Porous Five Hole

Expected Peterka regression (not unfair) and ascending Kess as a player isn’t exactly a hot take. The Baker Fairburn Hockry Show is a decent listen either way. Kess is a high character guy and a major position of need.

I am also signing off on the concept of Kess. In his latest pod, Fairburn said the best player in the trade may be Kesselring. I’m optimistic. Losing an unhappy JJP seems to suck right now, but we could be laughing all the way to the bank on this one. Here’s to hoping (which I recognize is a ***** strategy).

I disagree. Kevy has been backed into a corner with this RFA and I can absolutely see him on the roster this year.

Why are you taking that out on a fellow Sabres fan? Telling someone to piss off? The people here are your brothers and sisters. Our community is better than this.

RyJo’s deal is two way in 2025-26 and one way in 2026-27 and beyond. This is a realistic timeline for him. There’s truly no rush to bring him to Buffalo this season. He’s not better than Dahlin, Power, Byram, or Kess. What’s the rush? Let him continue to cook in all situations in the AHL for another year. Getting to the NHL at age 25 is a very fair development path for a late first round guy. No need to push him to the Sabres today.

It might not be popular right now, but I have long term high hopes for Noah Östlund. His rookie year second half in the AHL was great as a 21 year old. He’s silky out there. He’s not close to being an NHL player, but he has the makings of a true top six forward down the line.

He’s just not mature enough yet. He was the youngest player in the AHL last year. And he had a nice second half. He was also decent in the playoffs. But he needs to build off of that. He’s not better than anyone in Buffalo yet. And to me, making the Sabres better is not making them younger with untested Amerks prospects.

They would have been required to pay him and could not walk away. That’s why he wasn’t given a QO. “The decision of the arbitrator is binding, although teams can walk away from an award in excess of $3.5 million if the salary arbitration hearing was player-elected (note: that $3.5 million figure is adjusted annually by the same percentage as the increase in average league salary, so the walk away limit is probably several $100,000 higher than $3.5 million this time around).”

He’s been in the pros for two years. Let him continue to cook in Rochester. He was good in the playoffs.

To the bolded, exactly. My post wasn’t inaccurate. It was obvious the Sabres feel he’s their eighth defenseman, so why bother with arbitration and a higher award than they feel he is worth? Zero sum game.

Byram still has runway to get better. He’s only played 246 games. He just turned 24 in June. I am fine if he stays. Him & Dahlin were excellent together. At this point, Byram is already in the building and we have more than enough cap space.

Please don’t intend this to sound like I’m defending KA as a competent GM, but this one move he got right. MOFO got 875k and that is probably what the Sabres also thought he was worth. However, had the Sabres extended a qualifying offer, JBD would have responded by electing to go through salary arbitration as is right under the CBA. And he would have gotten awarded a higher salary (GMKA’s mention of comps) that the Sabres would have to accept. And you’re not going to pay that for your 7D/8D. Where you’re right to criticize him is that GMKA has no plan. Why spend a 2nd for the services of JBD and then go trade happy at the position a couple months later? It was a waste of draft capital.

Maybe Ehlers, but someone is going to massively overpay for 25-30 goals a season.

Looks like a bunch of players want to be here (Rochester).