Hannifin is worth considerably more. He’s on a cost controlled contract and is much more consistent than Risto

ah yes, a pathetic offer for a top pair blueliner and then playing him on your 3rd pair when he’s clearly your best D. Logic off the charts

2nd best, Dahlin exists

We can't afford to pay that price for Eichel; we don't have enough other significant assets. Those are three of our six best assets right now.

Flames would want a better LD back if we are trading Hanifin. He is our only gaurenteed LD to make the roster next year. Gio and Kylington could be selected, Valimaki could not make the team and I will be pissed if GMBT resigns Nesterov

Yeah, and he's awful defensively, too. Dahlin may eventually learn how to play defense, but if you had Hanifin, for the next two seasons he'd be your best defenseman.

Don't conflate value with quality.

Dahlin will be better next year than Hanifin.

I reconsidered adding more value to the Hanifin trade. While I think Calgary values him highly, he's a middle pair LD leaguewide. I'd consider bumping up the pick to the Buffalo 2nd. But he's not that special.

Jake McCabe was our best defenseman, and he vastly outperformed Hanifin, by a lot.

McCabe is an unrestricted free agent. We're talking about the upcoming season, not the last one. Better teams than Buffalo, at least two of which are in no-state-income-tax jurisdictions, are going to be making offers to him, so don't hold your breath waiting for him to re-sign.

That wasn't really the point of the post. What I was getting at was, no name Jake McCabe not being as great as supposed #1 D, Noah Hanifin. This is an off base conversation. And there's no reason the Sabres can't retain McCabe if they wanted to.

There's a very GOOD reason why the Sabres can't retain McCabe even if they want to: McCabe may not want to stay. It's purely his choice, after Buffalo makes their best offer to him.

Dallas, Florida, Las Vega and Winnipeg I can see right off the bat as being seriously interested in him. Add in other very possible contenders like Los Angeles, Edmonton and Vancouver, plus the teams that I'm leaving out because I only know a little bit about this subject, and I'd be willing to take a "Field" bet here that McCabe signs somewhere else this off-season. And gets upwards of $3 million, with term.

Any chance you guys are thinking of trading Valimaki? Detroit would be interested...

IDK we (stupidly) wouldn't trade him for Stone so they are obviously very high on him