If Rieder gets his game back then its fair. Girgensons is having a good year and is still an RFA

Can you explain why you believe Ristolainen is one of their best players.

You have an interesting idea of what a good year is

I wouldnt trade eichel, reinhart, skinner, mittelstadt, dahlin, montour or pilut either.

Can you explain why he isnt. Aside from drinking the koolaid. I explained to you last night why he is being super underrated

Pilut the 3rd pair d just demoted to the minors (only 2 years younger than Risto)

Hes been hung out to dry most of his career. Nobody was complaing a couple seasons ago when everything was going right. Hes started his career off on a couple of tank teams and a failed rebuild. He usually has one of the most TOI in the league and has some of the highest shift averages while having some of the worst team mates around him. You look at the last 2 games where hes with Dahlin on man advantage situations, Dahlin falls over and coughs up the puck both nights, ends up a goal and people blame Risto. Not to mention when Rodrigues fumbles the puck to the other teams stick in front of their net. He finally has D men to supplement and he wont need to do everything, Dahlin will only get better, Montour is an improvement of Nelson, McCabe is one of the more under rated D men in the league. Once the forwards start pulling their weight and they can get possitive possession numbers from their bottom 3 lines, teams will be envious of this top 4. If they trade him for a middle 6 forward that would be super disappointing, he has more value to Buffalo than that. RHD are a premium.

I'm not willing to give ristolainen away, but hes not a top pairing guy and never will be

He doesnt need to be, nor should we be asking that of him

I agree with the fact that he's been completely misused his entire career. My problem is nothing points to him improving his #'s In the future unless he only gets O-zone starts, the easiest assignments and on the ice with Jack along with PP time. He's extremely bad at controlled zone exits and completed passes out of the zone. Thats not a player I want to pay over 5 million for. I still think he has a ton of trade value though. Getting a good forward/defenceman who can drive play would be a great move

You know what I mean lol. Good year for a 4th liner on a fringe playoff team. Zemgus is producing well for his role

He is the definition of replacement level.

Thats completely false, and if thats how Botterill sees Risto, then thats how other GMs see him too and they wont get any value back. He has yet to have an opportunity to show what he can do with a complete team around him, so I dont know why you would expect his past numbers to prove what will happen in future situations with players they did not have before. The numbers you are referencing dont exist yet, so its pretty bold of you to claim what he is and isnt capale of, because that is solely your opinion. Neither Montour or Risto are a #1 RD but they are both great #2 RD. They can both switch on the extras minutes when one is going hot, and when Dahlin is a consistent player both are a great supplementary piece for him. They have never had a season where Risto averaged under 25 minutes since his first full year. Risto is not that type of Dman. This is all without mentioning how atrocious the forwards have been, and Risto is somehow to blame for this. Those same bottom 3 lines have been absolutely terrible in supporting the d. "Ristos bad at breakouts" no $hit, no one on the bottom 3 lines can catch a pass or handle the puck. Mittelstadt is getting better, but Sheary isnt. The rest of the roster is glorified 4th liners. Even Pommer was on Minnys 4th line, he comes back to Buffalo and hes top 6 again. Not to mention blaming Risto for all of the soft goals that have been let in over the last 6 seasons. Risto is a scapegoat and the Sabres and their fans need to stop blaming scapegoats, because its more than one guy. They did that with Tyler Myers too. Unless Risto is bringing back Laine or Point, the value of shipping him out is not there. They finally have a complete D roster, with no holes, they just need some time to develop. They dont need to make a trade for the sake of making a trade, they did that with ROR already.