nfreeman

They also gave up Brayden McNabb, a real top-4 NHL defenseman who has played a lot for good teams in a solid NHL career, in that trade! That deal may have epitomized GMTM's spend-like-a-drunken sailor approach to team-building.

How so?

I think it would be nuts not to trade Hall, Montour or any other FA who won’t be back for whatever they can get. IMHO there is zero benefit in “sending a message” to the NHL about not getting lowballed. The return will be driven by supply and demand, as always.

Regarding Dreger's tweet, if KA views Linus as foundational, he should be working on giving him an extension before the deadline. (But I'm not a fan of Dreger's, so I wouldn't be surprised if he were out to lunch on that.) I also don't see why Montour isn't just as certain to be traded as Hall is. Montour isn't coming back and will get them at least a 3rd-rounder and possibly more.

I'm glad the Patriots didn't get Darnold, and mystified as to why they didn't take a shot on him as opposed to Cam, who looks done like dinner.

1 -- yes -- not sure what your point is here. 2 -- I think if Reino is the C, and therefore frequently carrying the puck up ice from deep in his own zone, his line will play more slowly than if he is the W and if a faster guy is carrying it up ice.

Excellent post, as always. But: Linus has delivered a pretty small body of work to base a 5-year commitment on. In his 2 years as a starter, including one in which he apparently became a stud, he started 34 games and 16 games. The 34-game season was over for the Sabres at around the halfway mark, when they nosedived after a 10-game win streak and Linus didn’t pull them out of it. And the 16-game season was, shockingly, over at the 20% mark. That certainly wasn’t Ullmark’s fault, but the Sabres sure haven’t gotten their opponents’ A games for the bulk of Ullmark’s 50 starts. Making a big commitment to Ullmark now isn’t from outer space. But I’d be fine with any of quite a few combinations of 2 of the guys I listed on short term deals.

Fair question. There is a lot of turnover league-wide at goalie every year, both in trade and via FA. UFAs this summer include Grubauer, Driedger from FLA (who is #2 in the NHL in SV% among goalies with more than 15 starts), Bernier, Raanta, Freddy Andersen, Tuuka Rask and Mike Smith. Linus has a better SV% than many of those, but in a small sample size, and IMHO it's hard to be confident that Linus will be better than any of those guys next year. Looking at current SV% leaders (minimum 15 games), the following goalies have changed teams recently: 2 - Driedger 3 - Grubauer 5 - Talbot 8 - Fleury (didn't change teams but has been available) 13 - Mike Smith 14 - Varlamov 15 - Lankinen There are good goalies to be had every year (which makes the failure to upgrade from Hutton for the past 2 offseasons, when his 1st year made it crystal clear that he wasn't good enough, all the more frustrating). You make a good case for keeping Linus, but if it takes a 5-year deal to do so, I'm out and will hope to be proven wrong.

Reino's results at center, should he stay there for the rest of the season, will be an interesting sub-plot in the drama of what happens with him this summer -- extension, trade, arbitration, etc. I think the Sabres probably want to play faster, and Reino at C is not conducive to increasing team speed, so I think his best use on this team is probably at RW. OTOH, Reino is a good, smart player and it's certainly quite possible that he demonstrates the ability to be a difference-maker at #2C. That would be a pretty sweet development. Among other things, it would keep the pressure off Cozens' development.

Respectfully, it's not the annual salary, it's the term that I and I believe others are concerned about. I have plenty of doubts about Linus, but I'd give him $5MM x 2 years tomorrow if he'd accept it. If it takes a 5-year deal to get him to keep bailing water from the Titanic in hopes that KA and whoever he brings in can fix the gaping holes in the hull -- that's an entirely different story. I don't think I can get there. I don't think anyone will offer him a 4- or 5-year deal. He hasn't done enough in the NHL, and there is plenty of Sabres stink on him. But someone very likely could offer him a 2-year deal, and he might have seen enough of the poopshow here to leave unless the Sabres' offer is much better than his alternatives. Good info. I hope you're right. As I mentioned I have my doubts about him but I'd probably, like others here, be OK with a 3-year deal.

Ugh. That stinks. Very sorry you had to endure all of that crap.

Marvin -- these are trying times, no question about it. We can still have conversations about how ill-advised the tank was that include good-natured gibes from the mods. No one is throwing beer on you, and even those who refuse to admit the tank was idiotic are not beating their chests about how smart they are and how dumb everyone else is like some of the WGR guys were doing at the time.

Eggs-actly. For the zillionth time: the point of the tank was to end up with a winning team -- NOT just to end up with a star player. The misguided souls who supported the tank did so because they thought, wrongly, that getting a star player was the surest path to developing a winning team. The wise ones who opposed the tank knew that really bad teams usually stay in the basement -- they don't just pop down to pick up a bottle of champagne and then pop back up to become the life of the party. Also, Dahlin was not part of the tank. The Sabres were trying to be good that year -- they just failed miserably due to incompetence at GM and HC.

Very true, but my point was simply that it wasn't because of cheapness. He's been choosing the wrong guys to run the team. It's not for lack of trying.

I think it's more accurate to say that it ended a bit less than 1 year ago, when TP decided to cut spending in light of the covid shutdown. Before that point, the Sabres had a heavily staffed front office, a highly compensated HC and spent to the cap every year. (It's also worth noting that even during the covid lean period, the Sabres spent to the cap this year.) If they hire the 2 guys that are the subject of this thread and staff up the scouting the department, and spend to the cap again next year -- all of which sound reasonably likely -- the cost-cutting era will probably be dead and gone, although they probably won't return to the lavish spending of yesteryear that you noted.

Just to be precise, it doesn't work quite like this, and the savings aren't as much -- essentially the players pay prorated state taxes to each state they play in on road trips. The savings are substantial, to be sure, but it's not all-or-nothing.

I hate myself for watching the last 10 min of that game.

Ladies and Gents, Matt Irwin, franchise player, leads the Sabres in ice time tonight.

Well, pi can certainly speak for himself, but he might've been thinking of Lehner too, which is fair IMHO even if they didn't trade him.

Trade him for whatever we can get. I like Linus but not enough to say he's definitely the #1 next year. I'd be fine bringing him back along with someone like MAF or other legit NHL goalie and letting them fight it out for the top job. I definitely don't want to give him an extension until Karmanos and hopefully Rutherford are here to opine. It will probably make sense to wait until the deadline so he can prove he's healthy with a few starts.

I am going to suggest that the Sabres' fan base is no more and no less deluded on the value of their team's players than every other team's fan base. The way-above-average amount of delusions lie in certain fans' feelings about the owners.

I agree and am not expecting a #1 for Hall. I don't think any NHL GM could have seen the Sabres play this year and decide to give up a #1 for him. I'm guessing it will be a #2 and a #3, or perhaps a #2 and a prospect.

I think it's more accurate to say that "reporters have said they've heard rumors that TP and BB have an agreement that TP won't meddle." I don't think any credible reporter has reported that such an agreement exists.

I think that’s true if Carolina will pay in the same ballpark as what Rod can get by leaving, but he’s not going to take, say $2MM x 3 years just to stay there when he can probably get a guaranteed $18MM or so elsewhere.

I don't think that is the case though. I think I heard that Karmanos was fired over Rutherford's objection and that might've been the reason for Rutherford's sudden resignation.