Archie Lee

You make a valid point. Maybe a better way to put it from my perspective would be that if we are going to overpay, I would rather we trade a 1st, Savoie, Kulich and the 4th piece for a better player than Ehlers or for a player who brings an element that we don't already have. I like Ehlers, I just don't think he moves the needle on the coming season much more than adding Tarasenko would.

The Blackhawks gave term to Bertuzzi (4 x $5.5) and Teravainan (3 x $5.4). I doubt we offered a 3-4 year term to anyone in free agency and I'm unconvinced that "Buffalo" would have been a factor had we been willing to offer similar or slightly better term or AAV to certain well-targeted players.

By my assessment we have space for two NHL level veterans still. Could be two forwards or one forward and one D. Atkinson has signed with Tampa and I'll rule out Pavelski as retired even if not yet official. Of the other 13 on the list I would have zero interest in Hoffman, Zadina (maybe on a two-way), Okposo, and Wheeler. The rest I would be ok with, specific to a role. Schultz or Shattenkirk with Bryson on the 4th pair? Take a low-risk chance on Pacioretty on the wing with Thompson/Tuch or Cozens/Zucker? Sure. As for Roslovic and Tarasenko, I don't know why we wouldn't pursue those two unless: 1.) We are still thinking we will get a bigger fish; or 2.) We have actually reached our internal cap projection (once we get our RFAs signed).

Having just made a point that we may need to overpay and make an offer another GM can't refuse, I now state that I don't think I make that trade even with an Ehlers extension. Ehlers is a good player who I would take on the Sabres to be sure, but I think he is too much of what we already have in Quinn and Peterka to warrant paying that high of a price. Iafallo is good also, but at his salary and production I think he was worth next to nothing in the trade market pre-draft and free-agency. Had we made that trade we likely don't sign Zucker, who we got for nothing and is at least as good as Iafallo. I think it was one piece to many. Take one of the 1st, Savoie or Rosen out and assume the 4th piece was a mid-round pick for Iafallo and it would have been reasonable.

I was looking at that and wondering if they have another vet, specifically Wilson, Carlson, or Oshie, who they know is headed to LTIR. Other than those three, and assuming Ovie isn't injured, the only player they have that they can move to get under is Strome.

I can’t say I entirely disagree. But I’ll come back to an earlier point I made, if Quinn and Peterka are worth that and are bordering on untouchable in trade (barring, say, Draisaitl wanting to come to Buffalo), then do we need another top-6 forward?

Maybe the answer is that we have to make an offer that a team like Vegas would be negligent to refuse? Krebs may be a perfectly fine 3C, but we don’t know for certain and there is the added issue of us not being entirely sure we have truly role-appropriate 1 & 2 centres. In Vegas, Krebs would just be absorbed in the line-up with Eichel, Karlsson, Hertl and Howden. If we really want to get this done, offer Krebs a protected 1st and Kulich for Roy and a 4th or something like that. It’s an overpay that Vegas might not be able to say no to. And we would still have 6 potential mid to top-six forward prospects, not to mention the 4 forwards on our NHL roster not yet 24. There are commentators around the NHL with experience who will say that there are trades to be made all over the place if you are willing to pay the price.

I would say there is an obvious type of player who has more or less written Buffalo off. These are players who have agency: they have positioned themselves where they have movement clauses and/or where they have multiple suitors. There are lots of players who aren’t in that position though. Players like Clifton, Zucker, Lafferty all would have had some, likely minimal, other options but chose Buffalo because we offered some combination of opportunity and $$$ that wasn’t available elsewhere. I fear Adams has pursued “the perfect” this off-season (a big swing trade acquisition) and has passed-up opportunities that might have been good enough (Henrique, Foegele, Wennberg), and is passing up some that might still be an option (Roslovic, Tarasenko).

I would have to know what the pieces are to comment. Ehlers would be a nice add. I’ve heard him say nice things about the Sabres over the last couple of years. Maybe that’s just how he is when it comes to speaking about opponents. I’m not sure he moves the needle much though. Obviously he is a veteran player who has played in the top 6 for an NHL playoff team, but it would not shock me if Peterka, Quinn, Benson (in some combination, if not all 3), played at his level or better as early as this year. I would just as soon: - Sign Roslovic to something that resembles the Clifton deal. He is a winger who can slide to centre if needed. Gives us middle six depth. Someone is getting injured sooner or later, so no need to agonize over where he fits from a line-make-up perspective. He would simply improve our depth and would make it 5 forwards added who played playoff games 2-3 months ago: and - Trade for Rasmus Andersson. Not the perfect fit. He has a 6 team no trade so we might not be an option. He has two years left though not one. Joker, protected 1st in 2024, one of our right shot D prospects and one of our forward prospects for Andersson, Rooney and a 3rd. Gives us a playoff calibre D (arguably our 3 worst D would have playoff experience) and more depth and grit up front

My view is the top 6 isn’t solved or adequate and that we should not be limiting ourselves to only moving prospects and picks.

It is a fact, but what is the point? What does it matter if you get your top 6 forwards from the draft or free agency or waivers or in a trade for picks and prospects or in a trade for an actual NHL player? Look around the league. There are good teams who don’t have a player in their top 6 who was acquired in a trade “for picks and prospects”. How did this become a talking point? It’s not a thing. GM’s aren’t judged by how many top 6 forwards they pick up in trades for picks and prospects. Again, not defending Adams. I just don’t care how he improves the team. If we can get better by trading an actual young NHL player like Quinn or Benson, instead of picks and prospects, then do it.

I’m not defending the sum of what Adams has done to this point, but I do find the “Adams has never traded picks and prospects for a top 6 forward” argument to be a bit of a red herring. Most of us accept Thompson, Tuch, Cozens and Peterka as top 6 forwards. We also are willing to pencil one of Quinn/Benson into a top 6 role and for many of us that seems Interchangeable. Adams did draft Peterka, Quinn, Benson. I wonder if Adams could land a top 6, under 30, winger (Ehlers, Konecny, Necas, all needing extensions of course), if he was willing to part with Benson or Quinn? Would fans want this? Depth-wise we could trade Benson or Quinn and still have Zucker and Greenway as 3rd line wingers and we also have prospects who might be ready before the year is out if not from the start. If the answer to the question is “no way would I trade Benson or Quinn for one of those players”, then maybe we don’t really need to add a top 6 winger. Also, at this point I’m unconvinced Adams even has the option/authority to add such a player. Until we spend over $81 million, I am of the opinion that we have an internal cap and that Adams is mandated to not take on long-term deals in free agency. I don’t think there is a blanket view around the league that the Sabres aren’t worth the time to deal with, but there could be a kernel of truth in that maybe teams have come to realize we aren’t really serious about trading for the big fish.

I think this is accurate. I don’t see a team out there that needs to move the kind of player we are talking about, though.

Two way or one way is kinda meaningless to me as it is Pegula’s money. If Reimer gets waived and clears, his salary won’t count against the cap. That said, this is the first move that I would say has Ruff written on it for sure. Ruff doesn’t want to risk having to rely on Levi as a back-up for 25-30 games and certainly not to carry the mail if UPL flames out entirely or gets injured. I think this means, barring injury, that Levi starts in Rochester.

Tarasenko is available for free. Would have been our 4th leading scorer a year ago. Has 119 career playoff games and 2 cup rings. Would likely take a 1x5ish deal. Would push Greenway to line 4 and Aube-Kubel to13th forward. Still not great centre depth, but better overall forward depth.

If this is our team, no further additions of consequence, then we will be projected as a bottom 10 finisher and it will be impossible for me to argue otherwise. I'm fine with the changes made to line 4, but in my view we changed the make-up and style of the 4th line more than we did the likely game to game results (goals for and against). Add in that Krebs is now our 3C and that Benson is moving up in the line-up to replace Skinner, and it is hard to argue we made the bottom 6 better. We added a physical element the team needs, to be sure, but if we have a better bottom-six today than we did going into last season, I would say it is marginally so. I was very much near the lead in arguing for a Skinner buyout, but that was always on the assumption that we would spend most of the saved money on improving our depth. We didn't do that today. Barring substantial turnaround seasons from one of our top 3 forwards, we don't have a bonafide and indisputable 1st line player, we don't have a 3rd line player who can be expected to effectively move into the top 6 for a lengthy stretch, and we don't have a 4th line player who you would want playing higher in the line-up for an extended period. We might have a prospect or two who is ready for promotion to the NHL, but that is not a certainty. We missed an opportunity today to push players down in the line-up (Greenway/Krebs) that would help prevent us from floundering when injuries hit and our depth is tested. We are not good enough in our top 6 to have no upward mobility in the bottom half of our forward group. Adams is betting that Ruff is a better coach than Granato (over the last 3 season, the Sabres averaged 83 points per season, the Devils 85), that there are major bounce back seasons coming for several players (Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Dahlin, Samuelsson), that others are going to further emerge (Quinn, Benson, Krebs, Power, Bryson, Levi), and that there won't be significant regression in others (Peterka, Luukkonen). There is not much tangible here. I'm an optimist. From here I hope for the best. I am open to the possibility and hopeful that most of the things that have to happen for this team to take a big step forward, will indeed happen. Nobody, outside of the most optimistic Sabre fan, could reasonably predict that today though.

Barring an unexpected signing like Henrique or Wennberg, or a trade, we are going to come in $7-8 million below the cap. Still things that can happen.

Lafferty is not a great answer as 4C in my view. Better as a 4th line winger who can play C if needed (ie: a tougher/grittier Girgs). Unless Malenstyn is the C? I still think we are a C short.

I get my Aube-Kubel's mixed up with my Aston-Reese's.

Wanted Stephenson, but not at that. Seattle making some desperate deals today.

Foegele to LA at 3x3.5 is a steal. Unless he just wanted to live in California, we missed out here.

As 12th/13th forward? Sure.

Maybe. We'll see what he ends up signing for elsewhere. Hard for me to imagine he wouldn't take a 5x5 to sign here. That would be an overpay, but he would make us better now than Zucker will make us, and you can figure out next year...next year.

The 3rd line isn't the issue here in my view. That's not the 2nd line of a playoff team unless at least 2 of those three take huge steps forward.

Don't really like this deal. No real issue with adding Zucker, per se, but it seems like they are worried about committing to this type of player on this AAV beyond a year, out of concern it will impact future deals for Quinn, Peterka, Byram, Levi, etc. We could have a player like Foegele in the same role, who is younger and better, if we would commit to term. Can always make moves down the road to find space or trade a good young player for picks/prospects and promote your own prospects who are ready.