nfreeman

Interesting. I am not expecting this and will be fairly surprised if it happens. Yes. If you're the GM in your 3rd year with a team, the team is lousy, you're capped out even after 2 expensive vets bailed on the team and had their contracts terminated, you've brought in a bunch of overpaid, underproducing vets and you're borrowing from next year's cap -- you've done a crappy job with the cap (among other failures). As to your 2nd point -- I think it's fair to say that on paper, TT and a #1 alone were a better return than Florida's return for Trocheck, plus Bergy and Sobotka were seen as having some value.

After reading that article, I want Kahun to play with Skinner.

I'm not giving up the #1 pick -- which will almost certainly be in the lottery -- plus Mitts for Trocheck. This is kinda where I am, although there is reason to be concerned that Trocheck ain't the guy, and it's still quite possible that Mitts becomes a good NHL player. Again, this is one of those calls that JB should be and probably will be evaluated on. At this point, it's more likely than not that Mitts never becomes a 40-pt NHL guy, and it's more likely than not that Trocheck's next 5 years are substantially better than Mitts' next 5 years. Maybe not, but JB is paid to make these calls and get most of them right.

OK, so I'm looking forward to seeing Skinner-MJo-Simmonds.

I think someone reasonably reputable reported on Twitter that the Sabres thought they had made a better offer for Trocheck than Carolina's was. Then, someone here posted that the reasoning was likely the intra-division factor. While I agree that the intra-division factor probably played some role, I think it's pretty likely that if the Sabres' offer had been materially better -- which doesn't look like that high of a bar to clear -- Florida would've taken it. As I posted above, I also think it's pretty likely that Florida wanted forwards, and therefore that JB would've needed to give up Mittlestadt (or maybe TT), and that JB wasn't willing to do so. I can understand that decision, but OTOH it's fairly likely that we'll look back in 5 years and be very PO'd that we didn't give up Mitts for Trocheck.

So, I'm deliberating over whether the Sabres should've tried harder to get Trocheck. Carolina didn't give up that much to get him -- the 2 prospects (a D and a C) look roughly equivalent to Borgen and Asplund, plus a decent pending UFA forward and a 24-year-old C who is 6'0", 178 lbs, in his 2nd full NHL season and who looks like maybe a 30-point guy. Since Carolina got 2 young forwards (plus a pending UFA forward) and 1 D, it's quite possible that they wanted forwards more than they wanted D, which would've worked to the Sabres' disadvantage. Presumably, they wouldn't have been interested in Malone or Ogilvie or Ruotsaleinen. It's quite possible that JB would've needed to include Mittlestadt to get it done. So -- if the trade had been Mittlestadt, Borgen and Zemgus for Trocheck, would it have been well received here? I would've been fine with it -- but if the Sabres had made the trade and then Trocheck looked like Moulson or Okposo next year, while Mitts lit it up in Florida, that would've been a debacle. It's JB's job to get this kind of decision right. So far he hasn't done so nearly enough, but he might've been right on this one.

@dudacek — I have the same concerns, but I’ve read that Pittsburgh thinks it will cost over $3MM per year to resign him and they don’t have the cap space, so better to use him for a couple of assets now for a playoff run. OTOH, if they thought he was really good, they’d probably figure out a way.

He’s gong to be good.

Well, then they need to be corrected.

No. Marv MIGHT have been outcoached by Parcells and Belichik -- 2 HOF coaches -- in the Bills' 1st SB vs the Giants, but the Giants of that era were a great team and the Bills shot themselves in the foot by going out every night until 4:00 AM that week and then dropping some passes and missing a FG at the end. They were mowed down by superior opponents in the other 3 SBs. And they were beating Dallas -- a team that won 3 SBs in 4 years -- at the half in the 4th one (at a game I attended, btw), with the ball to start the 2nd half, before Thurman fumbled and Dallas ran it in to take the lead. Their real undoing in that era was subpar interior defense. Marv was a great coach.

I think there is close to zero possibility that Simmonds is re-signed. But he is reasonably likely to add more value down the stretch than Sheary or ERod would've. I also think this was a low-cost way for JB to add a bit of leadership and grit and, in combination with keeping Zemgus and Larsson, send a message to the room that he's willing to invest in their playoff chase. So I'm fine with it.

So: VO-Eichel-Reino Skinner-Kahun-Frolik Vesey-MJo-Simmonds KO-Larsson-Zemgus Extra: Lazar Montour-Risto Dahlin-Miller Joker-McCabe I'm interested.

Interesting. So they did take a real swing at a 2C. I agree that old-school Tallon may not have wanted to trade him in the division unless the Sabres' offer was substantially better than Carolina's. Too bad. That would've made for an exciting day. Welcome Marty!

I have been pretty disappointed in the amount of wishing ill on people, in this thread and the Bogo thread, simply because those people didn't play as well as we wanted.

It does seem like the failure to trade Zemgus, Larsson, Vesey or Frolik means that JB is hoping to keep the Sabres pushing hard for the last 25% of the season, innit? I don't think Larsson or Zemgus would've garnered better than a 3rd-rounder, or that Vesey or Frolik would've garnered more than a 5th-rounder, but even lower picks can be useful assets. Moreover, it's likely that all 4 of those guys are going to be elsewhere next season -- so it really presents the question of whether the Sabres were better off getting picks as opposed to keeping those guys for a stretch drive that is pretty unlikely to yield a playoff spot. We'll see.

He's 24 and turns 25 in July. 5'11", 175 lbs. He played 2 years in the OHL (Sudbury, eh?) at ages 17 and 18, then played professionally in Germany for 4 years, then 1 year with the Blackhawks (37 pts in 82 games -- not bad for a rookie) and then 27 pts in 50 games this year with Pittsburgh. He also played for Germany 3 times in the World Juniors and for them in the 2018 Olympics. I wonder if RK knows him? Seems like a nice pickup for 2 UFAs with little value.

C'mon JB light my fire.

I don’t think anyone is going to give Vesey more than a 2-year deal or more than $2MM per year.

That was an excellent performance by the FNG Johansson. The same goalie who just made the AHL all-star team. Hmmm...

Let's go, Buffalo! Come on Hutton. Give the boys a chance.

So Linus got hurt 3.5 weeks ago -- has anyone heard an update?

It would be nice if we all took a step back from the p***ing contest here. Both sides have valid points.

Soooooo... The Sabres came out of the break with a real chance to beat some crappy teams at home and get right into the playoff race. Instead, they crapped the bed, fell out of the race and made quite a few of us come very close to deciding to fire JB. Now, they've won 4 out of 5 and, if they go 13-8 down the stretch, which doesn't seem impossible, they'll finish at DeLuca .500 with 90 pts or more and their best season since 2011-12. If that happens JB ain't goin' nowhere.

Correct. It was Ekblad and then a tossup between the 3 forwards. GMTM didn't pick the absolutely wrong one but he didn't pick the right one either.