Sabres Trade Ilya Lyubushkin to Anaheim for a 2025 4th Round Pick

[GoPuckYourself]

47 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

It's a 2025 4th round pick. That guy might, and I mean might, be in Rochester in idk 2027

That's what I mean, I'm not sure more draft picks is what we need right now. 

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, GoPuckYourself said:

That's what I mean, I'm not sure more draft picks is what we need right now. 

But that's all a depth defender is worth. 

[Scottysabres]

A 4th rdr is a 4th rdr. Boosh was a good soldier for his time here. Wish him the best. Now, the question I have is, is there another move coming? Bryson maybe?

[LGR4GM]

15 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

A 4th rdr is a 4th rdr. Boosh was a good soldier for his time here. Wish him the best. Now, the question I have is, is there another move coming? Bryson maybe?

No one is paying for Bryson. He's gonna get waived. 

[Derrico]

Are we going to do anything with this extra cap space?

[Randall Flagg]

1 minute ago, Derrico said:

Are we going to do anything with this extra cap space?

Why even ask?

[GoPuckYourself]

47 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

But that's all a depth defender is worth. 

I know, I agree. 

[K-9]

5 hours ago, pastajoe said:

Have some respect, he was a 6th defenseman, darn it ! 😡

That was last year. The acquisitions of Clifton and Johnson bumped him out of the top six.

[K-9]

5 hours ago, RangerDave said:

I think a 7th defenseman of Lybushkin's calibre could have made the difference in the 2006 Conference Finals versus Carolina.

We were down to our 9th defenseman after losing three of our top six in that series, so I doubt a D man of Lybushkin’s “calibre” would have helped much anyway. 

[DarthEbriate]

Well, Boushh was the 7th D...  but the 7th D is going to get about 40 games even during a very healthy season. Good on him to get more playing time and an opportunity. But... can I still be upset when Anaheim trades him to a contender for a 2nd at the deadline after he's played a solid season as a middle-pairing guy?

Good luck, thermal detonator!

[LabattBlue]

All this does is move Bryson one spot higher to wearing the Blue & Gold due to an injury. 🤮

[sabresparaavida]

9 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

Well, Boushh was the 7th D...  but the 7th D is going to get about 40 games even during a very healthy season. Good on him to get more playing time and an opportunity. But... can I still be upset when Anaheim trades him to a contender for a 2nd at the deadline after he's played a solid season as a middle-pairing guy?

Good luck, thermal detonator!

I wouldn’t count on it, the Ducks were one of the teams with worse defensive play than the Sabres last year

[sweetlou]

20 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

There were easier and frankly smarter ways to reduce the logjam on D to get us to 23 players without trading away our 6th or 7th best defender, such as getting rid of Bryson and waiving Clague back to Rochester. Instead, he traded away our highest salaried depth D and kept lesser players with lesser salaries.  You can argue that Bush had the most trade value of the depth D, but the goal this season, I thought, was to field the best possible team, not to save a few bucks. 

But does this savings help add depth to the offense?

[Pimlach]

Boosh is a third pair 6/7th defenseman that should have more value than a 4th round pick.   Boosh just logged 68 games in an injury riddled season.   

Colorado had 11 defensemen play at least 20 games last season.  E Johnson played 63 games for them, the 4th highest on their team.  An injured Boosh played more games than Erik Johnson, our new 3rd pair guy.  To think that we won’t need quality depth at 7 and 8 is laughable.  The President’s Trophy winning Bruins had 8 defenders play at least 20. The Sabres had 8 defenders play 20 games or more (plus Pilut (17) and Stillman (18)).  

When ErIc Johnson gets a rest we get more Stillman or more Bryson/Clague.  This is not good depth.   None are better than Boosh but they all make less money.  Ryan Johnson will probably get a call up too.  

This is about giving away a player for cap room as if a trade is coming.  But it’s probably just a salary dump.  
 

 

[Norcal]

Big rugged dude might been nice to have come playoff time, if needed.

Now the team is a couple injuries away from employing Bryson in the top six. 

Not exactly comforting, hoping more trades are coming. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, sweetlou said:

But does this savings help add depth to the offense?

Not unless they bring in someone.  Not sure why they would add a forward when the issues for the team are stopping the other team from scoring.  If they dumped Bush to add another top-flight D or a legit partner for Levi, I'm all for it, but trading away Bush while keeping (so far) Stillman and Bryson doesn't make much sense. 

[JohnC]

14 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Not unless they bring in someone.  Not sure why they would add a forward when the issues for the team are stopping the other team from scoring.  If they dumped Bush to add another top-flight D or a legit partner for Levi, I'm all for it, but trading away Bush while keeping (so far) Stillman and Bryson doesn't make much sense. 

At the end of the season playoff push, Lyubush's minutes were severely curtailed. The coach lost confidence in him and his pairing partner. He was mostly stuck on the bench with the top two pairings taking over their minutes. In the offseason, the organization brought in two defenders. The writing was on the wall for this proud  player. I wouldn't be surprised if he/agent went to the GM and expressed his desire to move on. And it wouldn't be surprising that an organization that stresses the importance of players wanting to be here accommodated him. However, this trade issue is examined, it is apparent that he wasn't in the team's plans, and the player recognized it. It appears that the organization did the right thing for the player and the organization. 

[bob_sauve28]

12 hours ago, K-9 said:

We were down to our 9th defenseman after losing three of our top six in that series, so I doubt a D man of Lybushkin’s “calibre” would have helped much anyway. 

Going into the third with the lead, who knows, he is better than Jillson was

[Flashsabre]

Boosh would have fit in on the Bills last night with all those bad penalties.😁

Im not losing sleep over the trade. As I said earlier, he had a bad season last year and he wanted regular playing time. 

 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

At the end of the season playoff push, Lyubush's minutes were severely curtailed. The coach lost confidence in him and his pairing partner. He was mostly stuck on the bench with the top two pairings taking over their minutes. In the offseason, the organization brought in two defenders. The writing was on the wall for this proud  player. I wouldn't be surprised if he/agent went to the GM and expressed his desire to move on. And it wouldn't be surprising that an organization that stresses the importance of players wanting to be here accommodated him. However, this trade issue is examined, it is apparent that he wasn't in the team's plans, and the player recognized it. It appears that the organization did the right thing for the player and the organization. 

The coach lost confidence in all of them except for 26, 23 and 25.  

I agree that Boosh's agent probably pushed for a trade and Adams put the "want to be here" policy into effect.  

The hopeful news is that R. Johnson and Novikov could  be legit NHL players and will pass Bryson and Clague.  Until then, we are back to very thin with Stillman at 7, and Bryson/Clague and 8/9.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

At the end of the season playoff push, Lyubush's minutes were severely curtailed. The coach lost confidence in him and his pairing partner.

He lost confidence in all of Bush, Clague, Bryson, and Stillman, but Clague and Bush were the only ones over the course of the season who played decent hockey at points.  In truth, they all stink, but IMHO Bush was the least bad of the four and at least he adds some physical attributes. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by GASabresIUFAN

[PerreaultForever]

22 hours ago, nfreeman said:

I think there are valid reasons to prefer Loobie over Bryson and Stillman, but not over Joki.  Frankly I don't think it's even close.

It's a question of style of play and what we need to compliment our 2 shiny first overall D men. Joker moves the puck better, but he's not a better D man. Boosh's stats are partly the result of the situations he was put in. He's a bottom pairing guy.

See, I look at what we've done now and the D isn't all that different from what it was. I'm not convinced Johnson has anything left. If he does, great, then we have upgraded, but I need to see that before I believe it. Clifton is a slightly better version of Boosh but not all that different. So I think he can play with Power but by taking Boosh away your pairings are only slightly upgraded now. Joker/Johnson as my bottom pairing does not impress me. 

[PerreaultForever]

17 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

But that's all a depth defender is worth. 

Except we traded a 3rd rounder (Bloom) for Stillman and then dumped Boosh for a 4th rounder. Boosh is better than Stillman so net result we downgraded our D and got a lower draft pick. 

[Flashsabre]

21 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Except we traded a 3rd rounder (Bloom) for Stillman and then dumped Boosh for a 4th rounder. Boosh is better than Stillman so net result we downgraded our D and got a lower draft pick. 

Wow if you are going to dig that dip in the minutia to find something to be outraged about then good luck being happy about anything.

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

He lost confidence in all of Bush, Clague, Bryson, and Stillman, but Clague and Bush were the only ones over the course of the season who played decent hockey at points.  In truth, they all stink, but IMHO Bush was the least bad of the four and at least he adds some physical attributes. 

It doesn't matter whether it is Bush, Clague, Bryson or Stillman. On this team they are at best fourth pairing or utility players. Whether you deduct A or B or C or D, why get so exercised over the departure? Bush moving to Anaheim is a better situation for him. You should be happy for him. I wish him well. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by JohnC