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Did the editor &/or typesetter have a liquid lunch that day? Buffalo Braves, Stanely Cup, a few other suspected ones too.

You have to give up something of value to get a player like Tkachuk. I'll agree with you -- Quinn is an intelligent player and would play a key role in any sort of potential Sabre dynasty. He is however, smaller (ie, play-style not necessarily conducive to playoff hockey) and injury prone. I'd gladly part with him and two complete question marks for a player who had 37 goals last year on a dogshit team. This isn't the NHL of old. Players have more power than in the 90s and early 2000s. Ottawa is a mickey mouse organization and Tkachuk has devoted 6 years of his career to that dumpster fire. Requesting a trade (which we don't even know if he did) doesn't automatically make him a low character player. They wouldn't have named him captain if he was.

This one from '75 is a Sabres story, also. I had to blow it up and look for the name, but sure enough, Bob Sauve was drafted on this day by the Sabres! Good call Kevin Adams!

Depends on whether UPL regresses any or not. If he regresses, then Levi darn well better be ready to be the starter at least 45% of the time and likely more. IF the goaltending regresses, they might need all that you've been mentioning JUST to get back to barely missing the playoffs with a record that should be 7 or 8 points out if not for a woeful Eastern Conference. If UPL stays at the level he was in January - March and Levi plays like he did January on then they might not need any more than that to get in. REALLY hoping Adams doesn't roll the die on the goaltending again but fulling expecting him to do so. (And would be fine with that dice roll one season from now as we'll have another full season of seeing how those 2 are maturing. (Presuming UPL &/or Levi doesn't deficate himself this year. Should that not be the case, well ...)

Nitpicking, but they are currently in the 3rd rebuild. (Rebuild 1: centered on Eichel, O'Reilly, Kane, & Lehner. Rebuild 2: centered on Eichel & Dahlin. Rebuild 3: ongoing. Rebuild 4: ???? (Hopefully not necessary.))

Out of curiosity, why is it known as “combine”?

Pretty much spot on. Our May up here in Scotland was the incredibly wet, punctuated by a few days of blistering heat.

It's pretty clearly in. I suspect it bounced off the camera which gave the illusion that it didn't really go in. But you can see plenty of white between the puck and the goal line, and I don't think it was that far off the ice. That said, I do wish they'd show the overheard shot on goals like that.

The Central USA and the South are taking a beating this year. All those storms and tornado's. Just awful.

I was trying to avoid the "if everything goes right" scenario and focus on the context of what the actual roster needs. Go back to your earlier post of it being a template: most of us like the idea of adding a centre, a physically strong defensive defenceman and hard-to-play against winger. You said the upgrade offered by those three pieces won't get us into the playoffs. How good does our upgrade need to be?

The bolded is reasonable, and the opinions are why we are here. But if you are presuming that any given deal is desperation then you are coming at it from the wrong perspective. Is it aggressive? Yes. Of course. But aggressive =\= desperate, also of course. The primary difference here is that a bunch of us see this as the right time for aggressive moves to fill out the roster. We have more assets than we can keep, giving us a fairly unusual opportunity to be a bully with them to get what we need. IMO failure to do so by the GM would be negligent.

Hardly. There are multiple conversations underway. None of them are related to the other conversations, except for the “would you do this” pretense. They all kind of have a similar presumption.

In all likelihood the focus of attention for the GM relates to redoing the lower lines. (That's what he has stated.) That caliber of player/s is available. Overpaying in assets is not the right way to pursue this level of talent. I'm open to all sensible options. And that includes trading our first pick. But I'm opposed to dispatching that valuable pick for the proposed UFAs. That makes no sense to me.

Yes, if Thompson and Cozens combine for 70 goals and Byram is the player that we hope and Quinn and Samuelsson both play 75 plus games and Benson jumps to 45-50 points and the PP isn’t terrible and UPL is still good, then we will be in the playoffs. But, if these things happen we make the playoffs with Krebs and Joker and pick a UFA 4th line winger (Carrier, Lafferty). It was the conversation until some people changed it to a fantasy world where this was the one and only option.

An organization that acts out of desperation instead of measured calculation is a sign that the organization continues to ineptly handle its business. That's not how you attract players; it's how you continue to make players shun your franchise. There are deals to be made this offseason. The proposed deal is an example what not to do. There is a myth here that no one wants to come here. That's far from the case. Buffalo certainly is not appealing to a lot of players. That doesn't mean that other players can't be brought in. Players can be added through trades and free agency. If option A isn't attainable, then go to option B-Z.

In a world with better options, everyone takes the better option. I mean, duh. But that isn’t really the conversation. The conversation is, would you do Joki, Krebs, 11 for those 3 players? It kind of has to presume that a better deal isn’t there.

The initial proposal wasn’t laid out as a scenario where this was the one and only option for the Sabres to upgrade their roster this off-season. As I said, in a mythical world where there is no other option, then sure I would do the trade. Im not sure who our 4th line centre is in this mythical world, or who is going to play up if Cozens or Thompson are injured, but sure, if this is the one and only deal that could be made, let’s do it. In the real world where there are other and better options which are, frankly, far more realistic, I would pass.

OK. But what if you add Byrum replacing EJ to that context? Thompson and Cozens bouncing back? The health of Quinn and Samuelsson? How much of an upgrade of those 3 departing players do we need to win 5 more games next year?

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of better.

If this is a scenario where no other deal is possible and there is no negotiation on the price, then sure. I don’t agree that it makes us a playoff team though. These 3 players are replacing Mitts, Okposo and Joker from last year. I don’t think these three players out perform Mitts, Okposo and Joker to the degree that it puts us in the playoffs.

Buffalo is NOT a desirable location for players to come at this time. That's just a fact due to the ineptitude. If you want that to change you have to make a splash and send a strong message that things are changing. A move like this signals that earth shaking change. Once you make that move maybe other people start to give Buffalo a second look, like Tanev's brother. Maybe Kane. Others. If you continue to evaluate everything in "value" and try to win trades and over rate what you have it's going to take years and years and years still and during those years so many things can still go wrong. It's time for this team to change the narrative, and to make sure that happens they are going to have to "lose" some trades to get what they need and/or make some overpays in free agency. If they don't, Cozens will be back in the Worlds and we will be looking at the draft lottery again and again and again.

Ugh. Why does this have to be a desperation deal? It makes sense standing on its own if the goal is improving the roster in specific areas. And frankly, I don’t see how desperation can be a dirty word here when we are on the cusp of a 3rd rebuild if this roster filling out doesn’t push the core in the right direction.

But, we aren’t talking about some other mythical deal. We are talking about this mythical deal. In that context, and in the context of improving the team being more important than winning the trade, the only asset I consider of value is that #11. Sure, if there is a better deal, do it. But if KA is set to make a decision about this mythical deal, wouldn’t it have to presume that a better mythical deal isn’t on the table?

If Dickinson slips to 11 we’d have to grab him. I don’t think he lasts that long but I think he projects to be Owen Power with a ton more nastiness