How Can Sabres Fill Peterka’s Role? with Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

How Can Sabres Fill Peterka’s Role? with Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

paul Hamilton joins now on the Western Hotline good morning Paul
good morning how are you
i’m good i I actually want to start before we get to the draft or we get to the Sabres this uh Josh has had in the update the CBA being um extended Paul and going to an 84 game season um they they used to have 84 games right early 90s but I guess why they’ve really felt the need to add two more games and we also I wonder if we’ll even really notice because it’s such a small difference compared to 82 well it’s all money i mean you you get you get two more games of revenue out of it but for me I mean I I’ve always I know Brian Kosil and I have had this conversation probably for longer than 10 years the season should be shortened if you want better hockey i mean uh you should take 10 games off instead of you know always having it seems like you always have a team playing three and four or you know back to back or you know just a bunch of games and just trying to get through it type of a thing it’s like well we really can’t play the game we want to play we we’re going to have to play a different game here because we know we’re dead tired and uh we’re just going to have to see if we can get through it and get a couple of points or a point out of it and steal a point or have a goalender stand on his head or you know every time there’s a break like an Olympic break and you come back for probably the first three or four days you see fantastic hockey it’s just great because all the teams are rested they’re ready to go um sometimes it’s a little bit of sloppy hockey because they haven’t played in a bit but that’s okay and and you know but it’s fast hockey and it’s just it just you just enjoy watching it throughout the league uh and you know it’s it’s because you don’t have teams dragging and but they’re never going to do that because it’s going to take money out of the owner’s pockets
yeah it also could lead to I saw this being written about yesterday it could lead to the the season like the way they might do it is the season would start earlier maybe even into like late September and man like think about how not that the team in the finals will be complaining but how long a team could be playing i mean you could be playing from like the end of September into the end of June i mean the the length in which the season goes over the course of the calendar would be I think it just it already feels like it’s long enough on that front
well it’s just replacing two regular season game or two preseason games with two regular season games
right right cuz they’d be shortening the preseason in addition right which is you know what uh what it winds up with that’s where you would be if you’re going to back up a little bit and take two preseason games off the docket so um but yeah it’s because that last preseason game is is almost never including NHL players it’s all I mean that last preseason game is almost always the Rochester Americans
you know and and you know teams not using their NHL players so um you know it’s it’s it’s it’s one of those games anyway where it’s just a throwaway anyway i mean it’s it’s not very few coaches are playing players that are fighting for jobs or anything like that that’s usually already been taken care of by the last preseason game
paul Hamilton with us on the Western Hotline so Paul uh speaking yesterday to Michael Kessler and Josh Don they did Zoom calls with the media what did you learn talking to them for the first time
well they uh you know it’s it’s it’s a new beginning i mean Kessle Ring enjoyed the fir the first year of being in Utah and is going to leave a lot of different friends that he had but uh you know he’s excited for the role that he’s going to get in Buffalo it’s a you know an elevated role and something that he’s looking forward to and you know he had an opportunity to try it out last year because Utah had some injuries so he got to play top four minutes for quite a quite a long period of time last year because of a couple injuries that Utah had and he did very well with it his numbers were excellent with it and showed that plus you know I remember watching the World Championships and you know thinking to myself he’s pretty good hockey player i mean I he he had a lot of responsibility for Team USA at the World Championships when they won the gold medal and I remember thinking you know here’s a guy that stuck out and I think that’s part of the problem here as far as you know many folks thinking well you didn’t get enough for this and I think a lot of it is it who’s Michael Kessle ring is what you know people are saying or they they don’t know really what the Sabres got out of it and so I I understand that thought or even Josh Dome they may have heard of Josh Dome because of his father
but they may not know you know what type of player he is and you know what he brings to the table so you know I think that’s part of it you know where people are saying the Sabres didn’t do well in the return just because they got a couple of players where people are like “Well who’s that?” Right and and and it is betting on them to be able to continue what they’ve done playing in elevated roles for a whole season right Paul because if you look at like for the whole season I think Kessler Ring was sixth on their defense in average ice time and then Don was 11th amongst their forwards you make the right point about Kessle Ring though i was looking at this yesterday i think it was the first 50 games he played more than 20 minutes a night like 20 times and he didn’t do it from there on because they were healthy um at the end and he had good numbers at the start of the year so and here I mean you wouldn’t believe at all right Paul that he’s not going to play at least what 19 minutes a night if not 20 for this team
oh absolutely i mean I would be surprised if he doesn’t start with Owen Power and I mean he boy had a heck of a game against the Buffalo Sabres last year i mean he had a Gordy How hat-trick in one period
i mean he fought Beck Menstein early in the period scored a goal he is a bullet shot his his shot is
Oh he and Thompson went back and forth with the hardest shot last year and uh then he he uh undressed JJ Purka kind of weirded that that that it was and and had a a fantastic assist to Schmaltz right at the end of the period so he had a goal and assist and a a fight in one period against Buffalo and before the year before that he scored his first NHL goal here in Buffalo against his former teammate at Northeastern Devin Levi so uh he’s had some good success in this building
what about What about Don he’s the second piece of that trade for most looking at like what how much they should be valued he was a fourth liner a lot last year sometimes third line he actually got even on the power play he had three power play goals last year do you see him as this is a bottom six guy for a long time that’s a tough dude and is going to defend well or do you think there could be more there i mean he is not he’s not he’s only played 62 NHL games but like last year in the AHL he’s almost a point per game player he was a second round pick so do you see him as maybe having more in there than what we’ve seen offensively well
he’s got a heck of a shot i was listening to the beginning of uh Ray Ferraro and Darren Dreger’s podcast and that trade was the first thing they talked about and you know uh Ferraro thought saw Don quite a bit last year in the games that he did and and talked about how he goes it’s a young player and he said you could see the growth in him and he said you could see him he goes what many rookies do they’re just trying to find their way through the NHL and it’s their first year in the NHL They’re just trying to find their way and he goes he saw that in Dolan and he thinks there’s a good upside to him where you know he you may see some some better point production out of him than you saw in his rookie year uh with that shot he said uh here was a guy that as he was getting more used to it was very good on the forch check would get in there and you know start causing havoc and and just being a problem for other teams to be able to handle but um he saw an upside that could be there too now I don’t know if you’re talking an upside you I don’t think you’re talking an upside like a first line winger
or a top I should rather say topline winger
um but uh you know certainly a guy that uh you know could as he put it could be a good NHL player for years to come
just looking at the roster right now part of the reason I asked that is they are they have a lot of guys at forward right now if if you were to look at like just the list of their forwards and who kind of gets thought of as a bottom six guy Mloud Greenway Zucker add Don into the mix krebs Malenstein Laferty is still under contract we’ve talked about Zack Benson and how that probably is where he should be to start next year until he proves it maybe you think Quinn is that Paul they’re either going to move another name or two out or maybe I’m putting somebody into this lineup that shouldn’t be or they are seeing Benson or Zucker or Quinn maybe as somebody that they think will play in an elevated role this season yeah I mean once I took Peter out of the lineup quite honestly Quinn was the guy I wound up throwing into the top six now that’s without making a trade or I mean I would doubt that the forward group as we see it right now is what it’s going to be
um you know I I still like the line of Mloud Zooker and Greenway together i think that’s a very solid line that you can get out of there and I had Krebs with Malenstein and Don uh right now I probably wouldn’t have Laferdy in the lineup if if he winds up in Rochester that’s whatever mhm
you know I I I don’t think it’s the end of the world so Laferty right now would would be the extra guy um and Benson would still be up there i mean they in my mind they they have an opening for two top six forwards are they going to be able to accomplish that
well only time will tell but uh you know so and then if that happens maybe Quinn’s not in your lineup maybe he’s sitting out in the beginning and is going to have to earn his way back into the lineup uh you know with the way he played last year
do you feel like too whoever they add at forward there will be a mind paid to that player’s ability on the power play cuz they’ve really struggled on that unit for for two years and Purka listen for all the goals he scored a lot of them were not on the power play like if you look at the list of guys that have scored as many even strength goals as he has he’s got like the fewest of that list on the man advantage so not to say like that would be the sole reason they would add for that but it has been two years since they have really been an efficient unit and I wonder if whoever they add there that’s something that’ll be in the back of their minds
well if you’re adding a guy that is a top six forward and maybe a veteran you’re probably be Exactly you would assume that he’s a power play guy so I think that’s where your power play plus Norris you know starts healthy he really hasn’t been on the Saber power play except for a game and I think that was it so that’s a a new person on the power play koulique is a year older you know and and is I would expect is going to be a power play player in his career so uh you know for guys that are already on the team but I’m not sure guys we’re talking about the power play are even on the team yet uh that that can maybe help their power play
paul Hamilton with us on the Wester hotline okay Paul so the draft tonight nine overall adams has spoke pretty openly about you know being willing to trade the pick what are the odds you think they actually do trade the pick cuz even
I’m not going to not ask specific odds
i would have told you it was better than 5050 last year and nobody traded their pick that’s what that’s why I was going to ask because even as much as we might talk about it it is like I saw a list of top 10 picks that have been traded and it just doesn’t really happen that much in the NHL
no it doesn’t and when you think there’s going to be a bunch of trades is when they happen and when you don’t think there are is when they do happen it’s just the way it goes it’s impossible to know what would let the everything start happening or why it doesn’t happen it’s just uh I I think general managers they just get a little squirly it’s like “Oh I don’t want to trade the pick and then have it come back to haunt me or things like that.” So you know they they wind up making the pick i mean if you look at what Buffalo might be able to get out of that pick i mean uh you know certainly they’re not going to get the best defenseman unless they move up and which isn’t done that often either and Matthew Schaefer but uh who probably goes first overall but I mean they could get possibly the second defenseman overall i mean there’s a bunch of guys who you know we’ve we’ve talked about MKA Aches there’s Jackson Smith who uh is also in there played a Tri City last year some defenseman that they you know definitely could use so all or none of those three could be there you know at nine when when we’re talking uh so um you know they I I could really see if the Sabres do make the pick them being able to get a defenseman and maybe the second best defenseman in the draft
do you know how it’s going to work tonight like is Bman going to make all the picks because they’re live there but the GMs are remote will the GMs do it do you do you have any any clue
they probably do it the same way they did uh they always do where uh you know Bman announces it well you know brings the brings a team is in to say who they want as their pick
i mean now the NFL
the commissioner announces it but in the NHL they always brought the teams up on stage and the teams i mean Selene Dion announced the Montreal Canadians pick last year because it was in Vegas
which was kind of cool uh so uh you know it’s it’ll be interesting to see now um you know going I’m trying to think what happened during COVID when draft was uh remote
i think Adams announced them picking Owen Power from like the con the club level if I remember right they had something set up
you’re right that’s exactly what they did
yeah so maybe they’ll just do that again we were like Bman will tee it up i I guess I don’t know
yeah you know those type of legit logistics I don’t pay that much attention to so I’m now that you brought it up it’s the first time I’ve thought about it so I’m kind of spitballing and guessing as we go along here
one one way or another we’ll find out who they who they draft in the moment
paul Hamilton on the Western Hotline thanks Paul and uh enjoy the draft 7 o’clock tonight for coverage and we’ll be listening
yeah Brighton and Brian Kos will get us started i’ll be down at the I keep wanting to say the arena i will be down at the stadium uh there’s there used to be an arena down there for the first outdoor game but there won’t be tonight thanks Paul yeah
Paul Hamilton with us as the draft gets rolling tonight at 7:00

Joe is joined by Paul Hamilton ahead of the first round of the 2025 NHL draft on Friday night! The guys start off by discussing some of the proposed changes to the CBA that are reportedly being made. They question why the league felt the need to add an additional 2 regular season games. Then Joe asks Paul about his impressions of Michael Kesselring in his introductory press conference with the media, which Paul says went well and Kesselring seems excited for the opportunity. Paul then gets into the two players on the ice, highlighting Kesselring’s solid defensive play and impressive shot along with Doan’s hard working attitude and adaptability.

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