thewookie1

I am a Sabres Avatar, these players make millions regardless of where they go so I have zero sympathy for them if they end up on a bad team. You can try and play the moral high ground all you want but I'm a Sabres fan regardless of the situation. And true fans of a team aren't going to care what legitimate or assinine reasoning a player has for leaving; you are either with us or against us at the end of the day. Few players ever surpass that, Ray Bourque being one such example for Boston fans. Why should I care if JJ has a short time period to succeed? Is he paying me money? He can want out all he wants but that doesn't mean I'm going to give him a pass because the front office and ownership are inept. Why not fix it, why not work to improve the circumstances by some means. It's not like we have the access he'd have to the team upper-echelon. If you ask to leave, you are an enemy to this team, it's fans and that's all there is to it. NO matter the caveat.

Losing Peterka hurts but I agree with @LGR4GM in this regard. The team is at best fractionally better with a trade of offensive pop for a bit more responsible play in theory. I understand being jaded, I understand not trusting anything they do but I can’t exactly dwell on that while also trying to enjoy and cheer for my favorite team. So I much rather approach this with a glass half full and possibly delude myself into believing they have a legit shot at the playoffs because anything else destroys the entire premise of being a fan. I’m high cynical in many aspects of my life while working with government/finance stuff so I can’t approach this with a similar mindset or I’ll go completely nuts.

It's obviously more nuanced but how many players has Adams kept hold of that have more or less asked to leave?

He always has leverage here; love the kid but to get him to sign originally allegedly required promised time in the NHL during his "1st year" Now while he's certainly embraced his time in Rochester now; bringing in Silovs would of just pissed him and/or his agent off. Complain enough and Adams would trade him, but he can't since he hinged much of his past 5 years on developing Levi to be our 1G and he isn't one to deviate

That was arguably the only good goalie on the market available for trade; that being said trading for him would of made Levi next to impossible to re-sign and Adams doesn’t exactly look at a 3D, much less a 4D, map.

McLeod is a high tier 3C and low end 2C from a traditional view. His contract is spot on for his value. You could do better but also far worse. Plus he has enough talent to fill the 2C role for stints even on a solid team in theory.

It wasn't Boston per-say, it was anywhere new. He wanted a clean break and Boston offered him a contract he liked. For all we know his injury history scared most teams off but Boston and Buffalo both gave him solid offers.

I'm not trading Power; also Buffalo has never been capable of moving players without overpaying to get rid of them.

Not at all I'm saying Kesserling playing his off-side doesn't give enough of a boost to that of a savvy vet playing on his strong side. Plus the majority of coaches are going to skew ice time to vets.

The 26 1st would have to be Top 3 protected for me to trade it regardless of target; especially seeing as we can't conditionally use his signing to protect our *****. Benson is completely untouchable Lastly, if he wants more than 11.5mil we can't do it because we lack the cap flexibility to keep him at this number. Effectively we'd have to let Tuch go which defeats the purpose of getting Robertson to upgrade the Top 6.

Just wanted to add, Vet defenseman tend to be utilized heavily over less experienced defenseman. Also handiness is wrong for a 1 to 1 comparison. Most Dmen are worse on their offhand so would you rather play a vet LHD 20 min and a solid young RHD 13-15min or play a solid young RHD on his off-hand for 20 min and either bump Cole to the lower pairing or to his offhand at 13-15min?

Minus our 1st, however I’d also be less inclined if he’s looking for 12+ mil a year. Re-signing Tuch would still be the priority

I wish we’d call Teppo or Tallinder and see if either or both would like some sort of part time advisory role to teach our many Dmen the tricks of the trade. If Power, especially, could learn Tallinder’s skill at positioning he’d be a monster defensive presence without laying a single check. He’d just be a giant blimp that covers half the zone and creates problems for anyone trying to move into and around the zone. Ironic, the Swedish kid plays with an edge while the good ole Canadian boy plays like the “typical” European defenseman.

@Weave Well I wouldn't of traded Levi for a 1 year rental in Hellebuyck just to watch him walk

That also happened to be without any extension

I thought that was pretty funny too. That broad of a net would likely be true for 80% of players.

Paying 3 Dmen 8mil + is completely bonkers, especially when only one of them plays D well

Should he no, will he, probably

This offseason the entire East really haven't done much; MTL got better but everyone else is effectively budging slightly up or down akin to us. Toronto lost Marner but gain Nick Roy Florida re-signed their guys Carolina got better with Ehlers but still has questionable goaltending.

He’ll be rewarded 6.5 or 7mil by arbitration would be my guess. He certainly won’t get 8 or 9 mil AAV, especially if he asks for 2 years.

So then why hasn’t a trade been made yet? Aside from SJS and Philly, the other teams apparently interested in Byram are playoff teams not looking to subtract from their present roster. Adams wants NHLers and those playoff teams are unlikely to either have the cap space or present pieces to make a deal. I highly doubt Adams has 5 great offers on the table of NHL players and is sitting on his hands for the sake of it. Less actual evidence and more the general threat of one would be my guess.

It's mostly conjecture from a combination of a lack of a trade already and the majority of interested parties being playoff teams. Effectively as long as an offer sheet could be threatened; teams could, in theory, play off the value table and try and use prospects > picks as a way to coerce Adams.

Frankly we have no clue if its depreciating. If other teams just want to give us futures and threaten offer sheets it really does little at this time.

Adams is definitely trying to prevent an offer sheet from being brought up in discussions ever again. He's so hellbent on not taking any futures so from that regard it makes sense. Buffalo: We want player A or player B + Teams: No, we will just offer sheet him instead Buffalo: Try then... Teams: Nah.. I'll just offer other futures for now while threatening the offer sheet Buffalo: No more offer sheets Teams:

If we can get Kadri+ for Byram, sure