NHL Trade Deadline: Buffalo Sabres Made a Great Move in Dealing Jason Pominville

While the 2013 NHL trade deadline day may have started out fairly slowly, the afternoon saw a flurry of deals take place, including a major trade between the Buffalo Sabres and Minnesota Wild.

After what has been an incredibly frustrating season for the Sabres, they continued to sell off some of their most valuable assets.

Indeed, according to the Associated Press (via the Globe and Mail), the team reached an agreement to send captain Jason Pominville to the Minnesota Wild for a first-round draft selection in a deep 2013 draft, as well as two highly touted prospects and a second-round draft pick in 2014.

With the team struggling to gain any kind of traction in 2013, GM Darcy Regier decided that it was time for him to start rebuilding his team.

Trading Jason Pominville (no easy task for Regier, I'm sure) is a great place to start.

Not only did Regier get two valuable draft selections between the 2013 and 2014 NHL entry drafts, but he also added two excellent prospects in Johan Larsson (who instantly becomes one of the Sabres' best offensive prospects) and Matt Hackett (who becomes the Sabres' top goaltending prospect, according to HockeysFuture.com).

Picking up Hackett also gives Buffalo the flexibility to pull the trigger on dealing Ryan Miller, who has been the face of the Sabres' organization for quite some time now, this offseason.

With Jhonas Enroth showing he's a capable NHL netminder and Hackett being one of the young goalies out there, Buffalo could very well find a way to move Miller at or ahead of the 2013 entry draft for another first-round pick (and some prospects to boot).

Moving Pominville for such a big return at the deadline (with one of those pieces being a good, young goalie) shows why the Sabres should trust in Darcy Regier and allow him to be the one to rebuild this struggling Sabres team.

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