DarthEbriate

I have an extremely positive view for Quinn long-term (if he remains healthy). I was one of the folks who was on the Quinn Train Spacecruiser last year and I still think he can be top 6. https://www.sabrespace.com/community/topic/37296-sabrespace-season-predictions-2024-25/ My reasoning for Quinn as the offer is that the right wings on the roster this year are TNT-Tuch-Quinn-Greenway. Quinn doesn't fit there. Now, if Tuch is set on moving out next summer, then keeping Quinn is a fair solution because he becomes RW2. But, personally, I'd rather have an early-30s Tuch than mid-20s Quinn in the top 6 because of all the other things Tuch does defensively.

The reason I give up Quinn is that I don't see his future role on the team (if Ruff is coach/involved in the hockey ops side) -- if Tuch is also in the future. And the only way for Quinn to prove he could step into the top-6 this year is through amazing production caused by injuries to TNT/Tuch. Going into this season, Quinn's role is a bottom 6 RW and shootout specialist. The shootout specialist has a bunch of value. But Marchment has outproduced Quinn over the last 3 years and is a much better fit as a 3/4 W. As @inkman noted above, I've only got the one year of Marchment, so I'm not making this deal unless I can get him to waive/extend. That's the rub. Or, I really pray he helps the Sabres make the playoffs and the fit is amazing and he signs an extension before the trade deadline. (And yes, all this thread is about Robertson, and nothing stated here changes the fact they need a top-4 RHD for Power and a goalie.)

Per capwages he has a 10-team no trade list. That's 1/3 of the league which means Buffalo is likely on it. If you can convince him to waive the NTC... RFA Quinn with 2 years of control for 1 year of Marchment? Who says no? And if no, what pick(s) balance it out. Dallas gets a kid who can score and has untapped potential and might just pop with another year clear from his injuries and the "no longer in Buffalo" issues; Buffalo gets a another Zucker/Greenway experienced guy. Overpaid, but fully capable of 20 goals and being a punk. He also plays on the edge of safe and will likely get suspended for a couple games, which frankly, this team could use one guy like that.

And he can make that choice. Because then he can decide how he wants to be remembered. Does he want to be Jeff Skinner or Pavel Bure? Both are going to have more than 700 career points (Skinner at 699, and I figure he plays next season regardless of this year's outcome). One of them might even end up with his name on the Stanley Cup. The other is in the Hall of Fame and has 34 career SHG. Neither played much defense. We could throw Satan in as well. Won a Cup, 700 points, 16 career SHG. There are multiple ways to not play defense and still provide value to a roster.

For the Selke, you have to: Play center (unless you're Jere Lehtinen). Be listed as a center on NHL.com (see Reinhart) Make the playoffs For myself, I just sort the forwards by +/-: Protas +40, Lehkonen +36, Foegele +36. I like being lazy.

Absolutely. And much more potential than Norris. JJP can learn defense. Norris 239 GP in 6 seasons. (158 points) Peterka 238 GP and he's only 23 and... no major injuries, his minimum GP in a full season is 77. (150 points).

Their GM wants to be fired? They can go get Sam Bennett (or Tavares) to pair with Logan Coolley, with Tij Iginla on the way. And #4 overall: Hagens, Martone, McQueen? And instead they would choose a 2C who has played more than 56 games once in his career -- and pay him 7M?

The most poignant Terry-DarthPegulas-like thing about this entire quote is that to him this one player is going to make them contenders (as Leino was after a good playoff series, or Ehrhoff was because he was a good PP1 guy with the Sedins*). And then, what do they do? Sign Hall to 1-year deal. That's it! Because there's no need to build around the future of Eichel/Reinhart because you're not keeping either of them anyway. Teams don't ever build or grow over multiple years together! Skate Hall on the same line as Eichel. Rather than having Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart be line 1 with Eichel as the carrier, and Hall-Staal-TNT as line 2 with Hall as the line driver. Allllll the other things that would make this list all the other threads on this board. Note: The dark side is the quick and easy path ("look how much smarter we are than those hockey people"). *And Ehrhoff was far-and-away the Sabres best offensive d-man and their best corsi guy all-around, it just shouldn't have the 1st-year $10M part of the contract.

Why not? The Jarmo Rebuild. Everybody gets a chance to redo the Sabres with some high-level draft choices.

Unless, of course, they're still EEE and will be operating $6M under the cap again this season, with another $4.4M reserved for Skinner's cap hit. In which case, there's no need to worry about Robertson.

I think if you are able to swing a JJP trade for Robertson (and let's say Byram for a RHD), the likelihood of Tuch re-signing to a good market-value, but not palm-trees-tax-level contract is there. Then, the roster is set up for success. Some money will be tight for the 1st year because of the Skinner hit, but it'd be a real team and a real top 6 and top 4. Goaltending...? Levi is the answer.... ....

See Adams: Skinner. It's why we are reluctant to trust. We've been had too many times. And last season he traded for McLeod with 1 year remaining (RFA of course), but didn't do any extension work during the season.

Well, there's one UFA the Sabres won't sign. Marcus Johansson signs a 1-year $800k extension with the Wild. He'll be 35 this season, but last year he was 11-23-34 in 72 gp. Functional 3/4 winger last season, but the contract is to be their 13th forward. For comparison, at this time, Josh Dunne will be the only NHL contract in the Sabres organization that would make less than MoJo next season. Any of the draft picks will make more if they happen to make the NHL roster.

We 'Spacers are way too close and informed (and hypothetically full of conjecture) to really be surprised by anything in the article. It's just additional confirmation. The article was written for the NHL fan -- like a CBJ fan who says, "I wonder what Jarmo is getting himself into..." reads it and says, "I knew Buffalo was bad... but good golly, I had no idea." We already discuss the details of the flailing and failings of this organization in every single thread here. Obviously, there isn't/won't be a 2nd article from Fairburn. The general facts are all there and the subtext and what is unstated is the scariest part. But a 3rd party more "angled" reporter could've likely gone much further with damning quotes, and smear, and such.

ROR and Dahlin never even got to play together. ROR might've regained some love of the game with a summer to cool off and bringing in kid-Rasmus and a new PP. With Ullmark, that's not a terrible core and Eichel improving every season. Instead, yet another monster hole appeared in the lineup.

It's a good article. General, almost all the backstory except maybe the 1-year handlings of Reino and Ullmark and others by JBott and ditching ROR which all contribute to Eichel saying, "No thanks" once Adams comes in and wants to rebuild -- thus the trade request pre-injury. But it's objective, and won't lose Fairburn his interviewing or team access, and you know exactly where the issues lie if you're a general NHL article reader. Well done overall. There's a part 2 of the article that Fairburn simply can't write because he's the beat guy. But those of us that are Sabres-idiots know that 2nd article already.

Yup. That does it for me and that's a solid pull of Dallas' cap and futures. I'd be reluctant to move Helenius or Wahlberg because the Sabres need something on the Rochester callup list after Rosén moves on or is already up for an injury.

The issue being Norris is also a shooter. At that point, you need a true distributing center to be between them. But it would work. But Robertson-TNT could make a lot of centers look really good.

No, RFA. Projected 8x$10.6M on capwages.

This is the way.

It also makes me sad that I never wrote out the full Sabres Wars prequel trilogy screenplays. But, add the prequels to the watchlist, and know that I have just about everyone in the organization mapped to a character. And it's creepy how well it works.

Really, when JBott refused to fire everyone, Pegula should have just named himself the GM (gone full Jerry Jones) and taken over the control of the team in his own vision. Of course, that's a job, and it's time-consuming and difficult. So, whom better to run it than the sycophant who will do his direct bidding, just as well as he himself could run it? Kind of a cowardly approach vs. what he did with the football team (and I assume the lacrosse team), which is hire real folks to do everything because they actually know the sport and can put in the time/setup to get talented staffs and players, etc. I sense a lot of fear there for something as trivial as a trade dispute hockey franchise. They're one and the same: master and apprentice.

I've been a bit busy, but I've got to weigh in on the most important part of this conversation: If Sheevyn is Grima, then that would make Darth Pegulas the Wise... Saruman, as played by Christopher Lee (which is a slap in the face to Mr. Lee), and... we, the fans, are Theoden, King.

Unless Darth Pegulas the Wise falls for him (Staal).

I think it comes down to basic resource management, and paying someone appropriate to where they are in their career/game. We've seen the lineup without Dahlin, so Power isn't yet able to play to the level of a PP1 and 1st-pairing D-man. It's why they needed to bridge him in the interim. Especially if Adams/Pegula weren't going to spend anywhere near the cap during these initial seasons anyway. I think I can best illustrate it with a team they want to be: Carolina. Similar poor powerplay: BUF 18.78% PP this last season, CAR 18.70% PP. Buffalo pays Dahlin for poor PP%, but he's also an elite 60-point talent. (And they look much better when Zucker is on it operating behind the net and standing in front of the goalie.) By comparison, CAR pays Gostibehere $3.2M to be PP1 and Brent Burns $5.28M to be PP2. Essentially, what Buffalo pays Power ($8.35M) to not be an all-around guy. If Buffalo bridges Power, they can take $3M additional, group it with what they were paying either Joker (to be scratched) or Clifton to give a true top-4/2nd pairing all-zones guy $6M --- one who helps Power be the best he can be until he's ready to be that $8M player in two more years. It's why Buffalo can't afford Byram and Power to be a PP2. Not when, currently, neither of them is going to be any better leading their own pair than Gostisbehere.