BillsFan4

Edit - apparently Terry pegula doesn’t want to take back any salary in an Eichel trade. Seems to me like one of his main goals is to reduce the payroll.

If it’s just for one year then I’ll be more ok with the return.

Ok, now I reallllyyyyy hate this trade. I thought maybe he was going to go to UFA. There were rumors he wanted to sign near his home in Vancouver. sorry but if this happens it’s hard not to feel like this is a fail by a Kevyn Adams. I feel like An experienced GM makes the contract extension part of the trade. Add Bills Zito to the list of GMs not to make any more trades with. Doug Armstrong is already on there. Lets stick to trading with Chuck Fletcher. 🤣

We can’t really say what he would’ve went for at the deadline. It would depend on what type of season he had, the deadline rental market + prices, teams in the playoff race, which GMs were desperate, etc etc. It’s not hard to imagine Reinhart fetching a 1st + B prospect though, especially if he improves again this season like he has every previous season. Plus they would have their best goal scorer from last season in the lineup, and someone who can help fill the massive top 6 C void if Eichel is traded. Obviously the Sabres brass decided that they wanted Reinhart off the roster before the season started and I hate that they created an internal deadline. But I am willing to cut Adams some slack on this one because Reinhart is currently a RFA in need of a contract, 1 year from UFA and we know he’s not willing to sign here long term. Plus the RFA trade market at forward doesn’t seem super strong after seeing Buchnevich go for a 2nd + Blais. However, Adams shares some blame for Reinhart being 1yr from UFA. He had an opportunity to sign him long term last year. And if Florida signs him long term pretty quickly, this trade is a big fail IMO. I’m guessing after what happened this last season is when Reinhart decided he’d be better off going to UFA. I also think Adams wanted him gone. Where I am NOT willing to cut Adams ANY slack: a Jack Eichel trade. Any deadline to trade him this offseason was created by the Sabres front office. I understand the injury rehab/surgery dispute and that Eichel may want out. But I don’t care. They don’t have to trade him. He is a top 5 C in the NHL (when healthy), under contract for 5 more seasons and his NMC doesn’t kick in until after next year’s draft. But even then, if Eichel’s the one who wants out I’d tell him to waive or he can stay put. The Sabres have to get proper value for Eichel, and for that to happen, IMO, they need to be prepared to call teams bluffs and start the season with Eichel on the roster. I worry that creating another internal deadline on an Eichel trade will end badly (like with ROR). Let him show he’s healthy. Apparently he’s back to skating + training hard. Adams needs to play this like Joe Sakic played the Duchene trade. It was a very similar situation. I’d say the Duchene situation was even more contentious. He publicly requested a trade after 3 straight years of losing. Said he had checked out (on the ice) from all the losing. That he was only showing up to honor his contract (and get paid). Yet Sakic held firm. He was on the hot seat at the time and took heat for not getting enough for ROR after ROR tore it up in his 1st year in Buffalo. That Duchene trade totally changed everything. And the pieces he got in the trade helped kick start Colorado’s rebuild. Sakic knew how important getting that trade right was for Colorado. Id say the Eichel trade is even more important For Buffalo. We don’t have a 1C on the roster like Colorado did (Mackinnon).

It was worse than the rumored return... I’m hoping that there are no protections in that 1st round pick. Not that I expect Florida to be bad, but you never know. edit - ugh, of course there are... 🤬

Sabres draft poltapov with the #33 pick. They finally drafted a Russian! 😂 https://thehockeywriters.com/prokhor-poltapov-2021-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/ article on Sabres #14 pick from yesterday: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/prospect-interest-isak-rosen-skills-par-marner-kane/sn-amp/ ‘Prospect of Interest: Isak Rosen has skills on par with Marner, Kane’ Edit: Kisakov with the 2nd round pick from the Taylor Hall/Boston trade.

picks (plural)?

Still no confirmed return on Reinhart. The rumor is Frank Vatrano, Devon Levi (who elliotte Friedman confirmed is part of the return) and a 1st (that may be conditional). 🤢🤮 Reinhart is RFA though and may be refusing to sign long term with any team. There’s been speculation for a while now that he wants to sign on the west coast to be closer to home. No excuses for a bad return on Eichel though. He’s under contract 5 more years.

anxiously waiting to hear what the return is...

Miller truly gets what Buffalo is all about. Well said Ryan!

I’ll always respect Risto. He always gave it his all every time he stepped onto the ice, regardless of the Sabres record at the time. He didn’t sulk/pout or pass the blame.

I am shocked Risto brought back the 13th overall pick. Home run by Kevyn Adams! Please don’t ruin it by trading Eichel for a mediocre return. Just because we got #13 doesn’t mean we can now trade Eichel for less. Hold strong on that asking price Kevyn! exactly what I’m hoping is the case.

7 forwards, 3 defenseman and a goalie. or 8 total players and a goalie. I wouldn’t have wanted to lose Mittelstadt. I thought he was playing some good hockey last season. He finally looks like he’s coming into his own. Sabres are super thin on players with top 6 C potential too. If they trade Eichel and Reinhart, then Mitts and Cozens are pretty much the only 2 left with top 6 potential, and that includes our prospect pipeline. What will piss me off is if they now end up trading Ristolainen for a crap return, like 3rd or 4th round pick (or something worth less than having a young, NHL ready right shot defenseman already on the roster to replace him). Would’ve rather just left him exposed over Borgen if that’s the case. But I heard buffalo’s asking for a 1st + prospect for him. Hopefully they get something decent in return for him.

the only guy I didn’t want to lose, so I’m not surprised Seattle felt the same (that he was the only player worth taking). I followed his development for years. Was finally going to get to see him in the NHL this year. Guess not. He probably would’ve been in the NHL a year+ ago if not for Stupid botterill trading for a pile of crappy veteran nhl defenseman. He’s not waiver exempt though, so if Seattle waived him at any point Buffalo can just claim him (we have #1 priority).

Sabres expansion pick is one of the only ones that hasn’t leaked yet. Guess it’s easier to keep under wraps when you only have like 3 people working for the front office... 😂

I really wish Cole would take his own advise... I have no idea what he thinks he’s trying to accomplish with all these social media rants, but whatever it is he’s failing miserably at it.

mildly surprised they didn’t (idiotically) protect Girgensons over Asplund... lol. Hopefully Adams has a deal in place not to lose Will Borgen. Other than him I don’t care who Seattle takes from our exposed player list. Taking Skinner would be amazing but it’ll never happen. At least not without Buffalo throwing in a big sweetener. available players: Drake Caggiula (F) Jean-Sebastien Dea (F) Cody Eakin (F) Steven Fogarty (F) Zemgus Girgensons (F) Andrew Oglevie (F) Kyle Okposo (F) Tobias Rieder (F) Riley Sheahan (F) Jeff Skinner (F) C.J. Smith (F) Will Borgen (D) Brandon Davidson (D) Matt Irwin (D) Jake McCabe (D) Colin Miller (D) Casey Nelson (D) Michael Houser (G) Carter Hutton (G) Dustin Tokarski (G) If anyone’s curious Here’s the protected/exposed list for every NHL team: https://media.nhl.com/public/news/15205

my thoughts are that it probably just got more expensive to re-sign Dahlin...

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/31823310/in-eulogy-matiss-kivilenieks-praised-saving-many-lives-fireworks-blast ugh 😢 so tragic.

Nice! Congrats Dorsey! I’m guessing that they’re preparing him to take over as OC when Daboll most likely gets a head coaching job next offseason. But I also wonder if it had anything to do with the interview(s) he had for OC positions this past offseason? I wonder if they possibly had to promote him in order not to lose him? Or maybe he wanted some assurances that he would be the next OC here if/when Daboll left? Im guessing it’s most likely just McDermott wanting to be prepared for when Daboll leaves though. McDermott is definitely one who plans ahead.

https://www.golongtd.com/p/why-damar-hamlin-is-exactly-what good story on Hamlin’s upbringing. Worth a read. definitely rooting for him!

Kucherov already half in the bag by the time he gave his (shirtless) press conference. He didn’t make any friends in Montreal.... “Montreal fans were acting like they won the Stanley cup last game. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Their final was last series, ok?”

Some of my family and friends have been using a service called “EyeStreamTV” for well over a year now and they all swear by it. Ive been wanting to try it for a while. You get literally every channel - 900+ channels + PPV events. All the premium movie channels. All Bills + Sabres games. All for like $40-50 a month. And if you refer people you get it cheaper. Iirc if you refer 5 people you get it for free. I don’t see how it’s legal but apparently it is.

This is starting to remind me of the old rumor (that eventually became a running joke) that Olli Jokinen was getting traded to the Sabres.