Why do we need a 6 million dollar 3rd pairing defensemen?

Stillman and Lyubushkin are fine.

Our 3rd pair plays like 11 mins a night

Moving Tage back to wing is about the worst idea I've ever seen

this is exactly what we should target this offseason if possible. Overpay 1 dman for 2 years to come to buff so their cap is off the books when we need to extend everyone in 2 years. 3 mil or under for a defensive D for 3-5 years for stability down the road once we cant afford a 4th D making over 3 mil with Power and Dahlin extended

Surely you jest!
Orlov is a top pairing defenseman, who plays on the bottom because Dahlin, Power and Samuelsson are significantly better than he.
Clifton and Orlov are miles better than Stillman and Lyubushkin, could play more than 10 min/gm, would upgrade the Sabres PK and would score more (in just 23 games with Boston Dmitri has more goals then Rilly and Ilya have together all year).
Thompson is doing just fine on Cozens' wing and Mittelstadt has been on fire playing between Jeff and Alex with15 points in the last 10 games.
This gives Buffalo two really good lines.

Completely agree!
The moves should help the PK and reduce the goal against.

I think it depends on what kinda contract jost is looking for. If he's fine with 1m x3 or so, then yeah. I'd be fine with this move.

Playing dahlin and power less than they are now makes us worse.

No thanks.

Thompson is only on the wing because he can't take faceoffs due to his injury.

I have to say my biggest concern here is age followed by goal tending. I heard "youngest team in the league" as an excuse a lot this year as if the teams age wasn't apparent when starting the season with sheehan, bjork, and hinnestrozza on the roster and there was just nothing 20mil could do about that for a season. This is looking like the same mistake. Who is your captain?

Whats your plan for when upl goes IR in january and levi has already played more games than he's ever played in a season? Hart was awesome when he got his first starts, knight was going to be the greatest ever, UPL was an allstar. I really hope the plan is not to have levi in buff next year but wolves gotta eat too l guess.
Mitts has been on fire...for a few games maybe, a garbage fire most the season tho. During the tank zegmus got a few goals as a 1C when ennis was out. If you think mitts is figured it out how bout keeping him as depth to move up to cover injury? Don't you kind off want to push for playoffs next year? Does trialing a 1c and adding 2 rookies seem like a way to do that?
I like adding veteran d, Orlov will probably take a different offer but its a good shot. Clifton is a more stable defender than joker but he's probably going to want more than that and some one will offer it, say 3mil x 6. Doable.
Im very concerned about your forward depth as you called your call ups up to start the season, perhaps spend that 10 mil on 2-3 guys that will help with the "youth problem" and then waive them if kulich or some forces thier way in. Savoie could be an exception but it should be because he's NHL ready not because he's surpassed the CHL.

Thompson cant take face offs because he's bad at them. Even when he was the center skinner would take them as often as thompson.

Tage thompsom took 813 faceoffs, Jeff Skinner took 298. You know this stuff can be looked up right?

You also realize Tage often times does not take faceoffs in the offensive zone on the left dot because he is set up shoot from the top of the dot right? On the power play too

First, great feedback and a ton of really good questions.
Yup, this team will still be the youngest team in the NHL even with adding Orlov.
That of course is a concern considering all of the errors that go along with On The Job Training.
Being an eternal optimist, Peterka's and Quinn's first season production (12-20-32, 14-23-37) is very similar to Cozens' (13-25-38), a bit rosie outlook but they could break out as he did.

While Mittelstadt has been the Sabres best player over the past 10 games, remove his terrible slump of 16 games from November 4th to December 7, the remaining 65 games he has 10 goals, 51 pts and +4.
He also has more pts this season than he had his previousl 3 seasons. Maybe calling him a top line center is a bridge too far.
He has also demonstrated that he has become a solid 200 ft forward, consistantly digging the puck off the boards in the defensive zone.

You are correct we can pay both Orlov and Clifton a bit more.
Orlov is signed for two seasons when Peterka and Quinn will want a raise.

You are correct, offer both Girgensons and Okposo contracts.
Over all this line up only adds one young player, Savoie.
All of the younger players will be a year older, stronger, smarter, mature and more capable of handling adversity.

Lastly, Malcolm Subban has been a brick wall since mid March.
He is 5-0-4 with a 2.25 GAA and a 0.921 SV%.
It was a great move to acquire him last year.
He may even push Luukkonen if he can continue this production.

Finally, upgrading the defense, adding Goodrow coupled with the experience gained this year should be sufficient to get this team into the playoffs next year.

Yeah, sorry i stop looking at his face off stats after his abysmal face off percentage.

If Orlov signed and played 3rd left id rather sign Gavrikov longer term and cheaper. Thoughts?
Btw. Our face-off percentages bad because of youth. They should steadily improve i hope