Firm no thanks. You might be able to build something around Samuelsson, but it would be better if you combined the Rosen and 3rd value into one piece that weighs more than 155 pounds soaking wet.

Unlikely, but what about Kulich?

What about no?

That’s not happening

What about Ostlund, Samuellson as the main pieces?

I go back to this question I’ve posed a few times. Has Buch value vastly improved when he was traded for a 2nd and a warm body. In some aspects, absolutely, in others not so much. His output has improved (although this year it’s gone back to around the same as his last year in NY) he’s going to be 29 instead of 25. He’ll need a new, larger contract instead of the pre negotiated one with the blues. Very tough to argue he’s grown that much, imo, in value. Just my opinion though, and I’m sure there are blues fans that see it differently

He was not necessarily wanted by anyone at the time cause teams weren't truly aware of the kind of player he is. Clearly you're part of that group that isn't aware of his true value.

Need to give up quality to get quality. Kulich may be too much, but you're not going to get him for cheap if that's what your goal is.

Not sure the blues have anything else Buffalo wants that would make that worthwhile.

They're not parting with him. But they have loads of goodies in that pool. Even someone like Novikov is interesting.

I don’t necessarily want him due to needing a new contract after this year, along with his production slowly dropping year over year, coming into his age 29 season. If Buffalo is going to spend high end assets, they should target guys with term imo.

And I don’t buy no one wanted him. He was near a ppg player his last season in NY. Wingers rarely get a sizeable return, we see it time and time again, reinhart was traded for a late first and Levi (who took major strides post trade).

Uhh yes it has. By quite a bit. And what the cap strapped Rags gave him up for is entirely irrelevant.

Personally wouldn't have alot of interest in Samuelsson at the cost of Buch. Samuelsson feels very similar to Leddy, and probably even more similar to what Lindstein will most likely become. Nothing wrong with that player, just personal preference that he's not a good fit given what we currently have especially if we're shipping Buchnevich out the door the other way to do so.

Production slowly dropping year over year? What? He started the season playing hurt, since then he's back to his regular Blues pace. Not sure what you're on about ther.

If you want to cherry pick this season and exclude the last two seasons, and also overlook that he's being tasked on our PK1 and PP1 and that he's playing on a team that has no secondary scoring and his and Thomas scoring both dropped off when they weren't paired with eachother sure it's very easy to argue that he hasn't grown much. Also if you want to look at a move that most of the fanbase of the Rangers have deemed is a horrible blunder as a price point sure. Or if you want to also overlook that there was a premium put on Blais fresh off of a Stanley Cup being a young physical player who had some scoring ability sure.

If you want to live in reality though it's very hard to not realize that this is a player that play drives and plays a reliable two-way game and has the versatility to play almost every position as a forward and also scores at a first line rate while doing so.

Yeah, dropping from over a ppg to under .8 ppg is concerning no? Add in 2 separate seasons of missing time due to injuries, turning 29, and the acquiring team having one season at 5.8 then most likely having to pay him significant dollars to keep him. Again, I’m not someone who really wants to acquire him so I’m the wrong target here. But I also don’t think he’s going to pull a ton due to these red flags. Maybe I’ll be wrong.

🤷‍♂️

The Blues should probably keep and extend him at 8.5 x 5 years or so then.
I’m thinking strictly from Buffalo’s vantage point. He’s not going to resign in Buffalo, at least not for the Jeff Skinner treatment of holy overpay. So I’m not going to give significant assets for him. Along with the red flags I’ve mentioned (turning 29, injured multiple years in a row) I’ll leave it at that.

Truthfully I wouldn't be shocked if they did. I would be very happy if they could get him at 8.5 for 5 years. The situation is worth discussing though as we're in a position where we're probably not going to be extremely competitive for the next 2 years or so. So i can't really imagine the front office making a long-term commitment to a guy that will sign when he's juts turning 30.

Your initial post wasn't geared towards a Buffalo stand point. It was posted in general about the player.

I'd agree that the injury history is probably the only red flag in the players profile. But given he hasn't had any significant injuries it's not a lingering thing.

Buffalo probably isn't the best team for this conversation anyways. I'd imagine Buch would probably have them on his NTC. But this is the exact type of forward the Sabres need to look in to. They have all of the offensive talent in the world but don't have any responsibility in their forward group in terms of two-way play.

Fair enough. I do tend to always look at it through Buffalo’s standpoint, as that’s who I cheer for, and should clarify as such. I’m curious to see what he ends up getting, I know he can play center, but is better suited as a winger, so that may stunt the return. We just watched Guentzel get a bag of pucks and a conditional second, along with Pitt taking Bunting’s bloated contract. If a GM views him as a center, that would vastly improve the return. Otherwise, history has taught that GMs always seems to get a “deal” on wingers. He would be a great addition to Buffalo, but it truly would only be a year as he’d dip after next season, so just not worth what it would take unless they got that deal, which remains to be seen.

I agree Samuelsson is a tricky case, but I did say "might". And there would need to be a good bit more value added. But Samuelsson isn;t like Leddy, he's more of a poor man's Seabrook type.

Frankly, I'd love to snare Strbak.

Like I said, he played the first 9-10 games clearly not at 100%, and since regaining full fitness is back up around PPG. It also did not help anyone that the power play was allergic to PPG for the first few months. But hey, if you want to place that much importance on 10 games out of 221, so be it. He has 212 points in those Blues games, at a rate like 33% higher than his Rangers production. That's a rather curious path to get to so much concern about him already falling off from old age. If you don't want him, cool, but it doesn't change the fact that he's not a market item. Someone would need to compel Army (who is already talking up an extension) to come off him. This is not some TDL UFA who everyone knows is being shopped around because they gotta get something decent for him tout de suite.

Also, Buch has missed a grand total of two games this season, so I'm not sure what that's about.

I think a bag of pucks is a bit of an undersell of what exactly they got. Bunting isn't really all that bloated of a contract. It's a 2 and a half year committment at a very fair hit for his production. He's not a driver but it's an extremely similar contract and situation to Saad where he's a relatively affordable source of 20+goals and 50 points or so while being a pretty reliable player. Sure it's probably not something you could move freely, but you could say the same about almost every 2nd/3rd line veteran in the league. While those players aren't necessarily your core players, almost every Cup winning team has a good deal of them spread throughout their rosters.

Ponomorav hasn't really lit the world on fire but he's probably capable of being an NHL player next year and possibly having an impact. Koivunen is probably a year after that, and Cruz Lucius also has a pretty good chance as well. It's not the sexy return that we all like to shoot for. But lets face it. Not every "Top" prospect who is 3-4 years out or recently drafted pans out. Most dont. Sure there's a chance that they do and their impact will most likely exceed the guys that are lower rated, but getting alot of cost controlled roster players is what Pittsburgh preferred. And in all honesty, Bunting included, they'll probably get 3 out of that trade alone.

You’re the one playing up the injury. And awesome, he should probably be resigned with the Blues.

O come on now. It was and is a **** return. Spin it however you want, most likely they sold their last chance with Sid to win anything for more than likely 3rd line guys in 3 years. I remember the O’Reilly trade, Blues fans were thumping their chests pretty loudly and rightfully so. And for 4 years it looked like Buffalo would have had 1.5 seasons of Vlad to show for ROR. I know I’m jumping from trade to trade here, but I can tell you from talking with Pittsburgh fans, they’ve accepted they got basically nothing and like you said a hard to move 2nd/3rd liner.

I said he played less than 100%. Never said he missed a ton of games.

What Guentzel fetched is irrelevant. On pretty much all the levels.