Re-sign, trade or keep? Which players on the Sabres would you put in the trade market and when?

[Flashsabre]

I’m not letting Adams make any player moves what so ever. 
 

I just watched Team Canada flame out because their brass failed to understand the basic concept of roster building.

Adams has proven the same mistakes. 
 

Im not moving a single player until a competent front office is put in place.

Enough of this SH/T already!!

[mjd1001]

10 minutes ago, Stoner said:

...those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Trade them all. Right now.

Would anyone be mad if they did that and still missed the playoffs next year. Would anyone pine for the glory days of Dahlin and Thompson?

I would probably pine for the days/thoughts of what this team could be WITH Dahlin and Thompson and some other strategic moves/signings that they refuse to make.

[SabreFinn]

Again, there are not many players that we need that are without trade protection, and no one will come to a Buffalo Sabres in current condition by their free will. But if we find a player that will improve the team and we can trade for we should. Byram, Joker, Bryson, Gilbert, Krebs, Lafferty, McLoad, Greenway, the whole Cozens line and any player in Rochester are all players we can trade.

 

But I rather change coach first.

[mjd1001]

10 minutes ago, SabreFinn said:

Again, there are not many players that we need that are without trade protection, and no one will come to a Buffalo Sabres in current condition by their free will. But if we find a player that will improve the team and we can trade for we should. Byram, Joker, Bryson, Gilbert, Krebs, Lafferty, McLoad, Greenway, the whole Cozens line and any player in Rochester are all players we can trade.

 

But I rather change coach first.

I'd not.

Other than "they aren't doing well under Ruff", I don't see anything he is doing wrong, nothing that I notice that says to me he is 'too old' or 'the game has passed him by'.  Over the Pegula ownership, They had a younger Ruff, they had a former COTY retread.  A younger/former cup winner. A total outside. To internal promotions.  NONE of the worked.  The problems with this team are outside of coaching.   If ANYTHING I'd like to see what Ruff would do as coach if he is allowed to actually bring in his own assistant coaches. They guys he works with side by side...the guys who work directly with the players...remember, not his.  Pegula/Adams told him "These your your coaches/co-workers, make it work"

[CallawaySabres]

I am not sure where the panic is coming from, Buffalo is only 7 points from 8th. Surely they are capable of putting together a winning streak yes?? This is a formidable group of NHLers that will not crumble when things get tough!

[mjd1001]

6 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:

I am not sure where the panic is coming from, Buffalo is only 7 points from 8th. Surely they are capable of putting together a winning streak yes?? This is a formidable group of NHLers that will not crumble when things get tough!

I know you are being sarcastic (I hope, and am pretty sure), but here is the reality of the situation for anyone else who is simply looking at the point totals:

8th place in the Conference is Ottawa at .541 percent of the points (usually by the end of the year the number is even higher but lets go with the low number for now).

To take over that 8th spot and get more than .541, the Sabres need to win 11 in a row.  No losses, no OT losses/ties.  11 games in a row.

Beat Vegas, then Washington, then Ottawa, then Seattle, then Carolina, then Pittsburgh, then Seattle again,  then Vancouver, then Calgary, then Edmonton, and then finally beat Boston to win your 11th in a row...they MIGHT move into 8th position for the last wildcard spot.

[Broken Ankles]

  Trade Dahlin.  Two reasons.  Frees up most cap space and flexibility for a new GM.  Second, his NMC kicks in July 1st and we can’t have this sitting over our head.   Then trade any one of Cozens, JJP, QUINN and Benson. Whatever gets you the biggest return.

Trade Levi to Montreal.  Get a solid return while you still can.   Trade Joki, Krebs, and Bryson for whatever to free up space and roster spots.  
 
  Keep Tage, UPL and Kulich.  Resign Zucker and Greenway.  Hold on Tuch and see how he does next year.  Bridge Quinn or JJP (whoever stays).
 

 Muel will only cost you to move based on his ridiculous AAV (thanks Kevyn).  So,unfortunately Mr. Glass has to stay another year.  
 

 

[CallawaySabres]

10 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I know you are being sarcastic (I hope, and am pretty sure), but here is the reality of the situation for anyone else who is simply looking at the point totals:

8th place in the Conference is Ottawa at .541 percent of the points (usually by the end of the year the number is even higher but lets go with the low number for now).

To take over that 8th spot and get more than .541, the Sabres need to win 11 in a row.  No losses, no OT losses/ties.  11 games in a row.

Beat Vegas, then Washington, then Ottawa, then Seattle, then Carolina, then Pittsburgh, then Seattle again,  then Vancouver, then Calgary, then Edmonton, and then finally beat Boston to win your 11th in a row...they MIGHT move into 8th position for the last wildcard spot.

Yes, I was being sarcastic, but seeing what you wrote there to get into 8th, zero chance. It's a real shame that that a 13 game losing streak actually happened. Between that and the continuous choke jobs that keep happening, it's amazing they are not 30 points from 8th. All they had to do was just not suck so incredibly badly. 

[Weave]

@GASabresIUFAN you made virtually the exact same thread on Dec 15.  Wtf?

[LabattBlue]

Any player, prospect or pick should be on the table.  

[Gatorman0519]

We need an entire scoring line one to ever hope to get back to relevance. A top center and 2 top wingers.  Tage would be a 2nd line on a team like Florida or Colorado. 

[JoeSchmoe]

They're the youngest team in the league making youngest team in the league mistakes. Trading players for pennies on the dollar won't help.

If there's a fair value trade to make, do it. Otherwise, acquire more Zuckers via free agency and let the young core mature.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, Gatorman0519 said:

We need an entire scoring line one to ever hope to get back to relevance. A top center and 2 top wingers.  Tage would be a 2nd line on a team like Florida or Colorado. 

97% of the centers in the league would be 2C in Florida and Colorado, thanks to Barkov and McKinnon.

[Archie Lee]

18 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

They're the youngest team in the league making youngest team in the league mistakes. Trading players for pennies on the dollar won't help.

If there's a fair value trade to make, do it. Otherwise, acquire more Zuckers via free agency and let the young core mature.

I agree with this. But the rub is, how do more Zuckers and a maturing core co-exist?  There are only so many roster spots. I’m all for adding two Zuckers. Here’s three that we probably could have had for reasonable prices through trade or free agency 6 months ago:

1) Warren Foegele. 11/12/23 in 37 games for the Kings

2) Jack Roslovic. 17/8/25 in 38 games for the Hurricanes

3) Cody Ceci. 2/8/10 in 41 games for the Sharks (could have been a stabilizing force for Power). 

Where would Foegele and Roslovic play though?  They aren’t fourth liners. Kulich, Benson, Quinn, aren’t fourth liners. Replacing Greenway or Zucker or McLeod with Foegele or Roslovic just defeats the purpose. The answer is that there are kids who just shouldn’t be here…YET. It’s not a knock against them (for the record, I LOVE Zach Benson and Juri Kulich).  

But it’s too late now. The kids are part of the team. They aren’t going anywhere. So, there is no space for more Zuckers. We are the Ducks with Rasmus Dahlin. Hold tight, we are a long way from the playoffs. 

[Palm Trees And Taxes]

Don't know how realistic this would be: But i look at the Islanders who need an influx of young talent and the Sabres have an abundance of it.

C Matthew Barzal has a 22 team no trade clause: 9.15M AAV the next 4 years, 27 years old, has been a PPG player multiple times. Would love to see the Sabres target a guy like Barzal and make him 1C, move Tage to W and I believe this can trickle down and make the Sabres better.

Edited Friday at 07:44 PM by Palm Trees And Taxes

[PerreaultForever]

Trades would be pointless. 

We need to add veteran leaders. We've needed that for a long time and still do. 

[SabresBillsFan]

10 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Trades would be pointless. 

We need to add veteran leaders. We've needed that for a long time and still do. 

^ This, and get quality assistant coaches!

[SABRES 0311]

Well, I would like to keep Zucker for two more years so he’s not on my trade block.

Forwards to build with (not necessarily around): Thompson, Tuch, Peterka Benson, Zucker, Greenway, Malenstyn, Kulich, Quinn.

Defense to keep: Dahlin, Byram, Johnson, Clifton, Muel (maybe).

Trade: Power, Cozens, Krebs, Bryson, Joker, Lafferty, NAK, Levi (maybe).

Bring in: Top six wing, 1C, second pair stay at home DMan. The rest filled out with pick up signings/in house.

As you can tell we do not have the currency to get everything we need. Plus, a number of big contracts reduce the trade return. How comfortable are we with giving up top draft picks?

Edited Friday at 08:42 PM by SABRES 0311

[bobm253]

Need a clutch goaltender who can make saves late in a game.  Until then, no change in this team.

[SabreFinn]

3 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

I'd not.

Other than "they aren't doing well under Ruff", I don't see anything he is doing wrong, nothing that I notice that says to me he is 'too old' or 'the game has passed him by'.  Over the Pegula ownership, They had a younger Ruff, they had a former COTY retread.  A younger/former cup winner. A total outside. To internal promotions.  NONE of the worked.  The problems with this team are outside of coaching.   If ANYTHING I'd like to see what Ruff would do as coach if he is allowed to actually bring in his own assistant coaches. They guys he works with side by side...the guys who work directly with the players...remember, not his.  Pegula/Adams told him "These your your coaches/co-workers, make it work"

I took some time to watch several random Devils -game highlights from last season. There was a lot of bad goaltending on goals against and some giveaways, but there was also the same passive defensive playing in their own zone as we can see in Sabres games now. I also read comments about a defense structure that was too complicated to play, which I believe is the exactly same as he is trying and failing on in Buffalo this season. 

This is not only on Ruff, he was hired by someone that didn't do their homework. And if the front office don't do their homework, that is just making the losing culture worse.

[mjd1001]

Here is an interesting stat. It involved Plus/minus. I know +/- is not a perfect stat, but I do think it does mean something especially when comparing players on your own team to others on your own team:

Sabres Forwards:

Quinn, Cozens, and Peterka combined: -30.  The other 13 forwards who have played combined: +5

Sabres D-men:

Samuelsson and Power combined: -16. The other 7 D-men combined: +13

[SabreFinn]

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/the-no-1-reason-why-the-buffalo-sabres-are-again-a-massive-failure

[Night Train]

Anyone can be traded. No loyalty to the soft bunch.

I'd beg Zucker to stay and lead the locker room full of new faces . He'll get moved and I will be sad. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

7 minutes ago, SabreFinn said:

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/the-no-1-reason-why-the-buffalo-sabres-are-again-a-massive-failure

Quote

 

Whether or not Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams wants to admit it, his roster has a lot of redundancy on it. Much was made of the Sabres’ back end coming into this season and how it had the potential to be one of the best in the league. Byram, Dahlin, Power and Mattias Samuelsson jumped off the page as an impressive collective unit. 

But when you look beyond the name value and the individual talent of all the players, the redundancy becomes more clear: four left-shot defensemen under the age of 25. Of the four, three ideally need consistent time on the power play to be used to their full potential. Even if you shift one down to the third pair – they currently have all four playing on the top two pairings – it will result in at least one of the aforementioned rearguards playing on their off side, which is easier said than done with the speed of the modern day NHL.

Dahlin is a cut above the rest in this group, so his ability to excel without a quality partner and playing on his off side when need be is superior. But for the other three, the redundancy is something that has been more impactful. Young defensemen greatly benefit from quality partners; we’ve seen it with Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar and Charlie McAvoy playing alongside reliable veteran defensemen early in their careers. Buffalo not only doesn’t have that in the way of veterans on the back end, they lack it stylistically in the way of handedness and style of play. For a player like Power, could he not greatly benefit from a Chris Tanev-type of guy? Could Samuelsson not be best served playing with a puck-moving veteran like Rasmus Andersson? 

 

What?  We have too many puck movers and not enough guys who actually can play defense? Shocking!  What we don't have proper partners for our puck movers or vets who can still play on defense? Shocking!

He also says we lack playmakers.  Again shocking!

These are things I've said for years. If it is this obvious to a fan and a sportswriter, why isn't obvious to the GM and owner?  The only way this gets fixed is to move on from Cozens, move on from one of Byram or Power or Dahlin, junk the rest of the D, and go and acquired 2 partners for the playmaking D and at least one top 6 playmaker.  

KA doesn't have the stones to make such moves.

I do disagree with the author on a couple of points. 1) Tuch is a good playmaker.  Not a Marner level elite playmaker but a good one.  2) Benson has the skills to become an very good playmaker.  He just needs time.

[thewookie1]

33 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

What?  We have too many puck movers and not enough guys who actually can play defense? Shocking!  What we don't have proper partners for our puck movers or vets who can still play on defense? Shocking!

He also says we lack playmakers.  Again shocking!

These are things I've said for years. If it is this obvious to a fan and a sportswriter, why isn't obvious to the GM and owner?  The only way this gets fixed is to move on from Cozens, move on from one of Byram or Power or Dahlin, junk the rest of the D, and go and acquired 2 partners for the playmaking D and at least one top 6 playmaker.  

KA doesn't have the stones to make such moves.

I do disagree with the author on a couple of points. 1) Tuch is a good playmaker.  Not a Marner level elite playmaker but a good one.  2) Benson has the skills to become a very good playmaker.  He just needs time.

Trading Dahlin is a complete nonstarter. I’m done with trading our best player to other teams.

As for the rest of your review post it makes sense. I like many others have begged the team to get a couple defensive first Dmen to play with Dahlin and Power, now Power and Byram since Dahlin is good enough to work with most. Frankly I just don’t understand why we haven’t because it’s not as if all D first players are extremely expensive or trade protected. And they do have some degree of value in the style based on Muel’s contract and yet the only rumored target was Pesce 2 years ago. It’s baffling and begs to question if it’s more anti-vet convincing related or monetary demands/term demands. Like why is there seemingly a 1/2 over 30 limit on the team? We have Reimer and Zucker, everyone else is at most 30 whereas most of the team doesn’t cross the 25yrs old mark. All I can fathom is Adams has no interest in convincing vets to come here in the slightest and is perfectly happy with a plethora of young players trying to learn everything on the fly. Which rarely works.

The CHL rule robbed Benson of AHL time to grow since Jrs wouldn’t have served him well in the slightest.