Sabres trade JJ Peterka to Utah as part of three-player deal
The forward from Munich, Germany, is coming off a strong offensive season, scoring 27 goals with 41 assists for a career-best 68 points.
Another young member of the Buffalo Sabres' core is gone. JJ Peterka is headed west.
The Sabres forward was traded to the Utah Mammoth late Wednesday night for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan. DailyFaceoff.com's Frank Seravalli first reported the deal.
The news of the trade involving the 23-year-old winger comes after Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams tried to douse rumors of the move when he met with reporters Tuesday in Orchard Park in advance of the NHL Draft, which begins Friday in Los Angeles.
Buffalo Sabres right wing JJ Peterka (77) controls the puck in the third period of their NHL hockey game against the New Jersey Devils at KeyBank Center on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025.
Adams said the Sabres’ exit interviews with Peterka in the spring were “very positive, productive, honest conversations.”
Yet when directly asked if Peterka had asked to be traded, Adams didn’t move into specifics.
“I don’t think it’s probably productive or beneficial to me to get into specifics on our players right now,” Adams said. “This is the time of year when there’s so much going on, and there’s probably a lot of misinformation out there, and I guess I probably will leave it at that.”
Adams didn’t say no, either.
A little more than 36 hours after making those statements, Peterka is on his way out of Buffalo, after four seasons with the Sabres. As part of the deal, Peterka agreed to a 5-year contract extension worth $7.7 million annually.
The forward from Munich, Germany, is coming off a strong offensive season, scoring 27 goals with 41 assists for a career-best 68 points. Peterka’s production significantly improved in the final 25 games, as he scored 12 goals and 27 points in that span, with a plus-4 rating.
Kesselring, 25, is a 6-foot-5 right-shot defenseman who gives the Sabres a new option to play next to Owen Power on Buffalo's second pair. He had seven goals, 22 assists and a plus-4 rating for Utah last season.
Doan, the son of former Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan, scored seven goals with 12 assists and was a minus-2 in 51 games with Utah. He just completed his second professional season, and split 2024-25 between the Mammoth and the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League, scoring 11 goals with 15 assists and 22 penalty minutes in 28 games.
Both returning players are signed through next season, with Kesselring at a cap hit of $1.4 million and Doan at $925,000.
“One of our priorities as we work through this offseason is making our team more competitive and tougher to play against," Adams said in a team statement early Thursday morning. "The additions of Michael and Josh will help us tremendously in both of those categories and I am excited to see them in a Sabres uniform soon.
"Michael fits the mold of the right-handed defensemen we have been looking for, and we are thrilled he brings both size and compete. We believe he will help add balance to our blue line while elevating the rest of the 'D' corps. Josh is a player that has shown the ability to win at multiple levels and brings great leadership pedigree to our organization. He’s a strong two-way player who we believe will be able to provide versatility to our group.”
Peterka's first season under coach Lindy Ruff was productive but also a difficult one at times.
Peterka hit January with just 10 goals and 26 points in the Sabres' first 36 games and dealt with the impacts of a concussion suffered in Buffalo's second game in Prague against New Jersey.
He also drew the ire of Ruff at times for his lax play in the defensive zone and some of his analytics reflect that. The Sabres, for instance, gave up 54.8% of the scoring chances when Peterka was on the ice at 5 on 5, and 56.5% of the high-danger chances. But Peterka's play improved at both ends of the ice as the season went on, particularly over the final 20 games.
As a restricted free agent, Peterka was in line for a huge salary increase from his entry-level deal that had him playing for a cap hit of just $855,833 last season. And while the Sabres were seemingly prepared to move to a deal in the range of $6-7 million per season that he eventually signed with Utah, Peterka never seemed enthusiastic about moving forward with Buffalo.
He was often sullen in the locker room last season and admitted to reporters during his exit interview in April that he knew he needed to improve his body language on the ice as well.
Rumors exploded about a Peterka deal in March at the trade deadline, with particularly interest being shown by the New York Rangers, but the Sabres insisted they were not shopping Peterka and only receiving calls.
That was the case early in the offseason as well until it became clear Peterka preferred a move. Peterka wasn't a high draft pick like Jack Eichel or Sam Reinhart, but he was yet another top-line player who preferred to leave Buffalo rather than stay.
Adams took Peterka with the No. 34 pick in the 2020 draft, trading picks 38 and 100 to San Jose to move up enough to grab a player they had a pegged with a first-round rating.
Peterka had a huge year in Rochester in 2021-22, scoring 28 goals and 68 points in the regular season and then added seven goals and five assists in 10 playoff games as the Amerks advanced to the North Division finals against Laval.
He became a full-time NHL player in 2022-23 under coach Don Granato with 12 goals and 20 assists in 77 games. His breakout campaign was in 2023-24 when he had 28 goals and 22 assists and improved his rating from minus-15 to plus-10.
