Sabres trade for Defenseman Riley Stillman in exchange for Josh Bloom

[Crusader1969]

21 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Clague has already pushed Bryson out, thus Stillman has to be better than Clague and I don’t think he is.  

As I’ve stated, I’m perfectly ok with moving out a forward or 2 for D help, but this doesn’t move the needle at all. 

Bryson is always 1 injury away from playing. So this is a helpful move PLUS the trade deadline is Friday. 
we don’t know what other moves are going to come 

 

 

1 minute ago, Rasmus_ said:

This is what you want though?  A guy who has no real substantial upside?  He's meh, completely underwhelming.  Regardless if you like Bloom or not.  This is just about as blah a return as possible.

i feel the same.  Thought they could have gotten Karlsson for Bloom 

 

[Weave]

5 minutes ago, Getpucksdeep said:

Bear would have be more of the same as Bryson. Optimistically this guy is stay-home hard-nosed role player, although admittedly I haven't watched him play so idk.  I am willing to give Adams and team the benefit of the doubt at this point, call the Jost-runway.

Yup. Stillman is not another Bryson.  He fills a stylistic hole in this roster.  He’ll step in when Krebs feels the need to drop his gloves.  He’ll block shots, and get physical, all things Bryson and Clague do not do.  He’s not another puck mover.  He’s the guy that stays back to green light the puck mover.

He’s what we needed instead of Bryson as a 6/7 guy.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Weave

[Cheektorado]

2 minutes ago, Weave said:

Tup.  Stillman is not another Bryson.  He fills a stylistic hole in this roster.  He’ll step in when Krebs feels the need to drop his gloves.  He’ll block shots, and get physical, all things Bryson and Clague do not do.  He’s not another puck mover.  He’s the guy that stays back to green light the puck mover.

He’s what wr needed instead of Bryson as a 6/7 guy.

This is how I see it.  Glad I'm not alone.

[Thorny]

8 minutes ago, Weave said:

Yup. Stillman is not another Bryson.  He fills a stylistic hole in this roster.  He’ll step in when Krebs feels the need to drop his gloves.  He’ll block shots, and get physical, all things Bryson and Clague do not do.  He’s not another puck mover.  He’s the guy that stays back to green light the puck mover.

He’s what we needed instead of Bryson as a 6/7 guy.

Thank god 

rah rah ya whatever - yesterday was tough to watch re: kids getting slammed to ice 

no bueno

Edited February 28, 2023 by Thorny

[GASabresIUFAN]

6 minutes ago, Weave said:

Yup. Stillman is not another Bryson.  He fills a stylistic hole in this roster.  He’ll step in when Krebs feels the need to drop his gloves.  He’ll block shots, and get physical, all things Bryson and Clague do not do.  He’s not another puck mover.  He’s the guy that stays back to green light the puck mover.

He’s what we needed instead of Bryson as a 6/7 guy.

That’s a great theory, but who is going to move the puck out if Stillman and Bush are paired together. Both are terrible at in zone positioning.

[Eleven]

13 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

I'm seeing 24 contracts on the roster as of right now, and that doesnt include Houser, i thought they could only carry 23?

50 contracts in a season and 23 on the roster at any given moment (pre-deadline).

12 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It’s the principal of the deal. KA said he wasn’t wasting assets unless it made us better. This move doesn’t accomplish that goal unless Bryson is being moved in another deal and Stillman is here to replace the depth.

Anything that pushes Bryson further down the chart is a good thing to me, I guess.  Would I have traded Thompson for him?  No.  But this future JAG is as fungible as they come.  It's really not wasting an asset because he's not really an asset.  He's just kind of there, like a book on your shelf that you haven't picked up in 20 years.

[Thorny]

Just now, GASabresIUFAN said:

That’s a great theory, but who is going to move the puck out if Stillman and Bush are paired together. Both are terrible at in zone positioning.

Wouldn’t worry about it 

the ref usually fishes the puck out after a goal and takes it to the dot 

[Eleven]

13 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

i feel the same.  Thought they could have gotten Karlsson for Bloom 

Mr. Carlson, maybe.

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, Weave said:

Yup. Stillman is not another Bryson.  He fills a stylistic hole in this roster.  He’ll step in when Krebs feels the need to drop his gloves.  He’ll block shots, and get physical, all things Bryson and Clague do not do.  He’s not another puck mover.  He’s the guy that stays back to green light the puck mover.

He’s what we needed instead of Bryson as a 6/7 guy.

Except he's not very good at it.

The more I think about it, the more I see this as Fitzgerald's replacement: role, personality and effectiveness.

No more, no less. Nothing else to see here.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, Eleven said:

50 contracts in a season and 23 on the roster at any given moment (pre-deadline).

Anything that pushes Bryson further down the chart is a good thing to me, I guess.  Would I have traded Thompson for him?  No.  But this future JAG is as fungible as they come.  It's really not wasting an asset because he's not really an asset.  He's just kind of there, like a book on your shelf that you haven't picked up in 20 years.

We thought the same thing about Hagel.  Until we see them in the AHL, we really don’t know what we have.  Most turn out to be JAGs, but some become Hagel and Olofsson.

[Rasmus_]

15 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

Bryson is always 1 injury away from playing. So this is a helpful move PLUS the trade deadline is Friday. 
we don’t know what other moves are going to come 

 

 

i feel the same.  Thought they could have gotten Karlsson for Bloom 

 

 

I don't think the world of Bloom, but at the same time, you can find someone like Stillman off waivers.  He's a physical stay at home defensemen who can drop the gloves.  He's a late 90's early 2000's defensemen which offers nothing more.  Sarcasm aside, it's still a meh move.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

Except he's not very good at it.

The more I think about it, the more I see this as Fitzgerald's replacement: role, personality and effectiveness.

No more, no less. Nothing else to see here.

My thoughts exactly.  Might as well have made a waiver claim and kept the prospect.

[Thorny]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

Except he's not very good at it.

The more I think about it, the more I see this as Fitzgerald's replacement: role, personality and effectiveness.

No more, no less. Nothing else to see here.

We’ve moved on from a prospect who ranks higher relatively in his group designation than Stillman does in his? I think? I THINK Bloom would be regarded as a slightly better than average depth prospect? Stillman a below average NHL depth defender? 

I think it says something. Continually shifting priority 

[Eleven]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

We thought the same thing about Hagel.  Until we see them in the AHL, we really don’t know what we have.  Most turn out to be JAGs, but some become Hagel and Olofsson.

Yeah, and Stiffler or whatever his name is might return to his Florida form on a better team.  Who knows?  What I do know is that there is a clog in the forward pipeline while the D pipeline is almost empty.

[Weave]

5 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Except he's not very good at it.

The more I think about it, the more I see this as Fitzgerald's replacement: role, personality and effectiveness.

No more, no less. Nothing else to see here.

He seems to be a slight Fitzgerald improvement.  In fact, losing Fitz may have been the reason we got this kid.

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

We thought the same thing about Hagel.  Until we see them in the AHL, we really don’t know what we have.  Most turn out to be JAGs, but some become Hagel and Olofsson.

Exactly! And who was the GM making the call on Hagel?

moves and even lack there-of are merely a reflection of aptitude. Botterill didn’t properly evaluate his prospect - it wasn’t that he MOVED a prospect, he picked the wrong guy 

I already know I’m correct on this cause it lines up with Botterill’s well documented CHL bias 

again, trades are a Tool. a tool I want Adams wielding because I trust him to select, among other things, the correct prospects ie suspects to move on from, 

and, notably, when to do so 

[Weave]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

My thoughts exactly.  Might as well have made a waiver claim and kept the prospect.

You are hung up on a low probability magic bean.  We traded a slight chance at a depth forward for an actual depth defenseman who’s young, has a little term, and is less risk.  This is whining over nearly nothing.

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Yeah, and Stiffler or whatever his name is might return to his Florida form on a better team.  Who knows?  What I do know is that there is a clog in the forward pipeline while the D pipeline is almost empty.

His mom’s got it going on 

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, Eleven said:

Yeah, and Stiffler or whatever his name is might return to his Florida form on a better team.  Who knows?  What I do know is that there is a clog in the forward pipeline while the D pipeline is almost empty.

So trade Bloom for a D prospect, (I’ve advocated for months to trade prospect forwards to prospect D to fix the pipeline.  Getting a 24 year old AAAA Fitz 2.0 is a waste. 

Just now, Thorny said:

His mom’s got it going on 

Do you have a sister named Stacey.

[DarthEbriate]

I hope Stillman is excellent in his role. My concerns are that he causes several shifts a game to get hemmed in their zone and that he was chased from the Canucks lineup by ex-Sabre Christian Wolanin.

I mean... Jost has proven my doubts wrong thus far.

Edited February 28, 2023 by DarthEbriate

[Taro T]

10 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

My thoughts exactly.  Might as well have made a waiver claim and kept the prospect.

They aren't making a waiver claim at this point.  They have 47 contracts now.  That leaves 1 spare unless an extra body goes out should a real D-man come in because contracts 49 and 50 are already slotted.

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, Weave said:

He seems to be a slight Fitzgerald improvement.  In fact, losing Fitz may have been the reason we got this kid.

This is exactly what I'm saying.

[GASabresIUFAN]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

They aren't making a waiver claim at this point.  They have 47 contracts now.  That leaves 1 spare unless an extra body goes out should a real D-man come in because contracts 49 and 50 are already slotted.

This had the same effect as a waiver claim.  Bloom was in the minors. His contract didn’t count against our 50.

[Curt]

26 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It’s the principal of the deal. KA said he wasn’t wasting assets unless it made us better. This move doesn’t accomplish that goal unless Bryson is being moved in another deal and Stillman is here to replace the depth.

In your opinion, this move does not make the Sabres better in any way because Stillman is not any good and is no better than Bryson.  Thus the Sabres needlessly tossed away Bloom, regardless of how low the probability is that Bloom becomes a contributor.  Do I have that about right?

Its probable that Kevyn Adams simply disagrees with you.  He probably feels that Stillman IS an upgrade over Bryson, and that Stillman can help the Sabres.

Me personally, I don’t love this trade on the surface.  But I don’t feel super confident that Bloom becomes anything, and I’ve never really watched Stillman play, so it’s kind of hard for me to feel anything strongly one way or the other.  I feel this deal probably isn’t really going to amount to much in the end.

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

This had the same effect as a waiver claim.  Bloom was in the minors. His contract didn’t count against our 50.

Thought he was 20 for some reason.

Yes, that contract doesn't count against the 50.

Danke.