Reinhart traded to Florida for G Devon Levi (7th rd pick in 2020) and a lottery protected 1st in 2022.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, Zamboni said:

Well, since the thread title isn’t gonna give the info …

 

On the first-round pick in the Sam Reinhart trade, there is lottery protection. If the pick ends up top 10 next year, the first-rounder moves to 2023 instead.

 

And Goaltender Devon Levi

You’re no fun anymore.

[Hoss]

19 minutes ago, Eleven said:

I think Levi would have been a first or second round pick this year.  Started for Canada at WJC and won goaltender of the tournament.  Everyone who is looking at him as "just a seventh-rounder" is missing the fact that he exploded on the scene after the 2020 draft.  

I don’t think he would have. A seven game sample size and a year older isn’t going to take you from a seventh to a first or second.

[Eleven]

9 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

I really do not understand the level of upsetness over the condition on the pick.

It was very unlikely to be top 10.  

Because the Sabres were burned recently by this.

[Zamboni]

What draft is “projected” to be the better draft class? 2022 or 2023? Anyone know?

[PotentPowerPlay21]

I think KA works for the Pegulas. The salary dump, aka "rebuilding", is saving the Pegulas a lot of money. If you add in the 20+ million the Pegulas got from the league expansion then you can see that Terry and Kim are quite happy. In the event KA trades away Eichel, the Pegulas will be popping some of their best champagne! They are saving money with a bargain basement GM and coach too.

I don't believe KA is a qualified GM. I don't believe Kim Pegula is a qualified team president. I'm a bit discouraged. I was wondering if anybody in Sabres management watches the NHL playoffs? If they did they might realize that the top teams are gritty and tough with good size. If you consider the Sabres are drafting tiny wingers near the top of the draft it makes me scratch my head in disbelief.

How many more years will the Sabres exist in the land of irrelevancy? My guess is they will be bottom feeders for 4-5 more years. 

 

[Pimlach]

22 minutes ago, Eleven said:

I think Levi would have been a first or second round pick this year.  Started for Canada at WJC and won goaltender of the tournament.  Everyone who is looking at him as "just a seventh-rounder" is missing the fact that he exploded on the scene after the 2020 draft.  

Sure he may be great in a few years.  But what about some top cover for the core?  

[Rasmus_]

The trade is crap.

[GASabresIUFAN]

16 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

He just broke this news at the completion of the 1st rd coverage.  Should be really interesting to see the details if this happens.  I'm shocked KA would trade him in the division, but the offer must be huge. 

 

Guess not.

[LGR4GM]

26 minutes ago, Eleven said:

I think Levi would have been a first or second round pick this year.  Started for Canada at WJC and won goaltender of the tournament.  Everyone who is looking at him as "just a seventh-rounder" is missing the fact that he exploded on the scene after the 2020 draft.  

... yea exploded with his... checks notes... 7 games

[JustOutsideChicago]

Sam’s comments lead me to believe he’s signing an extension. So, yeah. Cool!

[Weave]

 

[Scottysabres]

This Levi kid better be the second coming of Ryan Miller, because on the surface. KA looks like a Botteril clone here.

[Eleven]

5 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Sure he may be great in a few years.  But what about some top cover for the core?  

What core?  Ullmark can babysit Cozens and Mittelstadt and Dahlin while we wait for them to become the core.

[Scottysabres]

1 minute ago, Weave said:

 

This just piss's me off, immensely. Sam was a trooper. And a really good player.

[GoPuckYourself]

31 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Wow this is a painful thread. 

Right now this trade looks bad, but worse than that I’m not sure this is a sound plan.  

Levi could be a fine goalie in 3 years, and the protected #1 pick might be good in 4 years, but what about now?    Is the plan to get worse and to draft #1 again?  

Reinhardt gone, Risto gone, no players in return.  Our current core of young kids need help NOW.  

I'm sure the plan was never to get rid of any of them and to keep the core but when players are openly saying they don't want to play here and are open to be dealt then you can't keep those types of players around, those are the culture killers that plague teams like ours and as much as I liked Reinhart and Eichel they have been playing together for years and still can't get us a playoff birth so something needed to give at some point.

You state no players in return but Hagg is most likely a stop gap for a season and I'm going to assume GMKA made the deal thinking the G was going to be our starter or at least compete for the job whether some like it or don't it appears to be that way and we got more draft picks in case certain players dont work out so I believe we got a few guys and if Eichel is dealt I'm assuming most of the help will come from that trade.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

2 minutes ago, Weave said:

 

There it is, just as I and some others thought.  

[Eleven]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

... yea exploded with his... checks notes... 7 games

He was the best 19-year-old goalie in the world for those 7 games ¯_(ツ)_/

[Thorny]

2 minutes ago, Weave said:

 

Wow. 

Also, looks like he'll be signing in Florida:

 

[Zamboni]

So … IF FLA has Reinhart for one season… and Reinhart goes to UFA because he refuses to sign with FLA, then FLA gave up a decent goalie prospect and a 1st round draft pick for one season of Reinhart. That’s a big gamble for FLA.

Now, granted FLA could try flipping Reinhart for assets to mitigate the cost.  Key word … could. They may not. 

[Norcal]

13 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

Well, since the thread title isn’t gonna give the info …

 

On the first-round pick in the Sam Reinhart trade, there is lottery protection. If the pick ends up top 10 next year, the first-rounder moves to 2023 instead.

 

And Goaltender Devon Levi

Then they can draft what's his name...woohhoo 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 minutes ago, Let's Go B-Lo said:

Have we clarifies what happens if Florida is in the lottery?

The pick goes to 2023.

[Thorny]

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

9 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Guess not.

Your thread title is not quite right.

[Doohickie]

42 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Wow this is a painful thread. 

Right now this trade looks bad, but worse than that I’m not sure this is a sound plan.  

Levi could be a fine goalie in 3 years, and the protected #1 pick might be good in 4 years, but what about now?    Is the plan to get worse and to draft #1 again?  

Reinhardt gone, Risto gone, no players in return.  Our current core of young kids need help NOW.  

A quick recap of the Sabres to date:

• Tank for Reino and Eichel by stripping the team down to the studs and playing with veterans that were AHL level.
• Use the draft capital amassed in the teardown to try to accelerate the rebuild.... fail miserably.
• Because the draft capital was spent on a failed rebuild, the cupboard was bare.
• Start to draft wisely again, but too late for the tank prizes.

So we all agree that failed.  Now let's compare to the Bills:

• Build a team of character with an ensemble cast under a no-nonsense coach.  Trade away the distractions for whatever you can get.
• Add to that core, have them play together, learn how to win, but not quite championship level.
• Add the secret ingredient to a fundamentally sound team to make them a true contender.

The Sabres are basically on the first bullet of the Bills method.  They are drafting to get to the second, and hopefully the Jack trade will help to add young talent.  The problem is that NHL players (outside of the few picks of the first round..... maybe) don't get drafted and become major contributors the next year as a general rule like NFL players do.  NFL draft picks have already played 4 years of "semi-pro" ball in college and the jump to the NFL is not as big as from juniors or even college hockey.

This trade is a shot at getting the "secret ingredient" under control to add to the team once the team is playing right.  Without being able to resort to an expansion style draft, a struggling team has to build from the ground up.  The first rebuild under the Pegulas was a top-down build.  When we got the key pieces there was nothing for them to play with.  No pipeline, no system, no culture.

KA came win with an existing HC that he didn't see eye-to-eye with and couldn't get rid of him right away.  He eventually did, and is leveraging his new HC to build the character of the team.  The next step is to add to the core and learn how to win.  The Bills did it.  Although talent development is different in the NHL, I think the Sabres might be on a similar path to doing it too.

We tried the HELP NOW tactic once and it failed.  Let's build logically, even if it takes a couple-three years.  You can't compare the Sabres to an expansion club; they are purposefully given a hand up to get them competitive.  The Sabres have to do it the old fashioned way:  Building through the draft, not buying, not trading, not throwing away the future for the present.  The Sabres have tried that.  It doesn't work.

The good news is, we don't have just a couple of diamond pieces with no supporting cast this time.  We have a couple O lines of youngsters eager to take the reins, some good defensive prospects ready to join Dahlin.  The pieces are there, not all of them, but enough to establish the system.  They're hungry and ready to play, and now (assuming Eichel is the next piece moved), they won't have a negative culture, a pouty captain, a disgruntled star to defer to.  They can make their own destiny.

Edited July 24, 2021 by Doohickie

[Zamboni]

Most players give lip service to signing extensions … Sam signing with FLA, I’ll believe it when I see it.