Sabres have zero reason to make this trade

True they can make NO changes and remain a .500 team. I might change the pick to Vancouver's 2025 2nd for a little less retention.

Krebs seems to be embracing his role as a bottom 6 center, just need him to get better at it. The Sabres don't view him as a bust, they have many players to provide offense. Garland doesn't hold much interest at all for me, we have a ton of undersized skill forwards coming, even at 3.5m Garland isn't an appealing add for us. I would think somebody would have use for Garland at 3.5, but the winger market may be weaker than you'd like.

It makes Buffalo better and gives them a better pick. That would be two reasons

This is such a bs comment. Sabres are much better than a 500 team and they'll prove it.
Garland doesn't help them right now or in the long term. Krebs is younger, cheaper, and has a much better upside.

It gives them a marginally better mid round pick but it doesn't make them better

Garland is a much better player than Krebs. Upgrading from Krebs to Garland makes Buffalo better

Unless Garland is a defensive center, this isn't true. We have many good young wingers coming up, on elcs. It's not whether Garland is going to outscore Krebs, its whether buffalo would rather have benson, savoie, kulich, and rosen (who are on elcs) than Garland at 3.5m on the wing, while at the same time leaving us short a bottom 6 center.

Terrible trade for Buffalo.