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It reeks of Kevyn, I want you to hire your replacement. Sounds like a great recipe for success. “More changes coming” More? That implies there have been some.

Terrified of that being the pick. I need a guy who demands the puck more.

Samuelsson isn't good and should be moved regardless of Byram or Power.

Don’t worry about Frondell, they said. He sucks but he’ll be gone well before 9, they said.

Calgary, Philadelphia, San Jose, Chicago, Nashville has Josi but he’s old and there’s no one else, Utah needs LD.

Sharks, missing out on Schaeffer could make them offersheet Byram - And in this case I would gamble and let him go.

Except Mule was worse defensively than Byram was. This is not a defence of Byram, who the Sabres should not sign to the 8 by 8 deal in the OP. It’s an attempt to point out how the concept of Samuelsson does not match the reality. He was Dahlin’s worst partner and Power’s worst partner in xG% Everybody uses Dahlin’s presence to hand wave Byram. GF% Dahlin and Byram were 70%, Dahlin And Mule were 51.9%

Buh bye. Hopefully we get a solid return for him.

Which teams are either old on defense or just lack defense in general?

This reaks of "we should fire our GM but his contract and he's a guy Terry likes" The longer this goes on, the more laughable it becomes.

Pretty much, joined the agent who cares only about the money

Byram has switched agents. He’s dumped Kevin EPP (Juuse Saros, Peyton Krebs) and signed with Mitch Marner’s rep Daren Ferris, who also did Philip Broberg’s offer sheet escape from Edmonton. He gone.

Imagine being in cap hell with a bottom 9 worst roster, the same GM who signed off on those terrible contracts is now allowed to sign off more terrible deals to players. You can't even make this stuff up, this is beyond insanity at this point.

This falls under the I will believe it when it happens category

The Sabres are not in an impossible situation with regards to the salary cap and their roster. It is quite complex though. Extending our RFAs in pretty-much any realistic combination of expert projections, takes them right up to, or over, the cap. They are in a cap and roster situation that teams headed into year 5 of a rebuild, with no success to show for it, are not typically in. Typically, NHL teams in this sort of cap situation, have at least had some regular season successes. Also, serious NHL teams would typically entrust the management of this type of situation to a POHO and/or GM who has successfully navigated a franchise through such scenarios before. Adams has thus far not been able to build a playoff level roster, despite (I would argue) starting out with more assets than a GM would typically start a rebuild with. If Adams has not proven that he can build a winning team with all of the cap space and tradeable assets in the world to work with, then I don't know how he can possibly be expected to navigate the cap and contract complexities of the multiple moves needed this off-season to get the Sabres to the place where they have a playoff level roster. Could it happen? Sure. But, there is just no reason for optimism.

So if I did the math right, signing these deals would allow the Sabres to run it back with a little under $1M left to sign a backup goalie. Signing them all to the 1-year projections would add another $7Mish.

Probably not a significant minority. Muel is oft-injured and doesn't defend his teammates despite the A, but at least he has a role on the team as a defensive defenseman and PK guy. Byram, however, will never get the PP time with Dahlin/Power. Power can't even justify his own contract with points totals yet because he is only PP2. Byram can get you some value in a trade if you find a team that needs a PP guy and someone who can play top-4 minutes. Side note and probably would need to be in a different thread: I'd check with Philly and Nashville to see if they're interested in some sort of package of Byram for their higher pick. That'd probably have to be Byram+9 for their 5/6+player with some salary that fills a Sabres roster need (defensive RHD). At least explore the possibility.

How many pull ups can he do?

But they do have Mikko Rantanen. And Heiskanen could still return this series/season.

He's big and safe and he's right-handed. He's not a top-10 pick -- there's nothing that pops.

The beer's good, Punch, but where's the C? Dodo even got you new readers at Rexall*. *Stoner didn't, but PA does his research.

As you well know, the substantive problem with the team relates to the talent level and player mix. The conditioning issue may be a factor but not a significant one. For me, I'll be watching to see how the composition of the team changes. The reality is that most everything else is trivial/BS because the obtuse owner has kept the upper staff intact. Stupid owner presides over a stupid organization. That shouldn't be a surprise because it has been going on for a generation.

I'm going to throw out another option at 9 that we've not talked about much, Justin Carbonneau. His game needs to mature but the guy has every tool in his box. He's a 6'1" 192lb winger, with excellent skating, a good shot, strong work ethic, and maybe the best hands in the draft. Hus biggest criticism is turning his game from high event to high possession meaning better play selection. That's not uncommon for Jr players with more skills and ideas than puck touches, although, he gets a lot of touches. Topped his team in pts by 8 and in goals by 18. They lost in the first round because the opposition decided to take Carbonneau away and he managed just 3g. He was really the engine for his team. Carbonneau needs work on getting his ideas in the right order but the fact he's got the underlying manipulation skills needed is good. He also has an excellent shot that makes those fakes with his amazing hands something defense reacts to. Carbonneau is a bit high risk high reward. The risk, he never quite adapts to a pro game and ends up more of a pp specialist you can run on your 3rd line. The reward, he's a 40g, 45a rw with edge who's defensively engaged with skills to spare. Carbonneau will likely remain in my top 10. There's games where he adapts and plays a more pro style and I think he's smart enough to know how to translate his game. Give him another year in Jr and 2yrs in the AHL, I think you'll have a hell of a winger.

I'm sure it is a minority view but I would rather keep Samuelsson and trade Byram. The hope with dealing Byram is that we can get a good player in return who has some grit to him. I thought that for the last dozen games or so Samuelsson game was solid. No doubt it was because he was paired with Dahlin. It didn't hurt Dahlin's game and it stabilized his play. Another factor, if Byram gets the contract he is likely to seek, it would be significantly more costly. As the link below indicates Samuelsson's contract runs to 29-30 at $4,285,714 per year. Bryram's expected market price would be more and longer. https://www.google.com/search?q=Buffalo+Sabres+Samuelsson's+contract&oq=Buffalo+Sabres+Samuelsson's+contract&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.16470j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Yup. The blaming of conditioning for a 6-month season is garbage. If 2-3 folks aren't in fantastic shape after summer (i.e., recovering from surgery, unmotivated), you decrease their minutes early on and get them in gear in practice/gym during October. Or trade them if they're letting their teammates down. But the travesty is the Sabres powerplay still has all the same coaches. In Adams' first season the Sabres' PP was ranked 12th. Then 16th. Then 9th -- (but remember how it was great, and then cratered the 2nd half of that season?). Then 29th and 24th this past season. It's been awful for 2.5 years and no change to the approach and the only reason it improved this past season (from garbage to well below average) was Zucker was really, really effective.