You knew enough to put Reinhart on your first line but weren't sure if a cap dump and 2021 1st was enough to entice the desperate Sabres into giving up one of their very few useful forwards?

serviceable 4 line centre, 1st round pick, second round pick, and a A prospect if you took the time to read. calgary may add one more pick but Reinhardt aint worth much more than that. he struggled massively this year and if you look at historical trade Skinner who is a better player was traded for far less then what i offered above

i put him on the top line but he could easily fit on second line with lindholm on the top line. i was spreading the wealth

Lol Ryan OReilly was traded for a rusty bucket and two cap dumps two Years ago and now he’s worth Monahan+.

Jason Botterill deserves every ounce of the fate he received. Maybe the worst GM in NHL history

Skinner was a pending UFA and older than Reinhart (RFA). Even then you're missing the point i was trying to make. you may very well not value Reinhart higher than what you gave up, and you may even be right, but given Buffalo's desperation to keep Eichel happy, what makes them even remotely consider this deal? It doesn't offer them anything short term and long term assuming the plan of yours was to assemble a contending flames team, that first rounder will be what mid 20s?

To me Ryan is overpaid(not by much), he’s not a cap dump,

In the context of this deal he absolutely is. You only include "serviceable 4th liners" in deals for players like Reinhart because you need the dollars to work. The actual value is phillips and a late first. Which does nothing for the Sabres next year.

with the current buffalo team there is no hope of making Eichel happy. Buffalo either needs to make some massive changes to their current line up to make a run in the next two years or they need to do another rebuild. Botterill has made too many awful trades and awful contract signings (skinner 9 million) in the last few years and has been unable to make up for it by drafting skilled players. The new GM needs to make this decision right now and the above would obviously be if he chose to rebuild. if the sabres are gonna make trades based on keeping eichel happy they are never gonna be contenders.

Thanks to all the mistakes previous management(s) made, this is the only move (keeping Eichel happy) that they can make. Complete changeover or a rebuild done by a rookie GM would be catastrophic to whats left of the fan base. You can be pretty certain that ownership is going to sacrifice the long term for the short term to keep Eichel happy and give the fans something to cling to so they reel them back in

Selke winner and conn Smythe for that. Hard pass. We'll trade you Steen for goudreau

the above seems like and incredibly brain dead destructive way to run a hockey team that will only result in more of the fan base leaving. people are not stupid and will see right through that strategy when buffalo misses the playoffs yet again. its the same reason why so many people are calling for the flames GM to sell Monahan and Gaudreau. the fan base can see that the core here is not strong enough to go to the next level and fans (of all teams) are not interested in a team that has a perennial placement between 13th to 18th. but i guess we will agree to disagree

nice try

Yes and no. I agree its a poor way to run a franchise, but they've got no choice. The fans wont support full scale change or a rebuild if the v1.0 featuring Eichel was such a disaster. Pegula's need to sell the fans on something...anything.

As for the playoffs, I disagree with your assessment. The fact that the fans would see the strategy would bring them back. They've been rebuilding for years (in their eyes). Aggressive moves in FA and dealing the 8th overall pick will hurt the team long term, no doubt. But we'd be foolish to think that it wouldn't make them a much better team next season and get them in a playoff spot (or at least contending for one through a full season).

the pegulas are looking more and more like tone deaf, clueless, heartless clowns by the minute. Im not sure if they even care about the fans at this point, its better if they dont, i would hate to think how in over their heads they are if they are actually trying

Yeeeeeeah, that's not the problem with this trade. The Blues obviously decline with extreme prejudice.

I agree that Gaudreau needs an elite center which is why you should trade him to the Blues

for the right pieces i would definitely do that

Not super interested in JG, for the right price obviously, he’s a great player, but seems like he doesn’t fit the Blues well. The two wings I’d love to get are Lindholm and Tkachuk, even Bennett.