JohnC

I'm presenting this question to the more schooled members of this board: Is Saad without question a second line forward? And is his hefty salary commensurate with his production capabilities. I'm not just talking about scoring but including his all around game when evaluating him.

The tooth gap facilitates the proper pronunciation. And with Iron Mike I would rather have his voice in my head than his fist in my face. 🤡

You are pithy. 🍺

From a player standpoint he would be a good addition but from a salary and cap standpoint I'm not sure you will be getting enough bang for the buck. However, in order to make this deal or a similar deal to work we wouldn't have to trade away an equal salary away so much as shed a contract that will somewhat offset this relatively high cost player. What is encouraging is that it seems as if the brain trust is trying to reshape the roster by bringing in tougher players i.e. perimeter and finesse players are not wanted. And what is also encouraging is that in this market there are teams that will be forced to put up for sale good players in order to manage their cap and salary structure. There are options to select from. https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/video/saads-best-of-2019-20/t-277437096/c-5416567 https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/video/saad-on-offseason-plans/t-277437096/c-5409604

A firm no thank you on the Kessel consideration. If you have to qualify your position on a player by saying "if he is motivated and working hard" the underlying issue and criticism of the player is that he isn't always a full effort player. The Sabres don't need that uneven attitude and play. The Sabres are far from being a good team. There are going to be predictable periods of struggle with such an incomplete team. We need players who become more resolute and fade less when times are tough. Again, no thank you on Kessel. Let another team deal with this fading odd duck.

If you look at your draft assets primarily through the lense of money and the length of the control of assets then your view is unassailable. But that is a view that is a somewhat detached from what the main goal should be i.e. building a successful franchise. The Sabres are in a situation that is dire. It's on ice performance is currently mediocre and has been for a decade. To make matters even worse it is a boring product in what is essentially an entertainment business. The fanbase is steadily eroding. Although a large portion of the arena seats are sold through season ticket sales it disguises the reality that a lot of people don't even bother attending the games for tickets that are 10 cents on the dollar. I have heard WGR commentary by the radio hosts say countless times that they don't even like talking about the Sabres because they are tired of repeating the same exasperating storyline. This apathetic attitude comes from a sports station that covers only two pro sports. That's pathetic! This year the roster will have a number of young players on the roster. Last year, the franchise had two first round draft picks. So using this year's first round pick to acquire a still youthful genuine second line player has to be seriously considered. The argument that it is mortgaging the future is a weak argument. If a fair-value return can't be made for the pick then of course you keep it. If a deal for a player who can immediately contribute can be made then it should be made. This team needs an immediate jolt to wake up a franchise and fanbase that has become something worse than lethargic, namely apathetic. The future is now!

If smart people can use buzzwords to sound important then dumb people should also have the right use buzzwords to sound important. Not to allow that right would be discriminatory. I'm against discrimination in any form. 🤡

Cliches are meant to distort the literal truth. It is my humble birthright to be allowed the privilege of being literally inaccurate and imprecise. 🤡

I not using the logic of the past to make decisions for the present. I'm looking at the current situation and making a decision where it is expected that the young player that I already know can play at a first or second line NHL level is being exchanged for a prospect who may or may not turn out to be a first or second line NHL player two to three years down the road. Because we already have Cozens is a reason to be willing to trade this year's first round pick, and is not a reason not to. As I stated before we will be playing a number of youngsters this upcoming season so there shouldn't be much of a fear of mortgaging the future. If you want to maximize the return on Jack and Dahlin you need to upgrade the roster sooner rather than later. Running gets you to your destination quicker than slow walking. The future is now.

Nope. Just keep slinging those buzzwords until you wear down the opposition. 🤡

There are rarely guarantees on prospects except for the elite ones. It is abundantly evident that Casey is a player that was grossly mishandled by rushing him into league before he was physically and maturely ready. He should have played another year in college and then kept in the AHL until he earned the right to be moved up to the NHL. What his critics sometimes forget (including me) is that he is still very young. He is 21 and will be 22 in November. He's a player is that I just don't know if he will ever make the jump to the big league. If he comes into camp exceptionally fit with a determination to earn a spot on the roster that would be a major bonus for the organization. He's getting close to the point in this organization where he has to "show you" he belongs and if he can't then a fresh start would be the best thing for the player and organization.

Sometimes when you speak "jargon" talk you can fake your way around the room. At least for the short term until you are discovered. 🤡

I understand your position and it is certainly a reasonable position to take. I would also add that in most years I would have the same view of retaining a highly valued first round pick. But not this year. If in this year the Sabres were drafting in the top 3 I would be more receptive to your stance. But we are not. We are drafting in the 8 spot where the probable pick won't be ready for the NHL until two or three years down the road. On top of that odds are that the pick at the spot this year won't be a first line player but more likely a second line player. If the Sabres had a trade offer for a player such as Cirelli or Monahan for our pick (plus other considerations) I would leap at that offer. If I can get a first or even a second line player who is around 24-25 yrs old and can contribute right away then that would be too enticing an offer to decline. And it also has to be factored in that the Sabres will be playing a number of younger and cheaper players this year in order to stay within the established budget. So I don't see us dealing a first round pick this year as mortgaging the future in any appreciable way. The future is now!

I understand your position but disagree with it. There is no doubt that the oppressive economic conditions will affect the hockey operations. (As it does for almost every team.) But that doesn't mean that you can't be creative and enterprising when making deals. There are ways to work within these turbulent waters that are already standard practices in the cap era. If you trade a high pick for a good player with a fairly sizeable contract then you still can absorb that contract by shedding a player/contract of a player on the team. You may not get a perfect balance between the player coming in versus the player going out but you can get a deal done that improves and better balances the roster. (The Stall trade for Johansson is an example of that.) The best response when faced with a more austere way of conducting business is to be more creative and nimble. Being forced to change from how you had conducted business that brought you disappointing results is not necessarily a bad thing because it can also present you opportunities to do things more smartly.

In the pro sports I'm usually a believer in building around the draft picks. This year, if the Sabres can trade the pick in a deal that will get you a mid-20 aged second line player I would make the trade. This upcoming roster is going to have a collection of young players on the roster. We can afford to use this first round pick in a deal without hurting our future. The future is now.

If you want Skinner to score more than 30 goals then put him on the Jack line. The Reinhart/Jack/Skinner line is one of the better first lines in the league. If the first line is going to get more minutes than the lower lines then put together a line that will produce the most. I like Krueger as a coach. I didn't like the way he handled Skinner last year. As a defensive player Skinner has a tendency to float. In utilizing Skinner he needs to accentuate his positive attributes as a sniper and not be so caught up with his defensive liabilities. When the calculation is made his assets trump his deficiencies.

I feel less befuddled now. 🤡

Please do not use double negatives to make a point. It drives me crazy and makes me more confused than I already am. 🤡

The better alternative probably won't be cheaper. With the next season being very compressed the backup will be playing more games than normal. So if an upgrade is available there is more of a need to make a change.

Elliotte Friedman was on WGR's the Instigators show and stated that the Sabres are actively involved in the market seeking a goalie. He pointed out that there are reasonably priced goaltenders flooding the market providing options to choose from.

As you noted making this deal without giving up assets that could be used on other transactions makes this deal even more applealing. As many others have already stated this deal not only addresses (for the short term) a critical need at the 2C spot but it gives us more financial flexibility to use on our less than complimentary assets to better balance out the roster. This team doesn't need a major overhaul as much as it needs a reshaping. And without question the GM's first transaction is a good first step in that endeavor.

Most people understood what the poster meant. Over the years the Bills have had a number of starting qbs. None of them came close to being a franchise qb. The same logic that applies to the NFL starting qbs applies to #1 pitcher in baseball. You can have a good pitching staff without having an authentic #1 pitcher. In hockey, as in most pro sports, the salary structure directly relates to the caliber of player at the position than it does to the position. A true ace on one team is going to get a different pay scale than another #1 starting pitcher. The poster was using the scouting evaluation and categorization framework in which scouts rank players and their potential. That's the point the poster was trying to get across.

The internal cap is a reality for the Sabres as well as it is a reality for most teams. Many teams have had this fiscal restraint before the Covid era and will continue to have this fiscal restraint after the Covid era. You don't think that teams such as Carolina or Jersey have already been subjected to this fiscal discipline for years? The cap that Arizona has been subjected to since its entrance into the league has been markedly more onerous than what most teams have been subjected to. When Golisano bought the team out of bankruptcy the first thing he did is clean up the books and establish a hard budget that the hockey people had to adhere to. What I'm saying here is that although the hockey financial environment has become more restrictive for almost all teams that doesn't mean that a smart and well run organization can't make smart deals and upgrade the talent base. This recent Staal deal is an example of that. The GM traded a more costly player who was who was playing out of position for a player who is less costly and playing his true position that at least for the short term fills a position of great need. This is a good example of smart financial analytics and performance analytics. What we need is more of that this offseason.

He got caught up in WGR's downsizing. Shortly thereafter he found a job with WGRZ as a hockey contributor. https://www.wgrz.com/article/sports/paul-hamilton-sabres-wgrz/71-5973aee8-218b-45d5-99c7-4df613a9267b