GASabresIUFAN

I'm not sure how to fully articulate this thought, but I don't want the team to go on full sell mode. I would like Adams to protect or even enhance the Amerks roster. They look like they have what it takes to make a deep playoff run and I don't want the Sabres to grab 4-5 players from the Amerks just to finish the season. Yes, I'd like to see Rosen, Johnson and Novikov get an NHL look see this season, but I'd prefer they spend most of the remainder of the season in Rochester helping the Amerks win. Playing important AHL games would do those players and ultimately the Sabres more good then playing out the string in Buffalo. Sadly, I don't think he is. I think Terry gives him one more year to execute his "vision."

How many trades are discussed by GMs and how many of those discussions ultimately lead to a trade? 5%? Less? I’m sure Adams has inquired about Pettersson and my guess is Van’s GM has kicked the tires on Cozens and or Byram. The odds of a deal getting done are still pretty slim.

Will they actually try to fix team needs? Will they only move out guys on expiring contracts? With 8 relevant RFAs, could some of them be moved for other assets in deals similar to Mitts for Byram? Here are the relevant RFAs: NHL: McLeod, JJP, Quinn, Byram, Jokiharju, AHL: Kozak, Johnson & Levi UFAs : Greenway, Zucker, & Reimer (plus Gilbert & Bryson) Players with 1 year left on their contracts: UFAs in a year TUCH, Lafferty, Malenstyn, Clifton; RFAs in a year: Benson & Krebs Players rumored to be on the trading block: Cozens, Quinn, Power & Byram Players allegedly the Sabres have an interest in: Elias Pettersson https://thehockeynews.com/betting/futures/nhl-insider-hints-to-potential-trade-including-sabres-dylan-cozens-canucks-elias-pettersson https://clutchpoints.com/nhl-rumors-sabres-entertaining-owen-power-trade-offers https://pittsburghhockeynow.com/potential-pittsburgh-penguins-trade-targets-linked-to-buffalo-sabres-prospects/ https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10150969-5-trade-destinations-for-dylan-cozens-amid-nhl-rumors https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6071961/2025/01/27/nhl-trade-deadline-tiers-buyers-sellers-needs/

Shocking. I do hope Aube-Kubel gets an opportunity elsewhere.

https://clutchpoints.com/nhl-rumors-sabres-entertaining-owen-power-trade-offers For your entertainment.

It's not exactly a high bar of quality center play for Kulich to step over right now, but you are correct with TNT injured and on the wing, McLeod and Kulich are the two best centers on this roster. Cozens and Lafferty have been awful and Krebs is a JAG. Assuming a Pettersson trade, the hope is Pettersson assumes the No. 1 job and then see where things shake out from there. Do you pair TNT with Pettersson or do you hope TNT and EP can anchor the top 2 lines with Kulich and McLeod battling for the 3rd center job.

I looked at my thoughts from that thread and I was leaning toward not making the playoffs because of the poor special teams and the need to improve defensively. Sadly I turned out to be correct; they didn’t improve defensively and didn’t improve on special teams and therefore they aren’t making the playoffs, but I honestly didn’t expect them to be this bad.

Let’s say for arguments sake that Adams manages to acquire Petterson and Cozens is part of the package. What is the spine next year? The following “centers” will be under contract or control: TnT, Pettersson, Kulich, McLeod, Krebs, Lafferty and Kozak. Does Kulich’s ascension make McLeod expendable or do we shift one of TNT or Kulich to wing to keep all the centers?

The sad part was they believed the lie they were peddling.

On this terrible team.

Indiana won the NCAA basketball championship my junior year (1987) and UGA just won 2 Natty’s in football. The Braves won the WS a few years ago as well. Only my Buffalo teams seem to be lagging, although my Hoosiers need to fix the basketball team.

Just in time to be traded for a 2nd rd pick in 2027.

No question he hasn't made enough or even the right deals, but he has made some piss poor deals as well.

I assume you mean the Van article suggested trade. I agree it is a workable framework. The money is close (about 2 mill more heading to Van). Soucy does have a full NTC which makes the deal harder.

Correct.

That's this whole situation. There is nothing concrete and it's all speculation. What would you place the odds of Adams getting a deal done for Pettersson or any high end player?

That’s entirely possible. Depends on how much he wants out of Van and what teams are interested in him. For Van management both players are probably not available. It’s likely an either or situation unless they are truly going to clean house. If they are cleaning house, then who knows. My proposal to take both stems from getting the money to work. The 2 centers have a 19 mill liability. If we can get them to take Cozens plus Power, that’s a $15 mill liability, allowing Van to get younger and cheaper. Then we flip Miller. This then drops our liability from 19 back down to 11. The key is how quickly can we flip Miller. I fully admit that this scenario is unlikely, but not impossible. Given the size of the contracts involved cap $ coming and going are going to be a huge factor in getting a deal done. https://thecanuckway.com/what-the-canucks-should-get-from-sabres-in-potential-elias-pettersson-trade Here is a trade proposal from a Canuck point of view. Cozens, Power & Benson for Pettersson, Soucey and a prospect Lekkerimaki. This isn’t awful, but Benson is too much. I also don't have much interest in Lekkerimaki. He is a talented forward, but very similar to everyone else in our pipeline. I do like adding Soucey to our defense.

I take both and then trade Miller. Isn’t that clear from my post?

Yes, as we can afford to retain some salary, but it also doesn’t matter. We need to re-imagine this roster and this is a place to start.

How about Cozens, Power, McLeod & Rosen for Petterson and JT Miller with a promise to Miller to flip him again by the deadline?

Do I want Adams to make roster decisions? Of course not. A real organization would have fired him before the new year. However, TP isn't firing his lapdog and odds are he is going to be the GM next year as well. Sadly, he is going to be making the decisions this deadline and again this off-season. The best we can hope for is that he has learned something the last few years and makes at least a deal or two that make some sense. Here are Adams' last 4 trades of note 1) McLeod and Tullio for Savoie - Savoie, a former top 10 pick, turned into a cost control middle six center. While I'm not a McLeod fan, this is not a terrible trade. Savoie was past on the organizational depth chart by Benson and others. 2) Malenstyn for a 2nd rd pick (43rd) - Wash drafts Cole Hutson with the pick (ouch). Stupid waste of a good asset for a easily replaced player, but at least Malenstyn has played his role well. 3) Draft pick swap - Our 11th for SJS's 14th and 42nd. SJ takes Dickinson and the Sabres draft Helenius and Kleber (Cole Hutson went next to Wash with our pick). This is a reasonable trade down and Helenius is probably our top prospect. 4) Mitts for Byram - From an asset to asset trade, the deal is "fine," except the deal was done to save $ rather than improve the roster. Byram is a redundant asset who we basically saved money on for one season and then have to re-sign (for more than Colo paid Mitts) or trade and we gave up our best playmaking center with no viable replacement on the roster.

Because these are the questions good organizations ask when they evaluate their team.

Given the EP rumors and discussions, I thought I’d bump this topic and ask again, who do we feel are part of the solution and who are the problem on the ice? Who are you willing to part with and who is a definite no. I’d divide our current organization as follows: Top players - TNT, Tuch, Dahlin Young roster players with more upside - Benson, Quinn, JJP, Kulich, Power and Byram (and maybe Krebs) Young vets - Cozens, McLeod, Samuelsson, UPL Good Vets on expiring contracts -Zucker and Greenway Roster filler - Lafferty, Kubel, Joki, Malenstyn, Bryson, Reimer and Gilbert Top prospects - Top 5 pick, Helenius, Good prospects nearing ready - Rosen, Wahlberg, Levi, Östlund, Novikov, maybe Neuchev. Other close prospects - Kozak and Johnson and Komarov. Johnson and Kozak are here because of limited NHL upside. So that’s what we got to trade. They aren’t burning it down again, so who are willing to keep?

Miller is a much more likely deadline trade move for Van than EP imho. Cozens, Byram and Quinn all are on their trade list.

Would you rather keep Benson or get Misa or Martone in the draft? They are going to want a young cost controlled talented forward who is NHL ready. The options on the high end are our top 5 pick, then Benson or JJP, then Quinn and Kulich, followed by Helenius, and Rosen. I love Benson’s game but we need to keep the top 5 pick.