Sabres Still in Limbo (Tuch Extension Talk, Byram Impasse Continues) [BSC Ep. 08]

Sabres Still in Limbo (Tuch Extension Talk, Byram Impasse Continues) [BSC Ep. 08]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Buffalo Talk Center episode 8. Yes, episode 8, I think. Um, I’m Don Lefay. With me today is Cal Mai. Yes. Uh, the two usual ones. We in our usual pattern as of the first eight episodes have decided to every other episode will be together. So, this this wasn’t even talked about, folks. This is just something that’s sort of happened. But um before we delve into today’s episode, make sure to follow this podcast here on Spotify, like and subscribe if you’re watching it on YouTube. Uh you know, do all the things. Support this channel. We’re small, so anything helps. But uh Kale, I’ll throw it over to you. You have the floor, sir. Yeah, it’s good to be back in the saddle, the the duo. Um we’ll we’ll see what happens in the future. Uh let’s see if we can get uh maybe three times a month instead of two. We’ll see what we can do. But lot a lot going on in the sports world. Not much going on in the Buffalo sports world. Again, the Bills, we’re waiting for training camp to start. Not much. Uh first live stream of the channel in the, you know, in the next coming weeks will be the Hall of Fame game. Use it as a little test stream and then we’ll uh pick up of course every Bills game, every Savers game. That’s the goal. Um, other than that, Sab Bruce, we’ll get into him a little bit later, but you know, there’s rumors floating around that you attended the Pickle Festival in Pittsburgh. Uh, I was recently in Pittsburgh. Um, unfortunately, a week before this, uh, extravaganza took place. So, tell me a little bit about it and, uh, how was how was the time? All right. So, um, Picklesburg is like a festival just about pickles. They have pickle stands, pickle drinks, pickle themed musicians. I don’t know how you can make that work, but it does happen. Um, everyone’s wearing green. I went to it this past weekend. I literally just got back only not even a few hours before we’re recording this here on a Sunday. Um, I was there for Saturday, the second day of three, and it was okay. It was fine. Um, I I tried one of their like pickle drinks. It was like a icy something. It was some beer. It was an a pickle beer. And what do What do you think? What? How does that sound to you, Cal? A pickle flavored beer. Is that something that you really want? Cuz it sounds pretty disgusting. I didn’t I know some other people that went to this that tried it and they said it was just okay. So, I’m assuming you have the same take on that. Yeah, pretty much. It was definitely weird. Um, I was with a couple of other people and the one guy, we were up on the Roberto Clemente Bridge and he had spilled his uh his pickle beer all over his uh legs and stuff. And I mean, the problem with pickle beer, it’s not even the taste, it’s that it’s so sticky. It’s not like regular beer where it’s moderately sticky. No, this stuff was just pure sticky. Add in that it was almost 90° beating down. The sun is beating down on you. It was a an interesting combo. I wouldn’t really say it was the most refreshing, but I I would recommend it’s it’s an experience. K, you got to you got to try it at some point. Got to do it. Got to do it once. Um, again, Pittsburgh, when I was there, it wasn’t as hot, but it was still pretty hot out. Uh, rained a whole lot. Um, did you experience any rain there? Because I know city of Pittsburgh, every time I’ve been there, there’s one thunderstorm that rolls through and it lingers and it I mean, especially if you go to a Pirates game, it’s quite the scene to watch the wind whip around the wind and the the rain and all that, but no nothing there on that part. Sunny, nothing like that. No, it was just it was pure sunniness for three straight days. 90° absolute beatd down. And we had also we my group we had walked all over downtown as well. So by the end of the night we were just dead tired, absolutely exhausted. And well here we are now. Um I did get to walk by PNC Park and I didn’t really quite understand how nice of a ballpark that is. It’s such a shame that the owner sucks ass. Yeah, the Pirates just went under a 500 record the other day for their franchise history, which is astonishing. Um because they’re one of the best franchises up into, you know, the last 30 years. Uh so to see that is just, you know, that just shows how poorly they’ve played over the last couple decades. Um did you see uh you know the uh PPG Arena where the Penguins play at all downtown? No, we didn’t really walk over that way. That was more that was on the other side of the highway which would that that was going to be another hike in and of itself. Now we we stuck mainly to um uh PNC Park and then I think there’s a b there’s like a strip of restaurants and bars and stuff that’s runs right to the side of it along the waterfront there. And then we went to the casino of course had to go to the casino. First time I’ve been in a casino. Okay. You were not on the podcast episode last weekend because you were at a casino. Um, what were your experiences? Did you feel like a sophisticated, bright young man now? You feel you feel? Yeah. So, obviously you know me. I’m not going to not going to wager a whole lot. Um, I don’t know if I told you that my brother went the other week, won over $1,000 on his on his first 10 bucks he put in. So, yeah, he’s he’s on a roll, but I’m I’m up like 140 total right now. So, you know, crawling up, not not a whole lot there. Worth going. Eh, I mean, for 140 bucks, you’ll take it. But it is what it is. Um, as far as, uh, PPG Arena goes, I just wanted to bring it up because I was there. I saw the wrestling there, and I got to say it just, you know, obviously Key Bank Center, we know the dump it is, but I mean, it blows it out of the water. And it’s not even that special of an arena. It’s just nicer seats. The exterior looks better. The interior, it’s a lot easier to get up, right? They have instead of just those two big escalators with the one lane, you know, they have these wide hallways that’s like multilevel. They have the club levels sectioned way off instead of you know the Key Bank Center which you got to climb up those stairs to get to it most of the time. It’s like a maze, just a mess. So, I I was thoroughly um you know surprised by that, but also I shouldn’t be surprised. We you know, we’re kind of spoiled with the KBC, right? What a what a great arena. Yeah. Well, we’re going to be absolutely spoiled with uh Well, we’ve been spoiled. No, I was going to say we’ve been spoiled with the Ralph in the Key Bank Center. Just some some great architecture here in Buffalo. But, you know, Cal, speaking of the Sabres, we got to it’s our it’s our time of the week, Cal. We got to crap on the Sabres again. It’s time. Um last week, I talked about the Bone Barnum and the arbitration news that came out this week. It sounds like well this is take it with a grain of salt from after the whistle. Andrew Peters, Craig Rey, I listened to their podcast pretty religiously at this point. And I I think it was was it Andrew Peters who talked about how uh Shanahan from the Toronto Maple Leafs, their former president of hockey ops, reportedly called Terry Pigula saying, “Hey, maybe I could be the president of hockey ops here in Buffalo.” Terry Pigula said, “No, I’m the president of hockey ops.” How does that make you feel, Cal? I I don’t even know. I don’t even have words for that. I mean, if that is true, which again, we’re again, we’re we’re assuming it’s true, we we don’t know for sure. But if if that is true, hypothetically, if that is true, I mean, that tells you all you need to know about the future of this team right there. Terry Pigoula is not a president of hockey ops in any world. uh he severely lacks the knowledge needed for the position. You know, sure he’s a hockey fan. He’s been watching hockey all his life, but do you do you trust Terry Pigula to not only run the scouting department, but to make the final decision for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 14 years? It’s like putting me or you into the position. I mean, we sit on here and we talk about the Sabres and Bills every week, but in no conceivable world would either one of us in our with our current experience, which is none, ever take over running a professional sports team. That it just wouldn’t go well. That’s basically what Terry Pigul is. He’s been armchair GMing this thing for the last 14 years. And it makes so much sense because you look at this team and there’s never a backup plan. And that makes sense for somebody who’s armchair GMing because they come up with this plan. Let’s get this guy, this guy, and this guy. But a true president of hockey ops knows it’s unrealistic to get this guy, but he’s got seven different plans, right? And eventually, you know, the team’s going to come together. This guy’s putting together a team where he’s going, well, it’s Marner and Person or Bus. Then, you know, then we drop down to, you know, the guys we signed this free agency, which it’s so bad. I’m not even going to list out the names because everyone watching is going to go, “Who? I didn’t know we signed that guy.” And then they won’t even be on the team, you know, at the game 50 mark. Kale Justin Danforth. He’s a living legend. Are you serious? Yeah, that’s true. That’s an absolute monster for sure. You You don’t know Alex Lion? Are you like He’s the one that killed the Sabres a few years ago. Yeah. If you can’t beat him Well, if you can beat him, join him. I guess that’s Alex Lion’s attitude now. But branching off of that, Kale, I I don’t think over the last 14 years of this drought, because we’ve both been aware of it this entire time, this is the only hockey we’ve ever known, losing defeist hockey. And I couldn’t tell you, Cal, another offseason where the fan base was just so depressed, so cynical, so toxic. We haven’t even started the season yet. And it’s already It feels like it’s January, February, and the Sabres are six games below 500 and 12 points out of a playoff spot. This is the worst it’s been. Like, like you said, it at least other years during this drought, we’ve had at least one big move. Like the Taylor Hall season was terrible, but at least going into that season, we had playoffs on the mind. I mean, like Terry said, we weren’t just trying to make the playoffs. We were trying to win the cup that year, and it didn’t work out. But at least, you know, there was something. We knew we weren’t running the cup as fans, but you at least expected a winning season. Um, you had, you know, the season following the onepoint miss of the playoffs. You’re like, “All right, these guys, you know, this young core, they’re going to come together.” Last year, you had Lindy Ruff. I complained and complained and complained that I new head coach should not be the key point to get excited for a season. Yet, that was all they gave us last year. and it went about as expected. Again, if that’s all we’re going to switch, you’re not gonna change the team around that much. What the heck do we have this year to get excited about? You don’t even have a new coach. You don’t even have new assistant coaches. You got rid of one of your best offensive players for a defenseman who’s maybe going to put up what, you know, half of the points that Burko would put up if that. And you know, you’re really hoping that he just turns Owen Power into sup a superstar, which isn’t going to happen, but maybe it makes him a little bit better of a player. Again, anyone supporting that trade is just, you know, convincing themselves that this move is not only going to make our defense a top 10 unit in the league, it’s going to make Owen Power an all-star, and that’s simply just not going to happen. What the heck did the Sabres do this off seasonason that is going to make anyone want to a buy tickets, b hold on to their season tickets, or c show up at all and watch games on MSG because we already know the broadcast is just way too negative. I again I I completely agree with that Buffalo News article that you know that called them out because I mean face it we we tune into a Savers game and they are just slamming on them, right? I mean, they are it’s it’s like watching our YouTube channel all over again. It’s just constant negativity. I mean, come on. Give the guys a break. It’s only 14 years, folks. He’s being physicious. He’s being sarcastic. Of course, Marty Baron is just the most negative person I’ve ever seen. Brian Duff cussing out uh Dylan Cousins every other night, asking for him to be traded live on the broadcast. Only the Sabres, guys. Only the Sabres. No, but seriously though, it’s I don’t know. It’s just it’s already feeling like it’s going to be a one of those seasons. This this was supposed to be a win or breaks a make or break season. Excuse me. A make or break. And it’s already broken. It feels broken. No one believes in this plan. Everyone seems to just be kind of waiting around for Kevin Adams to be given the boots, right? Doesn’t it? Maybe that’s where all of this this no one wants to sign here in Buffalo. Well, yeah. No one wants to sign here because they don’t know the plan after this season. Who knows if it’s Kevin Adams doing it or Yarmmo Kalinan or someone else. Do do you think that it’s plausible? Yeah, it’s c certainly an option. Um certainly a possibility. You look at the Sabres right now and like you said, it’s just waiting around. They didn’t do anything and nobody wants to come here. Nobody respects Kevin Adams as a GM. But then you look at, you know, how Terry and Kevin’s relationship is and it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere, right? And the the the best case scenario, I guess, is that they decide to move on from Kevin. He’s not going to leave the organization. I think he just moves into a different role. But if that was the choice, that should have been done two seasons ago. What are we waiting around for to do this? Get somebody that has a little bit of respect at least on their name and that players might want to come here and, you know, talk to. And I, you know, you see that report that Terry Pigoula, you know, used to go out and try to recruit and he flew out kind of like, you know, you see the Steve Cohens of the world do nowadays with the Mets where they’re, you know, going out and meeting with these big players. Uh, that just doesn’t happen. And you look at this this team right now and there’s just nothing to be excited about. Not a thing. The best case scenario in my opinion is you’re hanging around the trade deadline a couple points out like years previously, but what are they going to do? Is Kevin Adams going to make moves at the trade deadline to put them into a playoff position? No, he hasn’t done that throughout his entire tenure as GM, the year he really should have when they lost, you know, they they missed the playoffs by one year with one point, which we’ll talk about for years and years and years if the Savers don’t make the playoffs because that was handed to him on a silver platter. Every single player on the Savers was outperforming what they should have been doing. All you had to do is make a couple moves, improve the defense, get one more score, or just get a goalie because the goalending was bad. And they do nothing. They they do absolutely nothing at the trade deadline. And that is, you know, kind of where the season fizzled out. They still almost made it. You look at this season, you you need a top scorer in the league. Again, you’re missing a top six forward, which do you have any ideas? Let’s let’s start with that. Do you have any ideas how to fix the top six forward group right now? The only way you can do it is via a bow and buy trade. That’s it. That’s your only avenue. Kevin Adams has no other options. And it’s tough. There were there weren’t many great free agents and the market is extremely bare this off season, but it was right there for the taking in terms of trade that I mean a Purka trade. You should have gotten more. We’ve talked talked about this before. You should have got more than just Kessle Ring and Don. switch out Don for I I don’t know Lawson Krauss. Why couldn’t we have gotten Lawson Krauss? That’s a name that has always been linked to the Sabres and yet couldn’t get Utah to part ways with him. But at this point, it’s Byron. That’s the only lever that Adams has yet to use. I I just don’t see any other way because it’s clear that nobody really values our prospects high enough to give us a top six forward and our first round picks unless you promise the trading team an unprotected first round pick for next year with the idea that hey they’ll give it more value because the Savers going to be dog crap and it’s probably going to be in the top five. That’s that’s your only two options, I guess, for Kevin Adams at this point. It’s just he’s really put himself into a corner here. Let’s let’s give Kevin Adams the benefit of the doubt and say all of these insiders saying, you know, Jordan Kyu was available, this top player, that top player. Let’s say those are all fake. Even if that is the case, how do you panic so hard on the Purka trade? Again, they said Purka said he’s not coming back. Whatever. He is an RFA after night. You have a whole year to trade him. You know what I’m saying? Like you don’t have to panic with that trade. You don’t have to just, oh boy, what’s gonna happen? And you just, you know, all of a sudden because that developed super quickly, right? We were talking about an offer sheet potentially, you know, in the future with him. We were talking about maybe trading him off, whatever. At the end of the day with Purka, though, you didn’t have to really trade him right away. And the Sabres completely panic on that move. If anything, they should have traded Byum right away. The guy who, you know, was generating all that interest. But, you know, there were reports that Byum had a huge market. Purka didn’t have a market because why would he have a market, you know, like all of a sudden he’s just, oh, he’s on the trade block and you do it right after the Zegrass trade. Uh, similar player I’ll say. And you know, right now again, I think Purka has a higher ceiling for sure, but like Zerasse gets traded for a bag of pucks and all of a sudden Purka gets traded for basically the same thing. How are you a GM watching Kevin Adams deal Purka at that moment and you’re going to offer him anything for Ball and Byum? If that guy’s, you know, ineptness to trade Purka for nothing doesn’t scare you away, then I don’t know what does because I would not give Kevin Adams a good offer for anyone in the future as long as he’s Sabers GM after several moves he’s made and especially after that Purkco. And how the heck do you even fathom giving away a guy like Kyu for Bow and Byum if you know Kevin Adams will probably trade him for a third round pick after this year? Well, that entire trade, the methodology, the reasoning for selectively going after Kessle Ring and Don, I get the excuse that, hey, maybe the PURA market was softer than he thought, but that didn’t really seem like the case. It seemed as if every single contending team were in on him. And also Kevin Adams, and this is only this has been his draft sort of mindset. It’s to always select the best player available. Well, I don’t get it, Kevin. How do you in the draft view every single selection as, hey, we’re going to take the best player available. We’re not going to force because of need. We’re not going to reach because of need. Why couldn’t you have applied that same mindset to the trade market? Yeah, sure. You really wanted a top four defenseman, that long-term partner to play again, play with Owen Power, and he really wanted that. He didn’t want a Ford. But if you had better offers on the table, you take the better offers. Yeah. because you give yourself more options. If you get Kyu plus another piece like Bold or something or a draft pick, that’s fantastic. That makes your team better. Kyu, in my opinion, would have been an upgrade on Purka. And we had talked about it on multiple episodes about how, hey, we should be only training Purka or any other play off this roster if it makes the team better now. Now, that trade, Kale, did that make this team better right now? No. Now, did did it make it a more complete team? Yes. But did it make it a better team? Did it make it a team that’s going to get more points next season? No. But again, me and you looked at it like, oh, this is part one to the Byum trade, right? You get your defenseman now. You can free up a defenseman with Byum leaving and you replace it with a forward that would replace Burka. So, you know, you you do two moves to replace your two guys. That makes sense. They decide to keep Byum. Now you have an excess of riches at defense, which maybe they’ve just looked at the defense and have said, listen, this is just a joke what we’ve had the last five years back here. Let’s just load it up and see, oh, maybe that was our problem. And hopefully TA Thompson gets 500 goals this year and Zack Benson turns into the number one winger in the league. Because if you look at our roster right now in our projected lines going into opening night, that forward group is the worst I’ve seen it since the ultimate tank year for McDavid. And I I don’t think there’s anything close. I would I would push back on that. I remember when Zack Begoian was lining up as a fourth liner back due to injuries, but yeah, that if we look at that lineup with Brandon Montour and Begoian on the fourth line that Yeah, that is I think that was that was worse. That was worse. Um but I get your point. And I see and understand what you’re saying when you look at and I talked about this uh last week I or was it it was it was in my video my free agency recap video. I examine I zoomed out a little bit took a look at the big picture brought up the depth chart onto the screen and you just have so many holes without Purka. You have a lot of goals that you need to replace. And I guess maybe the front office views the the goals that needed to be replaced when you shipped out Purka as they maybe viewed it as not as big of a deal as we are right now. I think that Kevin Adams in his front office is looking at this roster and going here we go. This team has been able to score goals. They’ve proven that two of the last three seasons. They just can’t keep the puck out of the back of the net. And if we finally make real additions to this defensive core, move some things around, maybe we won’t need to replace those goals. Do you understand what I’m saying, though? Yeah, I I completely see. I see what you’re trying to say. And it’s again, you you load up the defense and you’re like, okay, the you know, and last year it wasn’t really the case, but you look back a couple years ago and you’re losing games five to four, six to four. It’s like like the scoring was not the issue. It was the defense and it was the consistency because the Sabres would go on streaks where if their goalie was playing good, all of a sudden they win like three three games in a row and they score like 10 goals in those three games or more than that. And it’s like, okay, we got something here. We just can’t piece it together. Um, I wanted to pull up a lineup here. And this is if the Sabres don’t make any more moves, what their what their lineup would be. Um, I’m trying to find it here, but again, it’s maybe Terry Pigul is tanking for McKenna and you know, he’s he’s got him with Penn State and now maybe he’s going to try to recruit him. But let’s look here. Joe Marino on X put out a Sabres lineup if they’re three injuryprone players are out at the same time. obviously being um Samuelson, being Josh Norris, and someone else, which we’ll figure out later, but the first line would be Benson, Koulique, Thompson. Okay, it’s not not a great first line at all, but in terms of a line, it’s good. Then you have Zucker, Mloud, Tuck. Okay, again, rumors. We’ll we’ll talk about that later. Talk probably signing long term. Then third line, Isach Rosen, Noah Osen, and Jack Quinn. That’s that’s terrible. Then your fourth line, Beck Malenstein, Payton Krebs, and Josh Don, who are basically the same player. We switch over to defense. Byum, Dian Power, Kessle Ring, Ryan Johnson, and Connor Timonss with UPPL and Lion as your goalies. See, you highlighted right there. The problems are not with the Dor. If you take Samson out and put Ryan Johnson in, I like Ryan Johnson. I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten a look sooner here in Buffalo. He’s been good in Rochester. He’s had some good cameos here and there of the parts of the last two seasons. But that third line, the lack of depth is just it’s like it’s a five alarm fire right there. I don’t I can’t believe Kevin Adams doesn’t see that. And do you think that maybe they do realize this? Do do you do you think that they can see that like Jordan Greenway? We know he’s not reliable. He’s missed so much of the last two seasons. Josh Norris, obviously played three games, got hurt again. And Matias Samson, I It’s honestly better Matias Samuelson’s injured. He does less damage to us. Keep him off the ice. But do you remember two years ago when Samuelson, it was two or three years ago, the Sabres were like Samuelson got hurt and all of a sudden they just completely like turned into a terrible team. And it’s been the opposite since obviously, but I think it was a West Coast trip or something where Samuelson was I don’t know. But Samuelson was once the hero we needed. Kind of like a uh Jacob Bryson. Remember the Sabres uh what was it two years ago when Jacob Bryson had like a 10 in one record with the team when he played. But that’s right. They have to know they have to know that they have injuryprone guys and they have to know that this forward group is just not a playoff roster, right? like like you cannot brainwash yourself into believing this is a playoff team and maybe they’ll shock the world, right? Maybe things happen when you you least expect it. I just I just don’t know the plan. And like you said, other than a Bum trade, you’re relying on either UPL or Alex Lion to be a top three goalie in the league. You’re relying on this defensive core to step into the top 10 groups, and you’re relying on this forward group to pretty much all your players to take steps up. Uh, and you’re you’re you’re just not going to get that, right? That’s the same thing they did after the year they missed the playoffs by one point. They didn’t do much. And they expected Cousins to, you know, become an all-star. They expected Tae Thompson to become a top five player in the league. They expected, you know, like Middlestat to become a top player in the league. It it didn’t happen. And I don’t know how you’re how you find yourself in this problem unless there is an internal cap. That’s the only thing that really makes all of this make sense. But they continue to say there’s not. So until that’s until that’s confirmed, I mean, there’s no one else to blame but the GM, right? Because if Terry Pagula doesn’t have an internal cap, we have had the worst GMs for the last 15 years, and it’s not even close out of any team. But it just can’t be. It cannot be that guy after guy after guy continues to just have the same problems. Continues to not get the big fish. Continues to when he does it’s one or two moves that just doesn’t make sense. It has to start from the top. It has to start with Terry. And it seems like again with this rumor him being the hockey hockey ops that makes complete sense because that would explain a lot that well obviously he him and Kevin have daily chats with each other. how yet Kevin had to talk and do his three-day presentation in front of Terry Pigula and didn’t know his answer for another three days. I I think I they know it wasn’t even a presentation to save Kevin Adams job. Oh, it was just a we’re going to see what this is my plan for next season. This is what we’re going to do. This is how we’re going to miserably fail at doing that and this is how I’m going to get myself fired. That was his presentation to Kevin or to Terry, excuse me. Yeah. Um, but as Jason Zucker said in his end of season press conference, hope is a shitty strategy. And through these offseason moves, the Sabres have yet to show that they’re relying on anything other than hope and in-house growth. That’s that’s pretty much it. And it’s just painful. and it’s led to the Savers fan base arguably being the at the lowest point they’ve ever been throughout this entire drought. This is the lowest. Um, but let’s for the final few minutes that we got here. Let’s talk quickly about Alex Tuck. This is a little happier. It sounds like Alex Tuck and the Sabres are going to start working hard to get an extension down. Cal, what is your ideal um contract money term? What’s your ideal contract for an Alex Tuck extension? So, obviously it’s the Sabers, so they’re going to have to overpay a little bit. Now, you do get the hometown boy discount. Uh, but if you’re Alex Tuck, I mean, you got to be asking for a lot of money, right? Because you’re a guy who came in here and I’ll be honest, I Alex Tuck’s one of my favorite players. I’m very okay with overpaying with him. He is the heart and soul of this team. Without him, I I don’t even know what this team would look like. He is he is like the one of the few glimmers of hope that could really rally the guys together and he’s you know an all Buffalo guy from Syracuse. Dare I say they sign him six years and I know it’s I I don’t want it. I would want four to five years honestly but I think they’re going to have to overpay. Uh moneywise I mean I they have so much cap it doesn’t matter. Alex Tucks, a guy who for the first three years of his next contract, it’s going to be more importantly what he does on the ice. Then unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a Kylo Aoso situation where he starts to lose it on the ice. I see you agreeing with me. Um, and it’s going to be a a more locker room type situation. You’re going to have to overpay for him, but I don’t care. The cap’s going way up. He’s probably going to touch seven and a half to eight to to maybe nine as as crazy as that sounds because it’s it’s a guy. It’s Buffalo and they they need to keep Alex Tuck here. If they get rid of Alex Tuck, the fan base is going to riot. They need to What would your ideal contract be? Are you thinking the same as me? Are you thinking more shorter term? I just I don’t think he’s going to agree to shorter term. I think he wants to be here. I think he’s disgusted with the state of the franchise. really wants to turn around for the fans but wants his money as well. Right. And before I touch down on what my ideal extension would look like, I agree with you. How pathetic though would it look for the Sabres to everyone across the league to see that, hey, the Sabres couldn’t even keep a Sabres fan. This is not just Alex Tuck, the Sabres player. He’s been a fan of this team his entire life. This is his hometown team. He used to go to all the games. If the Sabres aren’t able to keep him on the roster, that might as well just wave the white flag, sell the team Terry. It’s It’s not just that Alex Tuck is a good player because he’s a really good player, but it’s just the optics, the messaging that it sends to everyone across the NHL. And you’re right, the fans will riot. But it does sound like from the insiders that they are pretty optimistic about a deal getting done. I think you’re going to see a a contract in the range of five to seven years. Like you said, probably six. I’d hope for five. Five years. My ideal target number would be eight million per season, but chances are it’s going to be closer to 9 and a half. I think it’s going to be above what you think. It’s going to be closer to nine and a half. Maybe just touching up towards the upper edges. Getting real close to 10 mil a season. 975. Something like that. Yeah, just give him a 5 mil increase per year, which that’s a really risky contract that’ll take Alex Tuck to age 35. 35 years old with the style of hockey that he plays, so much ice time, blocking so many shots, playing in the penalty kill, power play, top six minutes, it’s going to wear down on him. So, like you said as well, we’re probably going to see a regression from him, but you just got to sign him. Alex Tuck, it’s non-negotiable. He is a player that you have to keep on your team. He does so many good things for you. He is the heart and soul of this franchise right now. It’s you need something in the dark dark days like this for the Sabres. You need a to keep what little good things you got. Yeah. And we can’t obsess over the number they give him. Say it’s 10 million. I don’t care. If you look at the cap going up the next two, three years, the Savers are going to be about 30 million under the cap every offseason. And guess what? They’re still not going to do anything. So, it doesn’t matter what they give Alex Tuck, you need to keep him here. Um, is it a good contract at 10 million? If you compare him to other guys, which I hate doing. I hate comparing contracts. No. You know, it’s it’s not like it’s not great. If Alex Tuck went to a Stanley Cup team like the Panthers, would they be able to sign him for seven mil, six and a half mil? Yes. But, but you got to do it. I’ve continued to say you got to overpay for guys. That’s the only way you’re going to flip this franchise around. And you got to form that brotherhood that um the Panthers have done. And that that team’s scary. That team is going to be a dynasty. I don’t know how many more cups they’re going to win if they win any more cups, but they’re going to be a threat in the Stanley Cup playoffs for at least seven, eight more years. I mean, they and and that’s what good teams are able to do, right? They’re able to keep their guys. Yeah, absolutely. And folks, I know the last few weeks have been just solely about the Buffalo Sabres, and we had Malik Irvin on last week, so there’s a little bit of respit, but Bill’s football coming up real soon. Training camp in a few weeks, preseason as well, will start in early August as well. As Cal said, he will be sticking to his promise of live streaming every Bills game, every Savers game. Hold me to it. You know that I I I will make sure I hold you to it. Um, of course I’ll be featuring in on some of those Savers live streams as well, but Cal, that’s such an ambitious goal. Oh man, we we’ll miss a couple because obviously, you know, family events or, you know, you know, but but like, you know, might might go to some games, but, you know, we’re going to try to do, you know, 90% Sabres games and we’re going to try to do every Bill’s game. We’ll see how it goes. Uh, the Sabres, something tells me the paper bag might be making an appearance. I got to make a new one. And it says 13 years. We got to make the 14 year one. So this one’s going to get retired. But yeah, just like uh well hopefully Terry, please Terry just retire at this point. Hand off to for next year. Can we do it? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Um but folks, there was before we quickly hop off here. Uh I just want to briefly touch on the USO Buffalo, the soccer team. Cal, looks like our assumptions were right. They are not going to be playing next to a toxic dump. All right. They’re going to re-evaluate their options. I You look so surprised right now. Yeah, I’m I’m shocked. What are we doing with this team? Because I as somebody who has really gotten into soccer the last couple months and it’s really excited for the World Cup and all that. Can we get this figured out, please? Can we get this stadium underway? Because next season’s supposed to be the year, right? Am I am I mistaken by that? Next season. Well, actually, they’ve pushed it back a year as a result of this setback with the stadium. They’re not going to start uh kicking a soccer ball until 27. So, okay. So, we got a little time. Maybe they just do they just use the new Bill Stadium? Is that an option? Because I know they said definitely it’s not an option. No, they have talked about two locations. It looks like they’re really narrowing in now on downtown at that area behind the old Buffalo News headquarters, the atrium corridor. Yep. The original plan. Yep. And they claim that they got more investors now, more money to play with. So that’ll factor into their decisions. But folks, that’s going to do it for us here on Buffalo Talk Center. I’m Don. With me today was Cal. Make sure to follow us, like it on Spotify, uh follow and subscribe here on the YouTube as well. Um thank you so much folks for watching and we will see you in the next episode next week. See you.

In Episode 8 of Buffalo TalkCenter, Cal and Don break down the Buffalo Sabres’ bleak outlook heading into the 2025-26 NHL season following a quiet and underwhelming offseason. With no major signings and several unanswered roster questions, fans are left wondering what the plan is. We also dive deep into the Bowen Byram contract/trade impasse, what’s holding up a deal, and whether it signals deeper concerns about the team’s direction. Plus, early reports say the front office have started extension talks with Alex Tuch; what will it take to keep Tuch in Buffalo long-term? And as always, much more!

#Buffalo #Sabres #billsmafia #BowenByram #AlexTuch

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00:00 Intro
01:20 Don’s Picklesburgh Trip
05:00 Casino Talk
06:50 Sabres – Pegula/Shanahan Report
11:40 MSG Broadcast Too Negative??
17:00 Byram/Peterka Trade Talk
21:30 Sabres Defensive Upgrades Good Enough?
23:00 Current Lineup Outlook
28:00 Tuch Extension Talks
34:20 USL Buffalo Stadium News
35:30 Outro