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I love hypotheticals like these. For consistency, lets undo ALL GM Sheevyn's trades, instead RFAing folks he had under team control. Draft standing/season outcomes remain the same. Granato is the coach and we're still operating under EEE principles from up top. Adams never traded MoJo for Staal (MoJo leaves in UFA) = no Josh Bloom, Riley Stillman, or Viljami Marjala. Jonas Johansson never traded for the pick that became Novikov. Brandon Montour re-signed but UFA this summer (no Sardarian). Hall and Lazar leave in UFA (no Kisakov, Bjork, or Gicewicz acquired). Rasmus Ristolainen re-signed (no Hagg, Rosen, Wahlberg, or Gustav Karlsson). Sam Reinhart extended but UFA this season (no Levi, Kulich). No Future Considerations for Will Butcher (leaves in UFA) (no Vsevolod Komarov). Jack Eichel still captain (no Tuch, Krebs, Östlund, or Greenway). Erik Portillo signs 3-year ELC (no McCarthy). Rasmus Asplund extended (no pick that became Eric Robinson). Lyubsushkin is a UFA this summer. Cederqvist is in Rochester. Casey Mittelstadt, Kyle Okposo, and Erik Johnson are UFA* this summer (no Byram). The Sabres still have the potential for Rastricks if Asplund stays in the NHL. Stronger center spine, but still operating Sheevyn-level goalie batteries. The Amerks... have... nothing. The trades have completely re-stocked the farm: Novikov, Rosen, Wahlberg, Levi, Kulich, Östlund, Komarov... The lines going into 2023-24 would have been: Buffalo Skinner - Eichel - Reinhart* Peterka - Thompson - Quinn Benson - Mittelstadt* - Cozens Girgensons* - Jost - Okposo* (Olofsson*) Dahlin - Montour* Power - Jokiharju Samuelsson - Clifton/Ristolainen (Lyubushkin*, E. Johnson*) Can only sign one of Clifton/E.Johnson last summer Luukkonen Comrie* Rochester Murray - Biro - Rousek Weissbach - Asplund - Mersch Neuchev - Jobst - Cederqvist Warren - Kozak - Giroux (Nadeau, Richards) Bryson - R.Johnson Clague - Prow Cecconi - Metsa (Davies, Jandric) Portillo Johansson Tokarski

As a very casual observer of Buffalo house prices (from the Canadian side of the border), I feel like it's not even close to as affordable as I used to think. I used to find similar houses to the Canadian side of the border were maybe a third to half of what they are here. Now they're about half to two-thirds. Then there's some of the highest property taxes in the US on top of that. Is it that salaries in the WNY area have climbed that much higher, or is this another bunk listicle. I'd think Texas or the Carolinas would be the cheapest when factoring good jobs, low taxes, and cheap homes. Is that right? Edmonton sounds about right for here in Canada.

So, should the Sabres have traded other players rather than the ones they did?

It would be better had they not been in the position they needed to, or rather, felt they needed to, move those players. The returns themselves are ok to reasonable.

But obviously we're built to start winning when our young core continues to mature. It's not about our record to this point with the trades, it's what will happen in the coming years.

If you look at the win/loss record pre and post trade time for 3 of those players, slightly better. Of course, I don't blame these individual players. After all, they didn't build the team around them, nope. The management did.

In the last couple of years, Sabres management has traded away some of our best players: Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Rasmus Ristolainen (?), Casey Middlestadt, etc.. My questions is, have those trades made us better? We still haven't made the playoffs, so if the object of trading players is to improve the team, I don't see that that has happened. There may be other reasons to trade away players, but it all boils down to making your team better. At least I hope it does. The question is, are the Sabres a better team now, or would they be a better team today if those trades had not happened?

As a father of a 33 yr old, 31 yr old, 25 yr old and 20 yr old I started a tradition for father's day decades ago. Road trip with child lock safety windows in the vehicle, stuffed hot banana peppers with baked beans, lots of baked beans, an hr or 2 before the road trip. No, I don't get the fancy dinners like mom, but I also don't get the phone calls asking for a ride somewhere. This Dad made his own peace 😉

But he folds

I suppose my distinction here is that your post leaves the door open to, should we have another inactive offseason, write the offseason off as “well it wouldn’t have mattered, anyway” if we see something similar to last year re: the core, during the season. This is a tact I see used around here a lot, even if not by you, so I feel the distinction has merit and should be raised: “wouldn’t have mattered if KA brought in a goalie…our PP was too weak”…”we wouldn’t have won last year even with a more proactive offseason if that’s what we were going to get from Tage and Cozens”.. I don’t believe these things to be independent events, nor those types of statements accurate. I do believe a lot of what we will see from the core depends on the approach KA takes this offseason, tangibly but mostly mentally. So, in the hypothetical situation our core underperforms after a generally lacklustre offseason, we’d be left wondering how that core might have performed with a better offseason, not talking about how offseason additions wouldn’t have mattered because of what we got from the core. too fluid and dependent

It's easy to live in WNY in my opinion. I traveled a lot in the military during my younger days. Didn't like the south at all. Worked in San Diego for a few years and that was expensive. Upon returning, bought a nice house. Paid it off 25 years ago. Get a VA discount on taxes. Get a bad storm every 10 years. Most of my winters are mild now, compared to youth. Summers here are outstanding. Perfect temp. Lots to do for my lifestyle. To each their own. We all have different lives.

My words of advice. Pull out. 😜 Happy father's day Y'all

Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, the reason I’m a fan

Happy Father's Day! US Open and leftover pizza. Perfect day.

I refused to cook. We went to Skyline. But my kids are 18 and 20, so no grandkids yet.

It's based on the average income of the people living there to the housing prices. Sure, if you find somewhere where people make $200 a month and housing costs $100 a month, it is definitely cheaper but that isn't affordable. Two completely different things you are looking at. Considering 70% of the world makes less than $900 a month, every dollar in those places is worth a lot more to them and every dollar something is more expensive there multiplies that cost far more than it does here. I mean people on welfare make more than that here sitting around collecting checks from the government.

Surly this isn’t the most affordable cities to live in the world. In fact, none of these would be within the United States, but rather in South America. That’s even if I exclude some very undesirable places, like Africa, India, and maybe even China.

WNY continuing to pile up accolades over the past few years...momentum is really building as more and more reports continue to rank us very very favorably compared to many places. Rochester coming in #2, Buffalo #6 in world's most affordable cities. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-prices-affordable-cities-cheap-housing/

Who's ready for some macaroni art from the grandkids and stuff you'll never use but the memories last a lifetime. And grilling for everyone but the mothers always get the fancy restaurant on mother's day

Hopefully one day soon we'll be discussing Sabres Stanley Cup Finals hockey on Father's Day and not bickering over how to fix the team in the offseason. 🍺

Every player is different. Östlund’s brain is much better than Asplund’s ever was. I think Östlund is one of those guys who struggles to produce in the AHL to start the year then explodes in the second half.

I knew somebody would point out the stylistic differences. The similarity is they are small and fast and I think that will hinder him or keep him from being NHL elite.

McDavid is no Gretzky tell me when he actually takes over and dominates and this series is over anyway Beside His game 4 that whopping 3 points in 3 games sure is Gretzky level

Gabriel Eliasson was ranked by Daily Faceoff as the most physical player in this draft. He is a LHD from Sweden who should be available in the middle rounds of this draft. 6’7” Dman hates to see an opponent have the puck and will use everything at his disposal to separate them from it. Commited to Michigan, where he should have plenty of time to develop. I want to add grit, toughness and defensive ability to the Sabres and this kid has all of that, plus these skills comes in a huge frame. I haven’t studied him closely so I don’t know his deficiencies but with a mid round pick he would be interesting. He may not lead prospects in any fancy stats but it sounds like re-possession is a strength of his.

It was clear by the middle of the second the Panthers' bench had already given up on the game. It was accurate at the time I posted it. Kind of like saying "Uncle Joe looks to be in good shape" two years before he dies of a heart attack.