{"id":930878,"date":"2026-10-13T01:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T01:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930878\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T01:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T01:02:09","slug":"sabres-trade-ryan-johnson-to-penguins-for-caleb-jones-daniel-laaatsch-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930878\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres Trade Ryan Johnson To Penguins For Caleb Jones, Daniel Laaatsch \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins have come together on a trade involving three defensemen<\/a>. Buffalo has sent Ryan Johnson<\/a> to Pittsburgh in exchange for Caleb Jones<\/a> and Daniel Laatsch<\/a>. All three players are currently assigned to the minor leagues.<\/p>\n

This move will notably mark the end of Johnson\u2019s time in the Sabres organization. Buffalo selected Johnson with the 31st-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. He followed the draft with four seasons at the University of Minnesota, where he stood out as a two-way defender. Johnson turned pro ahead of the 2023-24 season. He began the year in the minor-leagues but earned a call-up after just 23 games, and six assists, with the Rochester Americans.<\/p>\n

Johnson went on to split time between the NHL and AHL rosters during his rookie season, closing the year with seven points in 41 games with Buffalo and nine points in 29 games in Rochester. He struggled to find his spot at the top flight \u2013 prompting Buffalo to assign Johnson to the minors for the entirety of the 2024-25 season. His only taste of NHL action came during a three-game stint in December, where Johnson went without any scoring. That pattern repeated itself lasat year, with Johnson beginning the year on the NHL roster but being assigned to the minors after three games and no scoring.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Johnson has accumulated 41 points in 153 AHL games through four years in the pros. He is still waiting for a pop \u2013 an upside bet that the Penguins will now bet on while lightening a crowded AHL blue line.<\/p>\n

In return, Buffalo will receive a more established defender in the 29-year-old Jones. The 2015 fourth-round pick became a full-time pro just two years after his draft and earned a routine NHL role in 2019. His career-year came three years later, when Jones racked up 16 points and 40 penalty minutes in 73 games with the Chicago Blackhawks \u2013 all career-highs. While most of his career has been spent split between an NHL extra defender role, and the top of the AHL lineup, Jones has still managed 56 points and 90 penalty minutes in 255 NHL games. He should offer the Sabres a capable challenger for Zach Metsa<\/a>\u2019s role as extra defender. Jones\u2019 addition will also add depth as Buffalo deals with a day-to-day injury to captain Rasmus Dahlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Buffalo will retain a glimmer of upside with the 24-year-old Laatsch, who has had much of his last two seasons limited by injury. He sustained a torn labrum that required surgery during his senior season at the University of Wisconsin in 2024-25, holding his year to just five points in 22 games. The Penguins signed the 2021 seventh-round draft pick at the end of that season, setting him up for a move to the pros last year. He made his professional debut with the ECHL\u2019s Wheeling Nailers in October 2025, marking his first game in roughly 10 months. He was called up to the AHL lineup soon after \u2013 but sustained undisclosed injuries in November and December that limited him until the Spring. In total, Laatsch scored 11 points in 29 ECHL games and three points in 10 AHL games during his rookie year. The Sabres will hope a move to the East Coast will spur good health for the first time in two seasons \u2013 though Laatsch has yet to play a game this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins have come together on a trade involving three defensemen. Buffalo has sent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6066,741,49,37413,48,319690,448,753,14116,45346,224054,82,4584],"class_list":["post-930878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ahl","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-ca","tag-caleb-jones","tag-canada","tag-daniel-laatsch","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-players","tag-rasmus-dahlin","tag-ryan-johnson","tag-sports","tag-transactions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}