BillsFan4

Adds to competition at camp. Maybe a 4th liner for us. Most likely ends up on waivers and in Rochester. At least he should be pretty hungry (after not getting qualified). I expect he will compete his ass off.

https://player.fm/series/hockey-central-at-noon/june-28-season-finale Nick Kypreos saying that it sounds like Mats Zuccarello to Buffalo. I would be pretty happy if we can land Zuccarello. He is one of the most loved and respected veterans in the NHL and he can still score. I was hoping the Krueger/Zuccarello connection would help... and maybe it will! i expect that buffalo will likely have to give an extra year of term (guessing 5 years), knowing that the last year could start to get ugly. But that’s what they have to do if they want to land him. Gotta offer something over other teams. Good teams always figure out a way way to get rid of a bad contract if they really need to. Look at all the cap strapped teams this offseason. I mean, look at Tampa. They’re capped out with a big time RFA to sign and they’re still going big fish hunting (Karlsson, Pavelski is rumored to favor Tampa). Buffalo needs better players and has cap space. Get it done Botts! Heres the exact quote -

I got the same exact impression. I’ve felt that he would be happy with a trade ever since locker clean out day. He just sounded like a guy who was mentally exhausted by the past 6 years in Buffalo and needed a change of scenery. id still much rather see him stay. I know he has another level. We’ve seen how dominant he can be. With a better tram around him and not so much constant losing, I think you’d see that player a lot more often. He is one of the hardest working players in the entire NHL. I really don’t want to see him leave and blossom with another team. I hope they give it 1 more year with Ristolainen. See what Krueger can do. Its Botterill’s job to do what is best for the Buffalo Sabres. If teams are not offering a proper return for a Risto, then Botterill needs to keep him. But If they can pry a player like Cirelli out of Tampa, I can live with him being traded. Zero interest in draft picks being one of the main assets, though. I want the main value coming from the player(s) coming our way in the trade. Screw taking a lesser asset for a 1st or 2nd. Give me the better player, keep the pick.

Listening to Krueger inspires confidence that he truly has a plan and knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t seem at all overwhelmed by the task at hand (we’ll see how long that lasts...lol). He actually seems to revel 8n the challenge. He just seems like a guy that will command respect in the locker room and someone the player will want to follow. It’s a lot easier to follow someone during the hard times when you have confidence that they know what they’re doing. From that Colon Miller conference call, talking about Las Vegas - I really do believe in the power of 100% player buy-in. Just look at the Islanders last season, or the Capitals the season before (when they won the Cup), and the Knights who went to the Finals in their inaugural year. Krueger is all about getting 100% buy-in. That’s been a notoriously hard task in Buffalo, so we will see how good Krueger really is... lol.

Ralph Krueger development cap interview- (great listen) https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/ralph-krueger-62919/t-277437090/c-68596103 Botterill interview - https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/jason-botterill-62919/t-277437090/c-68596203 not sure what to make of that Risto answer around 3:20(ish) Colin Miller conference call - https://sabresmedia.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/6.29-miller.mp3 highlights from the French connection tournament - https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/2019-french-connection-tournament/t-277437090/c-68599003 Olofsson looked like a man among boys. Sounds like he’s ok - https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/dylan-cozens-62919/t-277437090/c-68597303

nice! i like this trade a lot, as long as it doesn’t lead to a bad Ristolainen trade... lol. We will actually have a respectable top 6 on the right and left side. But I am quite nervous that Risto is going to be traded now. I can live with that as long as the return is proper. With the prices defenseman have been going for this offseason, it makes me nervous. But guys like Trouba and Subban had extenuating circumstances (trouba on,y willing to sign in NY and Subban with a $9M cap hit). I didn’t initially associate Miller with the ROR trade. Good call pointing that out. Now we can actually start to graze the return buffalo got. It’ll still be years before we know for sure. But now we know all of the exact players we got in return. If Thompson develops into a good top 6 F and Johnson into a good top 4 D, this trade could look alright for us in a few years. Miller is already a pretty good top 4 RHD.

Vellucci says he’s leaving for a great opportunity for his career (I think money is the more likely reason. Rumor has it that Dundon asked the coaches (and possibly some front office members) to take pay cuts). I would LOVE for buffalo to hire this guy in some capacity. I thought he might be a guy that Krueger looked to add to his coaching staff, but I don’t think he’s adding anyone else. He would have fit that “tactician” role very well. Ill be interested to see where he lands. Hopefully not Toronto...

This is pretty damn cool - gives you a much better idea of what players actually make. For example, on Eichel’s $10M per year deal, when all is said and done he takes home $5,216,534. That’s less than I expected.

We aren’t going to attract any big name free agents with where were at. Buffalo was never a free agent destination, but that’s even more true right now. I think the best best we can hope for are the second tier guys like Zuccarello (hopefully the Krueger connection helps!), Donskoi, Boyle, Dzingel, Stralman, etc., and even most of those guys are probably a long shot without offering more term/money than other teams. We can offer a bigger role to someone like Donskoi, maybe that’s attractive to him? The more more I see this offseason playing out, the more I think that Botterill may not do anything too drastic. I am sure he will at the very least add some depth players. But He may want to see how some of these players look under Ralph Krueger before doing anything drastic, and he may be partially banking on Krueger (and the growth of our young players) making Buffalo a more attractive player destination once he’s given a season to get things on the right track. That could also apply to our own players that may be getting sick of the constant losing and want out, like Risto. Botts may also want to leave room for a couple of the young players (like Olofsson, Tage, Nylander if he’s still here, Smith, etc) to make the team. I’m just speculating. It’s way too early to start judging Botterill’s offseason plan, anyway. As Krueger mentioned, free agency hasn’t even officially started yet. There’s still plenty of time for moves to be made.

He mentions possibly adding some free agents (but didn’t say who)

I think he’s (most likely) a future NHL head coach and I could see him being a successful one. Glad Buffalo didn’t rush him. He’s doing a great job in Rochester (and running these camps).

The last 31 thoughts column of the 2018-19 season - https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-short-term-deals-break-rfa-stalemates/ Not much about the Sabres, except this - It was reported recently that the Sabres would try and meet with Pavelski. He’s 36 though. I fully understand why he wouldn’t want to come here right now.

This is the 2nd separate report now that the hurricanes only offered Aho $6Mx8yrs. I really wish buffalo had their own 3rd round pick in 2020. Aho would be a prime candidate for an offer sheet.

I have no idea. Knowing Risto, I would bet he could care less about a new coach or any of that stuff. I think he’s probably at the point where talk is cheap to him. He just wants the results. Every new coach comes in and says “we are going to ease the burden on risto” and every time it ends the same (so far, anyway). I agree though. He’s under contract for 3 more years. He may want to be traded, but that doesn’t mean botterill Needs to trade him. Taking the best offer they they can get seems like a recipe to get screwed. Wait for the RIGHT offer. Evander Kane wanted out of Winnipeg for 3+ years before he was finally traded. He said he straight up asked for a trade every year. Chevy held firm until he found the right deal. Botterill can not repeat the ROR mistake no matter what Ristolainen wants. BTW, it didn’t sound like he demanded a trade. More along the lines of he would be more than ok with moving on. Here is the link - https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/06-25-renaud-lavoie-tva-sports-howard-and-jeremy its pretty much right at the start of the interview.

Anyone hear Renault Lavoie on WGR550 today? He sure made it sound like the reason Buffalo is shopping Ristolainen is because he asked them to. He was careful not to say Risto requested a trade. But it sure sounds like moving Ristolainen is player driven. It would make sense. I thought he sounded ready to be traded at his press conference on locker clean out day, and seeing ROR leave + win every award probably hardened Risto in that stance. I csnt blame the guy if he wanted to leave. Just like ROR, Risto is thrown to the wolves (given some of the toughest minutes in the entire NHL), but it’s been going on even longer with Risto.

I wasn’t even aware there was any talk of a potential deal. Glad the Sabres are (seemingly) holding firm on their offer. I’d MUCH rather bring Risto back than trade him for anything less than an ideal return. Hey, congrats on stealing Subban btw. What a great trade by Shero. That’s a savvy veteran GM taking advantage of a lower salary cap and a team’s desperation to clear cap space. I’m pretty sure the police were called though, so expect to be giving some type of statement in the coming days.... lol

You know Kitchens had to be talking about his time in Cleveland with Gregg Williams.... ?

lol if Tyler Myers gets $8M x 7yrs.

According to some of the draft analysts, yes. https://theathletic.com/1041814/2019/06/22/pronman-2019-nhl-draft-grades-for-all-31-teams/ I thought it was kind of a safe draft, outside of Huglen and the tall goalie they took in the 3rd. IMO they went with a lot of high floor players with less question marks (as opposed to high ceiling players that are a bigger gamble to turn into NHL players). 3 were over-agers. Nothing wrong with that with where the Sabres are at. They need their drafts to pan out more than most teams do. They’re desperate for good depth. I like their draft, but I don’t necessarily love it. One thing I did love is that they went with a number of guys who have high compete level and high motors. Guys who give 100% every second of every shift. The Sabres really need some guys like that. Grading NHL drafts the day after is a pointless exercise, though. I remember when the Senators drafted Erik Karlsson, there were a few people calling it a “garbage pick”. The Minnesota Wild got killed by local reporters for taking Jonas Brodin over Duncan Siemens. People killed Columbus for taking Pierre-Luc Dubois over Jesse Puljujarvi. There are tons of examples of like this. There is so much player projection involved in the NHL draft. It takes years to truly know how good a draft class is.

Good question(s). Darren Dreger and most of the legit insiders have all said that Buffalo would only trade Risto if it was a great return. So I’m hoping that’s true. But id be lying if I said I had complete faith that Buffalo won’t trade him for a questionable return. I’m still a bit worried Risto is this year’s scape goat. From what I’ve gathered from all the reports this offseason, it sounds like Risto was likely to be moved and then talks slowed down once they hired Krueger, with the thinking that he could fix Risto. So I guess we will see what happens.

He is easily a 2nd pair defenseman IMO. Here’s at an NHL analyst recently said about Risto’s situation - https://theathletic.com/1019893/2019/06/11/examining-15-potential-trade-targets-for-the-lightning-to-bolster-blueline/ Hes been put in a no-win situation his entire Buffalo career. He’s had crap for partners (Scandella and Pilut have been his 2 best defensive partners in his 6 year Sabre career (and he only p,Ayer with each for a short time). He’s consistently in the top 5-10:for minutes played in the entire NHL. He almost always faces the toughest competition - his QoC (quality of competition) stats are near the top of the NHL too. He is being used as a league wide top 5 d man instead of as a #2 or #3, which is what he is. If a team acquires him and then uses him properly, he’s going to make buffalo look foolish for ever trading him.

Another potential trade target off the board. Vegas has to move someone, though. They are already over the cap before this deal is even signed.

Not sure I buy this. It goes against everything else we’ve heard.

It was a joke, man.