Sabres open goalie protection slot

[dudacek]

I think this has been completely forgotten in all the other hype surrounding the Sabres.

Buffalo will be exposing Dustin Tokarski in the expansion draft. UPL is exempt. Linus is an unrestricted free agent.

As it appears right now, the Sabres have an open goalie spot on their expansion draft protection list and are the logical destination for any team not wanting to lose a goalie for free.

Not taking advantage of this opportunity would seem stupid GMing.

Do you expect Adams to make a deal, and for who?

Edited July 14, 2021 by dudacek

[darksabre]

The Sabres are in a really tough spot here. Either they bring in a bonfide #1 and Ullmark says see ya later in FA, or you bring in someone more middling and risk having them end up being your #1 if Ullmark decides to walk away anyway. Ullmark being unsigned right now is a huge problem.

[Eleven]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think this has been completely forgotten in all the other hype surrounding the Sabres.

Buffalo will be exposing Dustin Tokarski in the expansion draft. UPL is exempt. Linus is an unrestricted free agent.

As it appears right now, the Sabres have an open goalie spot on their expansion draft protection list and are the logical destination for any team not wanting to lose a goalie for free.

Not taking advantage of this opportunity would seem stupid GMing.

Do you expect Adams to make a deal, and for who?

Really good observation.  Hopefully Adams is working on it.

2 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The Sabres are in a really tough spot here. Either they bring in a bonfide #1 and Ullmark says see ya later in FA, or you bring in someone more middling and risk having them end up being your #1 if Ullmark decides to walk away anyway. Ullmark being unsigned right now is a huge problem.

I would not plan on Ullmark being here next season if I were the GM.

[dudacek]

13 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The Sabres are in a really tough spot here. Either they bring in a bonfide #1 and Ullmark says see ya later in FA, or you bring in someone more middling and risk having them end up being your #1 if Ullmark decides to walk away anyway. Ullmark being unsigned right now is a huge problem.

Signing and protecting Ullmark would be the team’s 2nd best move, IMO.

There have not been any whispers of talks, but that seems normal for the Adams Sabres.

The fact he wasn’t moved at the deadline indicated some willingness on both sides to make deal and there has been plenty of time to hammer something out.

Best move would be handshake deal with Ullmark, adding someone like Vanicek for a 3rd now to back him up, protecting him, and signing Linus immediately after the expansion draft.

Edited July 14, 2021 by dudacek

[darksabre]

7 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Really good observation.  Hopefully Adams is working on it.

I would not plan on Ullmark being here next season if I were the GM.

I'm inclined to agree. It would suck to lose him in FA for nothing, but I'd rather nail down the starting goalie situation.

So in that case, let's get a real number 1 in that spot.

[Radar]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Signing and protecting Ullmark would be the team’s 2nd best move, IMO.

There have not been any whispers of talks, but that seems normal for the Adams Sabres.

The fact he wasn’t moved at the deadline indicated some willingness on both sides to make deal and there has been plenty of time to hammer something out.

Best move would be handshake deal with Ullmark, adding someone like Vanicek for a 3rd now to back him up, protecting him, and signing Linus immediately after the expansion draft.

Question is what will it take to sign Linus.o

[GASabresIUFAN]

I’ve been harping on this since mid May in the offseason gameplan thread.  KA is running out of time to get this done.  Going into expansion without that slot filed is the height of stupidity and incompetence.

Edited July 14, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[darksabre]

I think, given who might be protected by the various teams, our options are:

Robin Lehner
Jake Allen
One of the CBJ goalies
Holtby
 

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

I think, given who might be protected by the various teams, our options are:

Robin Lehner
Jake Allen
One of the CBJ goalies
Holtby
 

Driedger out of Florida.

Edited July 14, 2021 by LGR4GM

[darksabre]

Just now, LGR4GM said:

Dredger out of Florida.

I'm not sure he's a starter?

Dreidger is a guy you pick up if you think you're definitely getting Ullmark back.

[LGR4GM]

Just now, darksabre said:

I'm not sure he's a starter?

Only started 34 NHL games so he is definitely risky 

[dudacek]

Pretty sure one of the CBus goalies (Elvis?) is exempt.

Edited July 14, 2021 by dudacek

[Taro T]

Does anybody know if a player traded before the expansion draft maybe traded back to his original team after the expansion draft?

I.e., could the Sabres trade a 7th for Allen & then get a 2nd-4th plus a 7th back from the Habs for him sometime later this summer?  Would increase the Sabres assets while leaving their options open on finding their starting pair.

[darksabre]

Just now, Taro T said:

Does anybody know if a player traded before the expansion draft maybe traded back to his original team after the expansion draft?

I.e., could the Sabres trade a 7th for Allen & then get a 2nd-4th plus a 7th back from the Habs for him sometime later this summer?  Would increase the Sabres assets while leaving their options open on finding their starting pair.

Paying a team to protect your goalie for you would be wild and I'd love to see it.

[sabresparaavida]

5 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Does anybody know if a player traded before the expansion draft maybe traded back to his original team after the expansion draft?

I.e., could the Sabres trade a 7th for Allen & then get a 2nd-4th plus a 7th back from the Habs for him sometime later this summer?  Would increase the Sabres assets while leaving their options open on finding their starting pair.

I believe they could do it, but they couldn’t retain any salary if they were sending him back 

[Ogelthorpe]

46 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I'm not sure he's a starter?

Dreidger is a guy you pick up if you think you're definitely getting Ullmark back.

Ullmark is not a starter. Guy can't stay healthy, hopefully he is gone.  The best ability is availability!

[Marvin]

8 minutes ago, Ogelthorpe said:

Ullmark is not a starter. Guy can't stay healthy, hopefully he is gone.  The best ability is availability!

As well as he has played when healthy, this is hard to debate except to add that he has been backstopping a truly atrocious team.  Maybe the workload is part of the problem.

[bob_sauve28]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

I think this has been completely forgotten in all the other hype surrounding the Sabres.

Buffalo will be exposing Dustin Tokarski in the expansion draft. UPL is exempt. Linus is an unrestricted free agent.

As it appears right now, the Sabres have an open goalie spot on their expansion draft protection list and are the logical destination for any team not wanting to lose a goalie for free.

Not taking advantage of this opportunity would seem stupid GMing.

Do you expect Adams to make a deal, and for who?

Nice thinking! 

 

This is all I know on the subject: Carolina might also be in the same situation with three goalies unsigned, I think. 

 

Boston and the Rangers both have several goalies. But there must be other teams with an over supply of goalies. 

 

This is could be the break we needed to get some talent there. 

[bob_sauve28]

1 hour ago, darksabre said:

I think, given who might be protected by the various teams, our options are:

Robin Lehner
Jake Allen
One of the CBJ goalies
Holtby
 

Holtby is done 

[PerreaultForever]

Driedger might be just a back up, but he wouldn't be a bad guy to pick up to fill that slot. We're going to need 2 goalies next year, Ullmark as one of them or not. 

Lehner listed here, that's kind of funny. Ya, he'd be real happy with that deal 🙂

Holtby might be done, I agree, but that's one I thought of before that might be a part of a Reinhart deal if Vancouver is in the mix as rumoured. They have cap issues and might want to unload him (if they think Seattle would pass on him anyway). Hard to say. Not as a starter imo, but again, as your #2 for a year until UPL maybe. 

Creativity maybe? 3 way before and after. Trade for Lehner, protect him, after draft deal him . That would give us lots to chat about 🙂

Not filling the spot with somebody though is definitely the height of stupidity as pointed out already. 

[steveoath]

Mentioned on another thread. Nedeljkovic is someone I hope we could get if Caroline decide not to pay him (like they do).

Edited July 14, 2021 by steveoath
Speelunking not good

[Digger]

My understanding is that we can still protect Ullmark even though he's a UFA.  All this does is prevent Seattle from negotiating with him ahead of free agency.

I agree it's a waste if he has no intention of re-signing with us.  But if there's a chance then it's a good gamble.  Would like to know the behind the scenes conversations with him and his agent.

[Hoss]

We’re required to protect one, no? I believe every team has to fulfill the requirements. Obviously we could just protect Ullmark.

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, Hoss said:

We’re required to protect one, no? I believe every team has to fulfill the requirements. Obviously we could just protect Ullmark.

They're required to EXPOSE 1.

If they decided to go off the board and protect absolutely noone, that would be foolish but their perogative. 

[kas23]

If he has no intention of signing with us, I would leave Ulmark unprotected. He would be a good decoy to avoid losing someone else, like Borgen, Asplund, or Bjork