Utah Mammoth steal JJ Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan

Utah Mammoth steal JJ Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan

[Music] the JJ Purka saga comes to an end not happy with the way it came to an end let’s talk about the trade purka to Utah coming up on Locked on Sabres [Music] you’re Locked on Sabres your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day what is up everybody and welcome in to this Thursday edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast and thanks for making us your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast you can check us out on our YouTube channel where you can watch the show be sure to like and subscribe us there and also if you would like breaking news text alerts and want to get in on some conversation on rumors and of course the deal that just happened you can do all that over on our text club at locked onsabers on join subtext you join at joins sububtex.com/locked on sabers that’s the link you hit it and then uh you sign up from there and then there we go sneaky Jody Bassi here on today’s show today’s episode is presented by Game Time download the Game Time app create account and use code lockdown NHL for $20 off your first purchase we have a deal to talk about jj Purka traded to the Utah Mammoth all the smoke for months going back to the trade deadline was real he was on the table he was on the trade market he gets dealt to the Mammoth and also signs a 5-year extension right away worth $7.7 million per year the Sabres in exchange get Michael Kessle Kessler from the Mammoth and then Josh Don is the package the Sabres get back we’ll go through those two players the reports on what the Sabres might have passed on the impact on a Bo Byum deal and how we ended up at Purka being dealt and the lessons that I think we already learned from his contract with the Mammoth and where he ended up going i think there’s a lot to get to and I don’t think a lot of it is going to make Sabre fans feel all that great it does not mean there isn’t a potential light at the end of the tunnel there is one possible positive spin I think you could put on this deal but otherwise this deal sucks the Sabres and the Mammoth getting this deal done i could not have imagined a worse feeling after Purka would have been dealt than after seeing where he went and what the Sabres got in exchange and I want to preface all of this with knowing and or expressing that I do like these two players that the Sabres get in exchange and I’ll talk more about that in the middle of today’s show i do like Kesserling and uh Kessle Ring and Don gotta get that name right kessle Ring um and Shane and Josh Don michael Castle Ringh flustered already uh and we only just got rolling here on this show the real takeaway that I have from this trade is more about them deciding to trade Purka with a mind towards they just wanted to trade JJ Purka and the motivation to why that happened I think is really tough to figure out but I don’t think it’s the explanation that we all thought it was for months and weeks which is that oh Peter just doesn’t want to be in Buffalo anymore and He wants to go to a big market so let’s explore before we get to the details of the trade and the players that the Savers get back how did we get here and why did Purka want out of Buffalo because I do think that changes today there were a couple of different possible explanations the Sabres reportedly did not want to trade this player but they end up doing it why different possible reasons did he want a bigger market that was one of the number one reasons out there for why he wanted out wrong he goes to Salt Lake City a smaller metropolitan market than Buffalo New York he went to a it’s it’s a faster growing city but he went to a smaller market he went to a smaller market in Utah so bigger market no did Purka want to go to a winner kind of hard to argue that i’m not saying the Sabres are a better idea for wanting to win somewhere than Utah is right now utah’s got a fun new owner that is putting a lot of assets and money into his team right now he’s redoing his arena he’s putting a lot of effort and money into the roster ryan Smith is more believable as a serious owner right now to bring you a winner but it still is a team that did not make the playoffs last year and if you go back to the Arizona days it’s a team that has missed the playoffs 11 of 12 years so sure better winner than Buffalo but not Florida not Tampa not Carolina or Edmonton or even LA like he did not go to a perennial winner so did he want to go to a winner i don’t think it really mattered did he and then the reasons where I think we start to get to what this really could have been did the Sabres just not want to pay him and today I thought more about that question than ever before did they just not want to pay him well one reason one signal that you could look at to say h maybe they didn’t was the players that they got back in exchange especially compared to some of the rumored players out there that we’ll get to didn’t make almost anything if you look at the two players the Savers acquired Kessle Ring has got one more year at $1.4 million and then he’s a restricted free agent and I cannot imagine that in a year he’s going to cost $7.7 million as much as Purka costs and then Josh Don makes $925,000 and that is an RFA next year so the Sabres acquire $2 million bucks versus what they were about to spend which was going to be north of seven or at least that was the cost so did they not just want to pay him listen with this team you have to always believe that that is possible because they are the only team in the league that has had more than $6 million of salary cap space five years in a row they’re the only team that’s done that so when they trade away a player that was about to get paid and they acquire players that are cheap you have to consider that as a possibility i don’t believe they deserve the benefit of the doubt to assume that that’s not true now they wanted to keep him and they didn’t want to trade him that was out there but that doesn’t mean you wanted to pay him five years $7.7 million it might have meant you really wanted to keep him but you wanted to pay him two years $6 million the commitment might not have followed up with the desire to keep him honestly as much as somebody else might want him so could have been the money what about the coach did JJ Purka get along with Lindy Ruff and I think it’s possible that he didn’t maybe that’s a very real explanation that the coach came in with a tougher coaching style and a tougher practice style and often would talk about Purka in the media not not like you know more critical than anybody else just kind of the way Lindy does things but maybe that didn’t sit well with JJ Purka so could have been a problem with Lindy Ruff as the head coach it also could have been that they’ve got a Bo Byum trade for a forward in the holster and they’re waiting to do that so any of these better offers that included um a forward coming back for JJ Purka might not have been what they were looking for now let’s get to that the offers on the table and this is to me what is unforgivable about this whole saga because I don’t believe the Sabres needed to trade JJ Purka i have said that I would have liked to see them draw a line in the sand have a backbone and tell him “No we don’t want to trade you.” And we are not going to trade you we don’t have to trade you you can pout we’ll We’ll see where this goes how ugly you want to make it jj do you want to you want to not sign a contract and go play in Germany you really want to do that do you want to sign an offer sheet with another team and bet that we won’t match it how far do you want to take it cuz we’ve got your rights for four more years before we lose all control and we’re not giving that away unless we get overpaid for it and there’s no doubt the Sabres did not get overpaid in this deal today i would have loved to have seen the Sabres do that i don’t need them to be petty like they did with Jack Eel which was just “No we’ll trade you but we’re going to make it uncomfortable for you along the way we’re not going to let you get your surgery we’re not going to let you get your neck fixed.” That was not playing hard ball that was just being petty i I can’t say it enough hard ball would have been “We’re not trading you you’re Jack Eel we’ll never replace you you have five years left on your contract give us another shot.” And or if you don’t want to like “Sorry we’re gonna run it back and you’re on the team.” They this team it’s so easy to push them around push them into trading you away all you got to do is give them any sign that you might want out and poof you’re gone and it’s way too easy it took a couple of days it felt like or a couple of weeks at most a couple of months i don’t really know how far this goes back maybe it does go back to the deadline but they did not want to fight for this guy and you know they should have fought for him they should have fought for him and they didn’t so I’m pretty disappointed and then to pile on top of my already disappointment about this team in this trade here comes a bunch of people telling us what the Sabres might have passed on for JJ Purka so from Frank Saravelli who ends up being right on this this week about this because he said on Monday I think it was that he thinks Purka will be traded before Friday well he was right he got traded on Thursday um and he’s been the one pointing to this is going to happen this is going to happen stunned if he plays he did so Sarah then also reporting on that this that things the Sabres had on the table that should leave fans feeling underwhelmed he said that there was an offer on the table from the St louis Blues that included Jordan Kyru now included doesn’t mean just Jordan Kyu maybe the Sabres had to give up more i don’t know kyru’s had more production kyru is a little bit older 27 years old uh and he also doesn’t have any trade protection I believe until July 1st so you had a couple more days to trade him away and it sounds like he is on the table maybe that’ll be the Byum trade who knows kyu though you’re telling me that instead of Kessle Ring I could have had Jordan Kyu who has had three consecutive 30 goal seasons and four consecutive seasons of 67 points or more no I don’t want that sweet okay uh Cavelli also said the Sabres had two first round picks and two roster players on the table now that one I wouldn’t automatically be offended that they said no to because I don’t know who the roster players are are they fourth liners because if they are then basically what I’m doing is I’m training Purka for two first round picks and that might sound like a lot but if they’re late first round picks I don’t want any part of it because I don’t want any I don’t want draft picks if they were two good roster players then that’s that’s a little worse um Sarah also says that Noah Dobson might have been on the table in an offer from the New York Islanders and Dobson as a also right shot defenseman is a better offensive player has scored 10 goals four years in a row he had that monster 70 point season in 2024 um where he finished eighth in the Norris voting and he’s on the trademark uh okay i guess I don’t want him if that was available again could have been Purka and something else but then a little bit more of a concrete offer that to me is offensive unforgivable that the Sabres said no to marco Rossi from Minnesota one of the five trades I said the other day that I would do was purka for Rossi one for one swap a winger for a forward 60 point center who wants a bigger role in a different team perfect i have that for him not only was Rossi reportedly on the table according to the Athletics Michael Russo it was Rossi and other stuff for JJ Purka and they said no in part because they don’t want more undersized forwards it’s an offensive no to say no to Minnesota it’s unbelievable that they could have passed on that player with their center depth being what it is and I think they have taken this being tougher to play against having a different style of play way too far way way way too far and they better be careful because they might finally be tougher to play against and then they will be incapable of putting the puck in the back of the net and it’ll be all for nothing so saying no to Marco Rossi it’s they just took it too far they I know they want to build a different type of team but you cannot give up that much value that is four players three players at least that I just mentioned that are leaps and bounds more valuable than the players the Sabres got back for JJ Purka they gave away too much value in this deal all that being said I do want to again express that I like these two players and I’ll talk about how much I do when we come back today’s episode of the Lockdown Sabers podcast is presented by Rugiet now guys you’ve probably heard of uh Viagra or Seialis maybe you’ve even tried them but if you’re looking for something 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they trade Purka to Utah a team that hadn’t existed when the playoff drought began uh what’s going to be next they’re going to trade Dalene to Houston in a couple of years and then uh Tage to Atlanta although there was an Atlanta team the last time the Sabres made the playoffs so yeah not not a fan of this trade i do think the best the best way I could put it think is I feel like the Sabres are a family or a dad that h that needs a minivan you know you got you got a couple of kids and you got all the errands and maybe you got sports and you need a minivan or you need a big SUV so you trade your Ferrari in for it you pay basically four times asking to get what you need you do need it but you just you went way too far in how to acquire it so that’s how I feel about these two players i do think they are good players and to talk about why I think they’re good players I think Kessle Ring is really the starting point here who was the number five defenseman last year for Utah at least he was the number five in terms of ice time playing just over 17 minutes a night so not a heavily relied upon defenseman um 1741 to be exact is what he averaged the previous season in his first full rookie year he averaged 1548 by the way so this past season he has 29 points and seven goals in 82 games played a 4.7 shooting percentage that’s important i’ll get to that in a moment he is big 6’5 215 pounds but he is not necessarily somebody that throws his body around a lot 87 hits last season which to put that in context for a Saber fan although hit stats are very usually tough to rely upon uh he’s had like 25 hits fewer than Matias Samuelson last season i know that’s the guy to pick out here for this because it’s not going to make fans feel great but he’s not a bone crushing hitter but he will drop the gloves from time to time if he needs to um Kessle Ring is a good defensive defenseman good play in his own end um he is a very fast player if you look at some of his NHL edge stats speed bursts over 20 miles per hour he had 115 last season the league average was 29 that puts him in the 96th percentile he has a hard shot 99th percentile his hardest shot last year was 103.7 miles per hour honestly the only guy with a a harder shot last year might have been Ta and that’s it so a booming shot but again even though it was a hard shot it doesn’t go in the net all that often 4.7 shooting percentage i s one of the first descriptions I saw of him last night was that he’s a player that shoots the puck a lot didn’t say anything about him scoring a lot seven goals last year but he shoots the puck a lot because he’s got a hard hard shot little bit of power play time but not a lot kessle Ring to me what you’re looking at are a couple of tools here you’re looking at skating flies like the wind he’s got a hard shot but offensively he hasn’t really put it together yet but I think undoubtedly the reason he’s been acquired is not for that anyway it is for the defensive game the defensive defenseman big body on a right side that could play with Owen Power going forward that to me is what you are acquiring here so when I look at this player I think he’s pretty good this is a pretty good idea i think he is a good player i think he is an upgrade for the Buffalo Sabres on their second pair i think he is a better player than Henry Yokiharu is and maybe by a good margin however even with him it’s not a solid thing they did not go acquire a 28-year-old veteran who’s been in the league for six years they acquired a guy that took some seasoning in the AHL finally got to the NHL at 24 years old and then last year had his best season at 25 years old however Utah had four guys they relied upon more than him on the back end ole Mada played more than him ian Cole Shawn Dery John Marino and Muel Serichev so actually he ranked sixth excuse me he ranked sixth on their blue line in average ice time last season this team is going to ask him to be at minimum the number four defenseman and if they trade Bo Byum there’s a very real chance that he is the number three defenseman in terms of usage behind Rasmosene and Owen Power that’s a big step up for him and you might believe because of the tools he has that he’ll be capable of stepping up and playing the way he has in a larger role but it’s at least a question about him so I like the player but it’s not a perfect idea and then the other option the other uh acquisition here Josh Don the son of Shane Don who began his career it was a really cool story in Arizona when he first played there he to me is closer to a throwin for this trade again kind of like some things about this player he is still pretty young only 23 years old he was a second round pick by the way meant to mention with Kessle Ring kessle Ring was a sixth round pick so he’s kind of developed really well here as a late round pick josh Don was a second round pick in 2021 and he has played 62 games in the NHL 11 for Arizona two years ago and then 51 this past year for Utah he also did play in the AHL last season and of course the year prior last year almost a point a game player in the AHL in the NHL 19 points seven goals in 51 games played now same with Castle Ring there are some things to look at in his offensive game and wonder all right there might be some growth there i watched a highlight reel of all the goals he scored last year i watched a couple of shift breakdowns and what I see is a player that actually has a decent shot but it’s not so good that he’s ever going to be I think a 20 goal scorer in the NHL he surprisingly actually scored a few goals on the power play last year utah had him in the net front on the second unit and of his seven goals three of them were actually on the power play almost half so I don’t expect him to do that for the Sabres but he’s done it in the past i think the reason not think no the reason he’s been acquired is a little bit bigger 6’2 200 lb tougher to play against throws his body around a little bit um but even more than that this is another addition in the name of defense that this player is going to play on the Buffalo Sabres third or fourth line and he is going to be a tough player to beat offensively you’re going to have a tough time going around him he’s going to take the puck away from you he’s going to block shots and that is where his value is going to be provided fourth line role to me like an upgrade from Sam Laferdy with a a smidgen of offensive upside you know I don’t expect him to ever become a guy that scores more than 15 goals a year but a second round pick that scores in the AHL like is there a chance that someday that translates to the NHL given he’s only really played one full season in the NHL even that was only 51 games i guess you have to give him some chance but I don’t think it’s likely at all that that’s ever going to happen for him so this is a third fourth liner which means to me he’s a throwin the meat of this deal is that Castle Ring is in it and again as we break these players down some nice things to like but they should not have cost the Buffalo Sabres JJ Purka they absolutely should not have and that to me is the biggest letdown of today is that the Sabres didn’t stand on business they did not stand on their own business they caved they cowered they panic traded a player that didn’t want to be there and they don’t like that and they are the quickest team to trade those guys that I’ve seen in the league i brought up this example again today the Tampa Bay Lightning had a young star at the time he was a highly thought of player jonathan Duan in 2016 told the Tampa Bay Lightning wrote a letter and tweeted it out through his agent same agent by the way Purka Allan Walsh that he’ll never play for the Lightning again said “My time in this organization is done.” And after that letter was written the Lightning didn’t trade him they didn’t trade him for pennies on the dollar like the Sabers did with Purka they got him back on the ice they said “You’re playing for us that’s the only way you’re playing.” and he played 92 games for the Lightning after that moment including a playoff run where he was almost a point a game player was fourth on the team that season in 2017 and then a year later after they’d repaired the relationship after he’d been playing they did trade him and they got adequate value back getting Muel Sergeev a player who was instrumental to them in winning Stanley Cups instrumental is maybe a little strong he was a big help he was a top pair defenseman a lot of the time that is how you do it tampa you say “No we’re not trading you for pennies we are going to you’re gonna play for us and we’ll respect you enough to look for trades and like what happened there oh someone offered us Muel Sergeev okay now we’ll trade you and we’ll do what you wanted.” The Sabres didn’t do that and I think they’re going to probably get crushed for it over the next couple of days and listen this is the bet you make when you got Kevin Adams going into year six to me everything is on the table when it comes to criticism of this organization how they operate and who is in charge at the moment all right when we come back how does this affect the Bo Byum trade because I do think there is one element of let’s wait and see here and that’s where you could think a little bit optimistically that’s coming back here on Locked On Savers today’s episode of the Locked On Savers podcast is presented by Monarch Money you’ve ever wished that managing your money felt easier with Monarch Money it can whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat it’s like having your own personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances monarch Money is more than a budgeting app it’s a complete financial command center you can track all your accounts investments and spending in one place so in addition to managing your money you’re also building wealth um right now you know I I like to I go out a lot to eat i am golfing a lot and my wife too is buying things and you like to keep track both of you together planning long-term goals it can add up really fast and Monarch Money really keeps that all into perspective and makes it a lot easier to track and keep those long-term goals in mind take control of your finances with Monarch Money use code lockdown NHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code lockdown NHL for half off your first year back here on the Lockdown Savers podcast the draft tomorrow by the way we haven’t forgotten about the draft but we are going to talk about that tomorrow morning looking at what the Sabres should do at nine overall which is just mostly going to be they should trade the pick but we’ll get into a couple of prospects too um Bo Byum so there was also a report overnight that a Bo Byum trade might be closer than ever and there was a rumor about their eight eight teams maybe being interested in Bo Byum and also that some teams are going to revisit this now that the Sabres wanting a right shot defenseman well they don’t need that anymore and if a team didn’t have that now they might call the Sabres back and see if they want something else for Bo Byum which obviously in this circumstance has to be a forward now that Purka is gone Bum is the Sabres number one trade chip and they need a top six forward right now I think the Sabres have three legitimate top six forwards on a good team three legitimate top six forwards and one of them’s injury-prone taage Thompson’s a legit top six forward alex Tuck is a legit top six forward and I think Josh Norris is too but he’s always injured so really it’s more like two and a half yuri Koulik i think Yuri Koulik is going to take one more big step and be a a critical top six guy but even last year 15 goals and nine assists i’m sorry we like some things about Yuri Kik and I think he looked good for a lot of that season but you need more production from an offensive player to consider him right now a true top six guy so that’s a hope i hope that he will be but I’m not locking that in stone right now it’s Tage and it’s Tuck mostly but that’s four guys that you would expect right now are going to be in that top six because even though Koulie’s got to take that step he’s going to get the shot to that’s still only four and who am I missing jason Zucker last year beginning on the third line was the best role for him i think you probably want to keep that zack Benson who ended the year on the top six think you want to see him show his ability to score goals before you really want to you know put him in ink in the top six so and and you need two guys so at minimum you need one and then it’s okay well it’s Zucker Zucker and Benson battle for the other one but really you need two and this is their best bargaining chip left sure free agency is an option they could trade Zack Benson they could trade Yuri Koulique and get older at one of those positions but Byum being traded is the one and if I were the Sabres right now you know that Marco Rossi offer I guess they don’t want him because he’s too small which again sweet that’s how smart teams do it right um Jordan Kyu no trade protection for another week i would be calling St louis off the hook right now trying to get them to take Bo and something else for Jordan Kyu but the Sabres need a top six player so that to me is the big shift here with Byum before Byum even for a first round pick it wasn’t the end of the world it’s not something I wanted to see them do um buy him for a right shot defenseman could have been an idea by him for a goalender could have been an idea i feel like it has to be a forward now there’s no circumstance or it also can’t be that you keep Oyum i don’t think you could keep Oyum anymore you just put a lot into that blue line with this value in Kessle ring the way that they just did so Byum now especially since I think there’s a lot to point to he’s not as good as some of his numbers show and that he seems to want out too that that asset needs to turn into a forward and when you look around again Kyru and Rossi are the two names I would really like to see the Sabres find their way to i think Jason Robertson the every day the passes might be a little less likely that they will end up doing that um that they’ll end up trading him away but if he was available he would still be my number one option but a lot tougher now without Purka to trade away so got to be a forward some way somehow all right Purka’s been traded and I hate it i wish he was still a saber and they just said “No we’re not trading you.” But here we are the draft tomorrow we’ll talk more about it tomorrow morning here on the show talk about a couple of prospects talk about some trade ideas um and more on the Lockdown Savers podcast you want more on the entire NHL draft uh be sure to check out Locked on NHL no offseason coverage like it every day they’ve got you covered look heading into tomorrow’s draft and free agency as we got a lot of big days coming in roster building here in the NHL so we’ll talk to you tomorrow on draft day here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day

The Buffalo Sabres have dealt JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth after months of trade speculation in exchange for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan. A package that has most Sabres fans feeling underwhelmed, if not angry, getting back two players that were just role players last season in Utah. The motivation for why Peterka wanted out is also in question now, as he was willing to sign a long-term extension in a smaller market, on a team that also misses the playoffs constantly. Did Peterka have a problem with Lindy Ruff? Were the Sabres not willing to pay him?

Also, a breakdown of Kesselring and Doan’s games, how much more they could grow, and how this deal impacts the Bowen Byram trade market.

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