.8 million to spend.

Filling out the roster

Hypothetically, the Sabres will make at least one of the moves I mentioned and with Jarmo Kekäläinen being a general manager known for making crazy moves, I could see a big shakeup coming.

The number one goal for the Sabres this offseason is to fix the center depth. The team was third worst in the league in the face-off dot, with an abysmal 49.73% in the regular season.

With Norris always injured, Tage Thompson not being a true center, Ryan McLeod not being a full-time top six center, the team desperately needs a center who can win face-offs that is not a fourth liner.

Thomas would be the best option and with there not being any top six centers on the market, you have to make a big push for him.

The Sabres do have Konsta Helenius who was tremendous in the playoffs, but he is only 20 and you would be betting a lot on a player with little NHL experience.

The point still stands that someone needs to be brought in down the middle, even if you keep Norris.

Defensively, the team is solid. As long as the team does not bring back Stanley, or Schenn, they can find any run of the mill sixth defenseman.

The Sabres also need to sort out the goalie situation. It is an extremely hard call to make and all I will say about it is that I am glad that I am not the one making the decision.

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