Retaining 50% on Karlsson for the next 4 years at 5.25m dead cap is a tough pill to swallow. I also doubt Buffalo would give up that many picks for a guy whos 32 years old. Karlsson is approaching that age where performance historically tends to start dropping off. Not saying it will 100% happen with him but I'd be shocked if he's still a PPG defenseman at 35-36 years old. Karlsson is having an amazing bounce back year. But remember two years ago he had 22 points in 52 games played.

Zero chance of SJ retaining that much.

Um, sure

Buffalo reluctantly declines

Only way Sabres make this trade is to flip him and retain salary for better return.

Sabres already have a younger version on the team. We also have promising top end second pair guy. We need shutdown dman to pair with power.

On the off chance SJ retains 50%, sure. Not a chance SJ does that, but thats the only way Buffalo would bite on it

Karlsson at 6,250,000 for the next 4 years would be really hard to pass up if the Sabres only had to give up a protected first and three seconds.
Erik, Rasmus, Owen, Matthias each play 25 min/gm and Henri plays 20 min/gm, should add up to 120 minutes, the Sabres would only need to play 5 defensemen (LOL just goofing around).
He has more EV pts (48) than ALL other NHL defensemen other than Dahlin and Morrissey (52 and 51) have total pts.
Samuelsson-Dahlin
Power-Karlsson
Would be an imposing top 4 that would create defensive nightmares for any opposing coach.

I'd do the Karlsson trade. I wouldn't do the Couture trade.

Both contracts will age poorly, but I think Karlsson retained makes it worth it in the short term.

Maybe too much? Power hasn’t even begun.

If that’s all it takes for Couture I’ll take him instead of Karlsson if I’m Buffalo.

Sabres decline

It’s a reasonable deal if you’re gonna hold that much salary
Karlsson is just too old, and we’re still a year or 2 away

BUT
San Jose should ABSOLUTELY hold 50% so that they can get a good return for him
Bc at half off, they’ll definitely get a good return from someone

Couture is a bit old for us too,
but at that price he’d be worth considering