For both Hellebuyck and Demelo, I'm assuming you need to give up 2023 1st rounder.

Don't see the point of that trade for Montreal.

Montreal wouldn't even give up Kovacevic for Oloffson.
Kovacevic is more useful to us.

MTL declines that all day, every day.

Benson at 13?! C'mon that's even less likely than the trade scenarios.

I would scream at the top of my lungs hoping Yzerman would hear me if he's there at 9. Hell, I want Yzerman to trade up for him.

I mean... Anyone who gets him 7 or later might be getting a bigger steal than Michkov at 5 (with less risk)

I just don't see a trade like that happening between now and the draft. Maybe it would, but I think that's more of an over the summer type of deal.

Pronman is usually pretty in the know and he had Benson to the Sabres at 13 in his mock. It's wishful thinking. But if Reinbacher and ASP both get up the board as RHD then its possible he slides.

Is Reinbacher even healthy though?

If Benson is available at 12... 20 teams will be calling Arizona trying to move up.

I would have thought that a team with a surplus of young defensive dmen that finished bottom 10 in the league in scoring would be eager to have a perennial quality goal scorer.
3/4 years as a 20 goal scorer and coming off a year where he scored 28 is pretty enticing.

Montreal has few RD on the roster and want to shelter the ones they have. They're also mid-rebuild, going from an early 2nd to a later 3rd round pick is not ideal. And beyond Olofsson's awful defensive play, his age and contract mean his value to Montreal is mostly what he may return in futures in a trade, which doesn't seem like much. He doesn't fit Montreal's timeline and doesn't address Montreal's needs from a teambuildng perspective.

Sharks easily decline

Yes we can use more scoring, but we aren't in a position to be trading assets to acquire it before we can evaluate our own prospects by giving them spots in the lineup.
We aren't in a rush and improvement has to come from within for now.

Usually those trade do happen before/at the draft. It would be in a scenario where BUF offers this today and WPG say make it better or it’s not happening. Franchise G/top 5’s aren’t easy to come by through draft/development and to wait 5-8 years for it to happen means you’re losing other pieces over that time. Currently BUF needs to make that splash to overcome the things that DET/OTT/MTL/FLA/TOR/TB are doing to be competitive. Bringing in one of the missing pieces in a Top 5 G is worth it.

Despite all of the conservative skepticism from the media and fans that point to the cautious approach for young goalies, every interview that Adams has given about Levi pretty emphatically reveals his utmost confidence in not only Levi's physical talents and abilities but his mental makeup and emotional maturity. By contrast, he doesn't sound as enthusiastic or speak with the same high conviction when it comes to UPL. For those reasons, I really don't see Adams trying to push to add a marquee starter like Hellebuyck, Gibson or Demko that would "block the path" for Levi - instead, while it probably won't happen until training camp, I think the odds seem greater of Adams adding a veteran backup for the mentor role and as insurance behind Levi afterwhich UPL may then get dealt and Comrie either waived or dealt as well.

First off there's no rumor linking Hellebuyck and Buffalo. As Hellebuyck wants to win a cup now and that's not happening with Buffalo. And if you're only giving up a 2024 1st Chevy will easily turn that down. Should Chevy move Hellebuyck at the draft he'll get a 2023 1st easily especially for a world class goalie even if he's 30 years old.

No point in San Jose moving out of the 1st round for that

Point taken, but the problem with that revolves around both players being UFA's at seasons end and the assumption here is that GM Adams probably isn't interested in moving the 13th overall in a strong draft. In this trade scenario, the Sabres are already trading away three young, cost-controlled pieces and a first rounder and I think that may be a little too much considering the uncertainty of those pending UFA's.

Am of the opinion Luukkonen, Krebs, 2024 1st should be enough with maybe either a 2025 second round pick or a mid-level prospect thrown in to get to the finish line.

There's no way we move a position we have a plethora of (wingers) for a position of organizational need (right defense) while also moving down a round in this years draft. Complete opposite direction MTL is headed. That's like asking for Joki + 2nd for Hoffman 50% + 3rd in terms of how much sense it makes for MTL.

That's not that easy a comparison. Hoffman is 6 years older and has not reached 20 goals since before the pandemic. One would expect he might be ready to fall even further off the cliff while Oloffson should be able to keep the same level of production over the next 4 years, maybe even increase if he is given more than a bottom 6 / 2nd PP role

I'm not comparing productions here. Veteran wingers are needed in MTL like we need to trade away excess RD.

I used Hoffman as the comparable due to the contracts being similar but the positional swap proposed is the opposite of what MTL needs.

Yes, that's fine. And take out Krebs.