Drag0nDan

They also traded hall, staal, and montour and none of them won anything. Bogo went to the best team in the league, and Hasek went to a loaded wings team that loaded up once they acquired him.

yeah... thats a fair statement. Depends on FA and Sam honestly. But for now it'd be him or Ruotsolainen i guess.

Best shot on the team, and can be made less of a liability with fewer 5x5 minutes on a 3rd or 4th energy style line. If he's not on the top 6, and playing less than the defensive line - his production of like 15-20 PP points and 10-20 ES points doesn't look bad. The team needs a real net front presence and someone to play along the wall where eichel lived to create a solid PP1 unit. Honestly to me its the same reason you just play okposo and send eakin down. There is no buyout need since there is no inherent need for cap space. If you get down to the wire and need a bit of space you can free it up, but i'm not doing it just to do it. Really depends what salary comes back in any of these trades too.

Yeah - cap space isn't that useful when you have no players to sign/extend. Skinner's contract will suck more when you're trying to extend the young players on long term deals... and that is along the timeline of when you can probably buy him out if you need cap space.

Sort of like what Duchene did in Colorado.

For a while there i thought it was just poor usage. Tons of PK time, tons of time against other teams top lines. But when they paired him with Bryson last year he just looked bad, no matter who he was playing against.

I mean... that's probably the buffalo timeline if they dump their best 2 players.

I felt the same way. However there's a few things that are important to note I think they used what, 4 different goalies across that time period? They did this after moving - Hall, Staal, Montour, Lazar. This was with Eichel on the shelf. McCabe was gone. Okposo played pretty well under DG and got hurt. Sam was playing great under him, so I wonder if he considers sticking around for a bit. That was a really injured, inexperienced, bad team playing mostly competitive hockey.

So did Reinhart. Hell - so did Okposo 😆

Kinda did the same with Jerry Richardson and the carolina panthers.

I know buffalo tried to find that stay at home guy a few different times with kulikov and gorges, they just work out. Injuries, skating, fit - none of it worked. I think Buffalo had a guy like that in McCabe - but risto is just too inconsistent to be paired there. You don't need like, a skater like dahlin next to him but you need someone who can make accurate breakout passes and quick decisions. Risto isn't particularly good at either. Gone are the days of the tallinder/lydman pairing.

I know you're being sarcastic but when i read this sentence i thought - ah yes, the era of playoff hockey... remember that?

Fasching is 25 now with 3 points... another GMTM swing and a miss. Lehner and legwands expiring for a 1st. Bogosians huge contract. 3rd for vesey's rights. Pysyk for kulikov.

My issue with trading 1 overall for a roster player - the team isn't 1 player away. Even with a healthy(ish?) jack to start the year, taylor hall, staal, etc. this was a below .500 team. After they fired Krueger, they were still a below .500 team. The team has huge holes at goalie, and depending what they get back in trades - center. Bloated contracts on the wings that they can't really get out of. It's also not a free agent destination. So turning over the roster almost has to happen through trades and drafting.

I mean - put yourself in KA's shoes. You basically get one shot to reshape and one shot at a HC. Go to war with the guy you want.

Buffalo's tried pretty much everything and it didn't work out. College coach - Rolston - Fail. Coach with history - Nolan - Fail Cup winning pedigree - bylsma - fail Former player assistant - housley - fail. Outside the box thinker/european - RK - fail I don't know that anyone should be ruled out because they fit a certain profile - because i feel like every single hire has failed regardless of pedigree.

This is why i trust other peoples opinions more than my own. I don't watch nearly enough non-sabre/non-NHL games to form an opinion around prospects. You specifically remember another 3rd round pick (from several years ago) that you wish Buffalo should've taken. Is Farrance good?

He was like unwilling to trade people. Does Laaksonen look like a player? Feels like we waited like a year too long to trade montour.

We can always move other players - but that is a lot of lefties on defense Dahlin, Bryson, Samuelsson, Johnson, and Power. 3 of those are 21 and under so you almost would have to move someone. Do we anticipate johnson coming to buffalo this year?

Only a sabre deals in absolutes...

While he might end up playing in 2021-2022, I don't think his impact is going to be tremendous to drive a team through the playoffs or something. If there's no long term effects, its meaningless as he's only 18.

Who are the miller and biron in this situation?

Is cap room even an issue at this point? Okposo also had 10 points in his last 15 games after getting off the eakin black hole line - before matt irwin blasted a slapper off his face.

Straight up? It'd be a bad trade. There's no term on those goalies.

I don't think you're getting a top 5 prospect in the NHL. I think its likely - a top 5 prospect on the team, a roster center, a 1st round pick or two, and probably another roster player to make dollars work for a year.