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He can opt for a one year term, and does he also get UFA status one year earlier as well?

Friedman this morning says the Byram noise is not really about him getting traded as much as it is about him getting paid. Said Peterka wanted out, that’s not necessarily the case with Byram and the market for Byram is kinda soft. Also said, as I alluded to upthread, the agent likes to take his clients to unrestricted free agency. Does nothing but reinforce my sense that he’s staying in Buffalo on a short-term deal. Really interested in seeing if the Sabres force that by taking him to arbitration because I don’t think Bo would mind that at all.

Not to be repetitive, but this is such a non-story it’s hilarious. I mean malynstein applied for arb last year too. It’s a very typical ploy for mid to low level rfa free agents to give them some negotiating power. Has nothing to do with the team and his agent would’ve done this no matter if he was traded or not most likely. The issue is people assigned some type of second round value to JBD. It’s pretty obvious in retrospect that this was just a false thinking because people did not like the idea of adding to cozens to get Norris. It should’ve been obvious to us when looking at his history that he was waived last year and no one claimed him. Do we really think Buffalo, despite how negative everyone is about their management, would pay a second round draft pick for a player that was on waivers a couple month earlier? If no one else claimed him when he was free, why would they pay a draft pick for him now? It’s not like he did anything remarkable like Fabbro

Eh I think they can afford to linger on this trade because the player is willing it to sign back even for a couple years in Buffalo. Peterka refused to sign here in any capacity it seems. The question is whether they could’ve gotten more at the trade deadline… But that sort of a dicey proposition. It’s funny that people are saying the Sabres had complete control that situation because they did have complete control of his rights, but they could not let him go into the season unsigned and tank the first part of the season.

Agree with all this. Player evaluation (and development) has been questionable at best with this regime of coaches and GM. How is JBD worse than Bryson? Plus he is a right handed shot. To your point, Johnson or Novikov could fill that role of #6. And if, if you somehow extricate the AAV for Mr.Glass, then you might have been able to plugged in an even better partner for Power. But we all know if Adams was to able to move his $4.4m cap number, it’s doubtful they spend it elsewhere. Something like Dahlin/Weegar Power/Kesselring JBD/ Novikov. That group would be ~$1m more than what the Sabres ice after Timmins raise and keeping Samuelsson. I would love to know if Adams actively tried to move JBD and received no offer. Like every GM said hard pass.

I recognize you are speculating. Power at $8.35 million in the sheltered Jason Woolley role, would be...something. If this is the sort of combinations and usage that Ruff is looking at, then I think they would be better to package Byram and a forward for a big upgrade upfront, and put Power with Dahlin, and play Zac Jones with Timmins. Jones is more analogous to Woolley than Power is, I think. Or sign Byram and trade Power in the package for the big forward upgrade. The Rangers tried hard to make Zac Jones and Schneider a thing. We might be sleeping on him a bit as an option for the 3rd pair. Of course, Woolley's value was that he was a better PP option than any of the top-4 at the time. That won't be the case for anyone like Jones in our current lineup. Byram and Norris for Pettersson and Forbort would be very risky, but I'm not sure if it would be more risky than Norris at $7.95 million + Byram at whatever a long-term extension would cost. EDIT: I keep forgetting that Pettersson now has a full NMC; so we can scratch him as being an option for the Sabres for the foreseeable future (to the relief of many!).

I can agree with this. UPL had one good stretch last season and then the turnovers and poor team defense became the norm. He overcompensated and lost hos postioning ans his confidence. Not sold on UPL but he and Lyon might be a decent 1A/1B combo. We need it if we have any chance of even contending for a playoff spot.

I guess if we lament and cry wolf everything KA breathes it really loses its proper meaning when he really does behave insanely. That said I would have preferred if we were trading for a player and giving up an extra 2 for them that we would have had an agreement in place. Bottom line i wait and see how this plays out. Maybe KA feels like arbitration will be a better financial deal... who knows... I reserve my KA is a clown show comment for IF he goes thru arbitration AND we dont sign him... then gloves off... until then let's see

To be fair, I have to assume that the Sabres had every intention of trading Byram before or at the draft. Would have made sense to do it at that time for planning purposes for the draft and free agency. I think the process with Byram has gone a bit sideways for them.

Stumbled on an interesting fact while looking up my above post. Remembering the much-vaunted Malenstyn-Lafferty-Aube-Kubel 4th line that got so much hype last summer and busted? Apparently it never actually went bust. In the 7 games it played together it had a 68.4% expected goals. Apparently that wasn’t working for Lindy.

+/- captures even strength goals for and against 0 would be 50% gf/ga and so positive is above and negative below.

Curious how much of that included Benson on the line? In terms of Corsi, Benson was part of 5 of the Sabres top 7 lines, and 7 of the top 10. None of those included Kulich, but a lot of them were very small sample sizes. Benson also seems to do well in terms of expected goals with most linemates and the other guy that does that is Thompson. So I’m wondering how much of the Kulich/Thompson success is about Kulich.

Great observation! I was not aware of this.

Too bad there's no roll back to Hasek in the cards.

With larger sample sizes, I feel like actual GF% is a better metric to measure a player's skill as some of the randomness of shooting (and other intangibles not accurately factored into the model) usually work themselves out over time.

I don't know if Kulich would be ready for a 1C or 2C role. But if he could genuinely earn either role, that would be such a bonus in assembling the lines. The next issue is whether Norris can stay healthy and assume one of the two top center roles. Any way one looks at the prospective two top lines it is evident that another forward from the outside needs to be added. Just maybe KA is counting on Byram trade bringing back such a player if he is dealt? It seems that the GM is counting on Quinn, Benson and Kulich taking some major leaps forward. To understate our roster situation, the GM has a lot of "ifs" attached to it.

I wonder if Lindy is going to roll the clock back to 1999 and deploy: Byram Dahlin like he did Zhitnik Smehlik Samuelsson Kesselring like Warrener McKee Power Timmins like Woolley Shannon Keep in mind they behave as if they like Timmins and Samuelsson more than we do. Adams mentioned putting Byram with Dahlin and “you can have a different pair of bigger shutdown guys”. Adams also talked earlier about wanting a guy for Power who was “safe with a lot of clean puck touches”. To me that sounds a lot more like Timmins than it does Kesselring. Probably guilty of overthinking things, but it’s something that crossed my mind.

Kadri would be a huge add to the team and to the top . He is originally from the Toronto so he actually may think of waiving. its a good idea

I added him... he's bad. They would be better off dumping him and keeping Docker or probably even bringing up Ryan Johnson Bryson and Samuelsson aren't playing above replacement level. Both of them need to be replaced and we can only hope that Novikov, Johnson, and Komarov develop quicker because Adams won't be rid of his favorites and bring in better players.

What about Bryson? When you play 40-50 games, he matters…despite some(not you) who say he is a #7 and spends most of his time in the press box so who cares.

I brought this up in the previous thread but I'm going to say it here again.. Kuluich and Tage together... In about 20 games, were one of the most dangerous combinations in the league. They scored more goals per minute, played than anybody with Matthews up in Toronto, and even slightly more than the McDavid- Draisatl combination in Edmonton. 20 games isn't a lot, but it's not a two to three game sample size either. Maybe it's not going to work long-term, but I want to stick with that pair and see what they can do together again... Until it doesn't work.

I take it the answer to my question is no.

JBD: 144 games, 24pts, -1, 241 blocks, 122 hits, -5.9relcf%, -7.6xgf and he just turned 25 Timmins: 159 games, 46pts, +21, 167 blocks, 137 hits, 2.2relcf%, +16.5xgf and he will be 27 when the season starts Power: 242 games, 111pts, +8, 319 blocks, 99 hits, 0.5relcf%, -21.4xgf and is 22 turning 23 in November Kesselring: 156 games, 53pts, +14, 133 blocks, 205 hits, 3.6relcf%, +8.4xgf and is 25 They're certainly looking at xgf% and relative cf% when making decisions. Looking at this, I think they believe timmins has more upside than JBD did. Hard to say but none of these guys have deep NHL resumes. Outside of Power, they've basically played 2 seasons worth of games. Will be curious to see Timmins salary. And for fun... Byram: 246 games, 110pts, +26, 313 blocks, 337 hits, -1.7relcf%, -5.9xgf and just turned 24 Bryson: 254 games, 43pts, -38, 276 blocks, 153 hits, -4.7relcf%, -31.6xgf and will be 28 in November Samuelsson: 212 games, 43pts, +3, 341 blocks, 438 hits, -10.8relcf%, -26xgf and he's 25 Rasmus Dahlin: 509 games, 360pts, -58, 637 blocks, 771 hits, +11.4relcf%, +17.9xgf and is 25

For all of his career he has been on competitive teams that usually make the playoffs. Now that he is at the tail end of his career I doubt that he would find it appealing to join a franchise that hasn't been in the playoffs in a generation and is recognized by most people in the business to be a third-rate operation. If he has a no-trade clause in his contract I'm sure he would say absolutely not going to that junk yard.

Absolutely. His contract is fine. I might actually watch next season if he were on the team..