dudacek

Agreed, but the Avs already knew of the Sabres interest in Byram. Adams made it clear they had inquired about him going back to the Eichel trade.

And as Byram’s biggest defender around here, I’m not going to argue this point. It’s what I saw too, at least after the first 5 games or so. I don’t think it was a coincidence that his struggles happened not when he first arrived and was just playing, but later when he was trying to learn and adapt to Granato’s system. I’m choosing to give more weight to his talent and his overall body of work and crossing my fingers a training camp under Ruff will address that. He wasn’t drafted with a reputation for poor defence and that wasn’t his reputation in Colorado.

Either that or, as the earlier quote implies, they identified targets to fix their 2C hole, called Adams, and were told “I’d consider trading him, but only under these conditions.” Either way, it’s a far cry from Adams deciding he wasn’t going to re-sign Casey and was determined to dump him on the highest bidder.

Also, indications are that the Avs came looking for Casey, not that the Sabres were shopping him to the highest bidder. The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun reported this conversation with the Avs GM: The Ryan Johansen experiment was a disaster, but credit to general manager Chris MacFarland for not being stubborn about it and fixing that mistake in-season. “It wasn’t working,” MacFarland told me on March 9, the day after the trade deadline, of the Johansen experiment. “And the 2C spot demanded attention to try and find a solution.” “The Sabres weren’t going to move Mittelstadt for picks or for an older player, and from our standpoint, we know how good Bo is, how good of a person he is, and if it wasn’t for (Devon) Toews and Makar, he would be a top-pairing guy, and would be on a lot of teams.” “But we weren’t going to move Bo for a 30-year-old center on an expiring deal, or a 30-year-old defenseman. It had to be a very specific situation,” added the Avs GM. “It had to be for a young, controllable center. This doesn’t completely contradict your take, but it certainly doesn’t support it. Maybe there are things not being said here. Maybe McFarland is lying, or Adams lied to McFarland, but until other information surfaces, I don’t think we’re going to get much closer to what really went down than this.

Roster-wise, Montreal is in a pretty good position to put Laine in a position to succeed and it doesn't really cost them anything but money. I like this deal for both teams.

I don’t think personnel is going to be an issue. Dahlin and Tage are back and they are guys you build a PP around. Tuch, Cozens, Peterka, Power and Benson were 2, 5, 6, 8, 10 in PP ice time and all have the ability to contribute. Skinner is the only guy gone from the first unit. In my view he was the unit’s weakest link because of poor passing and give and go skills, and his inability to screen goalies, tip pucks and score from distance. As far as I’m concerned, Quinn can score from in tight as well as Skinner can, and is a huge upgrade in the other areas of PP play. Casey was 7th in PP time and Okposo 9th. Byram and Zucker may be better respectively in their slots. The issue last year wasn’t personnel, it was deployment, and that’s what needs to be fixed.

Further to this, Lukkonen and Jokiharju were in the exact same contract situation as Mittelstadt this year. UPL, it appears, was in their long-term plans, but to our knowledge they never really got into serious talks until after the season and they certainly didn't get a deal done prior to the deadline. Jokiharju, it appears, was not in their long-term plans, but it seems they felt no pressure to trade him prior to the deadline.

Bottom 5 team means 75 points at best and likely quite a bit less. Why do you think this team is 10 points worse than last year and 20 worse than 2 years ago?

If you say so. I mean, your scenario is possible, but I'm not aware of any evidence that supports this. Casey was a pending RFA so the fact no contract talks had occurred is not evidence. There was no pressure whatsoever to make a deal at the deadline. Most RFAs in Casey's situation don't sign in-season. There is evidence that Adams was very much in the market for a top-4 offensive defenceman. He had a highly-publicized failed attempt to bring in Jakob Chychrun at the previous deadline. He also said he had been chasing Byram since the Eichel talks. Not evidence, I know, but as relevant as the lack of contract talks. It's pretty clear Adams viewed Casey as a non-core asset, but that's a far cry from someone he was going to avoid re-signing at all costs.

Myers did. Risto did not — took a jump at 22 and continued at the level for 4 years. Not going to repeat the research, but I'm pretty confident the Myers situation happens about as often as getting a Brayden Point in the 3rd round. Of course there are exceptions, but defencemen usually emerge between 22 and 25, and that tends to hold true regardless of whether they enter the league at 18 like Dahlin or 22 like Fox.

Or it’s just Occam’s razor: Adams felt he needed a top 4 D more than he needed a 2nd 2C. When one he liked became available, he traded Casey.

Do you really think Byram peaked at age 20 and his “decline” will continue? Byram’s numbers should include sample size and context and amount to this: 2 similar and pretty impressive seasons of 30 and 42 games cut short by injury, followed by a disappointing 55 games in Colorado prior to his trade. He was .5 P/G in Buffalo. I think Byram’s year last year should be looked at like the year his buddy Cozens had: a disappointment he can and should rebound from. Rasmus Dahlin went from .67 in year 3 to .41 in year 4. When Mittelstadt was around Byram’s age he was getting sent to the minors after 114 NHL games. If the kid is a competitor, bet on his talent. Byram competes. And he is more talented than Mittelstadt.

I don’t like the way Skinner plays and think he’s a poor fit for Lindy hockey. But I’ve never perceived him as a cancer. Cutting him in order to free up cap and roster space for a better fit made sense to me. Cutting him just to move on seems cheap and extraordinarily arrogant.

@nfreeman @SDS@spndnchz Somehow my Skinner Buyout and Big Picture threads got merged and the Buyout poll got lost. Not sure what happened. Is it fixable?

I like how Lindy put it: we have more situational tools. Skinner, Olofsson, Mittelstadt Okposo and Jost were 5 of our slowest players and except for Kyle also some of our softest. They’ve been replaced by Byram, McLeod, Aube-Kubel, Lafferty and Malenstyn, who will be 5 of our fastest players. The latter 3 will likely be our 3 hardest. We have lot more players we can trust to kill a penalty or protect a lead. It’s a dramatic shift which should change our team identity. Its pretty hard not to like it in a vacuum, but it sure puts a ton of pressure on the top 5 forwards to produce because there’s not a lot of offensive upside.

So I’m not completely alone around here. I love me some Jack Quinn, but I think it's kinda weird that Sabrespace has annointed Quinn a surefire stud this year after he put up 58 points In his first 104 games, but is lukewarm about Byram who has 72 in his first 161. Byram is just 3 months older and to my mind has a similar potential to pop. He plays fast and hard and I think he’s better defensively than last years numbers suggest. The team’s biggest need was a top 4 D and I think we got one just before he enters his prime. I like the concept of McLeod: the speed and his fancystats. I think this board overrates what he’s going to bring, but he will be better at protecting leads, transition and penalty killing than Casey was. The team is going to miss Casey’s playmaking, his puck possession and his ability to move up the lineup. And they’ll miss it even more if Cozens or Thompson gets hurt. I do think, however, that the fans are overlooking how some of Casey’s offence is going to be replaced by Byram. But they used two areas of strength to address 2 areas of weakness and the team is more complete and balanced as a result.

I’ve warmed to this one. It’s was hard initially to get over the “really, we’re going to be that predictable?” But I honestly can’t think of a better available match for this group of players at this time in their careers. New Jersey proved Lindy can still coach; the fast, hard game he prefers fits this collection of players; and he seem to be the right personality for this core at this time. Looking forward to seeing how the team responds, particularly Cozens, Krebs, Byram and Power.

Podkolzin was the 10th overall pick just 5 years ago. Holtz was the #7 four years ago and was traded for not much more. Neither had impressed but neither was a confirmed bust yet either. I guess “only a third” for Holloway is not as much of a good deal as I thought in today’s market, and a 2nd and more than $4M for Broberg (pick 8 in 2018) seems hefty considering an argument could be made that all 4 players are at a similar level. Puts a different light on the Savoie trade. The market for prospects is shifting.

I hadn't really thought of this too much but Girgensons/Skinner/Mittelstadt/Olofsson combined had never played a playoff game Lafferty's played 21, Zucker 52, Byram 27 and McLeod 56

This is what Adams has done since the trade deadline: Mitts -> McLeod Skinner -> Zucker Okposo -> Lafferty Girgensons -> Malenstyn Olofsson -> Aube-Kubel Erik Johnson -> Byram Comrie -> Reimer Granato -> Ruff [Plus it looks like Jost -> Gilbert in the final roster spot) Essentially, they’ve switched the coach and turned over about 1/3 of the roster, mostly in the bottom half. Did the Sabres get better? What still needs to be done?

The Sabres flushed long-time leaders Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons from their NHL roster along with Tyson Jost and Victor Olofsson. in their stead, they acquired of Beck Malenstyn, Nick Aube-Kubel and Sam Lafferty to round out the bottom half of their forward ranks. Those moves complemented how they brought in the more defensively oriented Jason Zucker and Ryan McLeod as middle 6 options over Jeff Skinner and Casey Mittelstadt. What do you think about the Sabres new look bottom six and what kind of impact will it have on the coming season?

The Sabres parted ways with their highest-paid player Jeff Skinner, deciding they were better off paying him $14M over the next 6 years to play elsewhere than keeping him on the roster for another 3 years for $22M. The team implied they were moving him off the top line and didn’t see Skinner as a good fit lower down the lineup. They signed Jason Zucker to a 1-year, $5M deal as his roster replacement and have yet to spend the money they saved under the cap by cutting him. What do you think about the decision to cut Jeff Skinner, and what kind of impact will it have on the coming season?

As last season slipped away, calls increased for Adams to dip into his rich store of futures and make a move to fix things. He eventually did, but not in dramatic fashion and not necessarily in the way people were thinking. Ultimately, the move came in 2 parts and effectively worked out to flipping Casey Mittelstadt and Matt Savoie for Bowen Byram, Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tullio. Looking at the two trades combined, what do you think of the moves and what kind of impact will they have on the coming season?

It seems like the heavy lifting of the summer is over and Adams has taken a number of steps to fix what was a very disappointing season. Now that you’ve had some time for things to settle in, what do you think about the decision to fire Don Granato and bring in Lindy Ruff, and what kind of impact will it have on the coming season?

I don’t think Adams is at “well, it’s feasible” I think Adams believes this group is a playoff team, not a bubble team. I think he’s bet his job on it. I wish I shared his confidence.