I agree with all of you, Buffalo did very well and I am really happy. I only wish Dallas could have won either game 6 or 7, then Buffalo would have had the 19th over all.
Quoting: Dahlin_On_Me
Honestly don't know enough about Montour to judge the fairness of this deal but our #2 defense prospect and a first seems like a heavy payment.
I'm going to trust BOTs knows what he's doing, I'm happy to see he's active. Every little bit helps.
Someone from our current NHL D core will be on the move now. Probably Beaulieu, which is too bad, he's a decent player. I get nervous every time someone mentions Risto in a trade. Easily our best D man at the moment.
I have watched Guhle while he is fast he thinks his speed will make up for poor positional play, Maybe he can be coached to play better but he was 10th or 11th on the Sabre defenseman depth chart before he was traded. During his 20 games with Buffalo, Montour was the Sabres best defenseman. If he can play next year as well as he did this year, it would make the Sabres defense well above average. I loved the trade when I read it.
Quoting: rebecca
Brandon Montour is, by most accounts, easily among the Top 40 RHD in the NHL today (possibly in the Top 30). A very strong 2nd pair but with a legitimate case to be a 1st pairing defender. Combined with the crop of other young D-Men that have arrived/taken strides this season (Dahlin, Pilut, Ristolainen, McCabe), adding Montour whist not subtracting anyone off their current roster immediately raises the Buffalo blue-line from slightly below-average to easily among the Top 5-10 in the NHL (with a trajectory that will only make them better in the next 2-3y).
As others have iterated, Guhle was buried in the depth chars on the LHD side, and so really while an “asset” in the abstract, held little to no intrinsic value for Buffalo as an organization beyond what he could recoup. And wow, does he fetch a big fish.
The 1st round pick is a wild-card. If Buffalo has another surge and makes the playoffs then Anaheim is likely looming at around 18th give or take, possibly later if Buffalo upsets the top seed. But - if Buffalo misses the playoffs (and by most prognostications that’s at least an 80% probability), then we’re looking at a lottery pick, albeit one with very long odds. If Buffalo misses the playoffs and “wins” the lottery (moving up to the top 2/3) then Anaheim wins. But in the other 96% of scenarios I find it hard to fathom a borderline LHD and a mid-round 1st providing more value than a young RHD in the Top 30/40 of the NHL.
There’s the 80% possibility that Buffalo
I am happy I am writing that at the end of the season. So Buffalo gave up a very late first round pick and a defenseman who was 10th or 11th on the depth chart for what you think and I saw is a very good defenseman. Guhle will never be as good as Montour is now. Guhle has produced slightly better in the AHL as Montour has produced in the NHL. I have no idea what Buffalo will need to pay him, but so far this trade looks awesome.
Quoting: oilersfan089
Can't really argue that Buffalo just got a solid 20min+ dman, that should be able to give Ristolainen a much needed breather in pressure situations. All that at a very sweet 3.3875 cap hit for 1 more season after this. Guhle may just be a great dman that has a higher offensive ceiling than Montour, but given Buffalo's recent lottery success, they are kind of too deep on the left side to allow proper development of Guhle (though they could have tried slotting a leftie on the right and save some future prospects....this seems oddly familiar of Buffalo....pretty sure they did something similar the last time they got good assets/team).
I agree, and in general RHD are more valuable than LHD. To date Guhle has produced only slightly better in the AHL than Montour has produced in the NHL. At 70 years old I did back flips when I saw the trade. TBH, I thought Ristolainen would be traded the next day, I am just as happy that he was not. I think he will only get better and as has been mentioned, Montour can and will take some of the work load off of Ristolainen. Not to mention Dahlin's minutes will increase as well.