Derrico

It’ll be very interesting to see what value is out there for Risto. Right hand D who are 24 and top 30 in the league in scoring from dmen still hold value. Again, his contract is still 3 more years at a very reasonable price. Rumour out there that Pitt was loading up an offer for Trouba but Trouba agent essentially told everyone he’s not going to any team but New York. I’m guessing anyone in on Trouba may consider Risto next. I can’t help but think there’s a good amount of demand. Again don’t HAVE to trade him!! Interesting to see how/if Trouba decision impacts Risto.

I am still emotional about this event and wish to share as I'm hoping it will be therapeutic. I've gone back and forth and decided to put it out there. As we all know the Raptors won the NBA title last week and had their parade on Monday. I'm not a huge basketball guy myself but my brother is a big time Raps fan. He insisted I go to the parade with him. I made him promise if I did this he would attend the Sabres parade when they won. Agreed. We decided to watch at Nathan Phillips Square as this was the end of the parade route and they anticipated having a rally where the players give speeches at this location from approximately 12:30-1:30. My brother and I get to Nathan Phillips Square at 9:15 and are standing probably two thirds of the way at the back, along the east side. Well as the day rolls on it's getting hotter and hotter and more and more crowded. By 3 o'clock the parade has still not reached Nathan Phillips Square because they didn't allow for a wide enough pathway. Guess it shows Toronto hasn't hosted a major parade since Joe Carter's shot in '93. Anyways they finally arrived just before 4pm. We heard the announcement of each of the players and give a nice cheer. As some know I'm still battling a health issue myself but I barely notice it or the fact we have stood in sweaty close quarters waiting for this moment for nearly 7 straight hours. I hear a pop pop pop. They had been lighting homemade fireworks all day but this sounded a little different. Then about a minute later the crowd starts pushing each other and starting to freak out. I haven't been in a mosh pit in years but here we are with 100,000 strangers and nobody has a clue what is going on. People start running; hell I was terrified. I looked up and all I could see was apartment and office buildings and everyone out standing on their balconies taking in the parade while police in our area were yelling at everyone to get down. My first thought was of the Vegas shooting. If the shooter was up in any of those towers we are sitting ducks. You don't know what is happening at this point in time. My brother and I (along with so many others) ran as fast as we could (which is difficult for me right now). It was a full out stampede of people. Some pushing their way past, with most stopping to help but several being knocked to the ground. I'm not patting myself on the back because anyone WOULD have done it but I saw a young boy, maybe 7 or so trip on the curb and fall. A dad had been running with his maybe 7 and 9 year olds. I stopped to pick the boy up and I looked in the dad's eyes. I'll never forget the look in that man's eyes until the day I die. I just yelled at him to get them somewhere safe and kept running. It was one of those surreal slow motion moments you experience as it's happening even though it's over in a second. If that makes any sense? I flew down York Street. Lots of people around there catching their breath and then out of nowhere everyone started running again. It was surreal. Thank God or whatever you believe in that it was not some terrorist attack or mass shooting. I sure know the people in that back east section near the shooting had no idea what was happening for a good 20 to 30 minutes. I cried, I laughed and damn well hugged my wife and kids hard Monday night. Between my other issue and this experience, just live life guys. Family, friends, happiness. That's what really matters. I don't want this post to get political but how any government would allow guns outside of hunting rifles is beyond me. I don't know how much coverage was given to this down in the states as I think the City of Toronto and NBA may not want to draw too much attention. I'm telling you it was chaos and a horrific experience for those that thought this could be something more than an isolated incident. For those interested I've included a couple of articles. To add the small insult to it all, even without the pure panic of the shooting we still essentially missed everything to do with the parade and rally after waiting in the hot sun for 7 straight hours. Once again, thank you all for engaging in some good Sabres discussion. Takes my mind off 'real life' stuff right now. https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/suspect-gun-still-sought-in-raptors-rally-shooting https://globalnews.ca/news/5403321/toronto-raptors-parade-route-plan/

Can't see us adding a depth D. They have pretty good depth now and if they run into some injuries it would be good to see Pilut and Borgan get a shot.

Ya we always hear about how the summer is the time to reshape the roster. Most deals go down the week leading up too and a few days after the draft. Something big could go down any second.

It wouldn’t be Buffalo unless we are trying to run a star out of town.....

I would love a second but it would probably be something like a B prospect or 3rd and 5th round pick or something. I wouldn't make that trade but if they really like Caufield or someone similar at 7 and reasonably confident in getting them at 10 then they sure might.

Not sure on that but I could see it being because Sabres thought Caufield would slide to 10 and they could still take him there *ducks*

That is an interesting proposal but yes I might make that trade.

Dude

Who they jumping us for?

I feel like we have an abundance of third line forwards....

Ya that’s a hard pass for patch for sure. I would rather a better option than stasney for that contract but he would come crazy cheap.

Slot him where he belongs and see what happens.

This too. Give me Dahlin, Risto, Montour and McCabe as my top 4 all playing somewhat equal minutes. We already have some decent depth/lesser assignments for scandella/bogo/Nelson/Pilut. D looks fine to me.

If anyone quotes that

Yes this. I kind of like (maybe don’t mind is a better word) the look of our D today. I know you have to give to upgrade the top 6 forwards but I feel like once Risto is gone we’re going to be deciding what we have to give up to replace him and replace him on a respectable contract as we’ll.

Good post, haven’t heard that segment yet. Thanks for the link.

All of this on a more than fair deal that has 3 more years left. It's shocking to me we all just seem ok that a trade will go down and we're moving on from him. This better not be the ROR return if he does get dealt.

Can we all just acknowledge Risto was the 26th highest scoring Dman in the league last year? On a terrible team that had trouble scoring. He is a defensive liability but he is a tough sob that I would love to see if we ever make the playoffs and he puts up points. Shelter his D responsibility and let's see what he looks like.

These are all fair points and again, if the deal brings significant return then sure. Otherwise, in an era were Karlsson is signing for $11.5 mil there is something to be said for paying Risto $5.4. Cap management is still very important and this is a very fair deal. Risto isn't the savior but if we're paying him and playing him further down the lineup I think about him much differently. Oh come on. I think we're going too far the other way on Risto now.....

Having said all that if a deal comes for a very good second line centre and there’s a clear plan in place to add another rhd then fine. But nobody should be surprised when he goes to Tampa, plays 19 min a night including power play time and absolutely thrives. Why can’t we do that here? The cost to acquire another second pairing rhd will not be cheap and I’m not ready for Nelson to get those minutes.

I Donna man. Obviously Pheneuf is shot now but I would say hes comparable to phenuf at 24. Imagine what he would have done if the leafs gave him any support. They used him like we use Risto. Then he gets traded to Ottawa and I thought he was a big part of that team that nearly went to the cup. He’s a similar guy in that he’s not a number one or probably two. Use him to his situational strengths as a second pairing? I bet he will thrive. Another nice bonus? We’re paying him exactly like a second pairing guy for three more years!

There are other small pieces but that is what botts big moves would boil down too. I think I prefer these three. But I also recognize I’m much higher on Montour than most. He is a solid 2 or really good 3 on a good team. We have Dahlin, we have Montour, we’re getting closer on D. Another topic but that’s why I’m not in a huge rush to trade Risto. I really feel Dahlin and Montour are ready for big minutes this year. Risto either slotting second pair or atleast playing similar minutes to Montour and I think we will see a better Risto. If they keep him and he has a better/break out season you can thank the Montour trade. Risto is still only 24. This is the first time we have had a legit top 4 rhd that I can think of. Kind of want to see how that plays out. Now there is an opportunity to play Risto situationally to his strengths instead of running him out there 28 min a night in all situations.

Player salaries getting out of control shortly before another contract? Can you say strike/ lockout??

Yep exactly. That’s on Murray and his scouting staff. We can’t have another nylander level prospect come from this pick.