dudacek

Adams very baldly said he has the framework of a deal (deals?) with a team in place that the other team was not ready to pull the trigger on because they want to hang on to said player now for a playoff run. Cap compliance won't be an issue. Somebody somewhere will always want to take your money. He will be our 9th NHL rostered defenceman when he signs.

And immediately called back up. This was a paper move to make them eligible for an Amerks playoff run. The Sabres have one more non-emergency call-up allowed. Also have 8 NHL defencemen on the roster. EDIT: and remember we all expect Power to be the 9th. There was no reason to hang on to Miller.

Pretty clear Hagg was the exception to the "not trading for peanuts" philosophy in order to create space for Power

@PASabreFan has to be thrilled about how much emphasis Adams is putting on the final 19 games.

Maybe. But all the spacve we had this season has been squandered and it's not coming back. As little as it might be, any value Pysyk, Miller and Eakin may have had is restricted to 20 games (likely less) of possible "culture" benefits. Anderson and Hinostroza should at least help a bit on the ice. Anyone hoping to get an extended look at Quinn or Peterka or Johnson or Levi or Portillo down the stretch should probably forget it. I wonder if the same might be said for Fitz and Samuelsson.

I think it was a minor fail that the Sabres did not move out any expiring contract save Hagg. I think it was a major fail that the Sabres have been effectively below the cap floor the entire season and did not use any of that considerable asset to improve the team for this season or the future.

I don’t want to belabour what is not really a huge deal, but keeping Butcher, Pysyk and Miller in Buffalo while sending down Mule Fitzpatrick and Power won’t help the players, and won’t help the Sabres.

Keeping Colin Miller is not going to help Mule or Fitz or Power or Johnson. On the contrary.

If you valued Miller at a 2nd and the market says he’s worth a 5th, your evaluations suck. The logic has merit with players like Eichel. Miller is a 3rd tier expiring contract.

Salary laundering does not seem to be a thing this year. Those are pretty complicated deals to drop last minute, but I guess we will see.

If he doesn’t sell Eakin it’s because nobody wanted him. If he doesn’t sell Hinostroza or Anderson it’s because they were more valuable to the stretch run than the offers were to the rebuild. If he doesn’t sell Miller, it’s an out-and-out failure. We don’t need him, there should be a market, but no one is going to overpay. And no one is going to respect Adams less because he stood firm on a 2nd when no one offered more than a 5th. Colin Miller is not a player you draw a line in the sand on.

They can be, but this is hardly an example. Dahlin had a rough two-week stretch and people overreacted to a handful of high-profile blunders in back-to-back games. He was good to start the season prior to that stretch and - other than that blip - his play has been steadily improving basically since Krueger got fired. The number of bad hockey takes in November was embarrassing and saying that “Dahlin sucks” should be the default view until “games count” is another example.

I'd rather not trade from the Dahlin, Power, Jokiharju, Samuelsson, Levi, Portillo, Cozens, Quinn, Peterka, Krebs group until their values and roles become more established, unless they are being traded for someone who adds to that group. Mayfield would be a fine add, but he is not that.

That's someone I could see Adams being interested in.

Not arguing your point. Food for thought: in Makar's rookie season he was 21, the same age Dahlin is now.

Canes, Rangers, Pens, Caps, Preds, Wild, Knights,Stars, Kings, Oilers… Still plenty of quiet teams in a race, and pretty tight to the cap. More shoes to drop.

This isn’t a question to me. Quinn is a big part of the Sabres future and already has it. The only way Power takes 22 from Quinn is if Quinn lets him. Power’s other number (Team Canada) is 25, which is also taken, but by R2, a player with a much more tenuous Sabres future. That is more interesting. Personally, I’d love to see Power grab 5, or even 3 or 6 - great defencemen numbers. Ideally, he’d be 2, but that door has been closed (wrongly, IMO, but that’s another discussion).

So Miller was bad in Vegas because his points slipped in his last 27 games there, you compared him to Nate Beaulieu, and his defence sucked in Buffalo. Got it.

So he won’t be available for tonight’s game?

He had 29 points in 65 games in his last Knights season and was an analytics darling when we acquired him. The price of a 2nd and a 5th was generally considered fair. “Bad” does not describe Miller’s play on Vegas. “Bad” describes Carter Hutton’s play in Buffalo.

You didn’t respond when I asked earlier. In your mind is the current run of 5-3 against teams in playoff races the equivalent of the 4/28 record they put up the three previous Marches combined?

It is a significant birthday for my significant other. There will be no Sabres for me today.

Miller averaged nearly 40 points per 82 games in Vegas and was a contributor in a Stanley Cup final run. You have weird definitions of bad.

What the hell does Florida even have left in their asset pool? Im betting this is for a 4th.

Embarrassed the previous night, then moving on to one of the toughest arenas in the league. Should have been a lot more pressure in Calgary. Add the trade deadline as a pressure point for the UFAs equal to “make the team” as the preseason bubble players.