The Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to a three-player defensive swap. Ryan Johnson moves to Pittsburgh in the deal, with Caleb Jones and Daniel Laatsch heading to Buffalo in return. All three players are currently placed on minor-league rosters.
The transaction brings Johnson's time with the Sabres organisation to a close. Buffalo selected him with pick 31 in the 2019 NHL Draft. He spent four seasons at the University of Minnesota, where his play on both sides of the ice drew consistent attention from coaches and defenders.
Johnson entered professional competition ahead of the 2023-24 season. He opened that year at the minor-league level, posting six assists across 23 games with the Rochester Americans before earning a promotion to the parent club. Across his debut campaign, Johnson split time between Buffalo and Rochester, finishing with seven points in 41 NHL appearances and nine more in 29 outings with the AHL affiliate.
With Johnson unable to secure a permanent roster spot at the NHL level, Buffalo assigned him to the minors for the full 2024-25 campaign. His only top-level action that season came across three games in December, during which he did not register a point. The following year followed a similar pattern — a roster spot to begin the season, three games without a goal, and a return assignment to the minors. Johnson, now 25, has accumulated 41 points across 153 AHL appearances over four professional seasons.
Jones, 29, arrives in Buffalo with an established track record at the NHL level. Selected in the fourth round of the 2015 draft, he transitioned into professional hockey within two years and had secured an NHL roster spot by 2019. Three seasons later, Jones posted career-high figures across 73 appearances in a Chicago Blackhawks uniform — 16 points and 40 penalty minutes, both representing the highest marks of his professional career to that point.
Over 255 NHL appearances, Jones recorded 56 points and 90 penalty minutes while dividing his time between a depth defensive role at the top level and a frontline position in the AHL. His addition also provides Buffalo with roster depth at a time when captain Rasmus Dahlin is being managed through a day-to-day injury.
Laatsch's final season at the University of Wisconsin was limited to 22 appearances and five points across the 2024-25 campaign following a torn labrum that required surgical repair. Pittsburgh, which selected him in the seventh round of the 2021 draft, signed the player once that season concluded, opening a path toward professional competition. He returned to the ice in October 2025 with the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers, his first game action in close to ten months.
A promotion to the AHL roster followed shortly afterward, though two separate injury stints — one in November and another in December, both undisclosed in nature — kept him off the ice for much of the season before he returned in the spring. Across his debut professional season, Laatsch recorded 11 points in 29 ECHL appearances and added three more across 10 AHL outings. He has not appeared in a game during the current season.
