Too much

Olofsson was supposed to be included in that deal and Bjork in the Vegas trade

Flames decline

Well thats kinda relevant to the value. Whats your ask if you take out Olofsson and Risto (Flames have no need for Risto). Also what do you do if Tkachuk goes to Arbitration and walks in 2 years?

Edmonton declines.

Reinhart's a cool piece and all, but we're paying a premium to move cap that we can otherwise manage internally. I have faith in Puljujarvi exploding next season now that he's coming into his own and now knows explicitly what aspects of his game need a bit more work to be brought up to NHL snuff. Pilut and the two picks aren't doing much for Edmonton in the long run: better to just bury Neal and Russell next season and utilize that $2.1M in cap space accordingly, keep our 1st to bring in another quality LW or Seb Cossa, and buyout Neal next offseason.

Tkachuk, Zary and the first. The Sabres cannot live in fear of players not wanting to stay. They are not going to cease to exist so they have to move forward. The biggest issue with the environment is the losing. They won't start winning unless they have quality players.

I understand that the loosing mentality is a major issue but its mostly with your core players; Eichel, Reinhart, and Risto. Personally I think Buffalo needs at a restart, players in their 6th NHL season like Tkachuk arent going to want to stay somewhere that is loosing either. You should want younger players who want to be paet of the core moving forward

It really depends on what the Pegula's/Sabres want.

I wouldn't rule out a Tkachuk extension with the Sabres. This league is so unpredictable that the Sabres could be a playoff team in 2 seasons. He wants to be one of the highest paid wingers in the league on his next deal, if BUF is willing, then there should be no issue.

I think Tkachuk cares more about winning than getting an extra 1M per year from a rebuilding team

I totally get your point that the Sabres "should" look for younger players in an Eichel deal, I just don't know if they will.

As much as I love Tkachuk, if BUF wants him in an Eichel deal, I think the Flames need to do it. That next negotiation is going to be difficult.

I get your point but you also have to consider that there are a lot of question marks on Eichel's health right now. When he started his rehab he was projected to be healthy by the end of May. From what i understand he hasn't made any progress on the recovery which is why Eichel is requesting this specific experimental surgery.

That was the problem with the initial rebuild all veterans of any value were shipped out and the young players did not respect the veterans that remained because they weren't good players anymore.

Both of you: would you do the deal with Puljujarvi and Neal removed?

Not a chance

What part of the trade is the cost for taking Neal? Just trying to separate this out in my mind.

Puuljarvi is part of it but not 1 for 1 Puuljarvi is part of the cost for Sam

What do you want for Sam on his own? The 1st plus Russell?

The first plus Puuljarvi and Buffalo sends back all of the same pieces. I would just assume Edmonton would want to send salary back to make it work.

Not a chance Edmonton does that deal. Puljujarvi scored as well as Reinhart* once he got comfortable with the team and his role; he's younger and cheaper, bigger and more physical, they wouldn't trade him for Reinhart 1-for-1, TBH.

*In his last 44 games this season, Jesse scored 13-7-20 at even strength for a 82 game pace of 24-13-37. Reinhart's scoring pace over 82 was 23-14-37 at even strength.

Take out Buffalo's picks and the KHL guy (zero value anyhow), does the 1st + Russell get it done?

Not a chance. Reinhart has scored over 20 goals 5 of his 6 nhl seasons. He produced the numbers you are alluding to while playing primarily with Victor Olofsson while Puljujarvi did so playing with Connor McDavid. Russell was just a throw in for cap purposes as you can see a healthy scratch. I can find 44 game stretches where Reinhart produce at well over a point per game while playing with Jack. Also Sam produced this year at Center not just the wing where as Puljujarvi does not offer that position flexibility.

Yeah, well, JP is a non-starter. He has more value that Reinhart for the reasons I mentioned - he's younger and cheaper, bigger and more physical - so he isn't going to be part of any trade.

In addition to the 1st, what are you looking for?


Can you? I sincerely doubt it. Here are Reinhart's even strength points with Eichel for the past 3 years:

2018-19: 14-22-36 (63% of TOI or about 52 games played together) 36/52 = 0.69 P/GP
2019-20: 14-20-34 (91% of TOI or about 63 games played together) 34/63 = 0.54 P/GP
2020-21: 4-4-8 (24% of TOI or about 13 games played together) 8/13 = 0.62 P/GP

He's not anywhere near point-per-game in any of these seasons while with Eichel, let alone "well over". His goal scoring while with Eichel over this 3 year span (0.92 G/60) lags Puljujarvi's number with McDavid this year (1.09 G/60). McDavid is cleary much better than Eichel but scoring goals while with him isn't a given - lots of guys have tried it over the years and few have succeeded like Puljujarvi. I'm 100% confident Edmonton has no interest in trading him.

He's 25 years old and veteran of 6 NHL seasons, I would hope he produces better than a 22 year old coming off double hip surgery and more than a year away from the league, but he hasn't. Centers typically need to be better offensive creators, something Reinhart is not, so he's best suited to play RW I think. Actually, Buffalo did just that - Reinhart spent 59% of his time at RW this season. You can see that he isn't great at faceoffs either, making the positional flexibility argument a weak one.

https://puckbase.com/stats/faceoff-percentage?team=BUF&sort=faceoffs_per_game&sort_order=desc

Sam played the first 34 games at RW this season where he produced 21 points in that time. His final 22 games at center or 41 % of games he had 19 points despite not being great at faceoffs which may be due in part to him not taking hardly any in 4 years. When he was 23 as Puljujarvi is now in 18 -19 from November through February 48 games Reinhart had 51 points including 40 at even strength. Clearly you feel Puljujarvi is a late bloomer and will be a different player the rest of his career and he might be. The Sabres are hoping for the same from Casey Middlestadt who had 19 points including 9 goals over his final 22 games this year finally playing back at his natural position center. I have no illusions that it is likely that he will certainly be a 65 - 70 point 30 goal player from here on out, but maybe he will be but that obviously is not his value and I don't consider him now a better player than Dylan Larkin because he outproduced him over half a season. And I certainly wouldn't count on him doing that moving forward