BootBoi
As a Sabre fan, I would do the Puljujarvi trade, but what would you want from Buffalo to do the Montreal trade?
I know most Sabre fans respond that the Sabres do not want Barrie but Buffalo only has one RHD and he could easily be the Sabres 7th or even put on the third pairing.

BootBoi
As a Sabre fan, I would do the Puljujarvi trade, but what would you want from Buffalo to do the Montreal trade?
I know most Sabre fans respond that the Sabres do not want Barrie but Buffalo only has one RHD and he could easily be the Sabres 7th or even put on the third pairing.

Barrie's biggest strength is on the power play. He's not getting PP1 time over Dahlin, and do you really want him taking PP2 time away from Power? Also Buffalo has 3 right shot Dmen, Joker and Boosh with Fitz as a 7th D.

sabresparaavida my bad I meant 2 Jokiharju and Lyubushkin
Fitzgerald will probably be in the AHL
But as I said most Sabre fans would not want Barria but for this price it would be stupid to pass on.
He is an elite offensive defenseman.
To only have to give up a player as Jack Smith and a third to get him and Lavoie would be a crime.
Let me repeat what I have posted at least a dozen times all four of the cup finalist teams had 3 RHD and 3 LHD.
So Buffalo who has missed the play offs for a decade is smarter than Tampa who was going for its third straight cup had 2 RHD who were waived just before they signed them or traded for them (Rutta and Bogosian).
Lyubushkin, Barrie or Jokiharju would look like all stars next to either of them.
I would make my defensive pairing:
Dahlin-Lyubushkin
Power-Jokiharju
Samuelsson-Barrie
Giving the Sabres an offensive defenseman on each pairing.

EDIT:
Funksoljah
Let me add over the past 5 years ONLY 21 NHL defensemen have MORE EVS goals, only 11 have more EVS assists and only 13 more EVS total pts than Barrie, that does not appear to be only a PP specialist.
He is an elite offensive threat, to only have to give up a third and a low level prospect is nothing.

First off the Sabres are not cup finalists with Barrie. They still aren't even a playoff team with him.

Second, Tampa Bays top 3 Dmen in ice time were all Left handed. Their top RD was Cernak who played 19 minutes a game, followed by Rutta who played a little more than 16 and Bogosian who played 15 minutes a game. They lined Serg up on the right side far more often than you seem to realize.
Colorado also played Girard and Byram on the right side for significant minutes, and in Fact 3 of their top 4 Dmen in minutes played were Left handed with Makar being the lone RD in that top 4 for icetime.

I get it, you want them to be good. The way forward is for Power, Joker, Samuelsson etc to improve. That won't happen unless they are getting the ice time they need in order to do that.