JAMES COOK UPDATE; OWEN POWER OR BO BYRAM? (BSC Ep. 04)

JAMES COOK UPDATE; OWEN POWER OR BO BYRAM? (BSC Ep. 04)

all right folks ladies and gentlemen and you know everyone else welcome back to Buffalo Sports Center i am Don with me today is Cal it’s episode four here of Buffalo Talk Center which name are we going to use uh Cal I don’t I don’t really know but um it’s a pleasure to be talking to all of you guys here again i know I missed last week’s episode jaden filled in and you know the last week’s podcast episode went great guys you had guys have great chemistry it’s almost as if you’ve been friends for a long long time right yeah it’s almost as if me and Jaden talk about sports about four hours every single night and complain about stuff but yeah Don it’s it’s been a big week right the Bills back in action at mandatory mini camp some things we’ll talk about with the Sabres later on some poking around they said with Owen Power and other players potentially and the the entire sports world has been buzzing let’s start with the Bills though mandatory mini camp big big news james Cook has shown up opinions on that one i’m not surprised he said it uh to the press this past week he said “I like my money.” He didn’t want to get fined i think it would have had he missed the entirety of mandatory mini camp it would have resulted in something like 140 grand in total fines from the NFL right i think that’s something you got to keep in mind he’s on a rookie deal right these people that are comparing him to TJ Wattree Hendrickson oh look James Cook isn’t holding out but they you got to keep in mind if James Cook held out and held out of training camp he would be making negative money this year right and it it’s it’s one of those things where you just kind of have to have to wait around and see what happens you can’t take this news as you know great news oh James Cook is working towards a deal he’s nowhere close to a deal nothing’s changed he just didn’t want to get fined exactly but him showing up to mandatory mini camp does not resolve some of the underlying issues here between James Cook and the Buffalo Bills you have rumors swirling around about his future his potential exit i don’t know about you Kell but it seems like his exit is probably going to happen after next season right with the amount of money he’s demanding I think some insiders are reporting he wants to get paid in the region of $15 million a year looking at my list that would have him tied for third most in the NFL for running backs he’d be tied with Derrick Henry who also makes 15 mil on a two-year deal above those two though would be Christian McAffrey for the 49ers making $19 million and of course Saquon Barkley top paid running back in the NFL making a little over 20.5 million per year so do you think that number 15 million is appropriate for a guy like James Cook um I personally think it’s way too high i I would I’d be okay paying him eight to nine um and that might come as a shock but yeah sure it worked with the Eagles they paid Saquon big you know they got Seaquan um and it led them to a Super Bowl but that’s just not the current NFL and I still don’t think the NFL is trending in that direction it’s still a throw league it’s still you know a passing league and if you’re going to pay a running back big time long-term for $15 million the entire team around him is going to be bad keep in mind the Bills are paying Josh Allen big money they’re not really paying any receivers big money but that defense they have to continue to improve that defense because we’ve seen what happens in the playoffs a guy like James Cook again rumors saying he’s unhappy here he says there’s not much to do here if you look at where he lives he lives in the Hamburg area in a neighborhood where there’s not really anything too close to it uh so yeah maybe there isn’t anything to do in you know me and you being from you know a similar area near Buffalo there isn’t a whole lot to do here i get it but maybe switch up the vibe a little bit maybe you know go downtown and try that out because right now it hasn’t really worked for him but also James Cook kind of seems like a mellow you know no fun type of guy so if you’re looking for fun it really hasn’t shown on your face since you’ve been here and again I like James Cook i think he’s a great running back but the Bills have been known to draft running backs and you know trade them or release them after their rookie deals for the last you know I don’t know 10 15 years now right and that’s been the overall trend and you know what if James Cook does go to free agency next off season he won’t have there will be a lot of teams going in for him because let’s face it I think he was the most important player outside of Josh Allen during our playoff run back in January he was phenomenal in the AFC Championship game fantastic in the divisional round game him and Ray Davis splitting duties and his the last two seasons for James Cook has really been nice he’s been the best Bills running back since Shady McCoy oh yeah and I don’t know i would be really disappointed if James Cook leaves but Brandon Bean has two decisions to make one he has to prioritize whether he wants to keep building out his team depth but if he does that he’s going to lose James Cook or he pays his big big stars the money they maybe deserve at the expense of team depth and judging by what Brandon Bean has done over the last few years especially this off season it really seems like he’s prioritizing team death and I don’t know I don’t really see any progress coming anytime soon on a potential James Cook deal and you talked about it too and there were some of these rumors a little bit Kale about how James Cook maybe doesn’t want to be in Buffalo it’s not even about the team about the money he lives in like you said an area where not much is happening you almost uh reveal our locations chat don’t don’t try to look that up you can do that on your own time um but we know it there’s not a lot happening here in the south towns and maybe he just wants to go to a bigger market more stuff happening maybe he wants to go towards the south he’s from play college ball in Georgia his brother was recently playing for Dallas uh you know maybe he just doesn’t like the weather here yeah and it’s it’s fair enough right it is fair enough but again you mentioned the AFC Championship that will that play that James Cook made at the end zone extending that ball over the line that will be forgotten in history right 100% forgotten because the Bills ended up losing that game that was one of the best single-handedly best running back plays I’ve seen on the Bills maybe ever again you could mention the Shady McCoy snow game play there there’s some other ones but that play was just absolutely incredible but again if you look at the numbers Tai Johnson was almost every bit as good he didn’t have the same amount of reps but yards per carry um you know explosiveness and you pair that with Ray Davis I think you have a very solid core there with those two and if you do lose James Cook after this season or you trade him before this season I don’t think it’s going to be as big of a loss as a lot of people think again I think James Cook’s a great running back i want to keep him i I’d be okay signing him long term if it’s you know somewhere you know 8 to9 million but if it’s going to be more than that I’m more than okay losing him and spending money elsewhere right and we got two excellent running backs right behind James Cook right ty Johnson Ray Davis both of those guys are great can always bring back Christian Wade if you really need it uh Frank Core Jr as well these are fine in-house replacements folks yeah Frank Jr preseason merchant i mean you should have seen that some of these people and last podcast I was talking about it that the the Bills fans that aren’t super big football fans right they say go Bills but they don’t know the ins and outs and that’s completely fine i love people that love football but these people who are like “Oh Frank Gore Jr this guy is the the future he is so good out there.” You know there was that one iconic call in the WGR where the lady’s like “The offense is falling apart frank Gore Jr is just amazing but everyone else stinks like guys relax a little bit it’s preseason you know like but again Frank Gore Jr I’d love to see him get some actual reps and I I think the Bills are in for a massive year last year at the old stadium um we got to bring this up there’s one preseason game uh at the old stadium left are you going to be in attendance to this or are you are you gone away i don’t even don’t even know i will so my fall semester begins August 17th okay so that’s going to be close what’s that preseason game that’s that’s a good I think it’s the first week of preseason so you might be able to go but what I was I was posing up is I I think I’m going to go to that one and take one final lap around not go to any more games in that stadium unless there’s a playoff game um and just you know have have uh have a good time because a lot of people are going to debate whether the new stadium is better than the old stadium in the next coming years and I think it’s it’s hard to be worse than it but at the same time there there’s something about that old stadium that I’m going to miss well we’ve never ever experienced anything other than this i mean it’s going to be really sad to see it go but in terms of old stadiums in the NFL and I’ve been to a few stadiums I don’t know how much I am going to miss the Ralph yeah it’s tough because I would always sit up in the 300s and my god during week 15 week 16 you’re just getting absolutely crushed up there in the nosebleleeds the wind is in your face i mean you can see the skyline of Buffalo and that’s nice but you’re also going to be able to get that from the new stadium i don’t know it the Bills have desperately needed a new stadium for a long time now the Ralph is falling apart it’s not up for service anymore the 300 levels are basically crumbling at this point h it’s on one hand yeah there’s a lot of memories in that old stadium but I’m more than looking I’m really excited to see you know the new stadium what it’s going to be like the new amenities although did you you saw that report apparently it’s not going to be fully completed until December of 26 yeah that that’s interesting and I I don’t know what exactly that entails if that just means maybe some graphics aren’t going to be on the walls you know maybe the their murals and stuff and concession stands won’t be fully uh you know serviceable and all that sort of stuff but if if there’s missing seats or missing you know and I I know they already kind of have the seats in place and all that but if there’s anything that affects the game or the amount of tickets that could be sold people are going to be livid because again they’re already knocking down what 10,000 seats something like that so if there’s anything that limits even more seats until December people are going to go ballistic and I I’ve seen people complaining about season ticket prices and that’s to be expected right it’s a brand new stadium and everything just keeps going up in price uh it’s a tough situation and hopefully the new stadium lives up to the hype i could again under Pigoula I could totally see this new stadium being just a generic run-of-the-mill thing i’m hoping that the Buffaloos outside are ginormous i know we’ve we’ve switched that back and forth back and forth with the plans they were supposed to be you know three massive buffaloos then the next plan they dropped out looked like three buffalo that a child could you know sit on how small they were and then they made them a little bit bigger again uh again a lot of unique features in this new stadium i’m excited to see it but one more year at the old one we’ll see how it goes could it be the Super Bowl year maybe yes i hope so uh it’s tough to say until you beat the Chiefs i I I won’t have confidence in the Bills making the Super Bowl but Cal when the new stadium comes out are you and Jaden going to go to the new stadium right find where these little Buffaloos are and you’re going to measure them hold truth to power they told us they’d be ginormous and they better be ginormous okay hold truth to power Cal this is what we do here at Buffalo Sports Center this is our mission hold Terry Pigula accountable you told us they’d be two foot buffaloos not one i’ll stand there with the yard stick if I have to and take a picture if these buffaloos are not to size I am writing a formal complaint to the county or uh to Erie County and the city of Buffalo and we’ll we’ll get something done about that for sure um but um another thing I want to bring up with the Bills all of a sudden the Bills are on hard knocks uh something that was revealed a couple weeks ago that could create a lot of drama it also could kind of help team camaraderie it’s one of those things that could go either way and it really is no in between there um another thing with the Bills during the offseason they’re going to be back at in Rochester for training camp so what do you expect from Hard Knocks again we have a lot of characters on this team i’m sure there’ll be a lot of funny moments do you think it could create a couple tense moments as well of course they’re going to be showing roster cuts they’re going to be showing the ins and outs of training camp i know the Bills are a somewhat secretive team right they don’t like to give a lot brandon Bean you know doesn’t give these analysts and uh you know reporters a whole lot of news anything that’s reported about the Bills is usually fake what do you think Hard Knocks is going to do when they’re in their face 24/7 with a camera it’s going to be really interesting because like you said they are extremely secretive and Shawn McDerm he didn’t sound all too pleased and I think this is a trend across all of the 32 NFL teams nobody wants to have themselves opened up like this on Hard Knocks for the entire country to see maybe some of their tactics some of their relationships inside the building you lose a sense of authenticity I think because everyone’s on alert right with these cameras being on right on the wall on a fly on the wall um I It’s interesting i don’t know what the procedure is are they always constantly recording everything or do they have to gain permission for some things i know they’ve been kind of pulling it back especially for the Hard Knock in season i know the inseason has certain days that they can’t show because it is like plays and stuff like that um and of course you don’t want the Bill Bichcs of the world uh corrupting that footage and sending it elsewhere but uh I think in in in the offseason one they can just go in your face at all times and we saw it with the Giants a couple seasons ago and the Giants were made absolute fools because of that hard knocked uh the whole Saquon situation all that and that’s our old buddy Joe Shane as GM and Brian Dable as head coach so you know Brandon Bean knows what’s coming shawn Mcder they’re both very professional guys football you know take that outside the window i think both of these guys are two of the safest guys in the NFL i don’t think they’re going to slip up and say anything crazy there might be a couple funny moments that you know Brandon Bean slips up uh maybe some Pat McAfee appearances where they’re saying some stuff before it goes live but I I I really am not too concerned i’m more concerned about the players what the players have to say because again this is a Buffalo team that’s you know been very respected leaguewide right everybody respects Josh Allen everybody respects you know Deion Dawkins players like that i would just hate for one of those guys to say something foolish and all of a sudden the reputation of the team is ruined maybe that’s what they need though maybe they need to switch it up because the last couple seasons they’ve just kind of been bullied in the playoffs anything to change it I guess as long as Shawn McDermott doesn’t bring up planes or flying planes or anything motivational regarding planes I think we’re good what was that guy’s name again i always forget as long as he’s not there what tyler Dunn yeah yeah the the hit piece of the century from Tyler Dunn over uh what’s his little website go long i don’t know he he might have single-handedly saved the Bills season that season though because uh let’s just say after that hit piece came out the Bills started to win football games and rally around Mcdermad and it it worked out but uh absolute craziness um something that was brought up um we could we could switch into NBA now we’ll get back into Buffalo uh to talk about the Savers nba finals tied two to2 that’s not what I want to talk about let’s talk about the Knicks still have not found a head coach um they’ve been asking about every team in the league for permission to talk to their head coach it hasn’t happened mark Jackson a name that’s been brought up um if you I do you know that the infamous Mark Jackson moment on on air calling LeBron uh I’m not sure i have to explain it here because you know this got brought up the other night and we have to expose this he he’s on the call with Mike Breen and Van Gundy the iconic trio and somebody brings up Savannah James right lebron’s wife and all of a sudden Mark Jackson just randomly starts saying something he goes you know people you know say she’s all city and give her flack and then he says I’d hit it out the park with all due respect it was not punished whatsoever you guys could look up that clip on YouTube i mean this guy is absolute jokes and if he get if he becomes the Knicks coach I mean we we might we might all be in for it a guy who quite possibly could have led the Warriors to the to the um absolute uh success that they had but they they got rid of him just before the dynasty happened and Steve Kerr is the hero so I I found it already on YouTube i don’t know if Spotify or YouTube are going to copyright this but so what whatever Kevin love the rebound i’m shocked you downplay Savannah he said she was all city james again from downtown and I’d hit out the P no question and with all due respect just had to throw that in that that solves you i mean how how do you get away with that right and he continued to call on ESPN after that and was hired by MSG um as a Knicks announcer never uh never got the the full job though they uh cut him before he was able to make an appearance but yeah that that’s something that happened um finals I’m still riding with the Thunder it’s two to2 the the Pacers have shocked me i I think the Pacers still have that voodoo magic that they’re using but the Thunder were able to kind of hammer it home and uh tie the series and now I think they have all the momentum right if the Pacers made that series three to one it was probably over i think that was for the series game four and I think the Thunder saved themselves well yeah the moment what what’s his name what’s his real nickname kale you wanna get Yeah let’s not um yeah Tyrese did have his clutch moment i was walking so I was walking out of the Kendrick concert up in Toronto and someone I had heard um they were like “SGA he just got handed the games they just sent him to the free throw line again with like four seconds and that’s that’s all I heard i h haven’t really watched the NBA finals been more watching the NHL finals uh I don’t know it’s just I don’t have a lot of interest into Thunder and Pacers i mean if it’s on and I really don’t have anything else that I feel like watching I’ll throw it on uh it’s looks like it’s a good series i mean from all everyone is saying it’s going to go to seven right that’s the vibes right now it very well could it’s been close but you bring up the NHL series and the Stanley Cup final going into it I wasn’t super excited about it but these games have been absolute bangers i mean we are we are witnessing one of one of the best Stanley Cup finals we’ve seen in quite some time and again a rematch of last year i I guess it makes sense i should have expected it to be a little more gritty but these games I mean OT double OT the comeback wins we’ve had almost everything in this series that you could want and there’s still a whole lot of hockey left to be played i still am predicting the Panthers i know you had the Oilers do you have the Oilers still winning it still have the Oilers keeping my prediction intact they fought back calvin Pickard future Buffalo Saber number one goalie okay Kevin Adams is seeing another Carter Hutton he is the next Carter Hutton and Eric Comry go get him Kevin yeah that’s some big moves that’s the moves we’re talking about the activity um in all seriousness though yes I’m still sticking with my Edmonton prediction the depth has been there jeff Skinner almost scored please let him score i’m I think my prediction I didn’t really fully explain it as well as I should have in that first episode but the biggest reason why I’m supporting Edmonton is because of Jeff Skinner what a dog what a dog he’s fought through the season not been in the coach’s good graces chris Knoblock notable Bills hater yeah screw him but Jeff Skinner I I am still so sad that the Sabres got rid of him sacrificed his soul for the score for nothing for absolutely nothing and I to this day I’m fired up about it they could have kept him for one more season right he was still doing okay i mean the second whatever we’re not doing this again we are not doing this we’ve already covered this on the channel this and Elias Patterson i think our top two for the most things we have still on the table to this day we’ll see what happens neil you got Neil fired up right there if he’s still watching at this point Neil I’ve we’ve seen your comments we’re not just like Harding blindly okay we read him we see him um no Elias Patterson’s gonna stay in Vancouver but the point is I’m rooting for Jeff Skinner love him he was my favorite saber when he was still here h I miss him and I hope he wins the cup i hope Well I just hope that a non Florida team does it this year get a Canadian team finally let’s get a Canadian team they’re 0 for their last seven in for Canadian teams when they show up to the Stanley Cup finals 0 for their last seven so it’s got to happen at some point right i mean I got nothing against Canada but it’s one of the funniest jokes in hockey that a Canadian team cannot win the cup i am I I am more than okay with a Canadian team losing again i think it’s hilarious um you Jeff Skinner again one one of the few bright spots the Savers had over the last what seven years so again always rooting for him if the Oilers do end up winning my McDavid rookie card goes up in value and Jeff Skinner gets a Stanley Cup I won’t be mad uh but Florida winning would um again make the Bills hater uh pretty angry and would keep the cup in the United States which again like I said doesn’t matter too much just a funny joke if you want to talk about the Savers I’m ready to talk about the Savers bowen Byum uh a lot of interest in Bowen Byum prepare to get a late first round pick or some absolute washed up scrub that isn’t going to see the ice um another another name that’s been floating around how about Owen Power teams are poking around about him how much poking is being done we don’t know how much interest the Savers are uh letting happen we don’t know um now all the Savers analysts have kind of fought this narrative back and said it’s not happening they’re not going to trade Owen Power i saw a comment in our YouTube section i might make a video on it let’s see where you stand on this you are Kevin Adams you have to choose one of the two to keep and one of the two to trade uh keep in mind trade value how much you could get back and how much you know the player you keep would help you in the future also contracts you’d have to pay Bow and Byum Owen Powers under contract and getting paid a good amount uh who would you keep and who would you trade out of those two i would probably I would keep Owen Power 10 out of 10 in terms of trade value comparing trade value who would get you more of course it’d be Owen Power he’s already at the same level that Bone Bar is now the difference is Owen Power is three years younger and I get all the criticisms with Power oh he’s not physical he doesn’t box out in front of the net but he is so good at transitioning from the defensive zone his exits are fantastic he is one of the best defenseman in the NHL in that specific statistic don’t ask me for the specific statistic i am just what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen too every time that Owen Power plays with Bow and Baron they elevate each other’s game why because you know they’re both really good they’re fast skating out of the zone get passes up quick he and Dene and when I say he it’s power they’re two of the best defenseman in the NHL at doing something like that and the ceiling on Owen Power is much higher than Bowen Bum and look Bowen Byum is a very good defenseman he showed that last season he almost got 40 points despite not being on the power play either power PP1 or two so there’s still a lot of value there’s still a lot of skill with Bone Byron i’m not knocking him on that but they’re both equal and when I take everything on balance Owen Power has the potential to become another Norris level defenseman him and Dene you have two Norris level defenseman on your roster all right Darlene he’s currently that Norris level guy of course we know Owen Power a lot of people love to hate Owen Power but folks when he leaves the lineup you notice the Sabres start losing a lot when either him or Darene exit the lineup the depth on defense hurts and that means more goals going in more than the Sabres already ship in so yeah and Owen Power is a strong guy don’t get me wrong in terms of NHL players though he’s got to be near the bottom right now but we saw the same thing with Dali how many It’s the exact reaction we saw from Dene the first five years of his career he’s too soft if he was better defensively he’d be a great defenseman blah blah blah blah blah now Dene’s an absolute wrecking machine on the ice he’s blowing people up he’s physical right and he’s just a demon out there if Owen Power could hit that level of you know progress of development with his body I think you again like you said you have two candidates right there in Dalene and Power Bum he’s never going to be that guy right he’s strictly an offensive defenseman he doesn’t have the bigger body would I like to keep Belenv sure but I I think you could get something you much you need a lot more in a defensive defenseman with him there’s been some rumors that they’re trying to get a right-handed defensive defenseman for him potentially a late first round pick as well to swap um again will they actually swap that pick if they get it probably not it’s Kevin Adams but it’s worth a shot and potentially a uh a third line forward as well they’re saying they’re looking for so hey I if if the offers continue to build up and up and up I think it’s going to take a little bit for them to trade him because we haven’t seen any other defenseman get traded and until the Stanley Cup happens I don’t think we’re really going to see any other trades besides the Chris Krider trade which we could talk about what the heck is Anaheim doing letting the Rangers off the hook again another Eastern Conference team just gets bailed out moneywise but you know we’ll save that for a little bit later but I I agree with you i think Power is the one you got to keep as much as he ticks me off watching and streaming these games and every time in front of the net he’s crisscrossed and like a baby deer you know fallen over he’s going to develop good once he gets you know bigger muscles and you know develops as again he’s super young right once he gets a little bit older and more a more veteran in this league he is going to be a very good player excited to see it happen just like it did with Dalian absolutely their trajectory their career trajectories are almost identical if you look at their year one to year two to year three it’s basically the same right darlene looked okay but wasn’t physical enough in year 1 took a step back in year two took a baby step in year three but then he exploded afterwards he became an elite defenseman here in the NHL and now he’s placing in the top seven for Norris Vodair or top six so I think we’ll see the same thing happen with Owen Power like you said that’s not something that’ll be the case I don’t think ever with Bone Barnum although there’s still I probably a little bit of ceiling that we haven’t quite reached yet with Firearm we haven’t quite seen it just yet but you talked about some of the offers and I think it’s going to be a pretty substantial trade you know we’re going to probably We talked about this a few weeks ago doubting whether or not Kevin Adams would be able to get anything of value we joked that he would trade Barm for a second and a bag of peanuts um but it really does seem like now it’s gonna be a it’s still possible right but with all the buzz generating generating around the NHL it sounds like Bill Barum is the top defenseman to get right now in the trade market which is and that that’s great for Buffalo because he can really drive up that value you talked about maybe getting a late first round pick i’ve been hearing a lot of mock trades between the Sabres and the Sharks right the Sharks got a couple of first round picks they can get uh San Jose’s I think what they got pick 30 so the Sabres can trade you know Byron to San Jose for pick 30 plus you know probably another defenseman and then like you said they can flip that pick 30 for a guy like Michael Kessler of the Utah Mammoth or I don’t know Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars he’s not a defenseman but that’s an exciting top six four that’s apparently being shopped right now and if I’m Kevin Adams I’m seriously considering that and you know there’s a lot of teams especially on the Western Conference that have a lot of cash ready to spend ready they and a lot of them have holes that Bo could easily plug on the back end so yeah it’s a rare problem it’s going to be a very exciting few weeks it’s a rare problem to have with the Savers having too many offensive defense risks a lot of those teams are looking for that bow and broom to be their Rasmus Alien to be you know their potential Owen Power their their offensive guy so you can take advantage of a lot of teams and that’s something the Sabres really have to start doing how many times have we seen when the Savers are $20 million $10 million under the cap they don’t even try to make deals to get free picks all these other teams do it every single year they don’t do anything like that um Bow and Bum again I see a lot of people saying “Could you imagine he wasn’t an RFA and he was on a a contract he’d be worth even more.” I don’t necessarily agree with that because it does make sense but then you think about it say Bow and Byron was on a big long-term deal it might be a little harder to move them because teams know it’s going to be a longer term thing now every team is available to trade for Bow and Byum they could sign him to a bridge deal they could sign him to a long-term deal they don’t have the you know they have all the power with an RFA if we trade the rights over so it might even make him more valuable just you know his sit situation alone that’s not you know a going theme usually RFAS you know you worry about the contract and if it’s a one-year thing but I think with Bowen Byum a guy who you know wants big money but knows he’s not worth top money in the league I think it could be a perfect situation to absolutely scam a team and I I’m I’m not expecting it because again what we’ve seen in the past from Kevin Adams in this regime but it’s very possible and I think the Sabres you know if that’s you know one of their big three moves this off season it could lead them to the playoffs absolutely if you can replace Bo Byron with a guy like again Michael Kessle Ring he’s one of my favorites right now on the potential trade markets there’s other guys like Jordan Spence although I think he’s a very similar skill set i don’t that that’d be kind of redundant again um there’s a few other guys out there some not many on the free agency market but I think the lack of free agency options right now for defenseman is driving up Bo Byron’s value even more so Kevin Adams Yarmmer Kick Alignan everyone in that Savers front office get anything you can for Bo Byum if he’s going to leave which it seems nearly 100% at this point get whatever you can for him and then you take some of those assets and you flip them i want to see an aggressive Sabres management this off seasonason no more just sitting around waiting around hoping that your guys internally develop because we’ve seen that strategy time and time again fail it’s time to strike kevin your job is on the line as much as we all give you for the job that you’ve done over these last five years we still want you and this team to succeed and to be good yeah yeah i mean it’s it’s you you look at Kevin Adams situation and again we’re not going to root against our GM that that has never made sense to me everyone’s always like “Oh let’s get him fired let’s get him fired.” How about we just make a couple good moves and make the playoffs that sounds a little better to me than firing another GM and doing the whole shebang over again let’s talk about JJ Perka because that’s a name I’m seeing in a lot of mock trades one of those guys who’s a little unhappy here that’s going to have to be paid big money do you get rid of him now or the while the value is high i mean I again I own two JJ Purka jerseys i’m one of you know I’m a huge fan of his been wa have been watching him since his uh Munich days uh wanted the Sabres to draft him they did but that being said I mean this team’s at a point now where I wouldn’t look away from it i I don’t know if I’d pull the trigger on a deal like that but I if if the return is right I I’d be okay with it um yeah I generally agree with you on that although in terms of reality I don’t think that the Savers seem all too interested in getting rid of JJ Purka um and you know I don’t know i I I think if you’re the Sabres and you’re looking at the situation and all the options you have on dealing with Purka your best option at this point is probably to give him a bridge deal two to three years six to7 million a year it’s risky we did it with Sam Reinhardt and it backfired big time and there’s a high likelihood that JJ Purka becomes the next Sam Reinhardt for us which is why we need to keep him in house i don’t want to hear anything about right mix we can’t be subtracting from our core we need to be adding to our core we get rid of Purka but who do we replace with him i mean the only way I would be okay with getting rid of Purka is if we use him in a trade to get someone in his exact same position that is better than him at this point and I’m going to bring up his name again second time I’m mentioning Jason Robertson here in this episode if you can flip Purka for Robertson that’s something I can stomach it It’s better short term i think it’s going to burn you long term just because I think Purka Purka’s ceiling I I think me and you can both agree is just through the roof right he he he’s just lacking a little bit of confidence and lacking a little bit of puck skills i think if he improves on both of those areas again until you win games and until you make the playoffs confidence with this whole team is going to be down i get it but if you can improve on both of those areas JJ Purka again I I will continue to say he can become one of the best players in the league and I’m talking top 10 i think he could be a top 10 player in the league household name that’s how good I think he could be uh it’s just a little ways away jason Robertson again one of those guys who definitely has more name value is a better player right now could help you more right now if that’s what you need to do to make the push and maybe that gets you to the playoffs playoffs over every anything for me because if you’re not making the playoffs I’m sick of these prospects i’m sick of these guys who could be something if you could get someone that is something you might just have to do it and if it you know if it costs you in the long run so what you got to make up for it and you got to you know continue to get these people like like the Bills are doing like you know I hate to keep comparing the Savers to the Bills but you can’t just say “Oh this is our group of players hopefully they do well.” You got to improve every year and if that means you know blowing it up and getting you know some of some of your core away and you know some of your core ends up becoming superstars well guess what it already has jack Eel Sam Reinharder you look around the league your your former core is all superstars and you couldn’t make it work with them so you gotta you got to move people and you got to find you know the the perfect like you said mix of guys and if the mix of guys that is here right now doesn’t work you might have to do a complete overhaul and again we’re not rebuilding again it just cannot happen it cannot happen a team 14 15 years into a rebuild can’t happen exactly exactly if I see now okay let’s branch off a little bit of Purka there was that rumor from Elliot Freeman and the quote was kind of taken out of context here i listened to the full you know minute clip before and after and he said that there’s a slight possibility but that the Rangers resent the accusation that maybe they’d be in on the offer sheet market cal if a team were to go bonkers in the next week or two or the next week or two after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup finals and they decide to offer sheet Purka say to a I don’t know fouryear $7 million deal which would net the Sabres how much would that get us two firsts and a second is that I don’t remember the it would be pretty substantial what would you do then if you’re Kevin Adams i so obviously Kevin Adams is talking to every team right now about you know the the players to be traded so he has a good range he he knows what he would need to get guys he knows if he’d have to overspend or you know stuff like that so he has a price for all these guys that he’s targeting so I think you know he would know right if he knows he’s getting two first and a second back he would know what that could get him so again I I’m not going to sit here and say I trust Kevin Adams but I kind of have to right if he thinks that all right I have a deal in place for Jason Robertson and I have a deal in place for Elias Person and I could get both of them for JJ Purka that’s a no-brainer right you have to do it but if you’re sitting there and saying “Well that first round pick could get me this B-level defenseman and this third line winger and maybe the second line center,” then you’re going to hold off so I think it really just depends how the market’s acting you can’t take a chance with that though i think if he’s in between something you don’t want another Marty Nikkos where all of a sudden you know the Savers buy out Skinner and they think they’re going to get Nakos for you know whatever and then he’s only willing to sign a two-year deal and then the Savers back out of that and don’t do anything with the money you you can’t do that again so unless you have a deal worked out and you’re like “All right yep there’s our free assets we’re using that in two trades getting two good players for them.” I don’t think you can do it if you if you have one player that you could you know they don’t want Purka but they want the the first round picks maybe you you know consider it a trade a one for one a hockey trade as Kevin Adams says and again I don’t want to trade Purka but we need new faces in here and he’s one of those guys who just has a ton of value because I think a lot of the smart teams in the league see what I see in him and see he can can be a top player in the league yeah I agree um but Cal one last thing before we are gonna conclude this episode a few weeks ago we talked about and you even talked about it with Jaden last week about rappers and whatnot you know delving into the pop culture all right and I just got to inform you and the crowd whoever is listening uh that I did go to the Kendrick Lamar concert up in Toronto on well a few days ago at the time by the point you guys are listening it would would have been this past Friday and I gotta say I stand on my take that Kendrick won the beef kendrick is all time better than Drake drake could never have the performance that Kendrick just did he went into Toronto and performed not like us and he had 60,000 people at the ballpark screaming the lyrics with him drake could never go to LA or Compton and do the same thing yeah it’s it’s a bad look for Drake it’s it’s a bad look um again that song is old at this point now too right it’s it’s no longer you know you’re singing along because it’s a good song it’s it’s out that song’s an older song now and you know I know a lot of people are absolutely sick of that song but they still absolutely scream that and it’s it’s a bad look for Drake keep in mind a lot of people in Toronto are probably coming from New York probably coming from Detroit probably coming from different areas so it it might just be you know another mix of people where it’s not because keep in mind right a lot of people in Toronto hate Kendrick Lamar and maybe they didn’t go to the concert sold their tickets online and all the cities um around like like Buffalo like Detroit you know other areas Hamilton which you know isn’t really Canada but it is you know um you know some areas that might not be as passionate about Drake maybe they sold the tickets but it’s without a doubt a bad look for Drake again Drake hasn’t really put out any great music as of late either so if he wants to clap back at this I I think it’s a little too late for that and I think he should probably just move on make a banger album and that would speak for itself how was the concert overall though i mean performances uh Pyro who was the openers tell me about that was it Siza and all that so it was it was a phen it was the best concert I’ve ever been to dj Mustard DJ Mustard was the opener um and then it’s it’s there’s no like it’s both Kendrick and Sizza’s tour so they’re like going one for one basically with songs you know he’ll do three four songs in a row she’ll do three four songs in a row they’ll do a couple of their collab songs right um it’s a lot of back and forth the Pyro was excellent i mean fantastic but again one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to folks is he if he’s going near where you’re at within an eight hour radius go i couldn’t recommend it enough you should go to it he’s phenomenal no autotune he actually raps every single word not like some of these other rappers that’ll you know they’ll have the background track the background feed playing over and he’ll just say or they’ll say a word every few minutes or something it’s not like that he actually performs and got the atmosphere is just great it’s you know for a fellow short king I see myself in him a little bit some goat some you know game changer right there no not not really but Cal uh I think that’s going to do it for me we’ve been this well this is already our longest episode of Buffalo Sports Center four four episodes in cale um about to hit the 45m minute mark anything you want to say here before we head out i think that’s going to be it by the time we do the next episode we could have new champions in the NHL and NBA so that’s something to look forward to and uh yeah I think uh again leave leave comments and uh like the podcast on Spotify or YouTube uh tell us any topics you want us to talk about next week or in the coming weeks um I do want to say next week Frank Summers I believe will be our guest on the podcast um and then we will have Casey Nelson and some some other players coming on later on some UV players and uh some former UV players as well so yeah yeah uh Cal do you want to explain who Frank Summers is real quick before we head out yeah we can do a little bit uh Frank Summers former NFL fullback played with the Bills i’m just going to pull up his uh pull up his um kind of card here see how much prep we’ve done so far yeah I just I know I think he was on the Steelers for a little bit as well i just want to give years and all that sort of stuff um see if it pops up here but yeah it’s um definitely a it’ll be a fun podcast for sure career stats see if he’s got uh how much here if my my internet wants to work but again kind of an insight on those former Bills teams the drought era Bills which again it’s all fine and dandy now but it would be fun to hear some some former stories yeah played with the Steelers in 2009 bounced around some training camps then with the Bills from 13 to 14 a little bit into 15 um you know kind of one of those preseason guys that got some reps in the regular season a touchdown in 2013 as a fullback um and then a touchdown in 2014 as well yeah so we are looking forward to that hopefully the interview goes great and the interview the conversation whatever the sit down BSC sitdown with Frank Summers yeah whatever we’re going to call it that’ll uh we’re looking forward to it we hope you guys are as well um you know and eventually in a few weeks we’ll have the draft and the NHL free agency so a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks but folks if you’re still with us at this point 45 plus minutes in thank you so much for watching on YouTube if you’re listening on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast make sure to like follow subscribe you know the shebang uh support this program in any way that you can but again I was Don this is Cal this here is Buffalo Talk Center and uh we hope to see y’all whenever or wherever goodbye

Cal and Don are back for episode 4 with plenty to discuss including James Cook’s arrival at Bills minicamp, Sabres offseason rumors, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, and everything in between!

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzIH6oDchOwkZZpD76hF-Q/join

Follow BSC on:
Discord – https://discord.gg/nBDZzQp
Instagram – https://instagram.com/buffalo_sportscenter?igshid=1jqi1tm445zj
–
00:00 Intro
00:55 James Cook Shows Up for Mini Camp
08:20 Bills Final Season at Current Stadium
12:35 Bills Hard Knocks Expectations
16:15 Knicks Head Coaching Search
17:40 Mark Jackson Insane Savanna James Comment
18:20 NBA Finals
19:35 Stanley Cup Finals
23:00 Byram vs. Power Debate
33:10 JJ Peterka Rumors
36:53 Rangers Planning Offer Sheet for Peterka?
39:32 Kendrick Lamar Concert – Hot Take
42:50 Previewing Next Episode w/ Special Guest