that trade would deplete NSH's center depth - I could see Johansen being a good compliment to Eichel as 2C on this team though.

I switched it. I have seen some Predator fans wanting to get out of the Johansen contract.

value seems fine-ish, it would just make the expansion draft harder with all the defenseman in NSH needing protection

Trading ANYTHING for Ryan Johansen is a mistake
He was basically outproduced by their 3rd line center last year, Bonino, who has half the Cap hit

It only makes sense for us if they keep half the salary,
AND we get him cheap
Neither of those are the case in your trade,
and are unlikely to happen

He’s most likely their CBO if that’s allowed


And Roslovic??
He’s an ok 3rd liner, but we already have Kahun & M.Johansson who are “ok” and can play RW
No reason to give up a top4 defenseman for that

And if Tage Thompson makes the Sabres roster (unlikely),
it’ll be as RW3. He has ZERO chance of being RW1

Sorry for being so harsh,
but there’s lots of bad ideas here

If the Sabres can get Johansen for that they should do it.

I was going off on what Botterill could do. I agree on Johansen, I remember seeing a graph where Johan Larrson had better advanced stats. I’m actually a huge believer in Tage Thompson, he looked like he should of made the team out of camp over Sobotka.

While i appreciate your optimism on Tage,
putting him at RW1 is crazy

Let’s see if he makes the roster first
Then let’s see if he can work his way up the lineup

I can’t imagine him on line1 with Jack...
at least not to start the season

Ryan Johansen is a mystery
Sometimes he looks amazing when i watch him play
But effort & consistency are huge question marks for him

He’s never quite lived up to his talent
Maybe he could put it all together & be a great fit with Skinner?
BUT
-I’m not taking that risk at an 8mil cap hit
-and I’m not giving up a lot for him coming off this horrible season

Now if NSH uses a CBO on him...
then I’d be willing to take a risk if he’d sign a reasonable deal

Let’s say between 3-4mil,
with bonuses for hitting certain numbers of points
and for 2-3years
Add more years for a lower base salary & higher bonus $$$

Giving him more years, say 5, could give him security
But we’d need it to be at a number like 3mil base salary
That way we are protected if he doesn’t work out
$1mil bonus for 50pts
Extra $2mil bonus if he hits 65pts ($6mil total)

Now that i think about it though...
idk if u can structure contracts like that anymore unless it’s an “over 35” deal

So if that’s the case...
2years, 4mil per would be a deal I’d be comfortable with
$5mil per at the very most,
but even that is risky

Yeah I agree. The problem is I don’t see how Buffalo will be able to attract free agents, with not making the “playoffs” I think they are going to get new assets via trades, which will be difficult due to having poor draft capital, and lack of valuable assets.

Well, tbh, i don’t think the Sabres are Cup Contenders no matter what gets done this off-season

But Botts does need to make the playoffs
From Kim Pegula’s comments earlier today,
sounds like he & coach Kruger are on the hot seat next season

So he better figure out how to find a 2C
And i think an upgrade in goal over Hutton is a must as well

I love reading your comments, complete and rational reasons for what you believe.
My only divergence from your comment regards, Thompson.
Big players take longer to develop and he had a strong AHL resume.
I think he will be in the line up, you do not. Let's agree to disagree.

Well if u look at our lineup coming back,
I’m gonna slot in Johansson & Kahun as the 3rd line wingers
I think that’s ideally where we’d want them

And since there’s very little chance Tage plays so amazing he’s slotted in the top6 to start the season,
he’d slot in on line3
Which means either 1 of those guys move to Center,
or one of them move up to line2

Neither are ideal circumstances

So (imo now, not necessarily Botts)...
Tage would really have to look outstanding in camp in order to push either Johansson of Kahun into a spot we wouldn’t really want them in ideally


And thanks for the kind words dude
Much appreciated

Also... i hope I’m wrong about Tage & he’s a freaking beast for us! I’d happily take an “i told you so” from ya! 😂

OK, I got it now, you do not think Tage will be a top 6 forward so it means he needs to bump down to the 3rd line pushing Johansson or Kahun out of the way.
Again let's agree to disagree, I think either Kahun or Thompson will start the season on a top 6 line.
If Botterill does not pick up a #2C they may both be among the top 6, which would be really bad.
I have been wrong too many times to gloat about one time being correct.

Some random negative thoughts:
Botterill buggered the Scandella and Frolik trades. Not enough for Scandella and Frolik was not needed. HUGE mistake!
I do not know why he thought he needed 4 top 4 RHD. I guess if I was offered Miller for a late third, I could not pass on that trade.
While I liked getting both Johansson and Vesey, we needed RW more!
Huge miss thinking Johansson could fill in #2 C.
It appears we miss handled Pilut, I sure hope not because that will make it more difficult to sign Europeans in the future.
I hope Olofsson is not another Moulson who can only produce PP goals with a top center.
The team seems to lack unity. Skinner was roughed up this and last season and no one came to his defense.
We seem to need to find players like Foligno and Deslauriers.
Why did Ullmark and Hutton not improve after adding Bales as our GK coach?
The Vesey trade was a total failure. But at the time it appeared to be a huge win when compared to:
Andre Burakovsky Born Feb 9 1995
Cap Hit of $3,250,000 to 2019-20 (RFA)
2019-Jun-28 Traded from Washington Capitals to Colorado Avalanche for Scott Kosmachuk, round 2 pick in the 2020 draft and round 3 pick in the 2020 draft
2016-17 Washington Capitals NHL 64 12 23 35 14 13 13
2017-18 Washington Capitals NHL 56 12 13 25 27 3 13
2018-19 Washington Capitals NHL 76 12 13 25 14 2 7
2019-20 Colorado Avalanche NHL 58 20 25 45 22 11

Jimmy Vesey Born May 26 1993
Cap Hit of $2,275,000 to 2019-20
2019-Jul-01 Traded from New York Rangers to Buffalo Sabres for round 3 pick in the 2021 draft
2016-17 New York Rangers NHL 80 16 11 27 26 -13 12
2017-18 New York Rangers NHL 79 17 11 28 20 -18 --
2018-19 New York Rangers NHL 81 17 18 35 21 -6 --
2019-20 Buffalo Sabres NHL 64 9 11 20 15 12
Who would have thought, Vesey would fall that much and Burakovsky would improve that much? (Actually my son thought Andre was better than his stats)
Right now the Skinner contract looks terrible.

Some random positive thoughts:
How many teams have 7 top four defensemen?
Jokiharju, Miller, Pilut and Montour were all huge wins for Buffalo.
Two years ago the team had the worse home record, this year they were the 8th best. Have to win on the road.
Kahun was a good pick up.
Signing Lazar, Hammond, Dea and Gilmour were brilliant moves. They all contributed to making Rochester better, added depth the Sabres and were cheap.
IDK what to think about Thompson. Big players take longer to develop. He has grown bigger since last season, He has demonstrated decent development. He has a good attitude.
I am really impressed with the way Larsson and Girgensons control the puck, but why can they not kill penalties? They may be too expensive to keep at this point.

Too much for one post, I do not expect an answer, just musing and lamenting about the season.

There’s a lot here, so I’ll try & be concise (edit: i wasn’t, lol)

It’s not that i don’t think Tage could EVER be a top6 guy,
I just don’t think there’s any chance at all that he will START in that spot this season
With Botts job on the line...
I can’t imagine he’s not gonna add at least 1 guy to the top6,
possibly 2 if he can make it work with the cap

Scandella & Frolik trades don’t bother me at all
Teams weren’t making trades during that time at all
And even though Scandella had played well so far, he was coming off a terrible season & just didn’t have value.
And he had to move someone bc all our defensemen were getting healthy, so he moved a guy we weren’t gonna bring back instead for whatever he could get.
He then turned around & took a swing with Frolik.
I’d have loved if he got a better forward, but no one was trading top6 forwards unless we would’ve gone after Taylor Hall- who would’ve been a mistake. Frolik helped the PK a little, bit of u wanna call it a swing & a miss I’m fine with that. All we lost was a 4th though, so whatever.

Trading for Miller made sense at the time, as he was an upgrade over Bogo who we couldn’t count on to stay healthy anyways. And there’s no way he could’ve known the Hawks would lose their mind & send us Jokiharju! He had to take that deal. No one would pay up for Risto, so we had 4 good RD.
It’s a good problem to have.
And there’s a very good chance he or Montour get moved.
AND Botts not selling off 1 of our “extra” RD for “cheap” let other GMs know he won’t make a desperate moves & again & get robbed like he did in the O’Reilly trade.

Pilut was unfortunately caught in a numbers game.
He may leave for the KHL, but it also appears he now has a slot waiting for him in Buffalo if he wants to stay in the NHL.
And the NHL is FAR more stable than the KHL right now, so that could play a role too.

MoJo as #2 Center was clearly not ideal. But i don’t think that was the “plan” either. It was widely reported that Botts was trying to make a trade, but as i said before, teams just weren’t willing in the first half of the season. He got screwed bc of all the defensemen injuries we had in camp, so he couldn’t make a move before the season started.
And I’m sure he though Mittelstadt would start at 3C,
and IMPROVE throughout the season. No one thought he would get to the point where he’d be sent down, so i can’t blame Botts for that either. I blame Mitts for not putting in the effort & dedication needed to be a professional.

Vesey should’ve been better on the scoresheet, but he did play pretty well defensively for us. Maybe his focus on defense is what caused the drop in offense, but he was brought in as a depth forward we hoped would take the next step. He didn’t. And now everyone knows that he is what he is, an “ok” 3rd liner. And we again didn’t give much up for him (a 3rd i think?).
But sure, another swing & miss i suppose.

Should he have traded for Burakovsky instead? Well hindsight certainly says yes, but as u point out, at the time it seemed like Vesey for less was a better option. So i again won’t fault him too hard for that either....
i did 100% want him to trade for Gusev though!
I’d been talking about him for a few years now, and he’s a guy who (imo) easily had the most upside of the 3 & was also traded for just picks. Maybe he tried & VGK preferred the 2019 2nd that Nj had to give up & we didn’t? Impossible to know how that all went down, but I’d have liked him a lot. Total steal by Nj

We just had a sh!tstorm of things go wrong for us last year.
Ullmark i did think improved, but freaking Hutton’s 0-8-4 skid (or whatever it was) was probably the worst stretch i can ever remember from a Sabres goalie. He was just plain awful. And the stretch cost us a chance at the playoffs. And i don’t mean the 24 team playoffs, i mean catching the Leafs for 3rd in the division.
Skinner forgot how to score, Dahlin kinda sucked for the first part of the season, Mitts & all the defensemen injuries was already touched on, no depth scoring AGAIN- grrrr... and i don’t wanna rehash any more of the bad. Obviously watch & know everything that went wrong....
and i think you’re totally accurate with your positives,
So I’ll give ya some more positivity to think about...
If Hutton wouldn’t have had that brutal streak, & Skinner would’ve scored his normal 30 goals instead of only 14 (ugh! Wtf happened?)...
then we’d have been neck & neck with the Leafs.
And if our special teams would’ve been only a little better,
that would’ve been enough to put us over them imo.
All 3 of those things should definitely happen this next season.

So even though disaster struck last season,
there’s still hope looking forward.

What Botts has gotta do:
1- find a guy that can play 2C
Even if it’s just a guy like Henrique & not a Monahan quality type. And the Ducks would probably give us He roque pretty cheap bc they wanna cut payroll.
2- figure out goalie
If he thinks Hutton can be steady, fine. But if he’s not gonna upgrade him, then he better be confident that J. Johansson can come up & be a good backup if he falters, or that UPL is ready to help win us some games. He struggled a bit in Roch though, and JJ’s sample size of good play is small in the AHL with little NHL experience, so I’d like to at least see a decent guy brought in & Hutton preferably moved.
3- if we have the Cap room, trade for or just sign (Hoffman, Dadonov, Craig Smith, etc) a RW2

If he can do those 3 things, then i think we are a playoff team
Olofsson-Jack-Sam
Skinner-(new guy)-(new guy)
MoJo-Cozens/Mitts-Kahun
*and I’d bring back Girgs & Larsson. I know their PK wasn’t great, but they were awesome 5v5 against other teams’ top lines. And with the Cap freeze, i don’t think they’ll be out of our price range at all- 2mil at the most, maybe less even?
If we get a CBO for Okposo, great.
If not, he actually played pretty well. Just cost too much. But that is what it is.

If we can’t get that RW2, then i see Kahun or Mojo moving up to fill that spot, an then we see Mitts, Tage & Asplund battle it out for a roster spot (i think Cozens is almost a lock to make it)

The defense looks fine to me too.
If he can’t move a guy as part of a package for a high end 2C,
the we get a “Henrique, Bonino, etc” and we should have a pretty deep defense.
Dahlin is on the verge of taking a big leap forward imo
And Risto improved under Kruger, so did McCabe.
I really like Jokiharju, and Miller & Montour should be better with less shuffling around. Tack on Pilut, & we look good imo.

Ullmark works for me as part of a tandem,
and u know what i think we should do with the other half.
UPL is likely the future, but get someone now who we can depend on for a couple more years.


And we are gonna get to add another high end talent with a likely top8 pick.
And if we get lucky & win the lotto... then even freaking better.


Overall....
I do think Botts has us headed in the right direction.
And with a good move or 2 in the offseason,
we could FINALLY start to make some noise next year.
Finally 😁

Also..... stay safe sir, and Go Bills!

This summer could be a wild ride for many teams.
IMO there will be a flat cap if not a reduction.
If there is a reduction, will there be CBO?
Let's presume a flat cap and no CBO.

I agree, I love Larsson and Girgensons, I think I mentioned this before, they have magnetic sticks and attract pucks.
I agree Vesey's defense was excellent, I wonder if we will bring him back.

Many Ottawa fans are trading Tierney for Miller. Let's make a deal, even if Buffalo needs add a little.
Dadonov for 5 years at $6,000,000.
Buffalo's 2020 first to MTL for Domi
Maybe Buffalo can get Allen from STB for little if they want to sign Pietrangelo.

I like your line up, now let's add the trades:
Olofsson-Jack-Sam
Skinner-Domi-Dadonov
MoJo-Tierney-Kahun
Girgs - Larsson - Okposo

Dahlin - Jokiharju
McCabe - Ristolainen
Pilut - Montour

Allen/Ullmark

Scratches: Vesey, Lazar, Borgan

Solid down the Middle.
Awesome Left wing
Solid Right wing
Awesome defense. As you said Dahlin, Jokiharju and Ristolainen will be better.
I know every one knocks Montour, but he had the best +/- of all skaters and only Scandella had a better PDO.
I will have to build a team, I do not know if there is cap space for this.

I still wonder who blinked BriseBois or Botterill?
As with all of Botterill's deals nothing was leaked.

As always, good chatting with you and of course Go Bills

Not a bad lineup sir
As long as Allen is decent, that’s a playoff team

Only thing i wouldn’t do is the 2020 1st for Domi
Make it 2021 1st + and I’d do it
This draft is too good & Domi has too many issues right now to be worth a top10 pick for me