Sabres offseason talk and notes | Hockey Hotline | Due Champions
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] For the best Italian food in Western New York, Elliot Apollo, call 716825-3675. The Larden Construction Group. Fubo TV, the official streaming service of Due Champions. FanDuel, the official sports book of due champions for all your summertime needs. Beauty pools as well as kayak pools. CX Chronicles, your total customer solutions focus manager. W.G, the official energy drink of due champion. Hey, sons of Eerie, our artwork looks better on your walls. Hamburg brewing, please visit our tap room on Boston State Road, Hamburg, New York. And finally, Fatboy Surf Club for all your surfing needs. and welcome to another edition of Hockey Hotline on this Saturday morning, August 2nd, 2026. I am your co-host, Beyond 716, and Matt is here. He is lingering in the background. Um, we are going to, as a program note, and we’ll get into this a couple of times, we’re going to be moving our time, our date and time of our hockey hotline. Uh Matt is gainfully employed and he has a he’s tied up on a lot of Saturdays. So we’re happy about that and but we look forward to announcing another night that we will bring you Saber Talk. Um instead so this may be one of our last Saturday morning Saber chats so to speak, but alas we are here deep in the depths of the off season in early August as a lot of us are getting ready. If you are Bills fans like me, you’re getting ready for the Buffalo Bills season as it’s in full swing. Speaking of that, remember, give Duke Champions a follow on Twitter, on YouTube, on Instagram, all of your outlets. Give us a follow if you are a Buffalo Bills fan. We’re going to have we have so much great content going on right now as the Bills prepare for the 2025 season. There’s tons of information there. So, great shows. myself and Whittle do one on Wednesday nights coast to coast and Matt and Student do great show on Saturday with there’s a lot of others. There’s Pat and Tommy uh doing a new show called Buffalo Canvas. So, there’s a lot of great stuff going on out there if you are a fan like myself of both the Sabres and the Bills. So, here we are. We’re deep into the off season on August 2nd. You’re thinking, well, really nothing happens. I mean, you know, these teams are shutting it down and but alas, the Buffalo Sabres gave us some news this week. And is it good or bad? Well, we’re going to get into that shortly. And for all of you that think, you know, in terms of roster construction and roster management, yeah, 95% or more of this team is sort of set already in stone, of course. But let’s not forget, happy anniversary, ladies and gentlemen. On this date on August 2nd, 2018, your Buffalo Sabres traded for Jeff Skinner and traded the infamous, now famous Cliff Pooh and three draft picks to the Carolina Panthers. So on this date, the Buffalo Sabres did strike a big trade. So there are possibilities that things could happen on this date, even though we are deep in the offseason. And of course, our Buffalo Savers are still with cap space. And what a surprise, right, that we’re sitting here with a little over five point something million dollars in cap space. So, we’re going to get into that. We’re going to also look at some of the roster. I’m going to bring up a screen here. Finally got this working where we can bring up uh Pipedia and maybe we’ll just kind of do a little audit of our of our roster, kind of go over a few things together where things are going to lie. So, we’ll get into that. In addition, we’re going to get into a press conference that the Sabres had this week, and we’re going to get deep into that shortly. And as well, we’ll get into other little news and notes coming up, and then we’ll kind of set you up for what Matt and I are going to get into as we get forward into the season. So, there’s still going to be lots coming up. And believe it or not, it feels like hockeyy’s far away. But in about a month, we’re going to be lacing it up and we’re going to be starting preseason. Camps are going to be kicking off soon. So, it’s a long it’s a long off seasonason, but obviously not as long as some other sports like football, etc. So, if you’re in our group chat, please let me know if you have any feedback, if you have any topics you want to bring up about our sabers. I am all ears today. It’s not easy doing this without our fearless leader, Matt, but we will we will definitely press on this morning. So, I want to get into the first topic of the week. And the first topic of the week is this organization in general. And we’re not going to make this a hate show about the Sabres. We’re not going to we’re going to go over some positive things. It’s not going to be a complete, you know, overrun of we all we all know what this team has lacked. We all know about the 14 years of no playoffs. We we all know that the Sabres have the longest streak in the history of the NHL missing the playoffs. We don’t have to go down this road. We know this hasn’t been the most exciting off season in terms of moves, in terms of trades, and it’s been very tough. And we’re going to get into that later, too, as I have a rebuttal to one of our my favorite fans on Twitter. And we’re going to get into that as well. We’re going to tie that in. But I want to get into where is the true heart and heartbeat of this organization. Where is it? Right? You you see some other franchises out there. We talk a lot about on this show about the taxes, right? And we we talk a lot about the advantages that the Florida and the Vegases have. And they do and and that’s maybe a 10 to 15% part of their advantage over other teams. Obviously, you still have to construct your roster. Obviously, you still need strong ownership. You still need a strong organization to make the trades that you need to build your roster. That’s not up for debate. So, the Vegas Golden Knights, I’ll use them as an example. Now, the Vegas Golden Knights have been a team that’s kind of towed that line with the LTI circumventions. They’ve ruffled some feathers amongst other organizations and fans over the years, but credit the Vegas Golden Knights with this. And I and I do not like this team at all, but we just have to call it like we see it. The Vegas Knights Golden Knights are very aggressive organization. Their owner wants to win every year. They just added Mitch Marty. I feel like they’re an annual team that annually adds. They they had guys like Thomas Hurdle obviously Jack Eelles we know here but you know as much as we dislike the Vegas Golden Knights I applaud their ownership for being aggressive great new arena they have and I’ve been to Vegas several times and I’ve seen it the enthusiasm of course because they win that makes it easier but they’ve really jumparted that that a market that we never thought would work and it is working right now it’s working big time and you have to credit them because their heart is into winning. Their heart is into that and they put on a great show. They have great jerseys. They have again the facilities. They do things very well across the board. Now, let let’s come over here to Western New York and let’s take a look at the Buffalo Sabres. Where’s their heart? Where where is this team’s heartbeat, so to speak? We talk a lot about that. You look at the Buffalo Bills, right? Josh Allen and he kind of symbolizes the heartbeat of this franchise right now. So does Brandon Bean and it trickles down all the way into the players the Bills bring in and has created a strong one of the best teams in sports really since 2019. And we’ve seen it consistently. What drives the Sabres? Well, I think we got a little look at it this past week on a on a weekly we didn’t think there would be a lot of news about the Buffalo Sabres. Now, if I remember correctly, I remember when the Bills talked about the naming rights for Highark Stadium. I remember the announcement. It was just whatever, you know, Highark Stadium. Okay, this and that. Well, here we go. Buffalo Sabres send out a tweet and and this is good news. Bro Saber fans that have been myself that have been a little worried about their, shall we call it, future. And I and I hate to talk like this because I don’t even want to talk about relocation, but let’s be honest, the league is looking to expand. The Buffalo Sabres have been messy in terms of a lot of re a lot of things. Ownership, you know, season tickets. We’re going to get into all that shortly. But the Sabres come out with this. Okay. Key Bank Center naming Rex Extension for 10 years for the home arena. So it remains Key Bank Center. Now the lease is up in October if I if I remember correctly. So that’s a whole another story. So we’ll see how that plays in. But it’s a good sign that the Buffalo Sabers will at least be secure or at least the 10 next 10 years or so in this market. So we hope because remember it’s the arena that’s not the Savers. So here we are. You make the announcement. Okay, great. You know what is it? What does a meaning right do for do for you and me? What does that do for Matt? What does that do for all you great fans out there? It really doesn’t do a lot. It doesn’t really move the meter. Not for this franchise, right? This franchise that has gone awall a for quite a while now over this drought in terms of communication. They’ve lacked the communication to us fans. They’ve lacked the passion at times to really show us they care. They lack the initiative to show us with leaving $30 million of cap space on the table over the last five years with their lack of moves. And now it’s going to be $35 million over seven years it looks like going into the season. But yet the Sabres found it in themselves to have a dog and pony show where they have this sort of extra I want to call extravagant by their standards. They have this press conference with the Key Bank representatives and you have Terry Pagula opening the door about the rights names for this and yeah, I love the meme where the doors open and it’s and it’s just a group. I think that’s hysterical. I mean, the Sabres jokes make themselves, right? And then you start hearing, you know, from Terry Pagula and you hear from Mark, I think his name is Poland Cards. I’m not great with his last name. You hear from the the mayor of the of the city of Buffalo. Don’t recall his name, but I just remember seeing him. And you have Terry Pagula putting on a hockey helmet with the Keybag logo. I mean, that’s a meme that’s going to last for a long time. So, at least this Dog and Pony Show gave us the do the birth of a new Perry Pagoula meme. Now, why is this important to me? Why does it speak volumes of the Sabres organization? If a lot of you remember a movie called Jerry Maguire. Now I’m a little older, maybe some of you haven’t watched Jerry Maguire. I remember the scene where of course Tom Cruz is the sports agent, you know, he’s the hot, you know, go sports agent and he’s talking about his first round pick. He’s got the first overall pick. It’s his big agent. His name is Kush, right? And he’s he’s all, you know, he he makes a handshake with the father and he’s about to go number one overall. At the last second, Kush switches to Bob Sugar, who’s Jerry Maguire’s rival in their same company. And I remember the line that Jerry Magcguire said about, you know, I was still moved by your uh, you know, uh, a handshake is stronger than oak kind of thing. And and it kind of brought me back to Beoula in this case when you see this image of how excited he is about a naming rights. And you know, Terry, I’m still moved by your press conference in 2012 about the only existent reason for existence of this franchise is to win Stanley Cups, but yet did the Sabres give us a little look into the window of what really drives them? It’s business, folks. Business. But now listen, every team has to run like a business. We understand that. We’re we’re fooled to think that you obviously you have to turn a profit. But did the actions of the Buffalo Sabres with this ne with press? Why did they need a press conference with balloons and all this other stuff and in late July and then they had to stream it and it was just a cringeworthy experience in my opinion again from a franchise that just I just feel like they’re disconnected. I feel like from Perry Pigula and this is where it starts folks. It starts down to Adams. I feel like they’re just disconnected from reality right now. This stab fans don’t want to see this, folks. We want results. We want to hear that we’re aggressive. We want to hear that even that they’re trying, right? That’s that’s the biggest thing. Like we had free agents out there for example, you know, this off season there wasn’t a lot, but Nikolai Eers. It would have been great if we heard, hey, the Savers took a swing at at Eers for $10 million. Didn’t happen. Okay. that’s fine as long as they you know sometime you can’t get every player you know not everybody’s going to want to come to Buffalo we know that but we got none of that. So, I just feel like this naming rights extension press conference signals to me about what is in here, what’s in their heart, what what’s what’s really driving the powers that be a key bank center. I mean, I jokey call it key tank center, you know, because I feel like, you know, we’ve tanked so many times. But again, I get the importance of the business side. I’m I’m not hating on it. I mean, the viability of franchise depends on it for us fans, for us content creators and whatnot, but it’s just the timing is just off. This would have been a nice one to just take a back seat, maybe put up a nice video. You can have a pre video or something, you know, five, seven minutes, you know, thanking the Key Bank, you know, owner, you know, the sponsors at Nauseium. Great. I mean, thanks, thanks to them. I appreciate you for, you know, help keeping the savers afloat. some other tidbits from this press conference. I mean, uh, Peter Goulli, I believe, I’m not great with his last name, but he’s like the CFO or COO, talked about, I believe the Savers now have 9,000 season tickets, which is kind of low, especially in a hockey is a different animal than than other sports. They’re ideally want to get to 12,000 season ticket holders. That would be better for the team, would give them a lot more stability in terms of that. So that number is low, not surprising. Um, but it’s something that I wish I would hear that that’s not acceptable that we want to do more and more and more and kind of rail on what’s why is that the case, right? That should be the focus. The focus shouldn’t be Terry Pagula putting on a helmet looking ridiculous with a suit on and a and a Key Bank Center helmet. What? They’re just so out of touch. And that’s my biggest thing with them right now is they just don’t understand what’s really at the heart. They don’t understand the market that they’re in. They just don’t get it. I mean, this is not the stuff that Saber fans care of. So, couple of things and some positives is that Pete spoke about seats at the arena. Now, I haven’t been to the stadium in quite a while, but I’ve heard the seats are awful. And if they’re the same seats that were there when I was there in the day, that’s yeah, that’s got to be updated. So, the Sabres have a lot of problems on the ice performance, the image of their organization across the board, and you have an arena that’s outdated. So, it’s it’s it’s a big whammy. So, you’re trying to attract fans coming in. If you don’t have good facilities to stay, the appetite of the sports fan has changed. The preferences of a sports fan have greatly changed over the last 30 years. from when I was a kid. I mean, my dad used to take me to the odd place had a unique charm about it. No, no video replay scoreboard. The the seats were like wood seats. I mean, it wasn’t comfortable at all. We didn’t care. It was hockey. We loved it. Nowadays, though, considering the exorbitant prices of the tickets and whatnot, Saber fans, I mean, Saber fans and other fans around the country expect more, right? I live close to Anaheim. The Ducks put new seats in the Honda Center. It’s an older arena, not quite as old as Keyag Center, but you could see that they’re making the effort. And the Ducks don’t have a high season ticket base like the Sabres either. They’re they’re And this is a little blah. They’ve had their issues, too. It’s not stopping them from doing it. So, what’s what’s the Sabres excuse? Like, you have to spend money to make money, right? You have to give. It’s like with with the with the Bills facility in terms of what they do. They do an excellent job of selling the facility. I mean, I believe Pula said it one time, you can’t sell the market sometimes, but you got to sell the facility. Same thing with the Sabres. I mean, if you’re a free agent, you see that arena and you see what’s going on around the rest of the hockey world, Vegas, Florida. I mean, you see the video of Florida and their facilities. Who wouldn’t want to play there? Who wouldn’t? you’re you’re in a market where you’re sort of, you know, you’re not feeling the pressure every second to win. You have lower taxes. You get you can buy a house. You got no property tax. Why not, right? So there there’s so many benefits to that and I can understand it. So yeah, the savers have to sell their facility too. It’s time to have a serious talk about Key Bank Center gning it out, putting in some better quality seating and it and enhancing the game in-game experience for the fans. It’s just it’s just got to happen. There’s no doubt about it. So, that’s that’s high priority. It was good to see at least them acknowledge it uh from that point. So, we’ll see if that going forward, maybe this um announcement coupling that hopefully with some better on ice performance and we get a better band, we get a better uh an uptick in these tickets, that would be great. So, we can get all that all tied in together. So, that’s my sort of rant about that. That’s, you know, it’s it wasn’t pretty. There were some decent nuggets that came out of it, but again, I just felt it was very unnecessary for the Buffalo Sabres to have this press conference. It made no sense at all. So, again, we’re about 21 minutes in. If you are in our chat, we’d love to hear from you. Um, again, feel free to put any feedback, anything you want to know about the Sabres, any comments at all. I’m here. So, Matt is somewhere in the background. He’s working. I said he is he is a trooper, man. working hard as always, doing his thing, and you know, he’ll pop in from time to time. He is our fearless leader here at Due Champions. We appreciate him all the time. Again, programming note, if you’re joining us, look for us here on Hockey Hotline coming up soon. Different date and time. We’re going to have to move it. That’s why I’m here solo today. Nobody wants to hear me babble on for an hour about this team solo. So, it’s tough to do this without Matt. Oh, I miss him. So, it’s definitely different. So, but let’s move on to our next topic for today. There was there were a couple of notes, some some positives. See, I told you we weren’t going to sit here and just rail on this organization every second. Number one. So, let’s talk about the Sabres had a couple of contract extensions. On July 27th, Connor Timmans agreed to a 2-year contract extension. two years, $2 and a half million dollars. He was acquired from the Penguins in June. He’s that right shot defenseman. He had six goals, 46 uh I think he’s got six goals, 46 points in 159 career games. Not a very offensive-minded defenseman, but he’s that solid third line, third pairing guy that this team has needed. It’s this the one positive I will say about the Sabres this year is that with the additions of Kesserling and Timmons, I like what Adams has done with the right side of the defense. I thought that was very solid. You know, it’s not they didn’t overextend in terms of money or cap. So, I thought that was pretty good. So, gives us good depth. I feel very secure with the Sabres depth. Again, this pushes Bryson off the roster, which is another win in my opinion. Bryson’s a good kid, but I just don’t think he’s I don’t not sure why he’s still around all these years, but hey, it’s fine. So, Conor Timonss very solid move. Um, I like the two years and I like that, you know, the 2.2 is nothing now in our climate now, especially as the cap escalates. I think it’s a good contract for him and a good contract for the Sabres. And again, so we’ll see after he played an elevated role uh last year in March and he looked a little bit better. You know, some some of these guys like like uh our guy last year, JBD, and I wish he was still here. And I know that was Matt’s favorite guy. So, and he got some, you know, an elevated option, you know, look at here with the Sabres, and he performed pretty well. So, you know, there’s a lot of great players. There’s a lot of good players in this leagues, folks. And sometimes it’s just lack of opportunity and there’s that guy on the bench who’s just, you know, they’re dying to get in. They they’re looking to get their chance. These are professional hockey players. They’re at the top of the top. And there are guys out there that once they get their opportunity, they seize it. So again, not saying Conor Timonss is going to be, you know, an offensive guru, you know, an offensive whiz in that sense, but again, it’s that stability that he gives us and his skill set will definitely be welcomed and was really missing from the Buffalo Sabres of last year. So, we’ll put that in the good check box for Kevin Adams on this Saturday. Again, we’re not going to rail on him every second of the day. So, another signing, and this was a big one for Buffalo Saber fans because he’s been talked about since the moment he was traded for in the Sam Reinhardt trade, and that’s Deon Levi, who a lot of Saber fans have looked at as the future of this franchise. And something that the Buffalo Sabres have lacked tremendously since Ryan Miller left this organization. And I still feel like that’s the one position that the Savers really should be focused on. I feel like that should be our culture. You know how some teams out there like like Ohio State in college football, it’s all about the wide receiver, right? They they have become or Penn State’s linebacker. You I’m a Penn State fan in college football. They’ve always had their certain positions. There are even other organizations in other sports where they just seem to find those guys, right? They just have I wish the Buffalo Sabres would get back to that when we had the run of really good goalending in this city for so long. And I think that should be in the DNA of this franchise. Having a strong defense, having a strong goalender, goender defense, and then forwards where it’s you just have a gritty team. you have some size, some some physicality, an exciting team that fans can really get behind that that gets the fans that come to the arena, likable players, and that’s the one thing I will give Kevin Adams this off seasonason. I like some of the players that they’ve gotten in terms of likability, in terms of team first. Um, so we’re starting to see that. We have, of course, Josh Dylan. We talked about him. We’re going to take an audit of this team. We’re going to go into that a little bit. So, I’m going to bring something up on screen here. Should work finally. So, we’ll get into that as we go forward. So, let’s get back to Deon Levi. So, Devin Levi signed his two-year a two-year contract for only $812,500. He’s 23 now. He gets $775 in the first year, $850 in the second. He’s waiver exempt for the 2025 season or until he plays 21 more NHL games. Uh so in the AHL last year 2.20 919 save percentage in the AHL as we know he ranked six. So he had a very good season. Of course not great in the playoffs but the whole Rochester team was not great in the playoffs either. So but there were some encouraging signs for Devil Levi. He’s getting a lot of work down there. Um and he’s you know and it looks like to me based on this contract that Devin Levi may be set for Rochester again. I mean, the two years and isn’t it funny? Think about if I went back four years ago when Devin Levi came up and had that six wins and seven starts and he took us by storm and we almost made the playoffs. It was you we just missed by a whisker to Florida. If I told you Deon Levi at 23 was going to sign for eight or 12,000 for two years, what would you tell me? Probably think I’m crazy. remember those rumors that Montreal was trying to poke around for Deon Levi and you know we got to sign him through this long contract. We probably figured he was getting five six million by now or maybe seven. He was our number one and he’s you know but these things take time and you know I feel like Devin was as exciting as that was I think it hurt him. I think it hurt him mentally. It gave it put a little too much on him a little too early and I don’t I don’t want to say it stunted his growth. I don’t really believe that so much. I just think it stunted the expectations from of our fan base. It it it send it through the roof and we weren’t ready for it. We weren’t ready as an organization. But I do feel like if De Levi walks into this situation this year with our improved defensive look, we talked about again the Kerlings and the Connor Timonss and if Matias Samson can just stay healthy and we could see more of the same we saw after the incident with Ta Thompson, which you know, again, Matias Samson isn’t going to be a bully on the ice or anything like that. That’s not what I’m saying. He was playing a much more consistent game. So, if we get that from our defense, Levi, if he steps into this team, I think is much better equipped this year than he was in years past. So, be that as it may, but I like this contract a lot. I mean, we how could we how can we not two years again, the 812, we have uh Alex Leon for one season as the backup now for a million and a half. So they could go with the combination of those two. We’re gonna again we’re going to show the depth chart and go into that a little bit. So again, this is to me another win for the Sabres and and Kevin Adams in the organization. And I I’ll say those two moves again, nice to see two two-year deals for those RFAS. Very solid numbers. I think Devin is in a good spot where I feel like he can get more seasoning in Rochester. And I believe Dustin Wolf is a good example. Uh the goalender out there, he had 140 something games in AHL. Deon Levi only had 89. So, you know, I I think he could benefit from it. And he could be maybe he’s just a late bloomer. Maybe he’s a guy at 24 starts coming up and playing some really really good hockey. I personally have my doubts about Deon Levi. But I but I also have hope as well. Well, it’s I’m sort of on the fence with him in that case, but I just want him to get the right opportunity and get the right seasoning so he gets the chance he deserves and gets it in a timely manner. So, big year for UPL, you know, really really is in my opinion, he needs to step up and show he’s a number one and we’ll see we’ll see how that all works out. But so having said that, the roster seems sort of set at this point, right? So how about we do a little exercise? Let me see how this works. So I’m going to try share the screen up here. So if you could see it right now. So don’t mind me as I move my head up because I’m looking up here. So here we are. I have the Sabres roster here. And we have our left wing, center, right wing combinations as you could see here. So obviously right now we have Norris, Mloud and Koulich down the middle with Krebs. I think this is the better alignment personally. Um some have had Koulique up here and had Norris here. I mean ideally I’d like to see Mloud here in this spot. I I don’t feel Mloud is really a number two center. But what’s nice about Mloud is you can move him over the wing. You can move you can move him around. He’s a nice chest piece for Lindy Ruff where he can kind of move him around. Of course, a lot of our success is going to depend on the health of Josh Norris. If Josh Norris could stay healthy with and with Benson get really getting a benefit from these two guys. I could see Benson going up to like 40 to 50 points. I could definitely see it. And I feel like we need to see it. I want to see him take a step up offensively. I love his defensive game, but I also need him to start becoming a little bit more of an offensive producer, especially in light of the fact that we just sent JJ Purka to Utah. So, very important that that happens. Of course, you got TA on the wing. I don’t worry anything about that. And Norris, again, if he’s healthy. So, the second line, you know, this is interchangeable to me. I would would not mind if Koulik is here, I’ll understand it. One thing about Koulique that I really heard on Rey and Peter’s podcast. They were I guess Peter’s I mean Rey was having golf with Pekka and Pekka talked about Yuri Koulik and he talked he gashes over Yuri Koulik. He said that he thinks Purka could be an 80 to 90 point player, but he talks about Koulik and how he’s a team guy and he will do whatever it takes to win. Remember how we spoke about that’s the kind of players this organization needs? Those are the kind of players that I want. So maybe maybe Purka was a guy that puts up a lot of points, but maybe he’s not a team first guy. Give me a guy like Koulik instead. I’d rather have that for this organization, especially because we’re trying to change that culture internally. So I’m excited about what Kouli can do this year. Again, I’m not saying he’s going to pop for 70 80 points or anything crazy like that, but and I like you can move him around on the wing if you need to on the left wing in case we have some issues there. So, we got some depth if something happens to Zucker. But this line right here of Tuck Zucker and Koulique, I would prefer this personally because my two pieces that a very important thing for the Savers this year, Zack Benson and Yuri Koulique. I need to see a nice progression from these two guys here. We know what Tuck’s going to bring. We know what Norris can bring. We know what Zucker is. And we know what Ta Thompson is. So, we have It’s not the ideal top six. And we know that there could be some trades, but to be truthfully honest, I don’t see the Sabres making another ad at this point. I think this is your roster going into the season. Um, now stranger things have happened. There’s still some rumors out there even about Bowen Byum still being on the move. And, you know, we could see if that happens, maybe somehow a forward still comes in here. And ideally, I would like to see that. So then we can move Benson down. Imagine if we got a better left winger or even a better center and we can move some guys around here. Maybe not so much center. We can even move Koulique to the wing as well. So, there’s some options there. Wing Mloud and Greenway. I think this is about right. Again, some of these guys are interchangeable here. Um maybe you put Josh Don up here somewhere, but I think, you know, again, these are the big three in terms of our our system. Quinn, Koulique, and Benson. These guys right here. What are they going to bring? We did sign Jack Quinn for a couple years and again I feel Jack has gotten a raw deal. I mean that that you know I feel bad for him with that injury. That’s a tough tough injury to overcome and I feel like now he’s got a couple years where now I feel like this might be a year where maybe Jack Quinn takes that nice step up that we’ve been waiting for. He still has a great shot. Um and again maybe he’s a guy if there’s an injury um we can move him up into the top six role. Mloud. What can I mean, you gotta love him as a third center. I I mean, the five million’s a little much, but again, this is the new NHL, but I’m okay with that. I’m okay with overpaying him just a little bit because I the reason why is, let’s say Norris gets hurt. I can live with this. Mloud can could fill in there. So, I I like what he brings and he brings some versatility as well. Fourth line. Now, right here we have Danforth, Mstein, and Krebs. So, I would say I would rather see Josh Don in here somewhere. Now, where’s Josh Don gonna fit? Now, he is a right winger and the center obviously. I mean, you could do this if you want to say bye-bye to Malenstein. Do something like this. Don’t you could put Krebs at wing at the left and maybe put Dan forth at right. So, there’s a lot of interesting little things you could do here uh in terms of the roster. So, we’ll have to see how this works out, but the Sabres, I’m not sure what their plan is with Danworth. They did pay him 1.8, so they must have some plans for him in that case. Got to get Josh Don in here somewhere. You have to. And that’s why I still feel like there could be a trade in the works here somewhere because there’s a little bit of a gluttony here down here in the third and fourth line. You have, but you have a lot of good depth here. I I really the more I think about Josh Don, the more I like this move. And you could even go something like this maybe. But see, I would think, you know, Danforth is more of a he’s not a left winger. So this is where it gets a little dicey. Um they have a lot of right wingers on here. So this is going to be a good battle here in terms of where that’s going to land. So that’s going to be an interesting move. So there’s our and generally our basically our forwards. There’s a couple guys in the system that could come up of course if there’s injuries. So let’s move to our defense. So here we go. One of the strengths of this team. So we have obviously Dalene power. I mean you can’t ask for much more than that. That’s that threesome right there. One to three might arguably be the best in the league. I’m not saying now leen is top two in the league. Top two, top three. Owen power, but then that environment is third. I mean you name me a team that’s got a guy that good on the on the left side as a three. That that’s unbelievable to me. So from that point of view, the Savers are loaded in this sense. Now you got Matias Samson. You could put him with Dalene. That could help him out a little bit. Again, if we get the Matias Samson, he stays healthy. I still would not mind moving him if we had to because we have Kesserling and we have Connor Timonss now. And I still, this guy right here, Zack Jones, he is a very interesting prospect. I’d like him with the Rangers and I talked to some Ranger fans I know very well. I come from the New York area as some of you know and I know a lot of Ranger fans and we talk a lot about Zack Jones and I thought this was another pretty solid under the radar move from Adams and again I really really like the depth of this of our team right here included in that depth and we can go all the way down here. We still have some interesting options down here in our defense especially Ryan Johnson. he could still be he’s another right-handed guy and I love this guy Nikita Novakov right here uh from Russia so we could see what he can bring to the table as well so and of course we did sign Murka our first round pick but he’s going to Seattle in the WHL so he will not be around to at least another year or so but I have a feeling they have a plan for Murka in the next year or two why I think he is a right-handed not why we have guy like Timmans on a two-year deal. They’ll probably move Murka into the spot at some point. Right around that year two is what I would say would be their plan if I had to forecast it going forward. So, just to see the tie in there on how that that works. Obviously, you know, Owen Power is a guy I’m looking for more this year. And I it’s going to be the thing about Owen Power is it’s offensively number-wise, it’s going to be hard to see it, folks. Like, because he’s got Val’s playing number one and everything. So, you can’t expect the number two guy or even by see and Byron, this is where it gets tricky for these two guys. their numbers are going to take a little bit of a hit because they’re not going to be on the top unit where their skill set kind of calls for it. So, but anyway, the depth is good. So, we’ll see. But I think Power could really benefit from a guy like Kessleing. He’s a veteran. He’s been around the league for a while. So, we’ll see what he can bring to kind of stabilize Power. And I that’s what we’ve needed for quite a while um on that front. So, I would say I’m very happy with this unit right now. Um, I like the moves we’ve made on this on this front. Um, we’ll see if Bow and Byum gets traded and I do there’s still a chance. I mean, there are some rumors floating out there a little bit in terms of maybe some some moves. And again, remember, we spoke about this. This is the anniversary of the Jeff Skinner trade, folks. So, who’s to say that they do not see that? And and listen, hey, there he is. Matt has come into the chat. So, excited to see Kelling with power. I agree, Matt. I think, you know, Kesling’s got a big shot. I think he’s a nice compliment, you know, big size guy. I mean, he’s not, you know, he he could bring a little physicality. I think that’s what Power needs. He needs a guy a little bit more of a grown man next to him and just say, “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Let’s settle down.” He’s still got to remember Power’s still young, folks. It takes a while to be a NHL defenseman in this league. Um, and to really take that next step. So, I I I got to say, and again, I know it’s still easy to rail on this organization as we did earlier, but this part of the team I’m I I’m very solid with. B+, A minus. I feel very good about it. Um, I didn’t give a grade for the wingers. I would say the wingers. Um, B+. I I feel like I’d feel better if we had a uh um I appreciate that, Matt. And yeah, you got to love Listen, folks. Matt Digger is the savvy veteran here. Let Let me tell you something about Matt. I He’s a great guy, first of all. Okay. The one thing about Matt and Student on this pod, everything we do is driven by these two gentlemen here. and they do an amazing job because we stand for great things here. We stand for we want to make this best for you and we know again we’re in the deep dark times of the offseason here and if you’re listening to this Saber Pod, God bless you because we are the truest fans as well. Um so hopefully I’m making Matt’s boring day at work or whatever. So uh hopefully making his day a little bit better. And again, look for us for another date and time. we we’re we’re going to be doing a little bit more of a night show. But that could be exciting, too. We could have some g maybe we’re on the air and the Sabres are wrapping up a a game and we could talk about it or we can talk about some other things too. So, it’s going to bring a different dynamic uh for us. We’re excited about that. So, just look for that coming soon as we get through the dark days of August. But, this unit here has a chance to be a little bit better than the C++. But, there’s a lot of whatifs. Benson again, Koulique, and Quinn. These three right here, the big three in my opinion are just so critical. You ever see um not blood, why was I thinking blood sport? I watch John Vanaman movies lately, so I guess I’m in that mode. Moneyball where they lose Giani, right? Big power hitter. Goes to the Yankees. I’m a Yankee fan. So, never liked that move anyway, but I’ll I’ll digress. But and they want to recreate Jason Giani in the aggregate. Well, maybe the Sabres, you kind of take a a page from that and say maybe I can recreate JJ Purka in the aggregate, right? I have three young players here that if they all take a step up, then I’ve recreated him in the aggregate. That’s why I’m not as worried as as others about losing Purka. I’m just not. And the other big key to this whole thing is Joshua Norris. He’s got to stay healthy. I need him for at least 65 games or more. I feel like he’s going to get hurt at some point, unfortunately. I mean, him playing 80 games, I don’t know if that’s even happened. Um, but hopefully he’s had the whole off seasonason to feel better. I really root for him. I like what he brings to the table, too. Another team guy. Players love him. You know, he’s played I mean, just to give you the rundown, he’s played 50. Now, he played 56 and 21, but I think that was a shortened year. 66, he only played eight games in 23. He was really hurt then. 50 56 and 53. So, this guy’s not played over 65. I he has not shown that he can play a full season. So, that’s my fear with him. But, let’s just keep our fingers crossed. Whatever it is, let’s get something out of Norris, folks. We deserve it. Let’s let’s get about 70 75 games. I think if we can get 75 games out of Josh Norris, this team is really going to push for a playoff spot. I I really feel that way. I feel that strongly about his game. I think he can really elevate cuz he’s a great two he’s a really good two-way center and that’s something they’ve really needed. Uh something we’ve really lacked down the middle when they did put Tae at the wing and Ta I love Tae but he’s just not a center. He’s just not I need that a guy with the with the Nor skill set there uh going forward. So alas, here we are. So let’s get to the goalending and that’s Matt Digret’s favorite category because I know how much he loves Uka Pekka Lucan in but I I I digress. So, but you know, Matt and I differ a little bit on Ukapeka, but I’m sort of in the middle on him. I think he’s got a lot to prove. I mean, he had that that excellent three-month run a couple years ago. If we could get that UK Pekka Lukan and we’re going to the playoffs. But again, we got a we’ve come up with a lot of whatifs right now with some of our our big forwards and now Ukapeka. And this is a move that I know Matt loved. Alex Leon, I like it, too. I I’m big on it as well. I like it because two reasons. It takes a little pressure off Deon Levi. I just put him here on the roster because he’s, you know, you could see some flipping here where, you know, Levi comes up sometimes or maybe something like that if there’s an injury. You know what? Yeah, Matt’s been on his game with the contracts, man. He’s four or five this year. He’s He’s been nailing it. And we still We’re going to get into another one here shortly. We got about 15 minutes or so. So, we’ll get into that. So, but here we are. We’re at the end of the roster. I you know, the goending I give a C. I’m not very excited about it. I think there’s potential as we know, but it’s I think if you asked me three years ago or four years ago, I feel like this would be one of the strongest units in in the organization, but it just hasn’t shown itself yet for a lot of reasons. And I think for Levi, one of the tie-ins was the mess here at right defense and some of the mess here with some of the back end of the defense in general and also with some of the forward play on defense. And that’s where I think a guy like Josh Don is going to help too because I think the game he’s going to bring and the passion he’s going to bring and Josh Norris in terms of our defense. I think that’s all going to tie in and help these three good gentlemen right here in net. So I I definitely want to show you the tiein on that. So there we are and just taking a brief breeze at some of the guys down our system. Players that I think we’re going to see a lot of in the future. Of course, Noah Oscelin, but these guys could be on the move, too. Maybe Costa Helenius. Um, Isaac Rosanne is still floating out there. I still like Oliver Doo. He’s an interesting skill set guy. Third, fourth line guy. I kind of wish we would just put him on that line instead of signing these Moundsteines or trading for him for a second round pick. I’d rather just see Nadoo get it get an option there or even Victor Nichef. Uh, but I digress. But here we are. And again, we got some decent options, especially our right defense here. We’re a little bit lean at left. Um like to see the savers address that at some point. Uh I know we have our and and Dalene, but I would like to see if we get rid of Byron to see a little little development there in that term. So there we are. So I figured we would go over our roster here just to kind of give you an overall audit. Also, we have our first round picks the next four years. So, we’re good there. In terms of trades, if the Sabres ever decide to get aggressive and whatnot, we are missing a second round pick. Don’t really worry about that. I think 20% of players in the NHL as second round picks play 100 games or more in their life in the NHL. It’s not like a second round pick in the NFL, folks. NFL is a way different animal. So, by the way, Micah Parsons is the Buffalo. Let’s put that in the universe, but I just threw that out there. Um, third pick, you know, we and we still, you know, stable picks are fine. um cap room. Now, this has 4.3. Now, I believe I did put Levi there. So, if I took him off and if I put him down, I love this little tool. I could stay in this thing all day long. So, 23 of 23. We’re sitting at a little over $5 million in cap space again. And this is going to lead into my next last rant. I know that I got Matt laughing about trades. I know. I know. what trades, right? Well, we’re going to get into that here. We got about 10 minutes. Let’s wrap this up and I want to go after someone on Twitter that I’ve been waiting for for a while. Name is Alex Jones and I’m going to send this to him right about this 50inute mark because I want him to listen. He’s a guy that sometimes I love his enthusiasm for his team. He I’m convinced by the way he’s Kevin Adams on Twitter. I I am absolutely convinced that Alex Jones, the way he talks about this roster and the way he talks about Terry Pigula and everything like that that he is Kevin Adams in the flesh. I think he’s sitting there everything is great, everything is perfect and all of this and he leans on the palm trees and taxes and the the no movement clauses as the only reason that the Buffalo Sabres are not successful. Now, here’s my official rebuttal to you on this. Partly, you’re you’re correct. Okay, the no movement clauses are a big problem in the NHL, and it’s not just the Buffalo Sabres that have that have that struggle. There are other organizations that struggle with it on both sides. And here, and here’s what I’ll explain. The New York Rangers, again, who I talk about a lot because I know a lot about them from my friends, they have some players that they want to get rid of. Mika Zanagad being one of them. But the fact that he has no ruling clause, he says, “Nah, I don’t want to go anywhere.” So the ster are handicapped the other way where they want to move on from some of these guys and they can’t do it because they’re using their power of the no movement clause. So it’s not just also about the Sabres getting players, it’s about players wanting to move guys and they just don’t want to go anywhere. So it’s it’s a two-way street. So let’s go back to the Sabres. Is Alex Jones correct that the p that a the taxes b the lack of palm trees or or the environment you know palm trees meaning it’s not a great market and c is it the the no clauses partly yes can’t deny it Buffalo is a better market I think than people realize when it comes to being a hockey player remember hockey players are different from football players players and let’s say baseball players or basketball players, they’re and again not saying it’s a good or bad thing. It’s just that hockey players sometimes they come from, you know, small areas in Canada, northern places that are very cold, Sweden, Czech Republic. These are not places that you would consider um destinations for a summertime excursion on a beach. Let’s put it that way, right? So, they’re used to being in a city like Buffalo where it’s colder, it’s a little more raw during the time of year, right? They can handle it. If you make a good environment for the players in a city like Buffalo, you know how the fans are there, they’re going to love it, right? You see what the Bills players are doing right now. Look at these guys. Look at the look at the players we bring in. I have never been so connected to a Bills team in my life because of just the way that they are. Dawkins, Knox, you know, Josh, Trey White, they’re just great guys and they love being here. I mean, how can you not love that team? Why can’t we have that with the Sabres in the same market? So, I’m going to tell Alex Jones on that. You’re you’re making you’re making excuses for Kevin Adams and you’re making excuses for Terry Pagula at the top. They set the tone for that. They That’s the part you’re disconnected from. Why do players not want to come here because of taxes and palm trees? And let let me give you an example. Okay. So, I want to ask you a question. I want to take you to a city in the country called Winnipeg, Manitoba. Now, where is Winnipeg, Manitoba? For all you geography buffs out there, Winnipeg is in the middle of nowhere in Canada. It’s the largest province in It’s the largest city in the province of Manitoba. Um, it is sitting way up north. Uh, I believe if I looked at the population of Winnipeg right now, Winnipeg is sitting it’s it’s a 749,000 metropolitan area. You know, when you combine Buffalo, it’s probably even a little bit smaller. So, Winnipeg is is a place that is under Canada tax code. Iron United States, much colder than Buffalo. If you’ve been to Winnipeg in the middle of the winter, makes Buffalo look like Florida, right? Buffalo gets a lot of snow. We know Winnipeg, it’s a place that a lot of players may not want to play. Okay, I want to ask you a question, Alex Jones. Okay, name me the last great player from Winnipeg that has asked for a trade request in the last 15 years. I’ll hang up and listen. Take your time. Go look at your research. Okay. Are there palm trees in Winnipeg? No. Are there taxes in Winnipeg? Higher than Buffalo. It’s further. It’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s not close to New York like like Buffalo is or Toronto. Dynamic, you know, multicultural cities where players can enjoy things. Has uh Connor Hellbook asked for a trade? Nope. Has Kyle Connor asked for a trade? Nope. Have the Winnipeg Jets not built a good organization and developed players well and developed goalenders well over the years. Do you hear them complaining? Do you hear the Winnipeg GM coming out and whining about taxes and palm trees? Answer the question. Talk to me about Calgary. Talk to me about Edmonton. Talk to me about these high tax markets that are in the middle of nowhere. Give me their excuse. I want to hear it. Have they had a Jack Eel ask for a trade request? Have they asked Have they had Sam Reinhardt ask for out? Have they asked for J has JG Purka do they have these kind of prominent players that have all asked out on this organization? I want you to answer that question for me loud and clear on Twitter. Tell me I I want to hear it. I want to hear the Winnipeg Jets who have been very successful over the last several years. Give me the list of all the players that won out of Winnipeg and tell me about all those, you know, I want to hear it because Winnipeg is a comparable place to Buffalo and it’s even worse. How about Ottawa? Ottawa hasn’t been that great. Okay, give me the list of players that demand a trade out of Ottawa. Do you hear Brady Kachchuck saying he wants out? Do you hear you hear other players that have been in Ottawa for a long time? Are they asking now? Is Tim Stusel demanding a trade? No. Ottawa is the worst place to play in Buffalo. That’s that our friend Jeremy who’s on Twitter is from Ottawa. Ask him about the arena. It’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Their taxes are horrible in Ottawa. You don’t hear them complaining about palm trees and taxes every minute and going on a a press conference. So, stop bailing out Kevin Adams for his ridiculous comments because we shouldn’t even be hearing about that right now. I don’t want to hear excuses when you leave $35 million on the table on your cap in seven years. How dare you complain about palm trees and taxes? How dare you? Because you don’t have a leg to stand on. you’re leaving all that money on the table. Now, the Toronto Maple Leafs, as much as we dislike them here, I think they have more of reason to stand on the palm trees and taxes. And I’ll tell you why. The Maple Leafs max out every year. They try to go for it all the time, but they can’t do as much as the Florida Panthers. Because the the Panthers can pay guys seven to eight million less overall AAV on the on the cap or more and get more players to come in. They have more of a beef. How could this? How could Kevin Adams sit here and I just showed you the the reason the five point something million dollars in cast. How could you sit here, Alex Jones, and give this team a pass when they can’t spend to the cap? Now, we know the market is tough right now in terms of top six forwards. I get that. You’re not wrong in terms of top six players, you know, forwards and whatnot. The prices are very, very high right now. The Sabres got to get aggressive. overpay for Brian Rust. I don’t care. Make it happen. Find a way. Obviously, don’t touch our 2026 first. Maybe a couple top prospects, but pay our fourth, fifth, sixth prospects. Do it. Clean them out. Let’s make the playoffs. Let’s Let’s get that off our back. We can always draft guys in 26, 27, and we’ll find guys. Move them out. Don’t be afraid to do it. So, what you’re doing is by constantly I love that you’re you’re positive about the Savers. I’m not disliking at all, but you got to sit and look at the real about why this is happening. What is the why? And when you see the why, look no further than the press conference last week or this past week with Terry Pagula with that ridiculous key bang center hat on and them celebrating with balloons and all this other fanfare about a sponsor and putting more of their heart into that than putting more into the product on the ice. So you ask yourself, Alex Jones, where’s your where’s your heart for your beloved savers? How you where’s their heart? Where’s their mind? may not be exactly where you think it is. So, think about that again. The next time you tweet out, the next time, all I want from you is a little reel. I want you to acknowledge that the dysfunctions of this organization over the last 14 years have set the tone for the problems that they’re having. I’ll ask you this, too. these no movement clauses if the Dallas Stars come calling for these players or are a lot of them going to wave their no trade to go to Dallas. You bet they are about even I bet some of them will wave it go to Winnipeg. I bet I bet they would because the Winnipeg not all but some of them would because they’re a good organization. They’re a very successful team. So, let’s stop giving the savers a pass or the things that they create and they show us about where their heart truly is. So, I digress. Can’t believe it’s been an hour, but we’ll sort of wind this down. I want to set you up for what’s coming up. Again, want to give a shout out to Matt and hopefully he’s having a great day at work today. It’s definitely not the same without you, man. it is to sit here by myself and see my ugly mug on this thing all from power. Man, missed our year right now. So, but I want to thank you all. I know it’s deep in the offseason. We didn’t have too many comments today, but I’m not surprised. But we wanted to get some content up there, keep things going. It is deep in the offseason, but there’s still plenty of Saber news um coming up. So, coming up probably in our next few weeks, I think what we’ll do is maybe we didn’t get the chance to talk to this with Matt, but the schedule came out. So, but I was going to do something about the schedule today, but I want to wait for Matt because I really want to get deep on that. So, maybe we’ll go into segments of our schedule. Maybe we’ll look a little deeper into that. We’ll bring up their schedule. We’ll go by month by month and we’ll kind of see how things might look uh for the 25 26 Sabres on that front. And again, maybe we’ll break down some more of the roster construction, kind of talk a little bit about what could be happening. And just remember, happy Jeff Skinner day, folks, because on this day, Jeff Skinner was a Buffalo Sabres. So maybe there’ll be some news. There’s still some rumors floating out there for some other RFAS for other teams. And the Sabres are equipped with this cap space. I don’t expect them to do anything about it unless something really wows them or comes their way. But we’re keeping fingers crossed. So, yep. And me too, Matt. Can’t wait. So, we’ll look again. Look for something coming up. And remember, please, please, please. Let’s run this one more time. We’re going to pay our bills and then we’re going to get out of here for the day. [Music] For the best Italian food in Western New York, I Apollo, call 7168253675. The Larden Construction Group, Fubo TV, the official streaming service of Due Champions, FanDuel, the official sports book of Due Champions. For all your summertime needs, beauty pools as well as kayak pools. CX Chronicles, your total customer solutions focus manager. W.G, the official energy drink of due champions. Hey, sons of Eerie, our artwork looks better on your walls. Hamburg brewing, please visit our tap room on Boston State Road, Hamburg, New York. And finally, Fatboy Surf Club for all your surfing needs. All right. And remember, for all those that are watching, I want you to remember this is where you could find, if you’re coming in for the first time, this is where you could find us right here at Duke Champions. If you look for us on Twitter, please look for us there. Uh, if you are a Buffalo Bills fan, this is a great time of year, folks. I mean, camp is open. They had the red white scrimmage last night. 39,000 people for a practice. Tell me again, Kevin, that it’s about palm trees and taxes when the Buffalo Bills are getting 39,000 people for a practice. Tell me again that that’s an excuse, Alex Jones. So, answer yourself. Answer the question. But be as it may, we have great Bill stuff coming up. HBO starts soon. Hard knocks. The Bills are front and center nationally on HBO. Should be an exciting time. I’m looking forward to it. We got the Bills Giants next week. So, we’re getting there. And I agree. I agree with this right here. It’s all about culture. Anthony, welcome. Listen, I think the same, but I’m going to say this. I do think Adams has taken some steps this off season. It hasn’t been a fanfare. you know, Josh Stone, Timmons, Kerling. I like what these guys can bring for the culture. Anthony, we got a little bit of ways to go and we know there’s more work to do, but I feel like at least they’re moving in the right direction. Oh, yeah. Who was who was first on the the helmets, the red helmets? None other than student body, right? Our fearless leader, other leader, and Matt and our do champions crew. So, remember, we we walk with integrity here at our network. We we don’t put out tweets early and then get firebombed because we were wrong on our sources and triple down about how arrogant we were. I’m not going to name any names, but circle the wagons, but anyway, I’ll leave that alone. Hey, what’s up, Pat? Good to see you, brother. And joining us for Sabres podcast on this Saturday. So, again, it’s great to to see everyone here. Yeah, but the thing is the culture, Anthony, that that’s the thing. The Sabres need that heartbeat. Where’s their heartbeat right now? And what they’ve shown me it’s at the Key Bank Center naming rights. That’s what Terry Pagula showed me this past week. And I got to be honest, that’s not a good sign. That to me is not a good sign. So as fans, we hope, right? We love the hope. And I think that’s just our hope is in again those young players that we have. Our hope is in some of those players popping. Our hope is that Lindy Ruff maybe has a little bit more in his tool bag or whatever you want to call it, you know, to have more players that kind of fit what he’s trying to do. Um, hopefully we made enough moves on the back end. Hopefully someone really wants Bow and Byum and we we turn that into a nice top six forward. Maybe we can move off of some of these these other players um that we have because we have a gluttony of younger assets that could be good, but I’m tired of hearing the word could. I need our good. I need someone like, you know, a guy I keep talking about is uh Jared McCann on Seattle. He’s 28 29. He’s a left winger center. He has 40 two 30 three goal seasons of 140. That’s what I want. I want He is good. I could put him in this lineup. And again, if you take one good veteran at the top, it just moves some of those other younger guys into better roles and just makes the roster the construction so much better and gives us better depth in case when probably Josh Norris gets hurt. So again, we’ll get into that more next week with Matt as we go forward. We’ll really start diving more into our roster. we’ll dive more into the schedule and you know we’ll we’ll start and believe it or not you know we’re going to get late in August who knows maybe we take a week off or you know for Labor Day weekend and then man as soon as we come back it’s camp time folks we’re getting more into the saber season can you believe it I mean the offseason is nowhere near as long in hockey as it is in football which feels like an eternity I know for some of you out there so but we’ll leave that alone but listen we’re gonna get out of on this Saturday. Thanks for joining me today. Appreciate Matt as always in the chat. Appreciate you, Patrick and Anthony as well. Again, uh look for updates on our new champions about the announcement of when we will have the Sabres Hockey Hotline going forward. And we’re going to have some great guests on going forward, too. So, it’s going to be a fun time. We’re gonna we’re gonna say, “Hey, what’s up, Robbie? Good to see you.” And uh good to see you all here. Coming in late coming in late for the finish here today. So, little uh last minute comments. So, I I really appreciate that. So, and again, we want to hear from you out there about how you feel about the show and any feedback. So, again, like and subscribe on YouTube. That’s something we we really really appreciate. Um, so if you go to do Champions on there, give us a f Give us a like and subscribe on there because we have again we have so many great shows coming on D Champions, especially if you are a Bills fan. We have third and manageable. Um Pat has a great podcast on Friday nights where he it’s a game if you’re a big gamer even like myself. It’s it’s great. So it’s called Grid Iron GL Grand Slam I believe. So Pat it’s 11 Eastern. It’s a late Friday night. Uh he goes into some gameplay. It’s a great show. Uh we have another another one called Chase and Data every Thursday night. Goes breaks down the NFL and much more. Uh so Chase is doing some great work there. And of course, the one and only, the almighty Whittle, the man that that does it all, right? And yeah, that’s true. Better late than never. So there we go. So listen, but the one and only Whittle, the man, the myth legend, you know, one quick thing I got to say was the funniest thing because of this whole thing with the the bad source with the whole Maxwell Haristston thing. Jay is one of our guys in our spaces and he and he put that in our our space that Whittle was hired as the assistant GM of the Buffalo Sabres. And I was thinking if there’s any person out there I know that could straighten out Kevin Adams. It’s Whittle. Whittle would get in there and do his magic man. That would be that would be awesome to see. I said please Whittle can you get our sabers out of this mess. So it would be great. And remember third and manageable with Matt and student body. Great show. Nothing but illustrious guests. They do an amazing job. I I love the work that they do. Um that you know they have great interviews, great segments. So definitely definitely do that. And again, the exciting thing with our change is going to be maybe we’re going to do some nights. So if there’s like a Tuesday night game and that night, you know, but Tuesday or Wednesday night the Well, not going to go Wednesday night because I’m doing uh the space with Whittle. Not the Space, the uh the coast to coast with Whittle. is that maybe one of these nights the Sabres have a game and we can kind of come in and we can get your live reactions to hopefully some big Saber wins. So, look for when that’s going to be. So, excited about it. We’ll we’ll we’ll make it happen and we’ll go from there. So, without further ado, uh we’re going to get out of here for this Saturday. And again, if you have any comments at all, would love to hear from you. Again, look for us coming up in the near future. And I’m just going to say, let’s go Sabres. Not super enthusiastic. I know it’s it’s August 2nd, but remember, think about Cliff Poo today. Think about the Savers trade for for Jeff Skinner on this day in 2018. So, who knows, maybe we get something. You never never know. But I digress and I hope you have a great day. Thank you.
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