We just learned that the Buffalo Sabres almost ruined the Jonathan Drouin trade

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Jeff Drouin
June 10, 2022 (6:18 PM)

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are just one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season with a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Final on Thursday night.

Jon Cooper's team owes a debt of gratitude to defenseman Mikhail Sergachev for the win, who scored the tying goal and also set up the winning goal late in the third period.

But did you know that Sergachev almost didn't end up with the Lightning?

And here, I'm not talking about the famous transaction that had sent him from the Canadiens to Tampa Bay for a certain Jonathan Drouin in June 2017.

As reported by my colleague Keven Mawn of Fanadiens.com, the Lightning defenseman almost ended up with the Buffalo Sabres in the 2016 draft.

On the 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek discussed Sergachev and confirmed that the Sabres came close to selecting him in the first round that year.

"When I go back and look at my notes, the two players who were approached by the Sabres on the day of the first round were Nylander and Sergachev. Tim Murray was the GM. The European head scout was Anders Forsberg and he selected Erik Karlsson, Robin Lehner, Mika Zibanejad. He also managed William Nylander with MODO. They already knew a lot about Swedish prospects. Anyway, the main thing is that Forsberg put a lot of pressure on drafting Nylander and that's why they (Sabres) took him."

In the end, the Sabres' choice settled on Alexander Nylander, William's brother, with the eighth overall pick and the Habs selected Sergachev with the next selection.

But imagine if the Sabres had chosen Sergachev instead of Nylander. The Jonathan Drouin trade would probably never have happened and would have been wasted.

Perhaps the story would have been very different for the Lightning organization, as they would not have been able to acquire Sergachev in return for Jonathan Drouin.

And it must be said that this trade has turned out significantly in the Lightning's favor for the past few years. While Sergachev has established himself as a defensive stalwart in Tampa Bay, the same cannot be said for Drouin, who has been injured more often than not over the past three years.

In your opinion, is this Marc Bergevin's worst trade during his time with the Habs?