Chad DeDominicis Talks Sabres Mock OffSeason & Situation With JJ Peterka

Chad DeDominicis Talks Sabres Mock OffSeason & Situation With JJ Peterka

all right new friends old friends what’s going on welcome to another episode of talking buffalo your weekday daily driver for buffalo sports talk amr my name is patrick moran thank you to everyone out there as always for listening to the show for watching however you can talk to buffalo appreciate you guys very much shout out to our sponsors sunny reds 1841 aber road also imperial pizza 1035 aber road in a second location now main street near kenishious college all right yesterday was all about football going to switch gears today a lot going on or at least a lot will be going on at some point hopefully soon with the buffalo sabres um happy to bring in one of my good buddies here one of my favorite podcast people um guys in the blogging community from expected buffalo my man chad dinis what’s going on buddy how you doing i’m good man how are you well you and i are both wrestling fans we kind of we already were going to record this kind of late to begin with but yeah we had to wait to for the goldberg segment to come here on uh on monday night raw before we got cooking here um with this episode i’m good weather’s turned it it’s it finally feels like uh summer was shopping sunday so like yeah i’m looking forward to it now yeah yeah it’s um hopefully we’ll get a nice sustained period now of uh enjoyable weather but it’s beer tent season it’s long fate season it’s golf season here in buffalo you got to live up every day um when you can let’s uh all right so if you didn’t know this already fans chad along with anthony um do a offseason sabres mock and obviously it’s informative also entertaining and i’ll get to that in a second here what i want to do today while i have chad on the show is while we’re going to talk sabres i i want to ask you about jj purka and then i want to kind of dive into your mock sabres off season and kind of go through that with you and some of your thought process i would strongly advise everybody who’s listening to this show if you’re not already first of all subscribe to expected buffalo $7.99 a month something like that it is absolutely a bargain more specifically the podcast uh the mock podcast that you did with uh your partner anthony recently i got a chance to listen to the majority of it um today in advance of recording with you and uh we were talking for just a minute before we went on the air here really entertaining obviously informative but there’s a part and this is why this alone to me was worth going and watching and listening um anthony was playing you were doing the you know the trade portion but proposed trades of uh of your off season and anthony was playing general manager of other teams and the this the way he was disguising his voice and it had various meanings too it was um i literally was sitting here in my home office i was quite literally like laughing my ass off a couple times especially the benedict arnold um w with the ranger stuff talk about that for a second before we get into uh the meat and potatoes of some saber stuff yeah so it’s um so we’ve been doing this is like our man third or fourth year doing it now uh and we rotate back and forth so like two weeks ago anthony did his where i ran him through it i don’t do voices that’s not my thing no uh and then last week was my turn to go through it but uh yeah it just organically the voices just organically started the one year like we didn’t plan it you just started doing it and then now it’s been a staple so really really it’s like our most hyped episode of the entire year that we do people ask when it’s coming as soon as the offseason hits when’s the mock offseason episode and um people like have asked us to do like a trade deadline one so anthony can bring the voices back for that so it’s yeah it’s high you look forward to it’s it’s a lot of fun um you know kick and run idea especially because like we talk about when we go through it in the beginning kind of giving like the parameters and everything that like really the only thing that anthony and i know when he does it or when i do it is we give a list up front of four to five players that we would want to target whoever is in char whoever is being the gm other than that we have no idea he has no idea what trades that i’m coming up with what trades i want to propose to him as being the general manager and vice versa i have no idea what he’s bringing he has no idea what trades i’m going to throw on the table at him so that kind of gives it like a little i don’t know i guess a spice to it cuz really you go into it like thinking like this is what i want to do and then you get that one trade-off for like oh man like i can’t say no to that like now i got to do that and now it changes the dynamic so it’s fun like being on the spot having to make those decisions um it also kind of gives you some perspective like of course the nhl offseason doesn’t happen in a hour and a half podcast episode but still it’s you know it’s making those decisions and kind of being in that spot where like you got to kind of gives you a little bit of a feel for maybe what it’s really like what is how does this time of year rank for you in terms of what you on a personal level enjoy covering like are you you know in the obviously you’re in the we of course during the season that goes without saying but when it gets to be the off season and it’s like so close to the draft and free agency and trade season that you can almost taste it when it gets to be this time of year where does this rank for you in terms of your excitement is this one of your favorite parts of the year yeah i think so because it’s you know you’re not talking about a team like during the season that for the last 14 years at least has not been good so you know that’s not really your focus anymore it’s now it’s into ideas and rumors and things they could do and then um you know is this true is that true is that player available is that player not available that kind of thing um so while it’s fun and exciting and it kind of you know you can kick around ideas and hopes and dreams and all of that fun stuff um it’s busy it’s very busy very busy for me um like yesterday you know it was supposed to be my day away from hockey being father’s day but instead you know i had to take 30 40 minutes to write a pura article because i sent a text just let me just check in and then i got more information than i was expecting i was like “okay i guess i’m going to type something out here really quick.” and that’s you know that’s how it goes i mean a trade could happen right now and then i’m up here until 1:00 a.m you know a trade could happen whenever that’s kind of where we’re at right now and you know it’s exciting it’s fun but it’s busy you you look to the 4th of july because that’s when it calms down for a little bit um so we’re getting close to there but then you know after a week or two i do kind of get bored after that i was going to say yeah i um and look i want to ask you about jj purka here in just a second i i also want to say that it would be easy for me and i’ve done it too many times more than i could count where i i go into a conversation with somebody like yourself or somebody like chris austrers people who i really respect in the hockey industry here in buffalo and i go into a conversation intending to be objective and and unemotional and not letting you know the frustrations of 14 years really get to me and i usually fail miserably and progressively i get you know more annoyed throughout the episode until i finally just it becomes a big old ramp fest for me i really don’t want to do that today one of the things that i do like personally for me and i you know i don’t really cover hockey things happen and then i’ll talk about them and i’ll bring out a guest like yourself to kind of go you know more into detail but what i like about this time of year is i know this sounds corny but the the sabres are zero and zero just like every other team’s about to be and i know the history of this team nobody’s got to tell me you know what i mean i it’s just if you’re going to have any optimism if there’s any point of the calendar year that you’re going to have optimism with the buffalo savers it feels like now because it feels like whether things come to fruition or not there’s a lot of possibilities right now at least there should be anyway so that’s where you’re going to garner some optimism with this team let let me ask you this too about kevin adams for people who might be out there saying “ah you know this team ain’t going to do man it is what it is they’re not going to spend any money they’re not going to make any moves they’re just going to hope for the best.” yada yada yada a lot of years that might kind of sort of hold true but do you feel like this year is going to be different if chad for no other reason than kevin adams forget about getting fired at this point kevin adams going into the last year of his deal he doesn’t even have to get fired after this year correct this is the last year of his contract right correct all right so he doesn’t terry be doesn’t even have to fire him it’s not about saving money or anything he just you don’t bring him back if things don’t work out so you get a sense chad that kevin adams knows that it’s this or it’s now or never for him you know what i mean like this team’s got to make the playoffs i would certainly assume that for him to be able to keep his job it’s not even about getting fired because of that do you feel that there is a really a a stronger chance that kevin adams is going to do everything and anything to improve this roster this year because there is no tomorrow for kevin adams or not i’ll stop short of saying there’s no tomorrow for kevin adams look okay okay let’s put it this way i think if they’re not a play okay i take it back i think there’s a very good chance playoff team or not that he is not the general manager next season i also think there’s a pretty good chance playoffs or not that he is still in the organization in some capacity president something else i don’t know it’s just he’s too highly respected by terry pagoula i think to realistically just be thrown into the street i just i could be wrong and that could be what happens you know if it gets really really bad that’s where it goes now the reason that i say that is a couple things um some of the things that they are looking at and some of the players that i’ve heard about um pieces of it not the main piece so people don’t freak out but there are pieces that have future aspects to them that they’ve discussed so if you’re out there looking for some future pieces you might have some understanding that this isn’t you know the end of the world if you don’t make the playoffs even though that is the directive and just to be very clear that is what they’re trying to do they are trying the playoffs next season just so nobody gets that construed mixup that is what they’re doing but there’s that part of it there’s yarmmo keolin is now in here and he reports directly to kevin adams so this isn’t a terry pigula hire if you will even though i think maybe terry wanted this but i think the yarmmo keolin thing is this might be a general manager in waiting for one of two reasons if it falls apart with adams and you can just bump him right up or maybe i think kind of what they wanted to this off seasonason that just didn’t work out for whatever reason maybe one day we’ll find out they bump adams into a different role and then yarmmo steps in as a new general manager after being here for a year getting familiar with the organization getting familiar with the staff and all of that just makes sense and then also on top of it they let him bring in eric stall as well a guy he’s familiar with so you’re letting him add these two at least front office people you know that doesn’t to me scream a general manager or a front office executive that you know your clock is ticking and you’re you could be out by november kind of thing like if it doesn’t go well that that’s not what it looks like from the hundred yard view at least okay now when it comes to the mockoff season that you did and we’re going to get into it here in just a second and for some people they you know this might be their first time if they haven’t gotten a chance to to listen to your show or read expect buffalo yet i i’ll ask you this because i mean just kind of give you a spoiler for an example everybody like mitch marner is not a free agent signing for the buffalo sabres no i’m kind of a rhetorical question here but you approach this with some sense of like realism as well meaning that why would a guy like mitch marner who’s going to get 12 13 14 million hell maybe even a couple bucks more from somebody there’s going to be interest around the league why would he want to come to buffalo when you constructed your off seasonason were there players like say mitch mner who you know their names are buzz and bennett some of these other guys marchant that maybe they’re available maybe they’re not but even if they are like they’re probably not going to be players that would be interested in coming to the buffalo sabres regardless of you know what money you’re going to throw at them because other teams are going to throw money similar i would assume at that as well you kind of had did you kind of have that approach and how you went about your your off seasonason here for the sabres yeah usually anthony and i try to stay as close to reality as possible i mean really we’re just doing this there’s besides each other we do say no to each other sometimes um just for the sake of you know the content of it and not making it so easy um but really like there’s you know i mean we could go silly if we wanted to but we don’t we try to keep it as realistic and even like and we’ll get into it when we go through all this but like the one trade i made um well actually two of them the one you know when we get into like i’ll talk about how like it’s you know it might be more creative than the average gm would put together and then the other one was at the end was kind of like i was running just i couldn’t find something i wanted to do and that offer was sitting there from anthony so i just took it but then if you listen to the podcast i kind of talked about like you know this isn’t really a realistic move per se but i was out of time it was late i couldn’t figure something else out i was like i’ll just take it whatever let’s just go um kind of thing but yeah we try to keep it as real as possible um so no there’s no you know mitch mner there was no nikolai eeler stuff um really free agency even like trades that we do um you know we try to avoid guys or take into account guys that have no trade clauses so like you know there’s some instances like “nope sorry he won’t rave there’s no trade clause.” and we kind of go through that and or there was jason robertson trade that we talked about and uh like you know i sold like i had to call robertson’s agent be like “would you extend with the sabres?” and he said “nah i don’t know not right now i don’t know if i will to see how it plays out.” and then i was like “no i’m not going to make that trade then based on what he told me.” so yeah we we definitely try to keep some realism to the whole thing yeah you know and i heard or i read a report about mitch martyr and it said something about he was going to be taking meetings with teams and toronto would be one of the teams he’s taking a meeting with i’m like if you got that kind of interest it kind of felt like lebronish back when he was a free agent the first time and he ended up in miami and he was taking meetings with teams and it was this big ordeal i’m like “yeah he ain’t going it’s not going to be with the buffalo sabres it’s just not.” maybe down the road hey two three years from now a mitch mner type of player could be somebody that buffalo could bring in but anyway i don’t think that’s the case right now but before they go in and trying to land a mitch mner let’s talk about what the hell is going on with uh with jj burka right now man this is really interesting and there’s reports out there that uh the sabres are at least listening to offers for berka and there is a growing sense or you tell me if i’m wrong but it feels like there’s a a growing sense that jj burka just might not be that happy man and he just he might not want to be here what’s what’s what have you heard where do things stand right now with jj burka like kind of describe what’s going on with this situation as best as you know yeah so there you really have to kind of wind this back all the way to the deadline so there was a report really a day or two maybe even the day before the actual trade deadline that he was there was a trade close with the rangers they reached out and then i think another like new york reported almost at the same time we both came to the same conclusion patently false not true like they never they never realistically considered trading peter at any point during the season at the deadline so that never happened but really from there it kind of just started to spiral well you know he’s available and they almost trade him they took calls on him like they didn’t but now we get to the off season he’s a restricted free agent after putting up another nice season almost two 30 goal seasons i think he had close to 70 points this year um so as such he is looking to get a decent chunk of money because of that so the difference that we have to look at here where hockey is a little bit different for those that don’t know um is he is a restricted free agent and he is a nonarbitration eligible restricted free agent so there’s two types of restricted free agents there’s the non actually there’s three so deon levi is one he’s a 10 dude 10.2c restricted free agent so in levi’s instance if you remember when he signed his contract he came right from the ncaa right into the nhl and burned a year right away now because when those guys do that what they do is they don’t acrue enough games to become this restricted free agent status that purka is so what that means is devin levi is not arbitration eligible and he is ineligible for an offer sheet so really he has essentially no rights the sabres have full control there mhm purka is arbitr is non arbitration but he can receive an offer sheet so that’s kind of something that’s been kicked around but he can’t pull the sabres into an arbitration hearing where then if you get to bo byum he is arbitration eligible because of how many seasons he’s put into the league so he can drag the sabres into arbitration which most teams go out of their way to avoid because you don’t want to go into that whole thing right back to beta so there is i think a the freriedman report you know i want to be very careful because it’s elliot friedman he has more connections than me um i and i don’t think what he said is necessarily wrong just what i wrote yesterday was adding a little bit of context to all of that so fre or peter doesn’t he doesn’t want to leave because he doesn’t like buffalo or he’s not happy in this city or that’s that’s not a thing that’s let’s just get that out there um he is unhappy for two reasons he’s unhappy because he’s not sure the sabres will pay him what he feels he’s worth because well you know salary cap and you know all the money things he’s seen the last few years in the sabres understandable and he’s also like a handful of players on the roster wants the front office to prove to him that they’re serious about winning he doesn’t want to commit to a franchise that you know if things go sour some of the big names want to get out and then he’s stuck and you know stuff like that so those are the two things that why he is unhappy and unsure about the future but from what i was told by multiple sources yesterday there has never been an indication for peter or his agent that he does not want to play in buffalo that has not been communicated he has not asked to be traded he has not told him that he doesn’t want to play there just it’s those concerns that have come up which have been communicated which like i said especially if you take the future of the team and being a winning team that leads you to believe where i don’t want to go long-term commitment here you know if like things are not going to go great and you got to prove it to me so a short-term contract probably makes the most sense here he’s four years away from unrestricted free agency still so the sabres really kind of have a lot of the power here he can go out and get an offer sheet like i said if he wants wanted uh but again i was told yesterday the sabres have made it known that they will match an offer sheet if one is presented to him now that could be them just telling the agent that and you know the agent can call their bluff and see but the catch there is for peter there’s two ways he can go about it he can sign a longer term contract of like five years let’s say the thing with that is if you are unsure about the sabres future do you want to sign a contract where if the sabres match it you’re stuck and you’re stuck in buffalo and that’s what it is or what he can do is sign a contract three to four years that walks him right to unrestricted free agency now that is not ideal because then like he could at the end of you’re not going to trade him he can just walk and be on his way in a couple years so that’s all on the table all possibilities and there is the possibility of a trade and like freriedman said they’re taking calls on it now they always were they never weren’t taking calls they were always listening that hasn’t changed from what i understand what it was speculated to me when i talked to the one person yesterday is there might have been one or two teams that brought the sabres an idea that piqu their interest and the conversation went a little bit further than it normally would cuz the price for him is extremely high if he is going to move they are going to get a very good return the price is high they will they’re prepared to wait this out into august into july if that’s what it takes so the price on him is high they’re not going to give him away so something that probably got presented to them by one or two teams conversations went further it makes it way back down to elliot or they’re taking calls now they’re getting into deeper conversations all that kind of thing um so to wrap it all up to be very clear what freriedman said is is true like that i don’t want people to think that i’m disputing what freriedman said it was true i just added some context into it with the reason why he’s mad and the offer sheet thing and where it stands because a trade is 100% i’m not saying he can’t get traded it is 100% possible still but i don’t think it’s as likely as maybe it’s been made out to be it’s unless someone’s going to pay a ransom you know they’re just not giving him away they’re prepared to do a short-term contract that’s what it goes to and then they’ll kind of work their way through things it is such a a cat and mouse game it feels like restricted free agency and potential offer sheets could be and for people chad who might not understand quite like how that works you you explained it let’s just throw a team out there it doesn’t matter let’s say pittsburgh pittsburgh offers jj burka a five-year contract at seven and a half million a year we’ll just use a number like that what that means is if he signs that offer sheet from pittsburgh and the sabres match it he’s in buffalo for five years his contract for 5 years and 7.5 million and he’s going to know when he signs that he can’t be traded for one year right so again so because i know some people my first thought would be like well why the hell would he sign what does he got to lose well that’s not true he could kind of get stuck with the savers for a long time if he signs an offer sheet that the savers are going to match if he if he truly does not want to be here so like i said it’s a real it’s a real cat and mouse gave us is so interesting um one last thing before we get into your offseason mock here in in the second half of this show want you a question are we kind of sleeping a little bit on you know we’re talking about all these fours for the you know what they may do or what they may not do what’s on this roster are are we sleeping on what a and i’m talking about the average fan sleeping on what a healthy healthy joshua norris could bring to his team like it feels like this is a top six forward that we don’t even think much about um cuz he has been healthy he only played what three games i think he played with the sabres after the the cousins trade i mean this is a dude that he’s a year younger than tage thompson he’s making more money than ta thompson they’re both signed through 2029 2030 and he’s only played i was looking it up he only played more than 56 games one time so far in his six full years of being in the nhl that’s that’s not great but man it’s obviously he’s a good talent and he’s a a legit top six guy so you got to hey man if you could get lucky it’s kind of like the bills with joe bosa different situation joe bosa’s long injury history but actually it’s not that bad of a comparison because joey bosa is only 29 years old it feels like he’s 39 but he’s only 29 six years of control though that is true yeah contract stuff aside but what i’m saying is like if joey bosa is healthy he could be really good for the bills whereas you know if joshua norris is healthy with the sabres man it’s a he’s a good player but i don’t know man you count on him being healthy do you operate on the premise that he’s going to be able to stay healthy put it that way i don’t operate on that premise because he hasn’t done it so you can’t operate on that premise um you can be hopeful and want that to be the case but until he does it you cannot operate on that um we’ve had conversations of people i’ve talked to like you know i’ve said like if you could tell me right now he’s going to play 70 games i’ll sign up for it right now like i like i’ll i’ll pick that you know um yeah norris um you know i i go back and forth a lot on him because for me like the one thing where he’s an he’s an improvement over cousins is i think he is a better two-way player and i’m not going to tell you he’s some defensive savant by any means but he’s a better defensive forward in you know that regard so that’s but there are limitations to his skill set um in particular he’s really just a straight finisher that’s he just that’s what he is he’s just a finisher um his assist rates when you look like his primary assist i think kevin most pe people who follow twitter know who kevin is on twitter guy um had a tweet the other day where he showed like that last season ryan reeves and josh norris and ryan reeves had a higher uh primary assist per hour rate than josh norris last season so he just he’s not a playmaker he’s not a puck distributor and mo in some instances you’re like okay that’s fine whatever he’ll get over it but the sabres have a ton of those that’s thompson is although thompson has some playmaking to him but still that’s kind of what he is that’s what purka is um that’s kind of what tuck is with a little bit more playmaking upside koulique is you know looks like he’s that kind of thing so you have a lot of finishers but not that many guys that help get the puck or get it to the danger areas and you know i want to say in one hand like that could be an issue but the other hand this team just scores goals in bunches so maybe it’s not really an issue um but still you would like some diversity and for me it’s you know you got out of the cousins contract which is great but you brought in a guy who’s more expensive and plays less like that’s you know what are you going to get here like if he plays 50 games again this season like you have five more years left like what are you what are you going to do you’re not going to be able to move him like no one’s going to you know you’re going have to pay if you want to do that so yeah i i don’t love it like you know we’ll see maybe he plays 70 to 80 games whatever and be surprised but there’s definitely some concerns there i guess that’s the best way to put it if but like you said if he plays you know you got a decent player there but um it’s the if he plays part that’s the big red flag he’s a big if too all right let’s take a real quick break uh come back on the other side and we’re going to get into uh chad’s mock off season with the sabres [Music] all right i am back here with chad dmininis um about to get into the mock off season that you’ve done with expected buffalo again make sure you guys are subscribed if you’re not already check out the podcast it’s a really good hockey podcast too um by the way with alex tuck like because he’s not like on the list of things but i don’t know if he needs to be because he’s already under contract but where would you prioritize where do you think the savers are prioritizing right now alex tuck in terms of maybe him getting an extension because he will be eligible for one come july 1st are you looking to do that yeah so he only has one year left he’d be an unrestricted agent after next season um but yes it is a priority of theirs um those conversations have already begun from the little bit i know about it and it’s very little very very little but um the one piece of information i did get is when they spoke um during the scouting combine the sabers and his agents uh that went well and there’s some confidence that they can find something and find an agreement so really i i think you know there was some stuff today about you know some i don’t know vancouver podcast or some even some tweets i saw from buffalo people about alex tuck um you know if you’re going to go byum purka tuck in that order of guys that could be traded i would put tuck at the back even behind purka i just said i’d put tuck behind all of those guys the only way tuck is leaving and getting traded if he straight out tells them he is not going to sign with them and that has not happened to this point so i wouldn’t be surprised if they get something done and i also think it’s not going to be in the seven eight year range which is nice for his age i think they can get something done around 5 years maybe maybe six um but yeah i i i think it’s more likely that we see an extension then he moves at this point is he a future captain on this team no den’s captain okay just want to make sure i want to make sure i ask that no this is den’s team okay as it should be by the way as it should be all right so you have we’ll get to trades here separately in a few but you had seven signings i believe here on on the chart here and on the by the way if you’re watching on the video side you can see it on the screen for the people listening including restricted free agents at seven signings including restricted free agents yes seven signings um and we’ll go through these obviously for people who are listening uh to the podcast five of their own uh devin levi two at two years at 916,000 and you explained it earlier in the show pretty much the sabres hold all the cards when it when it comes to that uh kak you got one year coming back 900,000 bernard docker two years at 1.5 uh let’s talk about two guys specifically here so you got ryan mloud you’re resigning him four years 5 a.5 million per yep that sounds about right i mean this is a guy chad who really kind of he earned his keep with this team this year in a in a season that was a largely um miserable campaign yet again this was one of the biggest uh bright spots and it feels like he’s being rewarded here and he we’ve we’ve seen it he’s a guy who could play bottom six he’s a guy could play till some top six if he has to he’s been it was a good trade it was a very he’s a very valuable asset to this team so you’re looking uh you kind of talk about this a little bit you’re giving him four years here yep yeah i mean this is um so anthony and i both use we use evolving hockey very good analytics website uh they do contract projections that are actually scary good with how accurate they are um so really we use them as kind of like our base point uh to create these contracts and i think four years times five and a half is the exact evolving hockey projection uh so that’s how i got there and i think you said that seems right four to five years five to five half million dollars um you know that’s what i would expect here at that point so but that’s that’s how i got to that one well put it this way when you make a trade for a player who you know is going to be a restrictive free agent the next year you give up a young prospect for him and after a year you’re saying you know what i’m willing to give you four years $5.5 million that means he came in and he was uh he was a nice player for your team for sure uh jj berker all right so we talked about him earlier he is the big restricted free agent name right now two years you got two years at 6.25 million how how did you come to that what was your thought process here playing gm and and putting this together ultimately yeah well like i said when i talked about him i think short-term makes the most sense for both sides on this one so that’s why i went to the two years because it still leaves you two years of restricted control so if you get to that two years you can move him if things aren’t going well still uh and he’s not like one away from free unrestricted free agency so that kind of makes it easier for him to move and you get a better return and then the 6.25 25 um i think is is above what evolving hockey projected for him uh and my thought there is you know he wants to get paid he’s not the most happy guys you probably got to give him a little bit more maybe than market value on a short-term contract uh so that’s you know how i landed on that one all right so and we’ve been our docker two years so you’re giving a multipleear deal you got a little bit of love for him little bit of love for him it feels like um kind of a throwin in the josh norris trade i mean we talked about josh earlier just kind of maybe lessenses the sting a tiny bit anyway yeah i think he played well in his short time um better than i thought he would do he showed some chemistry with owen power too which was kind of nice uh so yeah i mean if he wants you know to be a third pair guy you know that’s that’s a great contract one half million dollars for a guy you know that i trust can reasonably play the role and you’re not asking a lot out of all right let’s talk about two free agents that you added um both of them i believe were defenseman here i’m looking at this one so gabov was a defenseman okay so he’s an unrestricted free agent so his was talk about him talk about him so he’s from the los angeles kings uh that’s where he’s played the last few years before that he was now the interesting part before that is he played for the columbus blue jackets while yarmo kakalani was a general manager so there’s some connection there if yarmmo wants to make a phone call there and try to get him to come back uh he is a left shot defenseman not a right shot defenseman so some people will immediately write him off i do not in this instance uh i think he can go play with delene excuse me or owen power and be just fine uh both those guys have showed they can play on the right but you know he’s a bigger size um i think he’s better defensively than some people give him credit for he can even do some decent things offensively so he’s 29 years old four years is not that bad at all um realistically you know for the sabres it might get into the $7 million range possibly for an unrestricted free agent you’re probably got to pay heavy over market value and hope that your garmmo connection comes through um because he really is one of the top defenseman available on the free agent market because after him especially if dante fabro doesn’t hit the market um after gabriov it kind of takes a nice little spill there so you know if they can rope him in that that’d be a real nice get he played 20 he was playing 23 minutes a game with uh utah last year too so he he plays plenty kings los angeles yeah my bad kings um i was think of utah i was a jack mcbain which i was wrong about again as i have defend you also added jack mcbain three years $3 million per season uh talk about him and where he slots valuewise and why you feel like he would be a a good free agent fit so he’s actually a restricted free agent so he’s part of one of the trades that i did so then after i acquired him i had to sign him to a new contract gotcha all right all right that makes sense to me now yes but anyways i’ll kind of get into him anyways um so he is a guy if you are in the neighborhood of a sabres fandom that believes they need to get tougher fighter bigger that is jack mcbain i think he’s 6’4 6’5 he’s not afraid to drop the gloves but he also he can play so he played primarily third line center for utah last season had a decent year i think like 11 or 12 goals 27 points which isn’t bad for what he would be in buffalo he would probably be my fourth line center or winger because he can play center or wing uh and that gives him you know a tougher guy a bigger guy to add to your lineup to your mix um so yeah that was one of the reasons i targeted him out of utah um you know freriedman mentioned him on the 32 thoughts podcast that he could be under the radar offer sheet guy that someone could go after uh i mean i don’t know if i would go that crazy um but hearing that i was like ah maybe he would be available so then that’s how i got him roped into the one utah trade that i made all right and you have trades i believe four of them that we have and let’s kind of go through them one guy you traded for and then looks like you flipped them right away too yeah so this is ultimately a three team trade this first one so it it’s broken out like this because you can’t do a three team trade in um pedia but it’s ultimately a three team trade so so this is sabres rangers yep and in utah okay so the meat and potatoes of this for people who are listening who can’t look at the screen you’re trading byroom to the rangers uh lefren ends up going along with greenway and rosine to utah yeah and the savers get jack mcbain who you just spoke of and uh the defenseman michael kessler too as well uh obviously that’s the big piece in there you talked about mcbain you should be a pretty solid fourthline guy play a little bit of third line 25 years old talk about the other guy 20 25 years old right-handed defenseman um it feels obviously you’re giving up the you know like i said with greenway and by this is like the big piece that goes back to the sabers what what about him interest you so greenway i moved off um to start with him and it’s not that i don’t like the player because i do um and it’s one of the reasons i had to get mcbain back because i had to keep kind of that size you know top aspect if you will um but we talked about norris with missing so many games well greenway’s in that same boat i really can’t if i’m i was trying to avoid having two players on my roster um that may combined almost $12 million that maybe only give me 50 games max so i picked greenway as the guy that i would move off cuz realistically they’re not going to trade josh norris and no they’re not doing that so greenway is the guy that i picked and this is the one where i said i’m kind of starting to bend reality a little bit and the creativity of an nhl gm um but still kind of we landed here uh so then yeah kesser ling so he is a uh he played fourth fourth he played second pair of minutes uh for utah this past season um you know he’s a guy that i i he’s going to be restricted for asia next season but i think that he’s someone where you can put with like dene um i always have reservations again about taking a guy who plays you know fourth or fifth defenseman minutes and flushing him up to delene who plays you know 20 minutes a night because it’s it’s a step and you play against a different level of competition so there is some you know sketchiness in that but the nice thing is that delene really kind of fits with anybody you put him with right and i think keserling has some nice defensive aspects to his game um you know his puck moves and then also he doesn’t kill penalties which kind of was like h um but still i i think you know it’s cheap and and what i was trying to do which i don’t end up doing but what i was trying to set up here early in this is i wanted to eventually get to a point right enough cash space to take a run at brad marshan as a as a free agent um didn’t get there so that’s why we went over the signings i didn’t end up doing it um but that’s what i was kind of targeting here i wanted a low price defenseman that i could put with dene in theory and then i went out and i spent on gabricov who is a legitimate tap four defenseman that then can kind of play at power or you know they can fluctuate as the season goes on that would be fine um but yeah that was my plan of attack on defense to kind of open up some some money for me too if i could try to chase something offensively it really feels so important to find somebody who could be good with owen power that owen power could flourish because to your point it feels like dalene could play he could play with me or you and i i still feel like he’s going to be all right out there uh but it’s really critical for for one of those guys to to become a good uh appearing with uh with power another trade you had i’m going to assume this was for cap reasons uh you basically gave away conor clifton correct he traded in him chicago for a seventh round pick that’s all about cap space right yeah that’s a complete cap yep gotcha that’s why i figure not much context really is needed to that all right and then this is the last one and honestly as a as a guy who talks sabres and follows hockey to an extent around the league but not all that tight you’re going to have to i don’t want to necessarily say sell me on this but you’re going to have to enlighten me on this trade so you give you trade i shouldn’t say you give you trade jack quinn and which i don’t care about that but also constellaneous their first pick last year and you trade him to utah uh for for barrett hayden and alexander keroot you explain this to me these tell me about these two guys because my first thought without knowing them and again i don’t have the benefit of knowing them that well um i’m like damn dude you’re trading already you won’t give up helenius what what’s up with that so tell me so tell me about this trade and why it would make sense obviously you think it would why would this make sense for the savers you tell me so this is the one where i told you like i don’t think it’s that real and this was the one like i was at the end i was like “okay i’ll just take it like because i couldn’t find anything else.” so this is i will say before i go into all this this is probably not a realistic scenario especially in hatton’s case we’ll get to that in a minute though well hold on hold on hold on realistic as in the sabres would never want to do this or realistic as in utah wouldn’t want to do this no i don’t think barrett hayden’s going to get traded that that’s what i think is in the realistic part of it gotcha and this was one that anthony presented to me so it’s like gotcha you know like kind of again if if a gm offers you this and you like it then okay you would take it but i think in real world you know hayden isn’t going to get moved by utah but anyways kind of to bring it back to helenia like well let’s pretend it is so the one thing too that yeah yeah so i i’ll kind of take you through my process so helenius like the one part that you know isn’t in here is we also did like a draft too so i picked that nine overall um and i and i took martin who is a you know kind of a bull you know he’s a little bit of a bigger forward um plays a nice two-way game is physical uh so he in my mind you know that that happened before i did this is okay i have somebody in my prospect pool that can already replace selenius and i have nova oelen and i have other pieces too in my system so like i’m okay to move helenius like he’s a nice player i like him but like the spot that i’m in right now like i’m trying to win games and then barrett hayden who i would get in this it’s a 24 year old forward uh he’s he’s mainly the second line center for utah he might even be their first line center next season uh he had a nice season i think above 20 goals almost 50 points uh he’s a nice player and you know if the sabres could get their hands on him that would be excellent uh you know and i would i think i like him better than i like josh norris for sure kind of by a lot but again i just get to the point where like like i said utah is not moving that guy he’s part of their core he’s younger i mean look at this cap is only $2.7 million he’s a restricted free agent next season but still i mean that’s a manageable cap situation for them um so yeah he’s just not going to go and then kerfoot was um anthony wedged him in there was like because you know you gota you got to take this money so really for him after i got him um i sent him down to the ahl to get him off my roster he wouldn’t be on my nhl roster so he was just a take money back to make this happen kind of thing gotcha all right so kind of let’s just for fun you know this comes to fruition um you added two guys who you’re going to expect to be amongst your top four defenseman mhm you added mcbain and hayden as forwards jj burka stays which is obviously significant one thing we have not talked about this entire podcast pretty much is goalending so the sabres in your mock off season anyway they do not sign a goalender so are you running with uppl and levi going into the season or are you still looking to add a you know a reamer type to to backup upl like what’s your thought process as things stand right now when it comes to uh the goalending situation with this team yeah when i got done with this i had like $1.2 million left in cash base so there was if i wanted to i i could have went and chased a low term or a low you know like a rhyr basically he made a million dollars last year i could have went and did something like that again but as i said in the stance of keeping it real i think what’s really going to happen is the sabres are going to go into next season with with lucin and with levi so that is why i went i just stuck with that to kind of keep the sense of realism behind it um i did talk as we were going through it as i kind of like i think i got to the point where anthony like said to me like as we were because at the end of we go through all this we kind of like talk it through like i knew you were in great shape when you had $12 million left and two roster spots to fill and at that point too when i looked i was like oh yeah like i’m cruising right now i’m like i can get these players i want and i can get a goalender and like this will be nice but then when like when i did gabricov then i think something else you know took a little bit more money than i anticipated uh i just didn’t have the money remaining uh to do that but you know for me like i’m i don’t want them to invest heavily at the goalending position unless it is something that is a guarant not can’t really say guarantee but has a proven track record of being good look in the nhl goalenders are very up and down from year to year inconsistency reigns there besides like your top four to five guys you are up and down every single year and you can hope it’s just as likely that lucin bounces back next season as it would be to go trade for i don’t know john gibson and like in and you know he has a good like it’s gibson could go down lucin could go up like it’s there’s not a certainty that now if you’re trading for you know let’s just throw out like jussi sorrowos who was absolutely not going to move uh but let’s say like he was available there is more years of consistency there top level goalending that okay i’ll take his cap hit i’ll spend the assets cuz i know for sure i’m going to get that the best bet well i think what they should do is have some sort of and maybe they will maybe they’ll have a third guy that they put in the ahl um because they’re going to have two younger guys down there next season they come over and tai leonin in and they’re going to have um ratslaf too who both are although ratslaf might go back to juniors but we’ll see but either way leonin is probably going to come over um so they’ll have a younger guy in their ahl team next year when levi probably graduates but yeah i mean realistically like if if i was a general manager like yeah i’m probably signing somebody else besides levi just so i know um but you know i i think in kevin adams and the way this front office is going to go they’re big especially kevin adams is the big levi guy he tries to shove him in there whenever he has the opening so you know he’s going to do it again for a third year and maybe the third time will be the charm this time but i all right i didn’t look at the numbers in terms of i don’t even know if there was available but based on this roster and what we just did in the offseason here in your mock off season are are the sabres still rolling with a lot of cap are we going to be are we going to look at this $2 million $1.2 million was like that’s it all right so then i’m not going to be able to whine and and complain around christmas time that terry bula didn’t spend when this team in the basement this way no it was this way no let’s uh well let’s take a quick look at the roster and again for fun because that’s at the end of the day this is just like nfl mod drafts they’re fun they’reformational that’s what they’re supposed to be it’s not about accuracy it’s about learning about situations and scenarios and stuff like that uh for people listening we’ll run down what the sabres opening night roster would look like that top line you got kik who would be centering tage and benson and then you got uh the second line you got norris centering for tuck and beta i like that that’s a nice top six man i’m feeling pretty good about that you got mloud centering on the third line with zucker and barrett hayden which you know you said was it’s farfetched but hey man never say never and then that fourth line you got jack mcbain peyton krebs and beck menstein with kak who you signed as a restricted free agent uh you brought him back he’s your your 13th guy uh defensively you got gavricov now with dallene you got power with kessle ring and you got bernard docker back with samson who surely fans are going to on that he’s still on the team come october with uppl and devin levi well i’ll say this bryson is bryson’s the seventh on here i cut him out but bryson is the seventh defensive all right so bryson is the seventh guy i i’ll say this chad it’s a better roster than it is right now this would be an improvement that’s for sure yeah i think so i i i think i i think it’s a playoff eligible roster if everything goes well yeah that’s a that’s a big ask it’s a big ask because you’re asking norris stay again you’re asking norris to stay healthy you’re you’re concerned about the goalending yeah so um last question here and then i’ll let you go man um going through this and again the goal was to be realistic and i think you did a great job with this again really good stuff if there was a guy who you didn’t sign or trade for that is i don’t want to say unattainable but far-fetched is there a guy that the savers could sign you be like “wow man they they pull this off or they traded for this guy this guy weighed the no trade maybe he has one maybe he doesn’t but they trade for this guy what is what’s the peak thing that the sabres could do in your mind that is not so absurd that you refuse to even think about it let me put it to you that way is there a move that this team can make like wow but it’s not something that’s like impossible uh um that’s a tough question i know it is like from a trade aspect i would say it’s hard to say so i’ll go to free agency route um i mean mner would be in that thing but i still think that’s i it seems like he’s going to a western conference team so let’s just move past that um i guess you could say probably nikolai elers who is most he’s the second best offens offensive forward on the free agent market if they were to swing and get him because they did try to trade for him last year um but if they go ahead and sign him i think that would be what they got him to come here cuz report on him is that he’s more concerned with going to a winning situation than he is about money which does not play into the savers favor whatsoever uh but maybe you know they can convince him or something and he would come or they overpay him enough where he’s like “okay i can’t turn on that money here i come.” kind of thing um so yeah that’d be the one where i’d be like “whoa i can’t believe they pulled that one off.” okay it’s going to be interesting for sure well i should say for sure it should be interesting i mean the draft’s coming up trades like i said free agency it feels like yeah the season’s going to end tomorrow and once the cup’s awarded it’s it’s go time for teams so is the season going to end tomorrow for people who are listening to this tuesday chad means tonight but is this is this series ending in six games uh i think so yeah i think i think florida’s gonna win tomorrow they just they’re just you know they’re besides the comeback that edmonton had in game four after florida got up i mean it’s really been edmon or florida kicking the oilers around here for the better part of two games um going back in their building i don’t think they’re going to want to go back to edmonton you know you never rule the oilers out of course and they have two of the best players in the world on their team um but i just think that really florida’s been beating them up maybe you could say for you know four or four or five the last six periods and you know yeah there’s not a lot of faith that that won’t continue yeah well i kind of hope it ends just cuz i want to get to the offseason officially quicker quicker although i mean there is nothing better in sports in game seven of a stanley cup too so i i guess maybe selfishly i wouldn’t mind uh seeing that anyway make sure you guys are following chad on twitter cmd dominus and of course go to expectedbuffalo.com man check out what they have to offer subscribe it is a a great deal man they bang out not just uh not just quantity but a lot of quality too things that you ain’t going to get anywhere else that’s for sure uh appreciate you very much dude yeah thanks man anytime all right guys and i will be back matt warren from sb nation will be joining me tomorrow talk to you guys then

On this episode of Talking Buffalo, Patrick Moran is joined by Chad DeDominicis from Expected Buffalo to discuss their Buffalo Sabres mock offseason that just dropped in addition to what the situation is with reportedly disgruntled forward JJ Peterka and other Sabres topics.

There’s been reports that Peterka, a restricted free agent is unhappy with the direction of the Sabres and is hoping to play somewhere else sooner than later. Where are these leaks coming from? How much leverage does Peterka, who scored 27 goals last year and has 55 over the past two seasons actually have? Will another team sign him to an offer sheet? Will the Sabres match any offer that’s presented? What would it take for Peterka to commit to Buffalo long term? Chad has thoughts on all these based on what he’s heard and what his gut tells him.

From there they go over the Sabres mock offseason Chad put out alongside his Expected Buffalo partner Anthony. What RFA’s are they qualifying? Are they signing any to long-term deals? Do they pull off a big trade, perhaps for Jason Robertson or Keandre Miller? Is Alex Tuch getting an extension? What free agents are being targeted? Chad tries to project what will happen in advance of the real thing starting within the next few weeks.

That plus Kevyn Adams knowing this is his last chance to turn things around and plenty more with Chad, who you can follow on Twitter @CMDeDominicis and be sure to check out Expected Buffalo.

Major props to Talking Buffalo sponsor, Sonny Red’s at 1841 Abbott Road in Lackawanna, just minutes from Highmark Stadium. We consider them THE most underrated spot for wings, pizza and other great food in Western New York plus it’s a great place to drink and have a great time. Also big thanks to Imperial Pizza and their two locations (1035 Abbott Road and 1655 Main Street), home of not only great pizza and tons of other delicious eats but also the best everyday lunch special in town.

Special thanks to local Buffalo band, Orange Zest for allowing us to use their awesome single, “Old Friends” as the new official intro music for Talking Buffalo. Check out Orange Zest and be sure to support not only them, but local music!

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