from Mike Harrinton of the Buffalo News,

All the talk this week has been about prospects and there was plenty more Sunday. But the most interesting nugget from the GM was this one: Don’t sleep on the Sabres landing Chicago defenseman Johnny Oduya.

Buffalo still needs another quality left-shot blueliner and there’s plenty of chatter it put in a big free-agent offer to Oduya on July 1. To this point, it seems like Oduya, 33, would prefer to stay with the Blackhawks. But even after Friday’s big trade of Patrick Sharp to Dallas, the Hawks are still jammed by the salary cap.

At some point, you would think Oduya would tell the Hawks, who already unloaded Brandon Saad to Columbus, to make a firm decision about keeping him or he’s moving on. Chicago, however, seems intent on taking care of forward Marcus Kruger’s deal first. Outside Chicago, Oduya’s most likely landing place is Buffalo or perhaps Boston.

Oduya’s last deal with Chicago was for three years and $10.125 million, so he’s going to expect a raise to at least $4 million a season, and maybe closer to $5 million. Murray isn’t big on free agency and is very picky about the ones he goes after. For him to flat-out say Sunday he had not moved on from Oduya was significant.

Oduya played three years with Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian in Atlanta and Winnipeg. Think there’s been some conversation there about what’s going on in Buffalo? Uh-huh.

read on for more on the Sabres...