JohnC

I'm not suggesting that you are anti-Joki. That is not to say that I don't value him more highly than you might. I also believe that this 20 yr. old youngster has more potential to develop. My stance is that I wouldn't trade him for players such as Monahan, Johansson or Strome to assume the 2C slot. If one believes as I do that in the not too distant future Cozens has the ability to fill the 2C spot then it would make even less sense to trade Joki for the above listed players. With respect to Cirelli I definitely would be willing to trade Joki and a first round pick for the Tampa center with the condition that he will sign a deal with us. If not, then I would say no to a Cirelli deal.

If your trade scenario for Cirelli or Barzal was offered I would quickly make the deal with one qualification. Both of those players would have to be signed for the long term. If not, then I'm not making the deal.

We do have players on the defensive unit such as Montour and Risto that could be assets to bring back a return. Joki is a 20 year old player with upside that I believe will be at worst a second pairing caliber of player. Can he be a first pairing caliber of player? Maybe in another year or two??? I just don't see him being moved. This is going to be a very long offseason for the Sabres. Let's see how prominently his name gets mentioned in proposed deals. I just don't see it.

Your response captures what must of us feel about this team. Many of us are both skeptical and hopeful. That's an unsettling mix. Will the Sabres make a few smart moves that will better balance out the roster and make it more competitive? Will the younger players make the expected/hopeful progression? I wasn't as harsh a critic as most of the former GM with the drab personality. I thought he put the team in a good position with its cap situation and number of UFAs on the roster to be in a favorable position this offseason to make some deals to upgrade the roster? Now that he is gone will the younger and inexperienced replacement GM take the mantel and make enough smart moves to make this team a genuine playoff team? I'm offering up a lot of questions because it would be foolish to make positive assumptions that this organization will be smart about the decisions it will make this offseason. I may be gullible but I am hopeful.

Joki was 20 yrs old last year. How many defensemen that young can play as well as he did in this league? You can use stats in his rookie year to diminish his play. After watching him play last season it isn't a stretch to project that he is going to be better than a good player. His performance level is not static. In another couple to few years he is going to be an established second pairing player for us. For me he is a no touch player.

I respectfully but strenuously disagree with you about Joki. My opinion of him is off the charts. He is one of the most poised and consistent young defensemen that I have seen in a long time. He is smart and knows what his abilities are and doesn't stray beyond them. What impresses me the most is about him beyond his smooth skating is his intelligence on the ice. He rarely makes a wrong decision when he has the puck. (If Risto had his smarts he would be an all star.) Don't get caught up with a player being able to make dazzling plays and muscular hits. That's not who he is. This young guy is already a second pairing caliber of defenseman and quite possibly the most consistent defender on the unit. When Botterill traded Nylander to get him the GM should have been charged with felonious theft. In my unyielding view he is a no touch player!

Please take Joki and Cozens off of the list. There are going to be a number of desirable players on the market. So the Sabres will have options as to not only who they might acquire but also who they will have to deal in order to make the acquisitions. I'm very open to trading our #1 pick; I'm not open to trading the two aforementioned players.

The Sabres had the second worst rated PK in the league. Why was it so bad? Was the problem more related to the players or design of PK? I'm not making excuses because you are what you do. But this past season with an average to a little higher than average PK and with more consistent goaltending this team lost in the vicinity of eight to ten points in the standings. https://www.oddsshark.com/stats/defensivestats/hockey/nhl/penalty_kill_percentage

The hockey of today is not the hockey of yesterday. The team that has more talent and skilled players will usually prevail over the lunch bucket team. The well coached team with a balanced roster will prevail over the less talented and earnest team.

I have read a few breakdowns from a number of people that when taken from an overview perspective regarding the reconstruction of the roster what is obvious to me is that there are a menu of good options to work with. As others have frequently pointed out a number of teams will be capped stressed and forced to deal good players in order to retain some of their core players. Will this organization be creative enough and bold enough to take advantage of the situation? (Right now I believe that it is more likely than not that we deal our first round pick in order to make a substantial deal.) The most important office in the organization will be the pro scouting office. In my view we don't need a dramatic remake of the roster. If we can bring in two second line caliber of players that will also allow us to reconstruct the third line and make it a more contributing line for a team that desperately needs to spread out its scoring. I like Krueger a lot but I do have one concern about him which you intentionally or not alluded to in your comment about how he handled Dahlin. Krueger is a coach who believes in discipline and line coherence. Will he loosen up on the reigns for Dahlin and Skinner and allow them to play a little more freelance game? The player that I thought he stifled the most with his tight system was Skinner. He needs to allow him to play his sharpshooting and roaming game without harping on maintaining his positional responsibilities. Let's not forget that Krueger's coaching history in Europe with the Swiss team was that he was coaching less talented teams against demonstrably superior teams. In order to have a chance he needed his team to play a tight brand of hockey where the focus was more on preventing the other team from scoring rather than focus on your team's offense. I'm hoping that Krueger will adjust his mindset a tad. To his defense he was coaching a team last year that had a limited range of scorers. So I understand his conservative approach. I have said it before so I apologize for the redundancy. While we all are focusing on bringing in talent for our lines the most important player/s for us will be the goaltenders. If they in tandem can provide consistently solid play then that in itself will be a key ingredient to a successful season.

Were the people who invested in the hotel, airline and restaurant business smart enough to predict that there was gong to be a pernicious pandemic? The Pegulas were to an extent cashing out of the energy business and diversifying into other businesses. They were not able to see into the future like everyone else wasn't able to.

The issue isn't that ROR got traded. The issue is that he got traded in an imbalanced deal. It's obvious to me that this deal was forced before a reasonable deal could be made because the organization wasn't willing to wait for a better deal because it didn't want to pay him a bonus. ROR was tired of the losing and publicly expressed his frustration. Big freaking deal! So the response by the organization was to jettison a key player on the team and get less than value back. That makes no sense. That's like getting into a duel and before the count down is finished you shoot yourself in the foot. How smart is that? You can minimize how damaging this trade fiasco was but the reality is that this foolish transaction still haunts this troubled franchise because it is still trying to fill the void left by the departed player. So what is the lesson to be learned? Acting in a dumb manner is not a smart way to do business!

You are astute and perspicacious. What is made evident with your wise commentary is if this bedraggled franchise acts smartly and seizes the opportunities available in the market this team can be meaningfully improved. It's not about spending unwisely as it is about being judicious with your resources.

I agree with you. That was my point. I certainly understand why the organization, and most notably the owner, would be upset with a highly paid player who was soon to collect a sizeable bonus publicly expressing his unhappiness with the team he was on. However, by reacting too quickly to dispatch him before a fair-value deal could be worked out it ended up being an act of self-sabotage. It's not unfair to say that because of the two deals that I mentioned (the first round pick for Lenher and the ROR deal) this franchise was demonstrably set back. Instead of building on what it had it had to fill the holes that it dug.

AP's John Wawrow has not conclusively stated but has indicated that there were strong suggestions that the owner was not willing to pay the bonus and wanted the player moved out before the bonus payment.

I don't understand your response. Could you elaborate? This selection was a reasonable pick. That is not to say that the trade package made much sense. I have always felt that the ROR trade deal was influenced by the owner who wasn't willing to pay the bonus to the disgruntled player than it was by the GM. If the organization would have paid the bonus and then scanned the market the return for him would have been significantly greater.

Giving up that first round pick for a goalie that his former team wanted to move cost us a future second line player that the Sabres are now desperately searching for. Would a first round pick been worthy of the Islander's Lehner caliber of play after he addressed his mental health issues? I still say no. In addition, the ROR deal turned out to be a boondoggle that set this franchise back. If you combine just these two deals and consider the repercussions that resulted from those ill-conceived transactions you can see why smart organizations find a way to win and foolish organizations find a way to lose. The moral of the story is being patient and judicious is always better than being impatient and injudicious. If a fair-valued deal isn't there then don't force the issue. Just wait until a more favorable/balanced deal can be made. Common sense 101!

I'm not arguing to overpay him or anyone else. What you are not considering is that he was hurt last year, and when he finally returned to action he wasn't fully healthy. I don't know what his contract average will be but if it is a short term deal hovering around what you suggest ($3.5 to what I think he will get $3.75-4.00) then I would consider that a fair compensation. The Sabres had a number of structural deficiencies. One of the most damaging and obvious deficiencies is that this team didn't have enough scorers. And without question he is one of our best scorers. In the end Olofsson is going to be signed and get paid what his worth is. As you noted it probably will be more of a bridge deal than a long-term deal.

I agree with you that either Montour or Risto will be traded. As you indicate it will be for cap reasons and in order to balance out the roster to boost the second line, for either the 2C or one of the wing positions on that line. You can get gritty players on reasonable contracts from the market. What is difficult to acquire are players who can score goals. Olofsson is a sniper, as is Skinner, playing on a team that lacks goal scorers. One of the obvious problems for this impotent team is that there are not enough contributing lines beyond the potent Jack line. When you have a player such as Olofsson who may be the first or second best shooter on the team after Jack you pay the market price. Olofsson is not going to be cheap but he is going to get paid according to his value.

I appreciate your draft evaluations. Your knowledge of this draft class is impressive. It's apparent that the forwards dominate the top half of this draft class. Acknowledging that fact where would Calgary's Sam Bennett rank in this class?

I didn't read your response when I posted after you. In short I agree with what you posted other than Adams being able to convince him to come to Buffalo. Sorry of the redundancy in my post. There will be other reasonable options to consider this offseason.

There was a tentative deal made for Stall to be traded to Boston for their playoff run. Staal nixed the deal. I doubt that he will accept coming to Buffalo let alone anywhere else. There will be reasonable options in the market for a short term 2C for next season. When the playoffs are concluded there will be a number of mid tier options to consider.

Your trade proposal is impermissible. I will not allow Jokharju or Cozens to be dealt in any deal. So please perish the thought. I would consider Risto or Montour and a #1 pick for Boeser but my untouchables are untouchable. In my scenario I would expect a draft pick back, maybe a second round.?

As on display I do have my stupido verbal gaffe moments. Since I am prone to these type of mistakes I readily accept and embrace my moments of confusion. ? My worry with trading him so soon is that he would eventually mature and get the focus required to play in this tough bruising league and benefit another team. The one young player on the roster who based on his play at the end of the season I am intrigued with is Kahun. Another player that I am enamored with in the organization that I hope can surprise is Arttu Ruolsalainen. This self-sabotaging franchise needs some unexpected good luck from some of its young players.

Mittelstadt should not have been in the NFL unless it was for a short stint as an introduction to NHL play. After his one year in college he should have been in Rochester getting a lot of playing and grinding it out with the other prospects. When he played for the Sabres it was apparent that he wasn't physically and emotionally ready to play against men. There were brief episodes of play where he displayed some nifty offensive skills. But usually he was an invisible and no impact player. That's not a good sign for a first round pick. I don't know if he will ever develop into the player the organization hoped for when he was drafted. With the extended offseason he needs to come into the late camp physically ready with a determination required for a player in a do or die situation. If he can finally make the leap it would be such a big bonus for the team.