Pointless trade… Rather have Hughes develop his defence

Buffalo declines, rather have Dahlin and not pay a 2nd to downgrade

Did you read the description and reasoning for the trade? I didn't say I would do it, however I think the long term benefits of being able to sign both Pettersson and Dahlin to 8 year deals COULD outweigh the slight downgrade from Hughes to Dahlin. In 4 or 5 years from now 10 million for Pettersson and 7 for Dahlin could look like steals providing significant positive cap value, and they will still be in their prime. The extra cap space Vancouver would have as a result could add additional pieces to support the team or at the very least afford the team to retain developing players. If they have to re-up Pettersson and Hughes in 3ish years it will add less flexibility for the remainder of their prime. Obviously I wish the team wasn't in the cap situation that they're currently in so that they could lock up both Pettersson and Hughes, however with the situation being what it is I think the idea is at least worth considering.

I would be interested to see what non Buffalo and non Vancouver fans who have actually watched a fair amount of both players think of the value. I will admit I haven't seen a lot of Dahlin, however I listen to a lot of sports radio and the two have been compared many times over the last two seasons because they were both top 10 picks in the same draft year. I believe it's been almost unanimous with hosts and insiders saying Hughes is currently the better player.

As a Sabres fan, I’d pass

Hughes is currently the better player, but Dahlin has more potential.
From an outsider's standpoint, Buffalo declines

Agree with this. I can say that the previous sabres coach didnt do him any favors, almost every player on the ice got worse under him. A new coach, was brought in, a coach who seems to work well with younger players and knows hockey. So for the last 20 games, many players who looked absolutely lost, started looking like hockey players. Dahlin was absolutely one of those guys, his game took off at both ends of the ice. Makar is better than dahlin, probably now and going forward, but theres no other d in the game i would move dahlin for.

I disagree with your first statement.
I think QH definitely has the higher offensive and transition upside, he's already averaged .75PPG in his career and could easily hit a point per game in the very near future. Offensively QH is already elite, during his first two seasons he is 5th among NHL D in points, defensively he is to smart a player not to improve.
Dahlin's no slouch offensively either (25th over the last two seasons) but he's not elite, he's also no stud defensively and is not considered a hard player to play against. With that said I would say Dahlin does have the better defensive upside based on his size and his better, though not good, defensive statistics up to this point.

No question Dahlin' has high upside.
I feel similar regarding QH defensive play last season, with Brad Shaw now with the organization I expect his overall defensive play will improve significantly. Both RD and QH played for poor defensive teams last year, I suspect that didn't help their overall defensive numbers.

Great point. I expect dahlin to play better under granato, and i expect you might have to dig through the stats to see it. I expect the sabres offense to be bad, and theres several young centers, so even when the d does their job, its gonna be back in our end in a blink. Plus our goalies are anderson who is 40, and probably upl who i dont think is quite ready. Its gonna take some doing to make the case that dahlin took that big jump, if you lose every game 5-1.

Dahlin > Hughes, no way Buffalo does that

I find it interesting that so many people here are saying that when the overwhelming majority of radio hosts and their guest insiders I have listened to over the last two years have been saying the opposite. My assumption is people here are influenced by posters when a player is over/under valued (QH was overvalued in a lot of proposed trades to NJ recently).
I haven't seen a ton of Dahlin so my trade was based off the hosts/insiders analysis, people that dive into advanced stats and actually watch significant amounts of games from a variety of NHL teams.

Dahlin had a rough (first half of the) year last year. He still has the 2nd most points by an NHL defenseman under 20 though, only behind Phil Housley, and 3rd most by an NHL player. his potential is immense still and definitely has a much higher ceiling than Hughes

If your looking at it from a points perspective I don't really understand your argument. Over the last two seasons Dahlin ranks 26th among NHL defensemen in points, QH ranks 5th and that's not including his 16 points in 17 playoff games. Offensively QH is already elite and is in a different category than Dahlin is offensively. There is a 6 month age difference between the two so I don't think age is a significant contributing factor here, especially since Dahlin has already played 68 more NHL games.

Both players need to improve significantly defensively.

Dahlin definitely has high upside, however I disagree that he has a "much higher ceiling than Hughes".

Hughes is also nearly a year older and on a way better team. It does make a difference as it effected their development. Hughes played in a higher age group sooner than Dahlin

QH is 6 months older, not a year…
RD played against men in the SHL starting in 2016-2017, QH only played 5 games against that same age group until 2019-2020.
Dahlin has played an additional NHL season and has played 68 more NHL games...

If you believe Dahlin is a better player thats a valid opinion (even if I disagree with it), however I am missing the point(s) you are trying to make when comparing the two from offensive and development perspectives…

@Ledge_And_Dairy
@Devil1122
@sabres89

Please tell me why you want to make this trade at all!
Quinn has one more year of his ELC and based on your description, he is a lot more than a 2nd round better than Dahlin.
I think the Sabre ACGM would rather stick with the devil they know than the devil they do not.
IDK why you want to move away from Quinn, is there something about him that gives you reason to doubt how well he will play in the future.
Let's see how Dahlin does for a full year playing under the Granato system, as the team showed real progress last 20 games going 8-11-1 playing in the toughest division.
Players who were considered busts suddenly flourished and became Buffalo's top line (Asplund, Mittelstadt, Thompson).

I think both teams wouldn't do it, but mostly Buffalo
Granatos system really helped Dahlin develop.
And Quinn is better right now which is why the Canucks should keep him

Why I want to make the trade at all? I’m assuming you haven’t read the description or any of my previous posts, maybe do that first before commenting. If you are unable to understand after that I will explain again why I think it may be worth exploring for Vancouver.

Based on my description QH is worth a lot more than RD and a 2nd, interesting how you interpret things. The post you quoted was a response to a previous post that made inaccurate statements. If you go back and read previous posts you will see I have repeatedly said RD has a high ceiling and is good offensively.
Both project as #1 defence man. QH is currently the more dynamic and offensively gifted of the two, you don’t do a straight up trade for a downgrade unless there are significant contributing factors, such as age.

“I don’t know why you want to move on from QH”. Again do some reading…

If you think players that have been “busts” so far are all completely different players after 20 games I think your in for some disappointment. Not saying those players can’t turn it around (they are still young), not saying Granato won’t help, not saying RD won’t turn out to be a very good player, but lots of players play well for short stretches when changes are made.

This is the type of post I can appreciate , rational points.