BFHS 7/1/25: What is the plan?

BFHS 7/1/25: What is the plan?

All right, happy league year everybody. The Baker Fab Hockey Show is live here on Tuesday, July 1st, 2025. Thank you everyone for hopping in here. If you’re watching on YouTube, you know the drill. Like this video, subscribe to the Sabres Prospects channel. If you’re watching over on Twitter, come on over and join a lot of people that have been populating the chat because as always, we’re running a little behind. That’s I’ll take the I’ll take the heat for this one, Matthew. I’ll jump on the grenade for you this time.
That’s a good teammate, you know.
Yes.
Even though it was not Chris’s fault. It was not Chris’s fault as usual. My fault.
Don’t tell him that. You’re the sensitive one. I can take the heat. Okay. All right. Let’s get the formalities out of the way. For those who don’t know who I am, I’m the old man with the wrinkles on the left, Chris Baker. You can find me on X at Sabers Prospects. With me as always, your Sabres writer for the Athletic. You can find all of Matthew Fairburn’s work at the athletic.com/sabers. And if you go there and you’re not a subscriber presently, and you click on one of his 15 stories, at least he’s probably written in the past couple of weeks, you can find out what the latest deal is. I think it might be a buck for a period of time, but go check it out. Like this video, subscribe to the channel. You can find the Baker Fabin Hockey Show on Apple Spotify, wherever get your podcasts, and you, as always, leave a fivestar review. All right, offseason, man. I’m rusty with all that stuff. But let’s just get to it tonight on the Baker Fairburn Hockey Show. RIP JBD. The Sabres did some business to open the league year. Much like how I have a pre a preference for blondes, the Sabres shown that they have a type at the NHL draft. But first, Matthew. Couple days ago, out goes JJ Purka to the Utah Mammoth. And in comes two dogs and Michael Kessler and Josh Don. I think that’s a proper place to start because it created a lot of chatter on social media, especially here in the Western New York region. I’m just going to pass it to you at a high level. Thoughts on the deal? I think that loyal listeners of this show kind of know where I was at with JJ Purka. I’d like to hear your assessment of the deal and just your thoughts on especially what the Savers got in return. Yeah, I think people who listened to the show also knew the name Michael Kessle Ring, right? Because he popped up a few times uh in our conversations. Not a guy that we necessarily thought Utah would move, but Purka probably not a player that a lot of teams around the league thought that the Sabres would move. And so high level, I’m okay with the trade for a few reasons. Number one is goes back to something that we talked about. I think the gap between the perception of JJ Purka and the reality of JJ Purka, there’s an assumption out there that he’s some sure bet to be an 80 90 point superstar winger for the next 10 years. I think that’s not a sure thing. I I don’t think he is destined to Who knows? I mean, he could get better. He’s going to be in a good situation in Utah in a, you know, place where he’ll be able to fit in playing on the rush with some really skilled players, but he’s not a complete player yet, and I don’t know if he ever will become a complete player in terms of the two-way game, the defensive impact. I think if you looked at what’s I found interesting may have mentioned this on the last show is that like analytics people seemed higher on Purka than Bum but we mentioned the gap between Purka Purka with Thompson Purka without Thompson pretty big gap in terms of expected goal share and Benson with Thompson was better with and without Benson basically the same. So, you know, it’s uh there’s better stylistic matches potentially on that top line. And I think what the Sabres did is they got back two players that they need. You know, they needed Michael Kessler, a a big right-handed defenseman who can play in the top four. He is a good puck mover. He’s got good offensive ability, but he’s also got some nastiness to his game, and he’s big, and he’s rounding out the the shutdown defensive component. And I think he still makes some mistakes in his own end, but I I think there’s a good fit there with Owen Power. They got Josh Don, who according to the tracking data at all three zones, uh Cory does some great work with uh zone entries and forchecking and and things like that. And he tracks forch check pressures per 60 and recovered dumpins per 60. And Josh Don, I think I sent you the scatter plot. He’s got them all, you know, plotted on there. Every player in the league. And Josh Stone’s like in his own category.
He’s almost off the upper right. He’s almost off the sheet.
You almost have to expand it. And yeah, you know, obviously he doesn’t play as many minutes as some of the other guys, but still in terms of pressures per 60. Dumpins recovered. This is a top end for checker who maybe there’s some offensive ability there, but if there’s not, you still have a really strong third line wing or fourth line wing, however it works out. Is the return light. I think it’s debatable. I I think getting a right-handed defenseman of Kessle Ring’s caliber is not the easiest piece to acquire as Kevin Adams has shown over the last five years that he’s been trying to acquire one. I think he is, you know, the idea is that the Sabres gave up the best player in the trade. I think we’ll see that. That’s how I feel about Kessle Ring, frankly. I think we’ll see. I think Kessle Ring has a chance to be the best player in this trade. the most impactful player in this trade. But the lingering question coming out of the deal is how do you replace the offense, right? So, I like the players they got back. I don’t mind getting rid of Purka, but it has to be the piece to a larger puzzle. And here we are, what are we five, six days after the trade. Can’t remember what day he was dealt. And we are wondering where the other pieces of the puzzle are. Yeah. Kevin Adams said he had a plan. I don’t know. I don’t think I don’t believe that moving Peter was part of the plan. So, he immediately deviated from the plan.
It was not. It was not. But, you know, like 100% it was not. They entered and he even said as much they entered the off season thinking they would sign JJ Purka.
Yeah.
And so, that’s the curious part of we have a plan, right? It’s like, well, the biggest piece of business that you’ve done wasn’t part of the plan. So, but yeah, just to to clarify, it was not part of the plan. And that is another important piece of context here is that JJ Purka to an extent forced their hand, right? He did not want to play here anymore. He made it clear he was not going to make it work in contract negotiations. And the calculus from Adams was, you know, are you gonna keep around a guy that doesn’t want to play here and drag this out or are you gonna try to be somewhat proactive? I would argue they weren’t proactive about the situation at all. You may, you know, you probably could have moved him, you know, at the deadline. Maybe you don’t get player for player deals. He was proactive enough, right? He got not totally boxed into a corner, but also wasn’t way out ahead of this situation either. But Purka made it clear he wasn’t going to play here. So that has to factor into how you look at the deal, too. Because I’ve seen some people look at it from a bird’s eye view, and I don’t think people in Buffalo do this. Maybe they do, but they look at it as a cost-saving move. Like the the Sabres didn’t want to pay Peter and thus traded him for two cheap players, but I don’t really see it that way because I think they would have paid the player. Yeah, couple I guess. So for me, mentioned it last week, I thought it was in their best interest to make the deal sooner rather than later. From that perspective, it was nice to see Kevin pull the trigger on this. Two, I think that getting a two for one as the Sabres are an organization that’s on a lot of team no trade list. We talk about it ad nauseium. You you have to draft and develop. When you do draft and develop a player that gets to the status at Purka, got whatever that status is, he was very attractive as a commodity. Got to fill two holes and he did that. He achieved that kind of in the back of my mind with this one. I think it’s fairly well known that JJ Purka was a favorite of ownership. Terry Pagula really liked JJ Purka. And what does this do to the psyche of Kevin Adams who maybe had this reputation as kind of just listening to Terry all the time and asking for permission and to have that conversation with ownership to get them to talk them into trading Terry’s favorite player? Do you think this frees Kevin up to really take control and he has, you know, Yarmmo in his corner and Eric Stall to kind of help talk him up to go have that conversation with Terry Pagula? Do you think there’s anything to that psyche where this was a milestone in his career as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres or am I just making up? You might be making up. I’m not sure. I mean, I think it could be. Um, I think we’ll see, right? Like anything with Kevin Adams at this point for me it’s I’ll believe it when I see it right I’ll believe that he has crossed some threshold into look we’re in year six I I think
the time for milestone trades should be beyond him but here we are doesn’t matter I’m just saying that for the moment in itself I think it was a big thing
and it was a it was a different kind of trade because it was a young 23-year-old player like you said, who was a favorite of ownership, one of his, I would say Adams’s best draft pick, right? So, there’s, you know, something to that piece of it as well where you’re clinging to your own players, right? He’s been accused of of falling in love with his own guys too much.
Well, that’s part of it. So, so I think there is there’s something to that and there’s something to the idea that he just got rid of a guy that might have ended up being a problem, right? I know it was I think it was easy enough to do with Jack Eel, Sam Reinhardt, Raasmus Version, and it was like, “All right, who wants out? Line up at the door. I’ll get the best deal I can for you.” This one was a little bit different. This was the first real dispute at this stage of Adams’s tenure and build, if you want to call it that, of the Sabres. So, milestone in a sense. I’ll agree with you there. But I guess whether it change dramatically changes who he is as a general manager, I guess we’ll see. Because to your point about having a plan in the off season or you know we have a plan he was real confident about it. Now I don’t know if it was like we have a plan to trade JJ Purka or it’s like we have a plan for this whole off seasonason to get things fixed but the biggest piece of that plan so far was trading a guy that you really didn’t want to trade that really wasn’t part of the plan. So it’s like
so what’s the plan?
I think Right. So, I think you’re right that the trade could be a monumental milestone moment for Adams, but until I see the rest of it, I guess I guess we’ll see.
Yeah. No, I hear you there. I mean, I’m still wondering, you know, we’ll get to the lineup and everything else. And, you know, you can’t really get to the lineup till we recap everything else that they’ve done. But, no, I’m I’m good with it. I do think that Utah got the best player right now because offense is offense. But the Sabres sorely needed to get some defensive help. Don is a dog. I don’t think there’s a lot of people in this town that really know the player much. I think the the lack of name value coming back between Kessle Ring and Don led to that immediate knee-jerk reaction from the fans. I think once it sunk in and maybe they kind of heard some other things um and and maybe allowed an opportunity to soak in a different perspective. I think some fans, not all, there’s still a lot of fans I think that are pretty pissed off about the trade. To your point, I can rationalize it because they filled some holes. They’re trying to change the way they play. Also, if there were problems with the player that they moved out, everything gets better. The locker room gets better. Practices become crisper. the message. I think you have a greater chance of getting the guys to come together. That’s coach’s number one job. Get those guys to come together. So, I I we’ll see.
Isn’t it obvious there were there was some sort of problem, right? Like
I think so. Yeah. Actually, yes. Have you seen the um Did you see the Sabres thank you note for JJ Purka?
No, I kind of missed that. Was there one? No. Yeah, they there I think Utah had one within an hour for uh Castle Ring and Don like by the time I woke up in the morning. You know, Adams barely mentioned him by name, you know, in his press conference. No, I mean, he was in tears when he traded Kylo Poso. Like,
gave Dylan Cousins a hug.
Gave Dylan Cousins a hug. Was Yeah, he was he had a lot of nice things to say about about Dylan and not hardly any about JJ on his way out the door, which I don’t blame him for. I’m just saying like it doesn’t take much reading of the tea leaves to understand and look at the body language from Peter late in the season. Add all the pieces up the performance from I I think a piece of this that’s interesting. Two other pieces of this that we should touch on. I think we can just we can just say that he was enough of a problem that they wanted to trade him. even the fact that he didn’t want to play here or that whatever it was for whatever reason. You know,
can the locker room be better without him? Absolutely. I I think you have to be careful about who you pay. I always remember this being a big thing when I I covered the NFL also. It’s like guys around the room get paid attention to who gets paid, right? And if Purka had gotten what he wanted, well, I he got what he wanted here, right? he got out. But if that guy becomes your highest paid forward, I think it’s how are you building the rest of your team? You’re you still need a right-hand defenseman. And who else was out there, right? You’re ended up with maybe what Nick Perix, but what if he decided to go to Nashville anyways? There wasn’t really right-handed defenseman. You’d end up with Connor Timonss in your top four or JBD. You know,
Matt, what message would you be sending to Alex Tuck? another, you know, fair point, right? Like his contract negotiation, which he hasn’t signed a deal uh yet. He’s eligible as of today, but that piece of it, I think, is a good point by you that as a coach, you’re trying to bring a team together and you might get some addition by subtraction here, but can’t ignore the fact that you lost the goal. So, a couple other components of this trade that I want to hit on are I’ll start with other deals. So, the idea that they could have gotten more other deals that might have been out there. I think it’s pretty safe to say that
a Marco Rossi package was on the table, right? Michael Russo reported that and he’s rock solid obviously on Minnesota. I don’t care about Marco Rossi at all. like that one does not bother me even a little bit.
You’re getting the same type of personality I think with Rossi.
He’s in the middle of a contract dispute, right? He’s mad that he got pushed down to the fourth line in the playoffs. And I don’t know that he dramatically makes your team dramatically better.
You still need again a right-handed defenseman. He’s got some compete to him. He’s got some, you know, some some hustle and
uh some for check to him. He’s a good player, but he is not big and Minnesota didn’t view him as a playoff type player, which is why his minutes got cut in the playoffs, at least not at this stage in his career. So, that one doesn’t bother me. Kyru was floated out there by Sarahi. He thinks that Kyru, he was a little wishy-washy on it, but he said he thinks that Kyru might have been in play. Now, was that Kyu for Purka straight up? Was it Kyu for Purka Plus? You know, that’s a tricky one. The other piece of that though, again, where exactly does Kyu fit and still we’d be sitting here talking about the need for defense, right? So, you know, he’d be eating up a little over 8 million in cap space. He’s a great goal scorer. He can play some center. That’s probably how you would use him, right? that you would use him as a center on your second line maybe with Zooker and and Tuck potentially and have Benson with Norris and Thompson but you know then you’re I don’t know maybe you keep Byum at that point and you try to you know find a way to make things work and that one maybe but again we don’t know what other pieces and we don’t really have that one firm you know Sarahi didn’t have a ton of details on what that might have looked like So, that one doesn’t bother me. That one’s in a different category than Rossi. Like, I I get why people see the name Kyu, look at the goal totals, and get a little bit ticked off about that one. The other deals that have been floated out there, a lot of them were were futures based, right? Like multiple first round picks or I think everybody
Chicago third overall. Maybe
maybe unconfirmed. Yeah. And so how many people would have been pissed if they traded Purka for a couple of draft picks?
Yeah.
You know, who has the patience around here for that? Not to say that those valuewise wouldn’t have been good deals. Like if you got a an unprotected 2026 first and an extra 2025 first, you know, you get a a Gavin Mckennel lottery ticket and an extra piece of currency in this draft. That might have worked out, but everybody is on Adams and the Sabres to win now. And they got two pieces that should help towards that goal. Like they filled two needs for the price of one. The problem is they opened up a need in the process that they haven’t yet filled. Which brings me to my other point. Unless you you want to hit on those. Keep rolling. No, I just Well, no. The one thing I was going to say about Kyru, positional versatility is nice because I do believe he could play center even though he hasn’t done it a lot in the NHL. Played a lot of center in the O, but not sure that felt like more of just amassing talent necessarily than it did building a team to me. And I hate saying it because he’s a hell of a player. But we talked about it on the phone, you and I, and like what do you where does it go? like where does it fit? And it wasn’t as easy as you might think by just adding a guy that can score 35.
I liked the idea. I don’t think this was even on the table, but like Jake Neighbors from St. Louis, I like
he solves more of what ails this current group of forwards.
Like he give he you can picture that because he fills a skill set need that you didn’t have. So
old school Eastern Conference type of hockey. So, the Kyru one was a little tricky, but yeah, there’s not a whole lot else. And again, these are all deals that we’re not entirely sure all the pieces of, right? The Rossi one, it sounds like, was Rossi plus, you know, picks, prospects, you know, maybe another roster player, different packages thrown out with Rossi, but when it’s centered around Rossi, I get why they wouldn’t go down that road. I really do. So, the other piece here, did they get enough? Did they not? Who knows? You know, who knows? Well, time will tell. I I don’t mind the guys they got back. When it comes to replacing the scoring, they also before the draft, was it before the draft or Yeah, I think it was
uh signed Jack Quinn to a two-year extension, 3.375 average annual value. As of this moment, he’s sort of your number one candidate to replace some of those 27 goals that you lost. He and probably Zack Benson, right, are Yeah. I think it’s going to be by committee replacing Purka’s goalc scoring load because Don could theoretically Hessle Ring scores from the blue line, right? Like I mean not a lot but
you know
but also there’s the uh the objective was to allow fewer goals allows give up a few you know score a few less give up much less you would hope and you become perhaps a better team but the Quinn signing my knee-jerk was that it was too much money And it strikes me as a I don’t mind it now. You know, you see the market play out and what some other guys get and you’re like, “Okay, he he didn’t earn this, but based on having a lousy season and still getting 39 points and his age and his draft pedigree and the injuries, all the context, like it’s it’s fine. But you’re sort of caught in the middle here where he gets a decent chunk of change. But if he really goes off and bounces back, you haven’t really baked any upside into this contract. Like you haven’t made a bet on Jack Quinn. But there’s also, you know, you didn’t go the one-year route either. So it’s a little bit of an in between. I guess it’s a bridge, but uh you almost had to bridge him. I don’t know that you could have bet long term on Jack Quinn after what you saw last year, but I think Jack Quinn will be better off without JJ Purka. Uh I think getting rid of JJ Purka should serve as a little bit of a wakeup call for Jack Quinn. You know, these two guys
and Cousins. Yeah,
I think the wakeup phone started ringing the day Cousins was moved.
The kid line, right? you know, the
they’re going to play together for 15 years and none of them could order a drink yet and now they’re all gone. Which goes back to, you know, the plan, right? Uh like the plan to build a fourth line that was going to roll teams over and one guy’s left. The plan to have the kid line that was going to, you know, dominate for um you know, however many years. And Quinn should do some growing up this summer and if he is seriously committed to his training should come back and help you replace some of those goals. 18 months ago, people probably would have said you were crazy if you said JJ Purka was going to be the better player. Maybe not crazy, but like 18 months ago, definitely 24 months ago, people would have said, “Come on, like Jack Quinn’s the better player, right?” And a lot can change in a couple of years, but all of the injuries are part of that. And Peter got more opportunity because of it. And I’ve been down on Jack Quinn. I think anybody who listens to us knows knows that. But I also look at it and say that potential is still in there, but man, the skating’s got to improve. He’s got to be better away from the puck. He seemed like he had a harder time adjusting to Lindy Ruff than just about anybody on the team. And we’ll see if he he has a different approach come September. But all of a sudden, he’s like the again one of the most important guys until they bring in somebody else, right? We’ll see what else they do. And we’ll get to what they’ve done here on July 1st, which is not a lot, but there’s not a lot of candidates that have walked through the door to replace those goals. And so, a bounce back from Quinn would would go a long way.
Yeah, they need him to play some big boy hockey coming out of the shoot. They need him to really work his ass off. maybe this new strength and conditioning staff can sink their teeth into him on the thought that Quinn got paid more than maybe what he was deserving. I understand it’s not everything, but AFP did have him on a short-term deal, a two-year deal. Was going to come in just shy of 3.5 per their projections. He got shy of 3.5. What was it? 3.3 3.375. Okay. So, I mean, I guess my point in bringing up their projection is they’re usually right around market and what happens. And so, it seems like he got what the league thought that he would despite not scoring a goal until December 15th. He did have 39 points, right?
That’s what I mean. Like, terrible season and had 39 points
and and still have 39 points.
A lot of that came when the Sabres were out of it, right? And so, well, yes, of course,
it’s still hockey, right? Still games, right? They were still playing NHL teams, but I think he had 16 I forget the number. I had it in my story when I wrote uh about the contract extension, but it was like 16 points in his last 15 games or something like that. Um, so he finished the season really strong, but his on ice shooting percentage was also
pretty high toward the end of the year. So
it well yes. So his overall shooting percentage was I’m looking at just the month of March. Let’s forget those last couple of games in April for a second. I would take this month every month of the season. He had four goals, seven assists in 15 games. So 11 points in 15 games. He shot 20%. Okay.
In March, but he scored against Philly, scored against Washington, scored against Ottawa. It’s not like he was, you know, beating the Sisters of the Poor, you know, with his goals. It’s when you get in, you know, he had a goal and assist in his last game of the season against Philly. They were definitely out of it then. Kind of kind of came back down to earth in in April. But I don’t know. We’re going to talk about where he fits or just because they signed him does it mean that he’s here to start the season? Because I’m really curious about that’s
what happens here. Okay. So, I want to get to that.
Um, hey, we are almost half an hour in.
Hit the like button for Matthew. He’s been working his bag off down there. He’s been at development camp in the in the free air conditioning. He’s been watching the eight forwards at the Sabres have in development camp taking copious notes on what’s going on down there to that. We’ll see.
Yeah, I know. We do. We We probably will. We We probably will. We should. We should because it’s topical and it’s not going to be topical in a week. Um you mentioned the plan. We mentioned at the top. RIP JBD by the way. JB, big fans of JBD, the Baker Fairburn hockey show. We pulled we poured a 40 out on the curb yesterday when he was not qualified. That was a tough one for the show.
Um, but it is kind of odd because it goes back to the plan. So, let’s rewind to season ending press conference. Matthew, can you refresh the audience on what Kevin Adams said about Jacob Bernard Dao Darker at the end of the year? JBD. See, I can’t even say it. That’s why we just call him JBD. Let me find the exact quote while you update people on what exactly has happened here. Um
yeah, so JBD out uh not qualified uh signed today with the Detroit Red Wings. Along the way today, the Sabres did some other housekeeping on day one of the league year, ressigning Ryan Mloud, resigning Tyson Kak, three-year deal. Ryan Johnson gets a three-year deal. first year of that is two-way and then the second and third years he’s making the full 775 his defensive partner Rochester Jack Wthbone resigned and we’ll get to the other did you do you have the quote up while we’re talking about JBD we’ll finish up the other moves because I think we want to get into a little more detail some of the other moves that they made today but those are the guys that they retained so when asked whether he was looking for a better partner for Owen Power Kevin Adams said it was a long answer. I’ll just read it. You know, I think and he sighed. He had a sigh. This is noted in the uh transcript. It’s a tricky thing to try to explain and I want to say it the right way. I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job of helping Owen in terms of just that guy that’s out there on the ice with him every game for his first few years. I haven’t been able to get that right person. In saying that, I talked to Owen today about that in terms of what does he feel like he needs in someone next to him and what makes sense. And it’s interesting. He said, “I have no problem playing with anybody. I have had no issue with anybody I’ve played with over my career. Just the one thing that helps him is someone who can move the puck and be clean with the puck touches.” And here’s the part of the quote that’s relevant to our conversation. It’s why I thought he and Bernard Docker played pretty well together because JBD is pretty simple with the puck and makes good decisions. So, I guess what I’m getting at is it would be great to get an all-star right shot defenseman that can be next to him for the next bunch of years, but it doesn’t always work like that in terms of acquiring that player. So, we’ll look at it, but I think just figuring out what that mix is is something that we probably have to look at and do a better job of this summer with our decor overall. So, Heath, Bernard, Docker, and Owen Power look good together. I mean, Owen Power is a top four defenseman, right? Your number two, you know, $8.3 million number one overall pick defenseman. And you thought JBD looked pretty good with him. He doesn’t even get a qualifying offer. And today signed a one-year deal for 875,000 with the Detroit Red Wings. So, a guy that had enough demand that he got signed on day one of free agency. So, not a total afterthought, right? He didn’t get a huge deal, but you know, he got essentially his qualifying offer. What confuses me about this is you have I mean people are really pissed about this which uh makes me smile because JBD has been such a big part of this show. So um it’s part of why part of why I love doing this show. Love our our listeners, our community. like Sabres fan, like the fact that the Sabres have enough fans that are pissed about that care enough still that they’re mad about this situation. I love it. Like those are our people, right? Um
and they’re not wrong in this situation in my opinion because I’ll start by saying I don’t, you know, I’ve seen some people say, “Oh, they gave up a second round pick for Bernard Docker.” I don’t really think that’s the calculus of the trade, but the fact of the matter is he came over in a very significant trade. Dylan Cousins and Dennis Gilbert for Josh and Dylan Cousins, Dennis Gilbert in a second round pick.
Second round pick. Yeah,
for Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard Docker. The second rounder wasn’t for Bernard Docker straight up. It’s hard to parse what was for what, right? But as the trade stands now, cuz Gilbert was a UFA, so the fact that he went to Philly and didn’t resign in Ottawa is different calculus than what the Sabres did here with Bernard Docker. To not extend him a qualifying offer is really confusing to me because he gets signed pretty quick at the very least seems like he would have been a trade chip, right? Like there were contract projections based on what Bernard Docker had done that had him making like two million bucks on a three-year deal.
Yeah. like, you know, it’s like this is not a nobody player. In 15 games that he played, once he got healthy and got his visa situation straightened out, he had four points. He was plus three and he had a better than 50% expected goal share and he played
he was hungry. He played hungry.
He He fought. He got in a fight and he’s not a fighter. Like, he wanted to be here. He competed. He played pretty well. He’s right-handed. He’s 25 years old. He’s a former first round pick. Kevin Adams just spent the whole weekend telling us how hard it is to find right-handed defenseman. And this is a mildly useful one as at the very least a sixth or seventh defenseman, good depth righty that balances out your lineup.
Part of what I can’t quite wrap my head around with this is you sign Jacob Bryson in March to a one-year deal. Bryson’s lefty, smaller, and not as useful. And so Bryson will probably end up playing in the AHL at times this year, I would think. But the eagerness to sign Bryson and then to not even let things play out a little bit with Bernard Docker, right? Qualify him and see where it goes. Maybe you trade him, maybe you keep him, maybe you just have him play on an 875 deal like Detroit’s going to do. And you make that bet on a 25-year-old right-handed defenseman. He So, they got rid of Clifton in the Conor Timonss deal. This is the other sort of piece of this. They trade Connor Timonss or they trade Clifton and another second rounder, this year’s second rounder, for Connor Timonss and a prospect. So, you’re sort of paying to get rid of Clifton’s contract a little bit there. It was a weird trade. Yeah. Trying to get rid of Clifton’s contract because the prospect is like an ECHL guy mostly.
Bivo is Yeah, he’s a Coast guy.
He He hasn’t really he may be playing Rochester, but it’s not as if doesn’t seem like he has serious
He’s a minor league foot soldier. We’ve seen him at the prospects challenge. So Timonss was traded at the deadline along with Connor Derer for a fifth round pick. So they’re talking about well I shouldn’t say they Kevin Adams talking about Timonss over the weekend as a guy they’ve been tracking for a while that like if they had a chance to add him. He got moved at the deadline for a fifth round pick along with another player that probably could have been a nice flyer for the Sabres, Connor Der. He’s a you know a hustle energy guy on some intensity. I don’t know. If you were keen on this player for so long, wouldn’t that have been the time to make the bet? So, the asset management, I actually wrote this down. The uh the second round picks. So, here’s what the the second round pick thing.
You’re going to make the JJ thing sting even more when you go through this.
Well, there’s that.
For the for the fans that are stung, really stung by it. Yeah. I’m I don’t like that it’s being thrown out there like, oh, it’s just a se, you know, second round pick. Second round pick. Like, second round picks don’t mean anything. Blah blah blah. Like, they can. Two of the biggest RFAS to sign in the last week, Matthew N and JJ Purka, both second round picks. Like, those are lottery tickets that you want. They’re not lottery tickets that you want to throw away. So, the second round picks, if I have the list right, hold on a sec.
Matthew’s got the uh whooping cough.
If I haven’t uh missed anything, and you could probably catch me on this if I have because you’ve got an encyclopedia knowledge of of this stuff. But 2020, they picked JJ Purka. He’s gone. 2021, they took Pipov, who hasn’t come over yet. if he does, might be a useful player. Kissakov, they did not extend a qualifying offer to Kishikov. He’s gone.
Yeah.
2022, they took Tobias Lane. They just signed to an entry-level contract. Far from a sure thing to pan out into an NHL player. Mhm.
2023, they had three of them. Wahlberg, Sturbach, and they traded one in the Jordan Greenway deal.
Yep. So that second round pick got them Greenway who they’ve since resigned to a you know deal $4 million.
Sturbach and Wahberg not at development camp. Go ahead.
Not at development camp. Done developing I guess. Um 2024 Adam Cleber and they traded one for Beck Malenstein. 202 Muenstein 2025 they traded as part of this Clifton for Timman swap. in 2026 is already gone as part of the Dan Cousins trade.
Yeah.
Not the best use of second round picks uh over the court. The best one that they I don’t know what are the best ones that they’ve had. Purka obviously, but he’s gone. So I guess what they got Kessle Ring and Don now. Do I put that in as assets acquired? But that
Let’s Let’s use the trade tree. Yeah.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W Wahberg and Popov 10 So
be solid.
They’ve had 10 in uh Adam’s tenure and have thrown them away recently. Like recently they’ve been throwaways, right? And but they’re not nothing. Like there’s some good players that get picked in the second round. And we just spent the weekend everybody was getting excited about Bedcowski, the third round pick. Like
Mhm. Second rounders are occasionally quite useful. They’re useful for acquiring players certainly, but you can uh you can find some good draft picks there, too. So, if you’re upset about Jacob Bernard Docker, I don’t blame you because it feels like somewhat careless asset management at the bottom of the roster. Yeah. I mean, he’s used two second rounders to get a fourth liner, which I don’t have any problem with Beck Menstein, but I think that, you know, a fourth liner and a 56 D. I don’t know. It’s tricky. Yeah, it’s um I don’t know. I thought that the deal, the Clifton deal was a a big price to pay, but to your point, I think this is where you’re going with this. When you move out Clifton, it makes not qualifying JBD even more suspect because he’s a right shot. And because of the glowing review that he had in the postseason press conference, can’t imagine JBD said, “I don’t want to be qualified.” And why would they do it anyways?
Right. It Yeah. Again, it’s like you’re Jacob Bernard Ducker. You’re gonna take
Yeah. what we’ve given you.
He played pretty well. He was fighting for the boys at the end of the year. Like I I don’t know. Is it much to do about nothing? Maybe. But Lindy has made a big deal and so has Kevin Adams about the left right balance on defense. And you just took a piece away, a piece of lineup flexibility. As it stands, you have Byum Dene Power Castle Ring and Samuelson Timmons, which is fine. You know, I guess Ryan Johnson and Bryson are your depth guys right now. Maybe something comes back in the if there’s a buy room trade. Steve Noble points out in the chat here. I’ll throw it up instead of just reading it. Josh Don was a second round pick like
in his second year of the draft. Yeah.
I mean, we don’t have to go through the second rounds of the last however many drafts, but if there’s somebody out there yelling loudly about how second round picks don’t matter, I just think it’s a load of junk. Like, no, not
how many how much of their roster I mean, you know, their bottom six, how much of it has been built in the second round? Like half of it between Greenway, Don, and uh Malstein. So, I mean, it’s it matters. But now I’m I’m looking at the the defense depth chart and thinking, man, I would have felt a lot better if Bernard Docker was sort of your seventh waiting for, you know, Timmons to slip up or get hurt or castle rings banged up and you you can plug a hole there, but aren’t you going to have the same problem to an extent until you add another right shot, especially if you trade away Byum, who he’s not right-handed, But who’s playing with Dene then? You know, the only thing I see this is maybe there’s a little bit of a pathway for Ryan Johnson and or Jack Rthbone to plug those minutes at a similar dollar they’re managing. I don’t know what what are they I don’t even know what they’re at. I haven’t looked after today the number of contracts that they’re carrying right now. It does make the Bryson thing, you know, I don’t want to beat the dead horse there, but we kind of called it out the minute that that deal happened. It’s just
I don’t think it’s beating a dead horse at all. All of a sudden, it’s relevant again because it’s like you just squeezed out a guy because you had to have Bryson in March in March before you had made your plan. You hadn’t even made your plan and you had that that had to get done. Had to do it. And when I asked about why, the answer was about how much how great of a teammate was, how how much he loved being here, how how much he loved being a saber, all these things which are all true. And he is A+ guy. Like absolutely one of the nicest guys, loves Buffalo. Why did it need to get done in March? He probably would have been fine waiting it out. Yeah.
Right.
A player that they didn’t qualify a year ago, by the way, and still came back and signed,
right? like a lot of goodwill built up with this player. He really likes it here. Like why of that guy of all guys do you need to like shoehorn into the plan when you probably could have easily waited until July 3rd to see how else everything shook out and added him as your two-way eighth defenseman, ninth defenseman organizationally. Back of my mind, I was thinking when he wasn’t qualified that they were going to do the Bryson thing and maybe just say, “Hey, we want to bring him back, but maybe at the same salary or pay cut as opposed to giving him the bump that he gets with the QO, but it didn’t happen.”
No,
didn’t happen.
I mean, this as soon as he was not qualified, his plan was to go to market. And so, I don’t know if you were bet, but the qualifying offer was what 860,000 something like that.
What were you? Yeah.
You gonna save 100 grand?
Yeah. I don’t know. But it brings me back to what is the plan. That’s how we got into JBD. It wasn’t to, you know, say we’re pouring a 40 out on a curb, all that stuff. I mean, that’s fun to do because JBD we’re, you know, we were both boys with him. We JBD, we hardly knew Ye. But what is the plan, right? It’s what is the plan? I guess we have to find out. Pierre LeBron said this could go into the later in the summer. Maybe there’s a plan. Maybe Bo and Byron gets traded before we hit end stream tonight. Who the hell knows?
I saw I don’t know if it was Mccrell or one of the guys in the chat was saying, you know, Byron Byron might get dealt
before this podcast is over. I guess we’ll see. Maybe then we’ll know what the plan is. We mentioned Connor Timonss coming in in that deal in the Clifton deal. Timmans, uh, capable player. I’ll tell you what, when you look at his numbers when he had that short stint in Pittsburgh, I think it was less than 20 games that he played. Um he was pretty good with them in terms of his metrics. His his offensive production was up, but it’s not really about that. You know, a guy that blocked shots. Pittsburgh really controlled the puck more when he was out there. I think his Fenwick and Corsy numbers are both on the better side of 50%. 4.69 block shots per 60 for Timonss last season. I don’t mind that number. wasn’t leading the way, but for the minutes that he played decent. So, you know, I don’t want to sit here and say like, you know, speak about JBD as like he was some kind of key piece or anything like that. For me, it was I think missed opportunity to have the the NHL ready depth and a guy that was hungry and everything else, but um Timonss does help you maybe understand it a little bit. Getting that guy in here more size, maybe a little bit more hardcore defensive acumen perhaps, but we’ll see, right? We’ll see how he how he meshes playing up with Samuelson likely. And other moves uh today, Alex Lion comes in. We talked about maybe not going into camp with just Levi and UPL as a tandem. So now Alex Lion comes in. two years 1.5 Aav for him Justin Danforth kind of an interesting one and I don’t think it’s just a yarmoka line and love fest here with this player Danforth this organization goes back far with him I think his first full-time professional contract was with the Rochester Americans when he came out of Sacred Heart which is now a long time ago but a high compete guy I think you looked into some Justin Danforth numbers but he comes in two years 1.8 8 million per
per right thoughts on you want to follow up anything on Timonss thoughts on Danforce
Timmans can see Key Bank center from his parents cottage
across the way Crystal Beach almost or
yeah something like that I don’t know from so he can see it um the smoldering but he also said I heard good things about the city it’s like from across the That that was interesting. Yeah, it’s like
he’s a Bills fan, I think.
Okay,
so he’s got that going for him. Um Danforth also in that all three zones for checking data among the best in the league at recovered dumpins per 60. And again, he’s not playing as many minutes, that caveat, but good at getting the puck back. You know, you’ve got now all of a sudden a couple of guys that are much better for checkers than just about anybody they had on their roster last year, maybe outside of Benson, you know, has that skill set. Might give you a clue about how they want to play a little bit. And Danforth, so they traded Sam Laferdy for a 2026 sixth round pick. got that $2 million off the books, got Danforth’s 1.8. Probably fills a similar role, right? He played 45 of his 61 games at center last year, I believe, and 16 of them at right wing. So, a little center wing versatility, which made my antenna go up a little bit in regards to, you know, could Payton Krebs be part of a package at some point to to get you something? Um, maybe. But either way, he’s probably what? Bottom line, rightwing Malenstein now, maybe the extra forward, depending on how it all shakes out. Uh, I think it’s peak. You’re going to need some PK mules out there and it’s going to be hard to take him out of the lineup. So you got Greenway, you know, on the left side you have Benson, Zooker, Greenway, Malenstein. On at center you have Norris, Koulique, Mloud who signed four by five Krebs. And at right wing you have Thompson, Tuck, Don, and Danforth and Quinn. So Quinn has to slide in somewhere. Somebody’s got to come out. Does Krebs come out? And you go Danforth, Greenway, Malenstein on your fourth line, and you go Mloud. Um, Quinn and don’t
I have a hard time seeing where Quinn truly fits. And I mentioned this today. I said, and Marty was up doing the TSN thing, so I was on with Duffer and kind of talking a little bit about Quinn. And I said, I don’t I don’t know where he fits. And someone on Twitter, I think Mr. Gross, maybe you’re in here, so shout out. He said, Chris, how are you? Because I mentioned how I’m I’m still kind of cool about keeping Byum, even though I don’t expect it to happen. He said, “How are you going to replace Peter’s goals?” And you mentioned Krebs. Good call out, by the way, I think on Krebs. We haven’t talked about him a lot in the past couple episodes, but now with the Danforth signing, Krebs becomes a possible chip. You talking to Pittsburgh? Because to replace goals, I want to go back. I want to talk about Brian Russ one more damn time. And do you do you give them a choice of like take two choose two of these three? Krebs, Quinn, Ryan Johnson. You’ve given up a lot. Got to get something back. Maybe you get Maybe you get another second back. Pittsburgh has three seconds next year. I’ll take the Winnipeg one. But would you do that? Would you do something like that? Then you can kind of clear a log jam a little bit. You’re you’re offering three former first round picks. Three first round picks. Solves a Quinn issue. It does solve a lot. Sounds like a lot, but it’s like
it feels a little heavy a little bit for
but I value Rust’s overall presence on this roster. Forget the goals,
the leadership, the offense, the
cup experience.
He’s exactly personalitywise what it seems like they’re after. you know, just Kessle Ring and Don, two guys that are, you know, really positive locker room influences, I think, and mature. Even though age-wise, you know, they’re not super old, there’s a maturity about them. And Rust would elevate that to another level. He’d be like another Zooker in a way. Um, they did play together in Pittsburgh for a bit. So, I feel like you could match those two up. You could, you know, put you could have a little bit more lineup flexibility. I think if you had Rust compared to Quinn, you’d have a little bit more certainty, too, in terms of what you’re getting offense wise.
Got a little bit more jam in your lineup.
He’s not perfect, but he’s, you know, being 33 and but he’s got three years left on that deal, a little more than five million per. I mean, thought he was a decent bet earlier in the summer. I still think, you know, now that the trade protection has has gone and there’s um, you know, maybe Pittsburgh is trying to recoup whatever they can for him. I mean, Ryan Johnson at 775 for the next three years is a nice little nice little asset. I mean, he’s a usable NHL player right now
because I like Ryan Johnson. You know this, right? And I don’t think I think that a team would be higher on Quinn. The whole get him out of Buffalo factor. I feel like you’re giving up a lot potentially by making those names available. I do, but you also have to clear some things out a little bit. And I’m not against overpaying to get a guy of Rust’s resume here. I need to get three good years out of him. I don’t mind his contract. I don’t know. something I’ve been thinking about today and I just I don’t think that trading Jack Quinn just bec like you can’t trade him just because you signed him. I think it’s compelling. Um get something back to even it out if you feel like you’re giving up too much. I don’t know. It kind of feels like one of the maybe not the only move left, but I’m trying to think of So, let’s look at the remaining free agents. Should we pivot into that now?
What are we 45 minutes, 55 minutes? Let’s pivot in
because if not rust, then then what? So if you’re looking at forwards, I’ll let me go through and give you some forwards. Okay. Nikolai Eers, Pia Sudter, I think Dadnav already signed. He’s still on this list. I think he signed today, Ross Leavic. Then you get into Victor Olivesson, Jeff Skinner. You’re starting to go down a a slope right here. Gus Nyquist, Andrew Majapani. You can get into some role players if I expand this list a little bit. There are some RFAS if you really want to get wild. You want to get wild, but other than that, you know, we’re getting into some guys that are known to be retiring also. You know, uh Bavilier, I don’t really have much on, you know, Karanta. Mason Appleton apparently is not signed yet. That’s not a bad name, actually. Should I throw out a couple RFAS just for funsies?
Why not?
Gabe Valardi, Marco Rossy, Mason McTavish, Veronov, Capoako, Alex Lefarer, Morgan Frost, Max Ciplov. Um, I know that our audience is probably sick of talking about Rust, so that’s why I just said one more time, but I want to throw that out there. I feel like you’re giving up a little bit there to get that player. And I understand that there’s a thought that he doesn’t play defense. That’s not true. He just had bad results. But I’m willing to off I I think that his leadership resume would offset some of those shortcomings because you could say, “How can you talk about JJ the way you’ve been?” And then say, “You want Russ?” I get it. I get it. I’ll acknowledge that. Russ has a resume. Yes. different.
They always say been there, done that. Yeah.
What are you thinking when you hear those uh remaining free agents? Not thinking it’s the most inspiring list. Eers is not coming here, I don’t think. I mean, you know,
he wants to be somewhere warm and and not have the intensity I think was part of it. Doesn’t kind of like to your point about why guys like playing in Florida. Quieter, right?
Yeah. I don’t know if Matthew Kachuk and Brad Marshon can walk up and down the street now. Well, probably. Yeah, maybe not now, but those are different. I mean, Brad Marshand is a pretty uh unique face. Um, Kachchuck. Yeah, those guys are Reinhardt still probably can, I think. Maybe.
Yeah, maybe not. I don’t know. He scored four goals in a freaking clinching game for But
so, you’re probably not getting him. I do like Appleton, but is he a needle mover? You know, probably not. Another rightwing, right? You can’t sign him without moving some other bodies out. Well, that’s the thing, right? Especially considering how heavy they are now on on right shots. Unless Danforth is playing center and then I don’t know, you’re going to move Krebs to left. They got to move some bodies out is what it comes down to. If the the most likely way to, you know, loosen the log jam is via trade. It’s a roster spot issue. I think they have 21 guys signed right now and two RFAS. So that’s your roster unless you start moving some pieces out like they did with Mloud. You know, the Mloud trade was a July 5th, I think July 6th last year. So it’s always the tricky part of this time of year is totally going scorched earth on what Kevin Adams has done until you see the total picture of what he’s done. But there’s not a lot of moves left. But he does have a big chip in Bo Byum. Where are we at on on Bo Byum today? The latest was from Darren Dreger that what? Vegas. LA Calgary LA, but LA made a couple of signings. So, I think LA is probably out. Um, maybe not totally, but they signed.
That’s a kneejerk. As soon as they lost Gabricov, was it Cody CC and I for who the other one was? Oh, Dumalin. Dumalan. Yeah. So,
yeah,
big enough contracts that makes you wonder whether they would also take on Byum.
Um, so there’s a market out there.
I think you’re right. Yeah, I think
Drager also floated the possibility of an offer sheet that a team might be St. Louis, I think, was thrown into that um batch of teams. Columbus, I think, has been thrown out there at various times. They lost Proarov, right?
St. Louis picked up Logan Mayu today. Do you think for for Bulldog, you know, I don’t know. I look, not not the same player obviously, but I wonder what that does if they had a
Blue Jackets kept Prover. My my mistake there. So,
yeah.
Um, but St. Louis picked up like St. Louis picking up Mayu. I wonder if that tamps down any interest that they may have had in Byron. I don’t know. So, the market’s thinning out. Maybe you keep them. I don’t know. And do your business elsewhere, but you’re still missing. It seems like now they have the prospects to maybe get a top sixish caliber forward. I mean, we saw Jason Zooker perform that way when not a lot of people expected him to perform that way. So, the path to replacing the goals is not impossible. The path to being a better team defensively is pretty clear based on what they’ve gotten. Maybe even clearer if they keep Byum, but what else is out there to do? It’s going to have to come. It feels like it’s going to have to come via trade. I did find it interesting that Kevin Adams is not speaking until like roughly 10:30 tomorrow tenatively and that was something that was decided upon like this yesterday. So not common you I mean you saw most GMs were talking at like four five six o’clock today and sort of wrapping up their business. It’s almost as if Kevin Adams knew business wouldn’t be done. Maybe um
or he’s trying to push it as close to that July 4th holiday and people bailing early into the weekend as possible. Could be. That could be it. Um I think it’s going to be a scrum tomorrow during practice. So it won’t have the pomp and circumstance of uh smart move. a typical free agency press conference, but maybe that means Kevin’s is going to stay up late and pull off a trade. Kale Clay Winnipeg. Yes.
Yeah. So, um, good for Kale.
Yeah,
he’s uh
he was excellent for Rochester.
Yeah,
he had a he had a good year down there. Part of uh and and to wrap up what the Sabres did today, by the way, they did add a element of toughness. This is going to be a harder team to play against next year in Rochester. Picking up Mason Gearson, former He’s a Western League product. Been through a couple systems, I think most recently in the Vegas system. Is that right? I haven’t checked.
Yeah, he can truck them.
He’s go to hockey fights and and look at him. He
He’s had some had some good ones. So, maybe they can pull him up for a game or two. Maybe they play New Jersey and he can uh
Yeah.
square off with N. uh at the opening face off. Someone’s gota Someone’s got to do that. They should actually. You know what the hell?
Why not? Why not?
He also won a community award. Um so sounds like good guy for Rochester.
So he does have an NHL two-way deal, you know, slated for to be down on the farm and yeah, can maybe plug a hole if needed if you’re in a pinch when you play Jersey. But that was really it. uh underwhelming overall. Alex Lion, you know, look, I think he perfect profile for the tweener type of goalender that you want to throw into your mix, two-year deal, doesn’t do anything. Um, you know, doesn’t put you in any precarious positions. Best, when you look at his numbers, by the way, being a guy that hasn’t always been the man, he comes in, he wins more games than he loses when he plays in the NHL. Kind of a good sign in terms of a guy from the Buffalo Sabres a couple years ago. He did
with that big win.
He did the differencemaking win.
But um you know I think that and a guy that I skipped over when we were looking at the possible goalenders that they could make a call on. I just kept skipping over him for some reason. But then when you wake up and you hear the news today, you’re like that makes a lot of sense actually. So uneventful, but that one good to see. Yeah. Yeah, it gives them the option to put Devin Levi back in Rochester and it’s not a guarantee that, you know, Levi spends the whole year down there, but it’s insulated your goalending depth chart, which was much needed. I think going into season with Lucan and Levi was just not not going to be smart.
Imagine if they keep three. I could imagine it. I’ve lived that before. I know on the Mason Gearson sign and David Deetsz writes Komarov doesn’t need to throw with people now doesn’t need to but I bet he does David Deetsz because I think that’s just how Komarov is wired and I think he even came back and said yeah I’ll do better the next time. So you never know Deetsz but no good call. I mean look between you know having Jagger Joshua down there if you have Dun back down there they’re going to be a harder team. they’re going to be a harder team, but having Gearson down there, he does have an NHL element, right? Like I mentioned, but um you know, certainly an underdog. Things would have to go totally sideways for him to be in the NHL next year. But um no, I hear you though. I hear what you’re saying there, Deetsz, on Comarov. Anything else on uh I want to get to the chat since we’re over an hour in and I skipped out on the chat last time. So I want to give us plenty of opportunity to kind of pick off some chats and and interact interact with those that are in mourning or JBD maybe venting, maybe disagreeing, maybe not liking the Brian Russ talk. I haven’t seen any of that. I’m just guessing. But um because I think we covered most of it. While you’re fishing through, let me just talk about the draft real quick if you want to line up some chats. Matthew um mentioned that they had a type. You know, they went big right shot D picking Murka at nine. Kind of like what you saw with Don. Kind of like what you see with Danforce. Kind of seeing compete. That was kind of the flavor for me for what the Sabres did with their draft class. MKA aside, right, when you look at what they did on day two, Bedcowski, who by the way, we talked about David Bkowski last week. You did
as it just made perfect sense. It just made perfect sense that this is an element that they need. Even if they took a right shot defender at nine, you go and you get another one. Perfect match. Perfect match for what this organization craves. Noah Leberish from Baurst in the queue. He’s got some edge to him. He’s got some edge. When you look at the forwards that they took, they took four checkers. They took two-way responsible guys. Kuharic Schultz, who’s going to be playing at North Dakota next year. Schultz, by the way, played at the same high school that Adam Cleber or the same B not high school, same banttom doublea program because yeah, Schultz went to Mitaka. St. Bena program that had um Cleber and Brody Zemer says Chesca Chanassen. No is another guy just like a checker. He’s got some offense to him from Laxans Junior system. Rousinski is a guy that really doesn’t have that hardness to his game, but he had a really good end of the year in Youngstown. Um I think what do you have 19 goals last year? I don’t have it up in front of me. I didn’t write this stuff down. Um I think like 10 of his 19 goals came in his final 13 games of the season. Had a good playoff year. Kind of a late riser going to Ohio State. You know, it’s going to be interesting. That kid, I think, you know, seventh rounder. Um nice lottery ticket. We’ll see. And then the goalenders. I think they got some really nice talent in net. Hey, have you seen Proarov down there? Did you get a chance to see how he moves?
Yeah, he’s here. Um pretty big. He’s not huge. He’s like 6’3, I guess. No, I guess none of the goalies look huge when Lanin endan’s on the ice. He’s because he’s a a monster. But yeah, he moves pretty
much. I think Malash is a good pick.
I like, you know, 17 years old. Yeah,
I think he goes to the same goalie coach in the offseason that Levi does. So, um, he’s got good quickness, you know, moves around well, and he ate a lot of pucks in the queue this year. He saw a lot of shots. Played well in the playoffs. Both these guys played pretty well in the playoffs. Finished their season strong.
I like the bets on goalies with the late picks because I feel like disproportionately they hit more than other positions, right? Because that’s when most goalies get picked. And you can kind of change the calculus on the value of a prospect um if you hit a couple of those. And you always got to keep it stocked. You don’t know how Lanin and Rats laugh are going to turn out. And
hell, you don’t even know how Levi is going to turn out. So, you know, the more guys you pick, the better you are.
That Malash kid 17 years old, doesn’t turn 18 still for a couple weeks here later in July. 6’2. I like 6’2 goalenders. I think I mentioned I think 6’2 is like the perfect height for a goalender and they’re big enough. Especially if they have longer arms than uh a normal 62 guy, even all the better. But with the rules changing, maybe Malash is a kid that you can see go the college route too and you can sit on them. Um, so you know, because that gives you time to sort out the whole rats laugh leaning in Ryerson leaners dynamic, you know, I don’t know. I just But they had a type. I think with the skaters that they went for, they went for some hardness. They went for some forche. You saw it today with how they shopped. Um, you know, even with, like I said, the Don and Kessle Ring, just those elements. They were sorely lacking on the top club roster, sorely lacking the pipeline ranks. So, they probably gave up a little bit of offense to make those picks, but they needed to infuse some of that profile into the system. Matthew, any thoughts on the draft? You want to dive into the chat? Let’s dive into Well, I I will say about Bedcowski was overly impressive in his uh media availability just as a as a person, as a speaker. Not common, you know, at the NHL draft when it’s 17, 18 year old kids. It was that was pretty cool. And Murka, I’m I’m good with the Murka pick. I think as the board fell, it was a solid and somewhat safe pick, but one that, you know, you could you could see a path to that one really panning out in a big way for sure. And maybe they What I found interesting was that Jerry Foron mentioned that the top six of the board fell exactly how they expected and that Murka was next on their list. James Hagens went seventh. I don’t think I would have just openly put that out there. But
yeah,
because I don’t agree. I mean, if if now some people when I put that out there said like, “Oh, they’re just that’s what everybody says, right? They got their guy that was higher on the list. They’re they’re gassing him up.” That but that’s like you didn’t need to say that he was higher than James Hagen. And
what did I just say though about the hardness and what they looked like, whatever.
Maybe that was part of it. Maybe that was part of it. I don’t agree, but Jerry Foron spent a lot more time in rinks watching these kids than I did. So, we talked about as we watch those careers unfold. No, that’s a good call out. Actually, that’s a good call out because Hagens is a I think a legit 1C prospect. Um, most NHL teams.
Um, we talked about it going into the draft last week. Center was pretty solid there, especially if you consider Koul League still a prospect. He hasn’t played, you know, 65, 70 NHL games yet. So, right now,
I don’t know. He’s a top six on this team.
I know, I know, I know. But I have him on my depth chart here. Right. D though, you have Murka, Sturbach, Cleverber, Bedowski, Kamarov, McCarthy, and Brune as your right shot D in your prospect ranks right now. All of a sudden, the holy grail, the right shot defenseman is their position of strength. Average height 63 and 3/4 inches in that stable right shot defenseman. Average weight 206.25 lbs. 206 and a quarter pounds. It’s pretty good.
If that’s the hardest thing to acquire in hockey.
Yes. Yes.
You should have trade assets, right?
100%. Exactly.
Be able to move some of those guys and um make something happen at some point. I mean, you’re not gonna be able to use all those guys,
but Sturbach not at development camp this week because of a personal matter. something to, you know, didn’t get a chance to to check in with him, but Cleber’s here and um none of the Rochester guys are here. I mean, not that many guys are here, period. Eight forwards, five goalies, almost as many goalies. I’m actually really curious to see how uh how the scrimmage goes on Thursday because they have eight forwards. I guess it’s three on three, so you could they’re gonna have the goalies out there skating,
I guess. Yeah, they, you know, shooting on each other.
Have a few guys skate out or you can’t really have the French Connection tournament, can you? You’re not going to have enough teams for that.
So, I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. I mean, the we can we can get into the chat. Do we get into the chat? Do we want to talk about development cam? I mean, the development cam thing is really confusing to me. Like I I look at this camp as
Okay, I’m going to set a timer. I’m going to give you five minutes to talk about development camp. Hey Siri, set a timer for five minutes.
I don’t know if I’ll last five minutes. What it comes down to for me is a few years ago, this was important enough for some big names to be there, right? Believe Quinn, Turka, Power, Samuelson were all there in 2022 when they were getting ready to be on the NHL roster. Suddenly, it’s not so important for your entire Rochester team to be there. You don’t want to interrupt their summer training, this and that. Never mind the fact that you have a new strength coach who is apparently world class. And you know, I’m excited to see what he does. But like, wouldn’t you want your prospects, many of whom are undersized and physically underdeveloped and need to get stronger, to check in midway through the summer and meet this man and get some pointers and maybe get yelled at and, you know, can he do it over Zoom? Sure. Can he text them their plans? Sure. But would it have been that hard for a lot of these guys to simply the interrupting the summer training thing is confusing to me because it’s like five days and they’re going to continue to train while they’re here. If you don’t want them skating, if they’re worn out, then let them just lift and do off ice stuff. Build camaraderie with the other fellow prospects. Show some leadership. Show guys around. take some ownership of the organization and pride in the organization. If it means you’re only going to have eight forwards if you don’t bring all these guys, bring some of them so that you can actually get something out of this camp. Otherwise, if it’s not that important, that’s what you’re signaling that it’s not that important, that it’s more so just draft pick orientation. But why is it important for Cleber and Jake Rashard and you know Zemer
Brody Zemer or Tobias Leninan? Why is it important for Tobias Lenin but it’s not important for Constellaneous who’s only had one of these or Anton Wahberg
Anton Wahlberg who’s still clumsy and Right.
Right. And physically I mean that’s a guy I want to meet with with Gallivan. Right.
Yeah. to get them quicker, you know, like I mean, not every guy that’s meeting with strength and conditioning or, you know, not every plan is the same. And if you’re building plans for all these guys, wouldn’t you like to see them in person, check in on where they’re at? I don’t know. It’s my my two cents. I’m confused by it, but maybe there’ll be time to get around to it uh when Kevin Adams talks tomorrow. there’s not a lot of moves to to discuss as of yet. So maybe that will come up.
I would like to hear his u position on it. For me, development camp has just become kind of a blah event. It’s for me it was always about that camaraderie. So I’m glad you mentioned camaraderie. The relationships that form with these prospects when they’re together for a week in the summer, I think does matter. Um so now though you have Jake Rashard leading the way. Who’s leading Jake Rashard? You know,
Jake Rashard’s the leader. Yeah, he’s and
he has grown up a lot. Um,
he’s definitely taken on some leadership at Yukon. He’s a he’s a really interesting prospect to me. We actually had a chat in here. I don’t know if I started said uh I think it might have been Caner actually. Apologies if uh if I misquing you, Caner, but he said, “Sign Jake Rashard and throw him in the top six. He’s got a shot.” And he’s right. Um he has a great shot and he’s actually really good around the net. I I love that he’s been able to develop that part of his game at Yukon, caught a handful of his games last year, just cuz in the little spare time I do have during the hockey season. Usually if I’m flipping on non-NHL hockey, it’s Hockey East. So, um I like Rashard and I I you know, like that he’s kind of taken on some leadership here. He has actually been in Buffalo for like the last month leading up to this camp. He’s been uh with Gavin McCarthy. Okay.
They are friends from Junior. So, he’s been staying with McCarthy and skating. He’s been skating with Mike Ancel and doing a lot of um you know, the skates that they do at the Academy of Hockey. So, um seems bought in. I know some are worried about him being a flight risk because he got one year next year he could become a free agent. So, yeah. Um, we’ll see what they do with him, but you know, whether they can,
but I think that that little Gavin McCarthy bit and the extra time he spent in Buffalo is probably helpful in that regard because I do imagine he could get a contract somewhere else. Uh, given how he’s developed, you came in at 4 minutes and 40 seconds on your development cap wrap and I took up some of it with my little nonsense. No, I agree with you. I don’t I don’t lose a lot of sleep over it, but I do think that um the whole the whole philosophy on development camp has shifted under this Kevin Adams regime really the past two years and it’s just radically different than it was. I mean the ELEL draft they did a development camp scrimmage at the main arena and yeah I know
damn near
which that was too much. Like that was just too much. I mean
maybe but again engaging with fans well here’s the other thing you’re Well, that was the whole EL cash grab
You’re a draft and develop team, right? So, shouldn’t every single bit of development
matter, right? You can’t attract free agents. You can’t, you know, you got to build from within. It’s the only way out. The only way out is through it.
Well, shouldn’t every little thing matter? Working around the edges, Matthew, we’re at we’re on 20. Let’s hit the chat. Jonah Bronstein asks, “Do the Sabres regard this camp as more or less important than Baker does my interview requests?” Has Jonah Bronstein been requesting to interview? Jonah Bronstein, intrepid writer for wivbb.com, did reach out to me last week at a very tough time of the week. Well,
so I couldn’t I couldn’t get to him quick enough.
I I responded to him the next morning, but it was too late. I apologize, Jonah. I’ll buy you a water next time I see you. Let’s get to the chat. Uh,
no. Seriously, man. He caught me in the middle of the workday. Like one of the worst work days I had. So, he doesn’t want to hear that. He just wants results and he didn’t get it. That’s right. Um, Sabres have Okay, let’s go to Jonah. He’s going to get a text for that.
What do you think about McQueen? Dan,
yes.
RP asks, should they have drafted McQueen? I mean, he was there in the hopper. I had some just because the player said that his back was I don’t know, man. I just I worry about the medical. Um, I think I in the back of my mind I think I know where Dan’s going with this because there’s a very good probability that he is a excellent like top certainly a top six maybe a topline centerman skill hands really good. I think he’s got this mean streak that’s going to emerge through time and it’s just like there’s this possibility that in three, four years, you know, five, six years down the line, you’re like, “Holy the Sabres had the chance to take this guy. They took Murka, you know, because of the package.” Um, but I don’t know if they should have drafted McQueen. I think the familiarity, the lack of viewings, I think does matter. And I think that they wanted to just mitigate risk, take a more known commodity that they saw more of and were just more comfortable. Um, but no, McQueen I think could like hell of a player when he’s been healthy. He just hasn’t been healthy a lot in junior and that’s a problem.
McQueen going to Disneyland wearing number 95? If you know, you know. Lightning McQueen.
Lightning McQueen. Yeah,
it’s um it’s fitting. So, the Sabres didn’t want to ruin that. I can respect it. Um, I guess I don’t like that hokey either. Okay, let’s continue.
But I, you know, it was probably down to McQueen and and Merk for me, you know, like and you could, you were in a position where you could take the risk on McQueen, but I can follow the the logic train on why they didn’t. Silvin Gladu says, “Sometimes I wonder if Kevin Adams can’t tell the difference between wanting to play in Buffalo and wanting to play or stay in the NHL.” And that is probably a bit at the root of their issue. Like how many of the guys that want to play in Buffalo want the opportunity and aren’t, you know, you know, will look for the next best opportunity as soon as they can. I think there’s certainly some of that that goes around and that’s where finding these high character people, the domes, the castle rings, the Danforth, your hope in that is that they can start to just help guys take ownership of this franchise, of this team, of this, you know, product that they put out there on the ice. And I think it’s wavered at times in the last few years because you had Kylo Poso as the captain two years ago wanting out, you know, a few months into the season and you had, you know, two guys with letters walk out of the room last year and then another guy with a letter get traded in the middle of the season this year. or another guy with a letter, you know, at the center of the most embarrassing moment in the entire in a very embarrassing season. So, bringing in some leadership guys that are it feels like they’re on shaky ground as far as the whole wants to be in Buffalo thing, right? A lot of these guys that were ground floor, young, draft and develop, you know, growing from within, things have gotten hard now. And that’s where you learn a lot more about these guys. Everybody wants to be in Buffalo when they’re handing out contract extensions and power play time and top six minutes.
Who wants to be in Buffalo when it’s getting hard? Who wants to be who has the personality that you’re looking for a solution and trying to fix something and not just running to a more convenient situation? Have they found enough of those guys? And can the can the collective, you know, I heard Don Sweeney talking today because scoring is a big question in Boston and and you know, his thought is if they play the game the right way, if they, you know, they’re a going to play better defense, but b it’s going to lead to more offense, if everybody, you know, collectively just plays the right way. There is something to that, but it’s I’d like to see a little more pop in this this lineup that Buffalo has right now offensively anyways. But it’s a good good call out on this on this chat because I think
they do fall into that trap of this guy wants to be here. It’s like, well, he might just want to be in the NHL. Nice to be in the NHL. I’ve got I’m gonna kick this one over to you.
Go for it. because we’ve talked about this. Byum for Biffield straight up. Who says no? Who says no? Uh there’s less of a need. We kind of hit on this already. I think there’s less of a need for LA to want to do this. They’re more likely to say no.
I think LA says no. I think if
Bfield’s got a lot of high ceiling. People say this a lot. um you know something happens and everybody’s like if if that’s the case Kevin Adams should be fired tomorrow and usually it’s overreacting but if Biffield’s on the table and he hasn’t taken it then that’s just insanity to me um LA says no to that I think
LA says no even without the Dumalin CC deal but I do think that Byber makes a lot of sense in that lineup I’ve said it before I’ll say it again he makes a lot of sense out in Carolina is already off the board as a trade partner because they went and got Keandre Miller.
So, paid him a lot of money.
Paid him a lot and I think they gave up like what conditional first a second Scott Mor
prospect. Yep. So, it’s uh it’s going to come down to maybe will the Sabres be willing to take a somewhat futures-based package on Byum because there might be some good ones out there. Calgary still interests me the most. Even if you don’t get Anderson or Weaguer, I’m still interested in Calgary because they have enough pieces around the edges and they have
You need some no move clauses to be waved.
Well, that’s the problem. But they do have picks, too. You’re talking about Blake Coleman, right?
I do like Coleman. Um,
yeah, Coleman would be my number one target on that team for sure,
100%. Um,
if you can’t get like a rust, last time I’m saying it, Coleman would be a really nice one to call on, but you don’t have the hurdles with
Yeah, getting getting him to wave. I mean, it is a real kick in the nuts. You know, I will give Kevin Adams that, you know, this palm trees and taxes and the delivery of it was was no good. But we, you know, like Noah Dobson gets moved. Is that even a deal that you get to be in on, right? if he’s not going to sign an extension, you’re not even bothering making that trade. So, that’s where how many deals that are potentially out there, you get no shot at. So, you got to thread the needle and find the ones you do have a shot at and try to talk people into it. It’s obviously all their own doing. Of course, it’s their fault that they have a 14-year playoff drought, but um it does limit your avenues to improvement. On the Bum piece, Mike Leinsky says, “Byum is going to get you futures.” If that’s the case, not moving them at all. I’m gonna try to work with them, get him a fair money deal, take him into the season. Why do you got to trade them now? Why is everyone in such a damn hurry? Because I know it’s out there in the rumor mill and everything else. And maybe there’s more to the story that we don’t know. You
I think people are in a hurry. I think people are in a hurry for the simple reason is they don’t see other paths to the type of move that could really impact the team and if you don’t trade by you know what else can you do to dramatically improve your team but you do have prospects and you got you have futures to move so I don’t I don’t know.
I like my rest deal better than I like taking, you know, Byum out of the lineup for futures. That’s fair. And I think you could probably convince Byum. Like, look, take a one year. Take a two. Take a series of one years, right? Take a one year.
Take a two. No, give him a two because it’s movable. You could, you know what I mean? Like,
give him some money for two years. Take him to UFA. If like if we don’t trade you, you still walk.
Yeah. You walk in the prime of your career at 26 years old or whatever.
Or you test the market. Maybe he has success here in two years. Maybe he’s like, “Holy playing with Rasmus Dalene sounds pretty good for another five years. Why is that off the table?”
Right? He’s still, you know, extremely young player who played really well with Dalene. The defense looks okay right now. It doesn’t look great if you move by because the secondary piece of that is if you move by to get your scoring, you got to do something else to get a a defenseman. And a lot of those guys are picked over now. Anybody in the chat want to raise their hand? Who’s ready to see Samuelson with Dalene opening night? I didn’t think so. Um, so that’s part of this, too. Um,
what else we got?
Eric no sleeves. McGee says, “Jacob Bernard Reinhardt, if you listen to some lol.” Um, yeah, it’s uh it’s been a fun day in Jacob Bernard Docker discourse. I got to say it was uh I get people getting upset about the little stuff because it’s the little stuff that adds up over time to get you to here, right? I mean, look at all these free agent signings, all the missed opportunities, all the little things done around the edges. But, you know, if if Jacob Bernard Docker scores four goals in a Stanley Cup final game in the future, that’ll be that’ll be a great day on on Sabres Twitter. That’s for sure.
It was a great day when they traded for him and Kevin was in his little scrum down in Florida with you guys and he’s just like, “Yeah, you know, in JBD and it was just like the legend was born right there in the hallway in the hotel.”
Yeah. It was uh it it was shortlived. Too shortlived in my opinion. Yeah.
And he’s a nice guy. He played well. Gone but not forgotten. We’ll see him. There’ll be the the JBD revenge game. Will we get a JBD video? Welcome back JBD. When he comes back. All right. I think we might. I think we might. Can’t overlook it. Dennis Gilbert got one. He was here for like half a season. Let’s keep this chat moving. We’re already at an hour 32. Our audio people are going to kill us with this dillydally. And I got a dog right here that needs to go out.
All right, let’s do one more chat from TripleA. Got the picture of a palm tree.
Can you hear the dog, by the way, whining?
Yeah, right here. She’s got to go to the bathroom.
She’s mostly panting. Um, yeah.
Who are the Sabres better than in the Atlantic Division? Maybe Boston. Are they better than Detroit or Ottawa? They obviously aren’t better than Tampa, Toronto, or Florida, or Montreal. That’s a fair question.
That’s why they play the games.
That is. Yeah. I mean, on paper, no, they haven’t chased down those teams, but they I don’t know. Yeah,
they’re not done yet. Um, they might be better than Detroit.
They might be better. Detroit’s not overly impressive and hasn’t done much. They handled Ottawa fine last year, interestingly enough. And Boston does look pretty rough. So, we’ll see. Toronto lost Martner. He decided not to come south down the QEDW and went to Vegas instead. Bold choice. Did Alen Peram get the uh story wrong today in the Buffalo News? So, that’s an interesting uh
Do we want to go there? I think we did have a chat bring up something related to that. So Joe Pinter was let go out because I work with those people.
Joe Pinter was let go a few weeks ago and my understanding was it didn’t have any. So two things are true. They they did move on from Joe Pinter. And I do believe Allan Peram when he says that there are some in management, which is pretty vague, but some in management who think the broadcast is too critical. That could go in like a million different directions. I don’t know how much validity there is to that, but I do believe there is a general sensitivity uh that exists. So, I can buy that. I don’t believe Joe Pinter being let go had anything to do with that,
but I don’t know exactly why he was let go, but it didn’t sound to me when I heard about it that it was anything specific related to the criticalness of the broadcast, but people drew that line pretty quickly. So, um it is what it is, but I just I think that that particular connection I think is not really uh how I understand it anyways. I think they do a good job on the broadcast for what it’s worth, but I know you got to sit it out. You have been on the broadcast. Maybe that’s why I think it’s such great work. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Um,
you filled in for uh for Marty for a couple
I’ll tell you what what I will say though that broadcast they do point out this team shortcomings. I think a lot of people like on social media because again not not the best gauge. They’re like they all they do is try to like talk positive all the time. They should go after him. They’re employees of the team. You go and talk negatively about your employer and see how that goes for you.
Yeah. You got to do it with a certain level of tack, right? When you’re pointing things out from a hockey standpoint. freaking minds though at the same time like want them to go out there and just land best a team all the time. Give me a break.
That’s not Yeah, that’s not how these broadcasts are set up. That’s why man,
that’s why they’re when they’re on ESPN or TNT and you’re like, “Holy this You hear what Ray Ferraro said, it’s like, yeah, of course he can say it.” Like, you know, he, you know, that’s an independent broadcast. It’s a little bit different. Um but
um
yeah, I just I I feel like the connection there that like a lot of people that I saw there, you know, it was like Joe Pinter got let go like he was the fall guy for a critical broadcast and I just don’t think that was uh reality, but so it goes.
Couple quick couple quick ones here before I get ready to bounce out. Um is P top off signing this year? No, he’s got two more years. I’m I’m looking at him year to year. Maybe he’s a guy that can get out of his uh KHL contract after one more year, but he does have a two-year deal with Cesa. Um so not expecting to see him anytime soon. And then Bill Connley asks about Steven Sardarian. Is he still in the organization? It’s been ambiguous, but we do believe that Steven Sardarion has declared himself no longer a bonafide student after his third collegiate season. He had a gap year in the AHL after getting drafted. So now he’s four post-draft years if he did indeed declare himself a bonafide student. No longer a bonafide student.
Um I think this kind of seals it. The fact that he’s not at development camp.
I’m led to believe but unconfirmed at this point at least by myself. Matthew, I don’t know if you’ve confirmed it, but I’m
not gotten a clear answer on it yet. Um
I I don’t believe he is uh part of the organization
anymore. my personal opinion, if he wanted to leave college and try to force his way into the pros, at least in in North America, he got bad advice if that’s what he intended to do. But I don’t want to go any deeper until we confirm. But right now, I think reading the tea leaves based on sites that monitor players rights have taken him off. Puckedia, some others. I think Elite Prospects took his little draft information off their page. He’s not at development camp. We’ll see what happens when Michigan Tech posts their roster.
Yeah. For 2025 26 season. That that’ll be college. That is an interesting decision. It makes you wonder if he would go back home maybe, but he came over here so young. I don’t know. Yeah, it’s it’s
Here’s the thing, by the way. We’ll also know if he signs a contract with another team here in a couple days. True. He had a good year last year. That’s the thing.
Still work to be done, but he had a good year.
Yeah. So, no, he had a great year. I mean, he but he move Well, he had a great offensive year. He made progress off the puck, but not enough. So if he had someone in his ear telling him, hey, you know, you’re ready to, you know, go and play in the AHL, I would say the hell he was. And the Sabres may have thought the same thing.
Perhaps perhaps, but I wouldn’t. I think some of those guys, yeah, you throw a freaking contract at him though and see if you can do something with them. It’s kind of like what they just did with Topius Landon. Tobiius Landon got a deal. He’s got he’s still look second round pick. I get it. Sard was a third. Sometimes you give a guy the contract as as runaway to keep developing. Could have done that with Mariala. Certainly could have done that with Sardarian, but I would have more been more inclined to do with Sardarian next year, not this year. Anything else that you started, Matthew Fairburn? Now you got me all pissed off Sardarian’s bad advice if that’s how if that’s indeed what went down.
I’ll
you didn’t do it. I’m the one who threw the chat up.
Caner is asking me to ask a question, but I don’t know what he’s saying. So clarify that in the chat. We’ll keep the chat open here for a couple more seconds while I throw He wants me to ask Kevin something tomorrow and I don’t know what. I can’t promise if I don’t know what. Can’t promise anyways. I got a lot of stuff to get to tomorrow. But this I’ll end it with this plan. We don’t need no stinking plan badges. We don’t need no stinking badges. Good call out there. Good call out there.
All right, I’m I’m ready. I’m gonna show this time.
Yeah, we’ll get back together when they uh when they do something else. We will hopefully uh it’s soon. I They’re not done. I think it’s pretty clear. Look, we defaulted. We talked about free agency and the tweaks that they made and the my mind and I think you got there too or you were already there and I just didn’t pick up the vibe was that we quickly default to a trade when you look at the lineup when you look at the lines when you look at what they’re doing it’s not all the way jelling together they can’t be done and when they do something to address this and this makes more sense Matthew and I will do a show we’re also going to do some other things we’ve talked about this year some fun exercises we’re not going to wait around ask about Sardarion. Okay. Ask about
So, I’ve I’ve asked the team for clarity on that and I’m still awaiting. I’m going to get some I’m going to get to the bottom of it at some point. Um, so I don’t know if it’ll come up tomorrow, but if it doesn’t, know that I am efering to get an answer there.
I suppose I can, too, but you’re down there. So, let’s go ahead and do we’ll get some we’ll have some more uh we’ll have some more shows throughout the summer. We definitely
he’s gonna be on vacation soon from uh work from real work. So uh maybe he’ll wanna
maybe he’ll want to be on here talking to you lovely people.
I will. Hey man, listen. I’m one of these days I’m just going to get up and like go live at like 6:30, 7 o’clock in the morning and test these people and see if anyone wants to just chitchat, you know? That’d be fun as hell. In the morning, I’ll even get you like manakes off. Yeah, that’s right. Wake and bakes, baby. Let’s go. Let’s go. All right. On that note, thanks everyone for hopping in tonight. July 1st. There’s more to come. We’ll be around. Like I said, we always appreciate you guys showing up. Appreciate I can never say that word. Showing up here on these popup shows. Matthew, you can find all of his work at the.comsabers. You can find me hanging out around town and also maybe on the stream. You never know. for Matthew, for the production crew who’s going to join me taking this dog for a walk. She’s literally been here for the past 15 minutes whining. Think she’s got to go tap a kidney. I’m Chris Baker. Thanks for joining the Baker Fab Hawk Show. We’ll see you again next time.

Peterka traded. The draft is done. Free Agency has opened. Kris Baker and The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn discuss everything Buffalo Sabres.