Olofsson is worth a first round pick especially if there’s salary retention. Why is Buffalo the one adding an extra pick? Jason Botterill is gone. I would be a little surprised if they add all of that youth at once. You also still have two free roster spots, so there’s an extra forward and defenseman missing.

All good points

Kulich and Savoie are going to be really interesting for next year. Kulich just hit another level of production the last few weeks in Rochester and Savoie is too good for the WHL but can't play in Rochester. You would almost think they would both be here but, like you have, it pushes someone like Peterka down the lineup. It is such a strange feeling having so many good young players that we don't know what to do with them all.

Trading Olofsson almost seems like a given at this point, and Mittelstadt seems like he would be the other odd man out, especially with Greenway coming in and taking up a wing position. Good problems to have.

Lmao he’s absolutely not worth a first. He scored a bunch then went ice cold and no matter what he’s always poor defensively. He’s Swedish Mike Hoffman, those guys don’t go for first round picks.

LOL, more Botterill slander. I try not to pick a fight, but these are the facts you can ignore them.
Over the past four games 2/3 of the top line, 2/3 of the second line, the top pairing defensemen and the top GK are ALL products of Jason, but it is ADAMS who has done a great job.
Talk about over pay look what the fans think of the Greenway trade: https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/689602
Or the Spillman trade: https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/686246
Or the Asplund trade: https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/689639

You forget Adams first 6 months, before Karmanos was hired as "ASSOCIATE GM":
Letting Ullmark and McCabe walk for nothing.
Signing Eakin over Larsson, when Larsson had more points last year than Cody had in his two season with Buffalo, Johan signed for $1,100,000 less and wanted to play for Buffalo.
Got only a second for Hall and had to give up Lazar (at the TDL traded for a 4th) and take useless Bjork (at the TDL trade for FC).
Received only a third for Montour, a RHD would look really good in a Sabre uniform right now has 22 goals over the past two seasons.

Go ahead an lambast me now, the facts speak for themselfs.
Karmanos did a great job dumping the locker room problems getting fantasctic returns for Ristolainen, Reinhart and Eichel.

Botterrill wasn't a bad GM. I give Adams credit for at least having principles and setting an organizational tone. Having said that, I think Adams gave up too much for Greenway and there were better D prospects we could have taken in round 2 last year. We need a couple more D prospects in the pipeline but can address that in this draft. The one difference between the last two GMs is one was given a long term chance and the other one was scapegoated for a bad trade that turned out to be a good one. Botterrill is definitely more responsible for where we're at now than Adams, but Adams might be the better fit to finish the job, especially with Karamanos doing a lot of leg work.

Adams is not perfect, I never said he was. But Botterill was known for constantly bending over in almost every single trade he ever made. He always seemed to give the other team more than they deserved, and every possible advantage just so they would make a trade with him. He did make a couple really good trades in his tenure: Skinner and Jokiharju. But he overpaid in just about every other one, it doesn’t really help that they all blew up in his face. I can’t really fault Adams for the Taylor Hall trade. His hands were tied by a full no trade clause, the only place Hall was willing to go was Boston, and Boston wasn’t about to pay anything more than they absolutely had to. It wasn’t a great trade, but it didn’t actually cost Buffalo anything other than losing Curtis Lazar, and before he came to Buffalo he wasn’t really much of anything anyway. Both men dealt with the perceived “Buffalo tax.” The general idea that you have to overpay anyone to come to Buffalo. But I do think that hiring Granato and the Eichel trade working out the way it has has changed the culture of the team. Things are changing, and Botterill only had so much to do with any of it. You can make a case that both sides are better off without each other now.

@ashleyschaeffer OMW another Sabre fan who actually knows who is running the show.
Thank you very much for your contribution and understanding the Karmanos is pulling the puppet strings.

Absolutely Adams is not perfect, far from it.
Let me say again, who gives up a second for a fourth line player with 2 goals at the TDL? Only one GM would do that ADAMS!
Adams made very few trades, Eichel and all of the terrible trades he made this year.
To get only a first, Tuch, and Krebs was a rather poor return for Jack, when Adams said he wanted 4 firsts.
You my friend are a revisionist, tell me in which trade Botterill over paid?
Jokiharju for Nylander, a second for Skinner, Montour for a late first, Vesey for a third (how about a 3rd just to talk to him), Sheary for a fourth?
I am certain you will bring up O'Reilly and forget that Berglund (only two year older than Ryan) had 40 goals over his two previous seasons before the trade, only 4 fewer than O'Reilly over the same period.
The trade appeared to blow up when Berglund left the team, Buffalo won that trade now getting Thompson and Johnson out of it.
Certainly you think Ryan led the Blues to the cup ignoring they were in last place on the first of the year and contemplating blowing up the team until Binnington went 24-5-1 for the balance of the season.

EDIT:
Actually, IMO you are confusing Tim Murray with Jason Botterill.
Tim grossly over paid on nearly all of his trades, Jason did not.

Adams got the equivalent of 3 1sts in return to Eichel with zero retention. Krebs and Tuch were definitely worth a 1st each, and of course the 1st last year. You can also make a case for adding Greenway to the Eichel trade since it was Vegas‘s pick being given. Murray overpaid in a lot of trades, yes. Botterill made some pretty bonehead moves. Selling Scandella for a fourth round pick so they could turn around and use it to get Michael Frolik, who proceeded to do just about nothing in Buffalo. I will defend the move to get Wayne Simmonds for a 5th though. Botterill got very little in return on selling trades, it was frustrating. A conditional 1st for Kane, when Murray had overpaid to get him (and the Rangers got basically three times as much in return for Rick Nash, who was not having a better season) and what amounted to not a lot in return for O’Reilly outside of Thompson (and only because he’s blossomed in a way no one could have predicted). Berglund quit on the team because he never wanted to be here, Sabokta was a waste of a roster spot, and Johnson is still rumored not to sign here until he ever does.

And sure, the blues winning the cup had more to do with Binnington‘s rise than anything Ryan O’Reilly was doing. But he still wore the captain’s C and won the Conn Smythe that year over Binnington. Wasn’t he also their leading scorer during the season? I’m not diluted enough to believe I’ll ever change your mind. Bottom line Botterill didn’t do a good enough job in Buffalo. You could make a case that he wasn’t given quite enough time, but most people thought he got too much. Hiring the wrong coaches definitely didn’t help.

You are correct on many matters to which I agree.
Scandello trade was terrible, and we all knew it.
Five of the top 6 Sabre scorers are from Botterill.
2/3 of the top line, 2/3 of the second line, top pairing d-men and the top GK all Botterill and you say he did not do enough, but you say I cannot be convinced. LOL.
To say Adam built this team is ignoring the obvious, to say Botterill did not do enough is ignoring the obvious.

I don’t give Jason Botterill any credit for drafting Rasmus Dahlin. Any GM ever would have made the same choice. Dylan Cozens being picked where he was, but screw up top 10 draft choices and you won’t keep your job long. People wanted Adams’s head when he took Quinn over Marco Rossi. Marco Rossi is still playing in the AHL, it looks like that actually worked out for Buffalo.

At this point, it looks more like both GM’s build this team. The difference is one hired a better coach, albeit after hiring one of the worst coaches ever. And that’s what’s really strange to me. What I knew about Ralph Krueger when they made that hire was he turned the Swiss national team into a team that could compete with teams that had a lot more talent than them. He accentuated what they were already good at, basically playing physical, blocking shots like crazy, leaning really hard on good goaltending, and praying you can score on transitions. I thought that’s what he was going to bring to Buffalo. Instead, he tried to drive Jeff Skinner out of town and basically did the opposite of everything I thought he would. The best thing he brought to Buffalo was Don Granato. He is getting the best out of the pieces that are here. I don’t think they are all there yet, but at least there’s finally progress.

Quinn was an excellent choice, but you failed to mention Rossi is suffering from long Covid.
Adams sits on a horseshoe for passing on Rossi and taking Quinn, but you are correct excellent choice.
On the other hand, you do not give Botterill credit for Thompson, Dahlin, Cozens, Mittelstadt, Skinner, Jokiharju.
You think Thompson was a second or third choice while he is the BEST of all of the players on the table.
Many people rated Andrei Svechnikov on par with Dahlin, but do not give Jason any credit for that pick.
When one gets beyond the top 5 picks it becomes a crap shoot, but Mittelstadt (8th OA) is far better than Patrick, Anderson, Glass three players taken before him or Rasmussan, Tippett or Vilardi the three players take directly after him (9th, 10th and 11th OA).
Same with Cozens (7th OA), only Hughs taken 1st OA and Zegras taken 9th OA have more pts than he from that draft class..
You probably think Jokiharju was gifted to Jason by a GM even dumber than he as I have read elsewhere.
You forgot Botterill's first coach was a perfect choice for a team with a young defense, you remember Phil Housley, or did that slip your mind as well.
This may be a reach for you and difficult to understand, but after two seasons of trying to build a winner, recognizing that the locker room was toxic, he decided take the Ted Nolan path, and hire the worse coach possible.
Well it worked the team was terrible, the locker room issues could no longer be ignored and fortunately Karmanos was able to get decent returns.

You mention the ONLY really bad trade that Botterill made as your sole example of his bad trades.
It is undeniable that when Adams was on his own he made terrible trades and signed terrible free agents.
In addition to the Hall, Montour, Spillman, Greenway, Asplund trades, let's add Marcus Johanssan for Staal to his list of awefull trades.
Johansson is recognized as a locker room leader, while Staal has resurected his career in Florida, the year following the trade Staal was in the AHL.

The best comment you can make about Adams is Karmanos is the Associated Manager and Kevyn listens to other people.
Finally, if Jason was as BAD as you think, why did the Krakens hire him so quickly and do you think he may have some part in their success?

Rasmus Dahlin was the consensus number one overall talent in the entire draft, the one player called a generational talent. Passing on him could have cost him his job even sooner. Everyone in the world knew that, even the couch potato GM’s on here. I actually think the Eric Staal trade wasn’t that bad for Buffalo. He may not have scored many points, but I believe he has a lot to do with Dylan Cozens development, and other than winning face-offs that is what he was brought here for. I definitely gave credit to Botterill for the Jokiharju and Skinner trades. I would also say that getting Conor Sheary essentially for nothing wasn’t bad either. The trouble with hiring a bad coach to reset the culture, is that when the team isn’t any good it usually costs you your job. I think maybe Botts was in over his head, trying to take on what became a decade of complete chaos in this organization, and the chance to start fresh with a completely clean slate and a brand new team was his best option. Adams was definitely in over his head initially, that’s what they brought in Karmanos for. I certainly wish they were smart enough to hire the best assistants when they brought these guys in in the first place, but that’s just a part of the continued management issues with this team.