The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 401: Potential Jack Eichel Trades

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

Chad DeDominicis joins the show to discuss where things went wrong for Jack Eichel and the Sabres, the most interesting landing spots for him, and what kind of trade return Buffalo should be looking for. Topics include: Jack Eichel's 6 years in Buffalo How the Sabres failed to build around him properly Why the two parties reached a point of no return Exactly what kind of player is the team trading for him getting The next steps for the Sabres moving forward Organizational baggage when it comes to rebuilding.. again The type of assets they should be targeting Getting quality over quantity in trade packages Making the most of this year's draft, especially at the top The most interesting landing spots for Eichel If you haven't yet, please go take a minute to leave a rating and review for the show. If you're busy and don't feel like writing anything, it's all good. Just hit the 5-star button. Each one counts, and helps us out. If you're feeling extra generous, you can also leave a note about why you recommend people check the show out. Thanks for the help! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Are you ready for the most ridiculous internet sports show you have ever seen? Welcome to React, home of the most outrageous and hilarious videos the web has to offer. So join me, Rocky Theas, and my co-host, Raiders Pro Bowl defensive end, Max Crosby, as we invite your favorite athlete, celebrities, influencers, entertainers in for an episode of games, laughs, and, of course, the funniest reactions to the wildest web clips out there. Catch React on YouTube, and that is React, R-E-A-X-X. Don't miss it. Regressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey P-D-O-Cast with your host, Dmitri

Philipovic. Welcome to the Hockey-O-Cast. My name's Dimitri Philopovich, and joining me is my good buddy, Chad. Diedem, and this is Chad. What's going on, man? Hey, man, how are you once again? I'm good. I'm good.

We're doing a little change of pace. I feel like I've been so preoccupied with, you know, the post-season. and watching all these games and breaking down the X's and O's and them. And we're kind of doing a more of an off-season show here in the midst of it. But I guess for you, you've used to this obviously an annual basis now, having covered the Sabres for this long, but also you've been kind of deep in it for weeks now with off-season stuff. Yeah, it's just every day you wake up and think of new Jack Hickle trade ideas. That's what we do around here in Buffalo until it actually happens.

Well, that's what we're doing here in the PDOCAST, too. So that's the plan. So initially we're going to save this one for the offseason, but I figure with the amount of smoke that's out there right now, we decided to just sort of fast track it and do it now while we still can. And hopefully, you can serve as kind of a trade primer to prep people. And then whatever the trade does happen, we can really be going to do an emergency reaction podcast.

But I thought it would be fun to bounce around some ideas. So the plan of our today shows we're going to do everything we can to prepare people for that Jack Eichael trade from what the Sabres should be targeting and what they could reasonably expect to get to who's interested, what the market's like, what the best fits are, what those teams are getting from Jack Eichl himself. So we were bouncing around some ideas. And I thought that the best way to start this would be kind of doing sort of a backstory in terms of how we got to this place in terms of setting the scene by like where things went wrong

for both Eichle and the Sabres, how it devolved at a point. where it seems, you know, like a matter of time before he gets traded. It seems unfathomal to imagine I'm ever playing again in a Sabres uniform. And it's, I guess it's surreal in the sense that it escalated very quickly, but also it's not like it came out of nowhere because this has been something that it feels like it's been percolating for a couple of years now, at least. Yeah, it's really where to begin. I mean, I think, you know, if you want to go all the way back,

I think this whole process started. I mean, not be melodramatic, but, you know, the day that they traded Ryan O'Reilly, I think that's kind of what started this entire process. You know, and I think it got kicked into high gear last year. When I go ahead, his comments about, you know, being frustrated and wanting to win, he's been here for so long. And then, you know, they fired the general manager on another change. And then they, you know, the coach that he liked, at least he liked to start this.

season ends up getting fired. So, you know, there's a lot there in the recent history, but I think it really goes back to that O'Reilly trade. You know, that that's kind of, you know, for all the rumors that those two get along, that was completely false. You know, O'Reilly and Eichler are pretty close still to this day. So, you know, he sees one of his best friends leave the team.

They get a poor return out of it. He goes to wins the Stanley Cup the next year. And then if you want it, you know, one of his best friends, friends on the team, Zach Begotian, leaves the team last year, goes to Tampa Bay, wins a Stanley Cup. So, you know, he's watching two of his close friends in the league, leave this team, go somewhere else and instantly win. So two equally good hockey players, Zach Begoshin and Ryan O'Reilly. Right. Right. Different scenarios, different, you know, situations, but still, nonetheless, you see two your close friends leave and win, you're like,

wait a minute, what's, what's kind of, you know, maybe I really do need to get out of here quicker than I thought because I think at the end of the day, Iko on his side and his agent, you know, wanted to wait for the movement clause kicked in next year, you know, but the injury fast-tracked it. And I think to an extent, too, the sabres aren't blameless in this in the sense that although Ico wants out the door, I think we've been naive to sit here and think that the sabres, at least under Kevin Adams, kind of themselves, aren't ready to kind of go into a direction here. Yeah, I mean, there's so many ways to take this one to one, when thinking about. the Jack Ikel era in Buffalo, it spans six years.

I guess if you want to include this most recent one, which was obviously very abbreviated. But I've got some stats for you over that time, which I'm sure you're all readily aware of already, but just to kind of help contextualize the past six years, 171 wins for the Sabres in 453 games to put that into some perspective. Vegas has two more wins than that, and they didn't even exist for the first two years of Jack Eichols career.

they've gone through four head coaches, I guess. Technically, technically he didn't play any games while Don Granato was the head coach this season because he had already been out by that point. But over these past six years, you could say they've had four different head coaches with him on the ice at 5-on-5. They have a minus 23 goal differential in 5,700 minutes, which obviously isn't great.

But when you look at it, compared to the fact that when he's been off the ice in these six years in five-on-five minutes, minus 176 goal differential in 16,500 minutes, which includes a 1.8 goals 4 per 60, which is horrendously bad, obviously, and speaks to the issue. And I think that's, you know, when you're trying to kind of assign blame or where things went wrong or why these six years have been such a mess, obviously no one is blameless. There's certainly enough blame to go around. But I always think back to, you know, how they got Eichol in the first place in terms of embracing a full

tear down and real sort of openly tanking the way we've never really seen in NHL before for those two years. And it worked out in the sense that they got two second overall picks in Sam Ryanhart and Jack Eichol, who have been their two best players. So in that sense, it did work out. But also at the same time, they brought these guys in with really no infrastructure to speak of in terms of putting them in a position to succeed and having complementary talent around them that fit the timelines to grow and actually create a good contending team there.

And so that's kind of the issue for me where it's like, yeah, on the one hand, when you're making $10 million per season and you want to be considered one of the best handful of centers in the league, which he certainly played up to that standard. The last time we saw him fully healthy in 2019-20, you should be able to be on a winning team. But on the other hand, it's really difficult to look at the situation that's been around him and say, all right, well, this proves that Jack Eichol can't win because the Sabre team didn't win because it was just such a mess around him. Right. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that's really, that's really the crux of it.

I mean, you know, there's people, there's always been the tank versus anti-tank debate here that seems to never go away. Maybe when I go is traded, it finally will go away because in 2021, we're still having the debate. but, you know, people will say who were against the tank that C didn't work all along. Really, that's not true. It was actually very successful in the goal of getting, like you mentioned, Ryan Harry and Ikel, but just everything else after that failed miserably. Multiple GMs, multiple coaches, you know, and the one constant of ownership, all carry blaming that.

They never put a team around them. You know, there's always flaws with this team. there was always something. They couldn't get out of their own way. And I think from day one, they kind of set this up just poorly. You know, like you said, bringing him in here, I just think they didn't have the infrastructure. I mean, when you had a guy, you know, grow up, you know, around, you know, Evander Kane was one of the guys he leaned on it.

And that's, I'm not trying to take a shot of Evander Kane or anything. But, I mean, that's, you know, not a guy known for his great leadership in the room and kind of somebody you want your franchise player to grow up and lean on. You know, I think they didn't have those leaders in the room early. You know, they had Brian Johnson there, but, you know, there's only for one season. They just didn't have enough good players. I don't think it's like it's not a culture. I mean, yeah, you can say culture or whatever.

I think it's they just didn't. Like, if you look at those rosters, like they had some good players. It's terrible. It's not, not nearly good enough. It was never depth. They always had that top heavy. That's what they always were. You know, they had Skinner.

it's top heavy they have that one line. Uncle and Reinhardt, you know, that might be the most frustrating thing in the world is all this time, well, a lot of us, and myself are just saying, just split up Eichael and Reinhardt. They always had to play together. And then we saw what Reinhard can do playing center away from Eichael. And all this time, your answer to your number two center was right there

when O'Reilly wasn't on the team. Like, the answer was right there, it makes it more frustrating. And now that we know Ryan Rack can play the position, he might be traded. It's just, it's just, like I said, the whole thing is the team can just never get out of its own way, off the ice, on the ice. They always just find ways to step in it.

And that's where they are, find themselves now in this offseason. We've given a lot of thought to the idea of like whether over these six years they've done right by him in the sense of putting him into that position to succeed in terms of like surrounding him with enough players to at least give him a chance. And on the one hand, I feel like they did make an effort to do so because just at least in terms of like the resources they've committed to it over the years where they went out and they threw $42 million at Kyle Kpozo and free agency.

I think after Eichl's first season, they gave, you know, they traded for Jeff Skinner. He scored 40 goals playing next to him. They gave him 72 million. As you alluded to earlier, they wanted, they kept for whatever reason, Reinhardt glued to him on his wing instead of just bumping him back and giving him a second center. They had more depth. And so teams couldn't just key in on that one line. They invested a high pick, you want to say, and Alex Nealander, like they were always in this pursuit of getting wingers that could play with them

and that could be top line guys. And so that's the C, I guess, it's not like they were necessarily like sitting on their hands and not trying to surround him with talent. It just seems like every step of the way sort of from a process perspective. It was kind of misguided. And clearly the way, like, you know, they ran their business. and allocated the resources wasn't optimal. Yeah, I mean, look at the Taylor Hall signing, that video that,

now infamous video with Terry Pagula talking about after they, you know, if we get Taylor Hall, the shows we're competing for Stanley Cup now. Like, dude, what? Like, but that was the mindset, though. Is, oh, we got Jeff Skinner, we're going to be good now. Oh, we got Kyle Leposa, we'll be good now. We got Taylor Hall, we'll be good now. Like, okay, yeah, but you're still a top-lying team.

You just, you forgot about the rest of your roster. And that gets into the drafting of Needs. Lander ending up poorly. You know, middle stack, you know, not really hitting kind of his ceiling. I mean, I know he turned it around this year, but just so much. Yeah, you got the guy to play with Ico. There's always fine the guy to play with Ico, but they forgot about everything else. And not to mention, you know, you had Ristelan and I'll hear all these years who him and himself drags out a team. You never have consistent goaltending along the way. So yeah, in a sense that, yeah, I mean, they went out and got a Vander Cane two a while ago and they got.

O'Reilly when I go first got there. So they went out and got these, they always got the big guys. They just forgot about everything else. And for teams, it made it easy to be, okay, we'll just shut down the top line.

And then, you know, you read the stats off. When Ico's on the ice, we'll just crush this team. And, you know, in hockey,

that makes a difference because Ico only plays, you know, less than a quarter of the game, if you will, so a third of the game. So, like, you know,

just your dominated of the rest of the time. Yeah, to be clear, they got a lot of the big guys. There's only one true big guy. in Buffalo and it's Rasmus of Stalinon. So I guess the next sort of part of this conversation is what any team that is interested in Eichl and we're going to list off the ones that are and many should be at least doing their

due diligence here what you're getting from at this point, right? Because I think it's fair to say that you can just throw away this past season, you know, clearly wasn't. remotely healthy to begin with out of the gate was playing through injuries. Obviously shot 3.3%. The team was just mired in this dreadful run. I don't think there's necessarily anything insightful to learn from it. Now, I guess the one caveat to be to that would be, you know, the reason why it feels like this has escalated between these two parties has been, which has obviously been much reported,

the disagreement of opinion in terms of how to proceed with his recovery and injury treatment and how big of an issue that's going to be moving forward. And I think for any team that is thinking about investing serious resources into acquiring them, that's a real concern because it feels like if you do acquire them, you're going to want to appease him in terms of letting him get the surgery that he wants to get. And then at that point, when are you even getting this theoretical version of Jack Eichol, the difference maker, into your lineup to help you win? And if you're acquiring him, obviously, it's a big picture of you in the sense that he still has years left on his deal.

and it's not like a one-year thing and he needs to be a free agent and you're just trying to win a cup this coming year, but you want to have something to show for all of those assets you're going to invest into him right out of the gate.

Yeah, I mean, that's, that really is the tricky part of all this is the neck injury. It's, you know, it's what's the same time, you have to figure out what cycles on game two. Does he want to do surgery

and plays for the Buffalo Sabers? Does his opinion change of what happens if he plays for the NIM docs? Get some of the, that California son. Right. Yeah. Oh, look at my neck's better now.

I don't need surgery anymore. You know, that kind of thing is, is the neck injury, which is something that I don't, you know, I don't want to put it in Jack that he's just making excuses and just the guy to town. But he legitimately has a neck injury,

but I wonder how much he's leaning into that to kind of push himself the rest of the way out the door, kind of to, in a sense, force a trade without literally asking to be traded. So I, I kind of wonder, you know, if he's moved, if his view on treatment changes. And maybe he moved to a team that does let him get a surgery.

And, you know, that's fine and dandy. And, you know, best luck to that team that lets him do that. But, yeah, that's the complication right now. I think the Sabres are going to run into it. They'll definitely have their suitors. It's just who's willing to give up what with that neck uncertainty out there. Well, I was thinking, I'm curious how you think about this, because initially I was thinking, you know, it, the impetus, the trade, and sort of the motivation

makes sense for the Sabres in regards to the fact that, you know, his new no move clause kicks in next summer. He's also going to be owed, I believe, a $7.5 million signing bonus next summer as well. And we know that the Sabres, based on their past dealings, would probably like to make this trade before that and they don't want to keep this circus going into next season. So I was thinking, oh, you know, that kind of removes some of their leverage because teams know that they're pretty desperate to, to make the best move they can here now, but not necessarily wait this thing out. But then I had someone in the league bring up the sort of glass half full view, I guess, from a different lens in that, you know, if you're a team like the Ducks who might not necessarily

be a team that Jack Eichel would be on the top of his list that is the number one destination for him, this is your chance to get him because come next summer, once he does get full control over where he says he can play, you might not necessarily be a top landing spot for him. And so it gives you this kind of window to make this move now if you're to ducks. So maybe that does give the Sabres some more leverage with regards to expanding the number of teams they can actually deal with. Yeah, I mean, that's absolutely correct.

I think that that's the right way to look at it. You know, it's if he's still here next July 1st, next year, I mean, if he can then ask for a trade and kick his feet up and say New York, Boston, L.A., have fun. It's only a place I'll wave to. And so, yeah, I mean, for teams like Anahe, Minnesota, Columbus, you know, that one in any other team that wants to get in on this, this is it. This is your opportunity. So in a sense, you know, those are running clock for both sides, but the, you know, but the clock means more, I think, for the team trying to get in on this. in his sense because

I guess you can say it goes both ways because the clock run out and the Sabres too and then you get lesser return because he's dictating where he goes and teams know they have you over a barrel so really Adams has to play this smartly you know I think to start it looks like he's done the right thing

and he has zeroed in on a couple desperate GMs in particular Bob Mergen-Annehan which is a smart play so not only get a team that knows that they're not going to be on the list he gets the next summer, but also a general manager that knows his time is wearing thin, he's on, you know, thin ice, if you will, you know, to make a trade and to put a winner on the ice. So I think he's at least what it seems like he's done a good job, you know,

attacking those general managers. And you could even say Columbus is another situation like that. I guess part of the tricky thing for me beyond just the injury diagnosis or in terms of like what you're going to get from that moving forward is. trying to really hammer down what you're getting in terms of like a true talent contributor for Michael, right? Because obviously a fantastic player. And you have him for what, his age 25 through 29 seasons at 10 million per, which would theoretically, I mean, you know, we can argue about the semantics of whether maybe he's already had his most productive seasons at age 22 to 24 or whether that's still to come for the rest of his 20s. But it's certainly not

prohibitive where you're worrying about paying him $10 million into his 30s. Like, these are the years that you want an impact player for. But, you know, I think the first time we did a show, we discussed sort of this interesting statistical profile of his where he shoots 9.7% on his first 1,000 or so shots in his first four seasons. And he's kind of more of a volume shooter. And that's fine because he's very productive. He draws a ton of penalties.

He generates a ton of shots and scoring chances. And he's obviously creating a lot for everyone around him. But then in 2019, 20, he all of a sudden bumps up to an above average shooter where he's shooting almost 16%. He scores 36 goals and 68 games. He takes his game to an entirely different level in terms of his offensive production. And that might be the outlier here in the grand scheme of things. But it was always weird and tough to kind of reconcile that a player of his skill level and pedigree would just be a sub 10% shooter for the rest of his career. So it's kind of trying to figure out what you're going to get in that regard is always.

also I think a very important question for any team that's acquiring him. Yeah, and I think the thing too about Jack that I think it's interesting when I was a player is, I think he adjust to who he's playing with in the sense that when he played with Skinner, he knew who his linemates was and he became that, yeah, like we said, that volume shooter, and he was shooting more farther out and kind of shooting for rebounds because Skinner was a finisher around the net. Now when the next season came along in 2019-20, when he, he didn't have Skinner and, you know, he was being relied upon more as a shooter,

then sure, he turned that part of his game up. So really, I think it's, and it's one of the things that make him a, you know, a dynamic and an interesting player to have on your team is, you know, he can adjust his style to his linemates or his team. You know, he has the ability to take over a game and be, okay, I'll become the shooter now, where there's more situations where it kind of gets frustrating at times where he will overpass, trying to be the playmaker, will it be the power player of five on five. So I think that's unique about him

as he has the ability to change his game and be successful doing multiple things, depending on who was line mates are in the team he plays for and what he's asked to do. But yeah, at the same time, you know, it does add some, I want to say confusion to it, but does add some, you know, questions for the team acquiring him is, you know, what's a player am I going to get?

Am I going to get in the playmaker or am I going to get the shooter? Am I going to get the guy that scored 36 goals? Or am I going to get the guy who scored 25, but had 40, 50 assists. So, you know, that that's the kind of thing they have to break down. At the end of the day, I don't think it should matter

because his offensive impacts, doing both things are so good. At the end of the day, I don't think it really matters whether he's shooting it or he's having somebody else shoot the puck in because either way, it's going in the net when he's on the ice.

But yeah, I could see some general managers definitely, you know, having some questions about what's the player they're really getting. No, I think it's a fair conversation because you're getting a good player regardless, but just in terms of trying to map out how to get the most out of him or what players you want to surround him with or whether he makes the most sense, given the personnel you have.

I think it's important, especially given the acquisition cost and his salary. And yeah, so, okay, so let's spin this then from the Sabres perspective, because I'm interested in the strategy from there end when it comes to how you approach this in terms of, you know, what you're trying to accomplish, what your, what kind of assets you're specifically looking for them. We've already heard some news. I think it was Elliot Friedman on a radio hit where he was talking about how, you know,

they seem to, to value this coming draft more than other teams around the league and feel like they can get on a competitive edge there. And maybe, you know, they're already putting that out there because they feel like they're going to get another topic in this draft, obviously.

And so I'm torn about that, right? Because I certainly am willing to consider. that even though everyone considers this to be a relatively weak draft in the grand scheme of things, there's so much unknown. I am sure that there's going to be a bunch of really, really high-end impact players that come from this draft. I think part of the uncertainty comes from wondering who they're going to be and where they're going to be picked. And that's kind of the precarious position. But I'm sure the talent is in there. But I'm not very confident that they are equipped to figure that out in terms of who that talent is and who they should acquire. It's

a bit easier with the first overall pick, but if they're getting another top five pick or so, it's, it's weird because I'm sure you also read that piece by, I'm sorry, if I'm portraying his name here, Lance Lissowski, I think, at Buffalo News. And he painted a pretty grim image of, you know, this time last year when they made their organizational changes. And certainly they, it's no secret that they cut down pretty significant in their scouting staff. And I thought they really made a mess of that eighth overall pick by taking Jack Quinn instead of a bunch of players that I would have preferred instead, whether it was Anton Mandel or Seth Jarvis even or Marco Rossi, obviously. And so I just think it's, they haven't really given us any reason to feel confident that

approaching this trade as, all right, let's, we want draft picks for this year, even a high end ones because we feel like that's where we're going to be able to get our difference makers and we view those as premium assets. I just don't really have a lot of confidence that they're going to be able to turn those into the legitimate high-end assets that you need to justify trading Jack Eichael for. Yeah, you know, I mean, not to mention they have one of the small scouting staffs in the league. Still to this day, I mean, they've made some additions to it, but it's still relatively small. And, you know, that's concerning for how much, I think, legwork goes into the season because you're relying a lot on video. You're relying a lot on numbers, if you will.

and again, they have an analytics department of one, two, I guess now, if you want to count Carmanos. So, you know, there's that aspect of it too, if you're going to rely on the data standpoint, because there's just so much that this draft is uncommon. And if you're going to go ahead and spin it to me that, well, we think we can take advantage of this draft, well, I mean, you better be sure because you have a small group, and there's a lot of players that didn't play or played in weird leagues. that rely on video and you better make sure your data is right. And you told me last year that you relied on data and some video scouting and you

walked away with Jack Quinn over Marco Rossi and Don Lundell. So your first test didn't go so well. So I mean, you know, and then now there's the turnover too. So Jeremiah Crow kind of in a sense ran that draft last year. Well, now Jeremiah Crow flips over to the pro side and Jerry Fortin is not running the amateur side. And then you still have Jason Nightingale, the director of analytics. and also the assistant amateur director of amateur scouting.

So, you know, there's that transition that's also going on here. And then now Carmonos is in the picture. So, you know, it's just a lot of changeover and a lot going on when you should be focused on. If you're really going to hit on this draft, you really need to be focused on it. And you really need to be in depth and in the details and really be confident about your picks. And just all of this turnover, all of its change kind of concerns me. to the point you're making that you don't know how much you can reliably trust on them. Now, if

you have pick one in three, that's pretty hard to mess up. But if you have pick one in 10, 11, then that 11 pick can kind of, yeah, don't mess that up. You know, so it's definitely worth questions because

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Yeah, I think above all else, you have to be identifying quality coming back, right? Like I, you need some sort of a premium asset, whether, you know, if it's with the ducks, a third overall pick or if you want to lump that in there. But like you cannot afford another scenario where you're getting like four or five, six pieces back, but none of them actually amount to anything. I think for me, that that's whenever I'm trying to visualize any of these packages or sort of what you'd be targeting. I always lean towards.

I'll take fewer assets in this regard, but make sure they're, their high quality ones as opposed to just trying to get a bunch of late picks or something like that. I wonder how much you think the, because obviously, you know, Kevin Adams is relatively new, and so he doesn't necessarily bear the brunt of this,

but I think from like a fan-based perspective and I guess from the ownership perspective, there is, on the one hand, you could view trading Jack Eichel here as kind of like a reset button or a fresh start, right? Because you're like, okay, we're going to get rid of this guy who's been our star player for the past handful of years

and makes the most money on our team. We're going to get either a bunch of draft picks back or young prospects or players. And we're going to sell you on this kind of future hope and a couple of years down the road. We're going to try to get this thing going again. But it's impossible, I think, to get that fresh start if you're the Sabres because there is this organizational baggage

of the past kind of decade. of despair that's just looming over all of this where it feels like after everything they went through to get Eichl in the first place, like it's not just your conventional, oh, we're just going to trade away our best player because that's the right route to go. I think there needs to be a very clear kind of identifiable plan of, okay, what's going to happen after that beyond just this trade to make it all kind of make sense and to make people feel like it's not just going to be another six years now of kind of the same thing all over again. Yeah. And I think, it's one of the things Kevin Adams to this point hasn't really done.

Now, we might get a sense of what direction is going on with the return of the Eichael trade, but we don't know. You know, that that's a lot of the conversation is, is it a full rebuild? Is this going to try to be a quick reload where you're going to trade Eichl and try to convince my heart to sign long term and then get these new pieces and try to get running gun here quickly?

Or are you going to trade Ristow, Eichel and Ryanhart and start over and then relying cousins and middle stat on these guys, you get back in these top picks to kind of, in a sense, do this all over again. And it's, we don't know. And I think that's going to be tough selling to the fan base if you're going through a full reload, full restart, I mean, and starting from the bottom. I mean, they're already at the bottom, but in a sense starting all over again. And, you know, this market, you know, is a great hockey market.

But if you look at some number of some last season, it should be alarming to them. You know, the TV ratings were down, I believe, 35% in this local market, loan. That is scary. And then they also, when they were able to have fans in their building, they couldn't sell out tickets. And that was like just 1,200 fans, 2,000 fans. They only had a few games with fans in the seats because they couldn't have any more because they couldn't sell tickets to the game. People weren't buying them and going. And that's at 2000.

So maybe there's only a full capacity of trying to get 16,000 people in there. I mean, if they don't set a plan, don't get people to buy in. I mean, you're going to be looking at some bleak, bleak pictures of that arena next year. I mean, you're really looking at, like, you know, sorry to have to pick on Florida, but you're going to look at situations like we see in Florida, where you're going to have 7,000, 8,000 fans in there because people just aren't doing it anymore. People are not buying in. They're not taking, you know, the selling pitch anymore.

And just, they're just fed up. And it's going to hurt the owner's pocket next year, especially for a league and probably a team that needs to, sell tickets to kind of win back some of that money. Right. If they lost from COVID, it's a really rough situation. Good.

Good. I don't blame the fans at all. I mean, I wouldn't be burning my hard run money on whatever the hell that team this past season was either. So it's very justified. And I think, I think Sabers fans are awesome. I enjoy interacting with them on Twitter.

And I think they, they're as passionate as it gets. So they certainly deserve better. Yes. All right. Well, let's get into, I feel like we've kind of done a lot of the heavy lifting here in terms of setting the scene. Now we can kind of get into the meat of this and actually discuss some of the teams that would be interested, the fits,

Freikle there, and also what the Sabres would be targeting from them. So I know you've been doing this over the weeks on your website in terms of kind of working your way through the teams. So let's start with the ducks, I guess, because it feels like they're the most, the spot that he's linked to the most right now. and it seems like that's on the most likely outcome. But we'll work through all of them, and especially some kind of out-of-left-field ones as well. But let's start with the Ducks.

Where do you want to take this while? You can talk about players. They should be targeting any which way you want to take it. So, okay. So here's the situation with the Ducks. I think that a lot of people, take those Sabers fans, look at the Ducks and go,

I need to get one of Zegris or Drysdale. It's more specifically Zegris or it's a complete failure. I'm not there. I think you can build a package from the Ducks without those two guys in it. But that means it's going to cost the Dux more. So from people I've talked to, it seems like the Ducks would prefer not to include Zegris or Drysdale. Maybe that's a situation now the Sabres are trying to push on them to get one of them out of there. I think this trade is definitely going, if it happens with Anahem,

it's definitely going to include third overall. It seems like I talked to that Max Comteau is probably going to be a part of it, but I wouldn't say the 100%. So those are your main two pieces there, and then it's what you build beyond there. You know, I wrote an article today where I kind of broke it down into tiers, tier one, tier two, tier three from tier one is Zegress, Drysdale, third overall. You pick one of those.

I'll say third overall. Tier two then becomes combed war. you know, Gibson, Sam's, Steele, Jones. I think, speaking of picking the wrong players, I think Steele and Jones are kind of the two, I guess you can say landmines in here. Those are the two players I would try to avoid,

but I guess see the Sabres have interest in those guys and that kind of scares me. Right. And then your third tier is, you know, you've got a prospect, Jacob Perrault, Lucasostle, Jackson Lecombe, Henry Thrun, or any other one of those prospects you pick,

right, one of those guys, and then you kind of have your package. I think the wild card in here is John Gibson and all of this. It doesn't make sense, especially for the ducks more, but even the savers, they're rebuilding why they would do that. But Adams, from my information, has been after him for about a year.

And his name, Gibson has been involved in these talks. I don't know if that means he'll be in this deal, but they've had conversations about it. And it's just, it's interesting because if they do get Gibson, then that gives you the idea that they're going to try to turn this wrong quickly. Where from an Anaheim standpoint, I don't understand why they would do that unless they know they have another goalie in their back pocket. They can send his free agent. Maybe it's Freddie Anderson comes back to Anaheim. I don't know.

But I don't get it from Anaheim's perspective why they would do it. But, you know, his name is there still. Yeah, that's tough to reconcile because you figure if you're acquiring Jack Oakley, you're going to at least try to compete for a playoff spot next season. And you'd figure the roadmap to that would involve John Gibson being what he was before the previous two seasons in terms of his performance. Now, I've also seen people say like, oh, to help make the money work, you can throw in Gibson as a cap down.

But I know his past two seasons, the numbers aren't good, even if really, whether you're looking at the Ross A percentage or the goal save above experience, expected. I think there's a lot going on there because in each of those two seasons, he started off remarkably well and looked great. I feel like as the year went along, you could kind of like feel his soul being ripped out of his body playing behind this dreadful team. I mean, looking at it the last two years, I looked yesterday on evolving hockey site, he's faced the third most, third highest shot quality against in all situations in the last two years. You just get tired. And like you said, just it gets exhausting and just sucks a soul out of you.

Yeah, and he does have six years left on his deal. It's at $6.4 million, which isn't outrageously high for his age, 28 through 33 years. Yeah, it doesn't really seem to make sense if you're the Sabres unless you are trying to turn this thing around quickly or potentially flipping him to a team that will give you future assets, whether it would be an Edmonton or a Carolina or someone like that. So that would be interesting. but yeah, I would think that if you were identifying a goalie, and I'm not necessarily sure why you necessarily would in a trade like this, but I think, like, Lucas Dostow makes a lot more sense

in terms of the timelines for the two teams. So I would be going that route. I really can't comprehend a scenario where the ducks would give up Zegris in this trade. I understand you need to give up something really good to get a player of Jack Eichols caliber. I just think that would be a very negligent move on Bob Marie. part, but you're right. I think he seems very desperate to get the ducks at least relevant again.

And that makes him a good GM to be targeting for trades like this because if there's anyone that's going to push in a bunch of future chips to get a player that can help them right now, it seems like it would be them. So yeah, I think you certainly have to get at least one of those premium assets. I'm not even sure that beyond Ziegress, that third overall or Drysdale would be enough on its own. But if you're lumping them together with a bunch of other stuff like you said, to then and it does become interesting. Yeah, I mean, before we get off the ducks, I mean, if you want to talk about negligent,

I put it on on Twitter yesterday, and I'll clarify myself again today. If I'm running the ducks, I'm nowhere near this trade, but I go. It just, I don't think it lines up with the timeline. I think it sets them off to be the Sabres West. I mean,

you're going to trade key assets, even if it's Gibson and Comtois off your team, and you're going to have guys like Raquel and Mason and Linholm all on one of your deals, and you know, you're going to give away a third overall pick and just it smells exactly like the Sabre situation all over again. I think it's dangerous. I think if you're not giving away Zegroes for Drysdale,

I can talk myself into it. I do think the question of what the ultimate end game is in terms of where it's going to get you is a very fair one because like this Ducks team was really, really bad last year. I, watching the games, honestly thought they were maybe the most hapless team I watched all year. 41.2% goals share just slightly better than the Sabres, who lost 18 games in a row, by the way, 45% expected goals here.

Like, they were really, really bad. And yeah, if you get Jack Hekel, you add him, you hope to get better goalie performance. You know, some of these young guys do develop. You can certainly see a path, especially in that weak division of theirs next year. But it just, it's very risky for me in terms of, of if you're going to just move in all of your future assets that you would need to surround a Jack Eichol to do so now seems like you're really not lining up your timelines in terms of trying to actually strike a competitive window. So it's a big issue. But like I said, if you can

make it happen without giving away your two best young players, then that's something you certainly have to entertain. For sure. Absolutely. All right. I'll give you my favorite one, because, hey, yeah, the Ducks one is just so strange to me. I keep coming back to our hurricanes here. Yeah, yes. First off, they have so many forward prospects to choose from if you're the Sabres. You know, I do think that Seth Jarvis would be the gem there, but whether it's Ryan Suzuki or Patrick Bistola or Jack Drury or Dominic Bach or James and Reese,

like they had just, they've done such a good job with drafting and stockpiling assets over the past couple years that you can get a number of those guys to go, along with a first or what have you, you can help make it happen by potentially taking on Jay Gardner's contract with, I think, two years left at four point something per or whatever and kind of help make the money work in that regard. I think what's interesting here from the Kane's perspective for me is if you get a Jack Eichol all of a sudden, you know, you've got Ajo down the middle already, you've got Stahl for two more years, you've got Trocheck next year as well. You can really experiment there. I just think,

it does such a, it gives them, I guess, such a massive room to elevate their ceiling as a team that I think it's something you certainly have to entertain. And it seems like they have the pieces to do so. So I'm kind of curious. It seems like at least from the reputable sources, they haven't really been, they haven't caught on too much traction in terms of like being linked to this trade, which strikes me as odd. But it seems like the pieces for both sides would make a lot of sense. yeah for sure you know it's it really would set Carolina up

to finally make the runner get over that hump in that conference they could say I mean they would be maybe one of the best center groups on the middle in the league if they add Eichol. Now the question is especially coming from an owner

who just had a money maybe a battle in a way with the head coach who just won Jack Adams award does the owner want to pay a $10 million player? The boarders where does Douggy Hamilton come into this? And if they acquire it goes, he definitely out the door, do they want him back? So yeah, I think there's a lot of assets that you said, Jarvis.

You know, they can include their first round pick, but then it's a late first round pick. So then what else do the same ones want? They want a roster player too? You know, is that a Warren Fogel? Is that an HS or, you know, somebody else off that roster, too? And does Carolina want to do that? but it really feels like Carolina has to do something because they're kind of like stuck in the mud

and then just spinning their wheels they keep getting to the same spot in the playoffs and can't get over the hump so they have to do something here. So that's I think the interesting part with Carolina. Yeah, I think packaging together a number of those prospects and sort of consolidating it into one massive piece

like Eichl makes a lot of sense. I forgot to mention on the ducks because you just brought it up in terms of how like late Carolina's theoretical first round pick would be. If I was making a trade with a ducks for Eichael here, I would be trying to get future firsts. Oh, I'd about the 2022 first round pick as well. Yes, because I think you could easily talk them into being like,

oh, you're going to get Jack Eichael. You're going to be good next year. Don't worry about it. And I just beyond the, I mean, who knows what is next going to be like, but also I'm not sure even a healthy Jack Eichol makes that team actually very good, considering all the pieces that would be around him. So that would be, we don't really see. NHL teams make those like it seems like more of an NBA thing when you see these super star trades where you're like,

all right, we're going to get you know, your 20, 23, 2025, 2025, 2027 and 2029 first rounders and then all these pick swaps in the other years. But that would be a trade that I would be very interested. But who knows if there's an appetite to do so if you're the Sabres because that's not something that necessarily helps you sell tickets next season. Yeah, your big return isn't here. Like, oh, we're going to get it next year. Like, yeah, that's tough sell. It is. I think, I think the hurricanes, I was looking at it, I think what would be appealing for them here as well is, is they really, because of the way a lot of their contracts are structured, like pretty much everyone comes off the books with the next two or three years. So if they wanted to, I think they could potentially even retain Dougie, bring in Jack

Eichael. If they got off of Drake Gardner's contract, it may be one more. And that would obviously sweeten the pot for the Sabres in terms of assets they were getting back. But then they could like get creative with like maybe bridging such a car or something like that and making all the money work where you can retain all of these massive pieces for the next couple years and really just try to win a cup over the next three seasons and then figure it out after that. So I don't think the money and the contract for Ikel is necessarily prohibitive in terms of like all right, we're going to add Jack I go, but then we're going to have to bleed all these other assets over the next two years. Yeah. The other thing about Carolina too, I coming from a Sabres perspective,

if I'm Kevin Adams, I want one of those pieces off your blue line. they'd be willing to move Peschi? You know, but if they're going to make a run, do they want to do that? Because yeah, I mean, they have their prospects too.

But like you said, you're getting a lay first round pick. So I want a roster player that's going to hurt, especially if Michael staying in the east. And that's a report. Even Friedman mentioned the teams in the Eastern Conference kind of have figured out, well,

it's going to cost more for us to acquire them than it would for the ducks because he's out there out west. So that's why I think, you know, is Carolina willing to give up, you know, a defenseman like Peschi, the Sabres might have interest in, that can be their new top guy for their situation moving forward. I mean, I get it.

In a way, I also think if you're the Sabres, you really need to just need to worry about improving your own team. In terms of like the East West thing, I get that it's embarrassing having to see him play against you, especially if it's a good team for a bunch of times every season. Like I understand from a PR perspective, it's kind of a nightmare. but the only way that they're going to fix this from a PR perspective is by having a good team for once. And so they should just worry about getting the best players they can for themselves.

The only way I would increase the price tag, it would be an indivision team, like Boston or Montreal. Right. Then I would make it more expensive for you, but Carolina, Columbus, even, you know, the Rangers, I would just because I'm spiteful. I would make the Rangers more expensive. But same thing. Like, really only your division, I think I would make them pay more. but just, you know, take it kind of in a way, taking the east completely out of it. Right.

I think might not be the best approach either. Okay. So we've done the ducks and the canes here, I think. Who's next in your list in terms of most interesting fits slash teams that should be in on this? Well, I think we have to talk about Columbus, right? Because they're the team that's next, most connected beside the ducks here. I can't figure out a trade that makes sense, but yet here they are, continue to be connected along with the ducks.

It's hard to figure out. I mean, I get it. They're going to trade Seth Jones. They have three first round picks. They're going to have a lot of assets. Right. But I don't know. Where does that get you? Yeah, it's the same thing that falls into the tuck situation is you get Eichol, but you give up all these assets and where are you?

So, I mean, I get it that they're trying to maybe sell a fan base in Columbus on, look, we got this guy now. And he's here for five years. He can't leave us. Like, everybody else appears to want to. leave us. And then maybe you get some guys to stay there with you because you have Ico. So I can get it from a Columbus standpoint, but there's not a lot of high-end prospects there and savers to pick from. So I just don't see how it makes sense from a saber standpoint. We to deal with Columbus. Yeah, it seems like a very sabersy thing to prioritize one of the two

Blue Jackets goalies as like a premium piece in this trade. And if that is the case, I think that's a big time mistake as much as I love Elvis. I just think it doesn't make sense from the Sabres perspective. Yeah. And then also you know, you factor in. We talked about like, so I call, you acquire Ico and you do have them there for the next five years. Also, his no move clause kicks in next year. And all of a sudden, if he's unhappy, then he controls and has all leverage in terms of what you're going to do with him next. And you kind of locked yourself into another nightmare. Not that that should preclude you from trying to get good players. Like if you're Yarmot and the Blue Jackets, you need to figure out how to get good players and keep them.

And I'm sure winning helps with that. But it would be very risky. So that would be a strange one for me, but it would be, it'll be very fitting to see him lengths to all these California teams and stuff. Then all of a sudden he's just going to Columbus. All right. Let's go to a fun one. I think this is a dark horse, really interesting idea, Colorado. So funny enough, I had this one pitched to me by our mutual friend, Kevin,

who is a great Twitter follow aside from his just truly horrendous cold golf field takes. But you got that in there? I had to. They are interesting to me from the perspective of I don't necessarily see it because it just doesn't. it doesn't make sense from how we've seen them operate over the past couple years in terms of like how reluctant they are to take on future financial commitments and how, you know, obsessed they are with keeping the financial flexibility that it's going to take once, you know, this summer they're going to have to pay McCar and Landiscaug and then McKinnon and so on and so forth. But the pieces are there because, you know, I think New Hook would certainly be a crown jewel here and probably one of the best young players. that the Sabres could dream of getting from any of these teams. But then you could also, you know, you could throw in potentially Connor Timmons in there.

You could obviously mess around with draft picks and stuff. But I also like the idea of acquiring the last year of Nazim Kodry's deal and flipping them to a contender and getting other assets from that as well. So and to help make the money work, obviously, Super Bowl team. So I think Colorado would be a fascinating one. And I love it from the perspective of having this. fast skill team and falling short and just continuing to double and triple down on it by just getting as many fast skilled players as you can if you're them.

Yeah, I mean, they have the pieces to do it. It's just if, you know, can they pull it off? You know, I mean, if I'm not mistaken, I think McKinn said he would take a, no, sweetheart deal again if it meant them winning games. And, you know, so that that's out there. I mean, we'll see when the time comes for negotiating. If that's what he's the case, you could just be saying that. But I think it makes, again, it's a team that just can't, like Carolina,

just can't get over the hump. Every year, this is Colorado's year. This is Colorado's year. They just can never get over the hump. So, yeah, you finally go out and you've acquired all these assets, all these prospects, you know, built a young group in there. And maybe this is the time they take that big swing. And it would be fascinating because that would be an absolute,

a healthy Ikel with McKinnon and Rontenon. and McCar and the rest of the pieces they have built around their team would be incredible to watch. But it's just, does Colorado, for the reasons you mentioned, want to take that big swing. And I don't know where Resec's head at or if he's desperate enough to really make that push now. Yeah, it's tricky because it's certainly like I think, you know, different circumstances because he was older at the time. but like 110i Pannarin became a free agent, they made a pretty healthy run at him, but they're very clear about limiting the term in terms of, you know, keeping the years down and just giving him a bunch of money over the next couple of years. But keeping those years, especially when McKinnon comes up for a new contract, as clear as they can. And, you know, the 10 million cap hit for high code would certainly complicate matters. But I guess if you're them, you could potentially hope that, you know, three years down the line, let's say maybe the cap does finally start to go up a little bit. Or you can, you can figure it out after. I mean,

heck, if you win a cup between now and then, I'm sure you take that as an outcome if you're them. So, yeah, that would probably be the most fun outcome, I think, for both sides,

because I think Buffalo could probably get the best combination of young players from Colorado in a trade like that. And obviously seeing him in that system and the talent around him would be really fun from an entertainment perspective. So I like that one. I like that one a lot.

I got a couple others here. I think, the wild are interesting to me because they so desperately need help down the middle and it would make sense and they do have some young pieces to make it happen i thought about them a lot their cap sheet is an absolute nightmare yeah in the caprice off situation i wonder if that's how much that changes for them at the end to figure out what's going to happen there like if he goes back to russia like i mean they also said i don't think that's going to happen but I don't think it is either, but

Here's the thing that they have six, they have six players with six plus million dollar cap hits moving forward, and it doesn't include the three best forwards who they have to sign this number. Yes. Yeah.

So are you going to get Perise to wave to go to Buffalo? Like, I don't know. I mean, the interesting part for me in Minnesota trade is you take Matt Dumbra back and flip him to somebody for more assets.

Yeah, that would almost have to happen. Even Brodine potentially. Yeah. Yeah. No, that would be very interesting. And certainly, like, he's, I mean, Jack Eccles going to make every team that he goes to better. But, like, there are one of the few teams here where, you know, all of our concerns about the ducks and the blue jackets in terms of, okay, you acquire them and then what?

Like, the wild do have, can make this trade, assuming they can make the money work while still having, like, a defensive system, but also talent on the wing around him. so it's not just starting from scratch with Jack Eichl and nothing else. So that's part of what's interesting to me, especially after watching Caprisov, just lug around Victor Ascal season as his number one center. Like just the idea of like, all right, now we have Jack Eichl and Joel Erick as our top two centers.

Like that's pretty awesome. I think that will take you pretty far if you're a team. So that's all of a sudden very interesting to me. Yeah, definitely. And it'll be interesting who, I mean, the main prospect coming back would have to be one or boldier or Rossi. It'd be interesting who the receivers would prefer.

I mean, because this was a team that just passed on Rossi. And then also that COVID condition, too, I wonder how they see that. I mean, I think he'll recover and be fine. But the Sabres medical team also scares me to put players around who might have some sort of medical situation. So they might lean Boldie, which is fine. I think Boldie is a great prospect, too. And then if, you know, you can get Dumbun flip on a first round pick. And, you know, Kaelan Edison's a guy I've thought about out of there, too, as a defense prospect.

And they have some more pieces there, too. So yeah, I think Minnesota is definitely an interesting team in a dark horse, but I'm surprised they're not connected a little bit more from the main people. And even myself, I haven't heard a lot about Minnesota. But, you know, they can play the quiet game too. I think wild fans have certainly been eyeing this for a while. But yeah, it seems like they have a lot of stuff internally to figure out this, this offseason in terms of the contracts are going to give out.

It's interesting. We've mentioned a bunch of teams. we haven't really talked about the Kings and the Rangers yet who seemed like out of the gate would be the two obvious landing spots and, you know, probably at the top of his own personal list in terms of where he'd prefer to go. Right. And I'm not sure how much to buy into all the reports about the Kings reportedly looking elsewhere and identifying something else and whether that's just a leverage player or whether it's actually true because they, even if you don't include Byfield, they have so many, similar to the Keynes, they have such a wealth of forward prospects. that you could put together a very, you know, tantalizing package for the Sabres without including your best forward prospect there. And from the Rangers perspective, I think there's certainly, you know, their front office shakeup as the season ended indicates that they're going to be looking

to be pretty aggressive here. They seem like a very natural landing spot. And I wonder, it seems like they're going to be at least, you know, wishfully, looking from afar and waiting to see what happens with Sasha Barakov as he enters the last year of his deal here. But I don't think that necessarily precludes them from going after both players or at least keeping the door open for it just because of the way their salaries are structured right now and how much money they have coming off the books after the season and all that. So yeah, I don't know. Do you think either of those two teams? I mean, obviously they make sense

because they've been linked to him. But it seems like once this started, they were the obvious ones. and then as the life cycle of these rumors has gone along, they've kind of faded to the background a little bit. Yeah, so L.A. is tough because they make a ton of sense. But everybody I've asked, and I know a few Kings people tell me, like, yeah, they've heard the same thing as John Joey. I've even talked to John, too, over in the mayor about it,

and he's adamant, yeah. I mean, they're not interested in Michael. They have other plans. One of those other plans, I think, does include Sam Reinhart. So I don't think they're out of, papers, you know, guys completely, but I don't know. Like the part of me is like, I just, I don't want to buy it, but everybody asks, keep telling me, no, they're not in it.

And the main guys aren't saying that they're in it, really. I mean, some of saying they're lying, but I don't know, if the Kings pulled us off, it'll be one of the great heists, I think, Angel team has pulled off how they fooled everybody and do it. So I guess for now, though, I'll say that, yeah, it seems like LA is out of it. And then it seems like things have cooled with the Rangers. There's just no talk. I'm not even from insiders.

I mean, this is New York City, for God's sakes, and you're not even hearing the New York reporters really talk about it. So that's why I think with the GM change there with Drury, it's not so much that he wouldn't be interested in Eichel. I just think Jury has other plans, you know, and maybe they just realize they don't either want to pay or give up the guys that would cost to get Eichol,

so they've already, in a sense, I'm sure they've checked in, but they may have moved on already, hearing what the price type. would be in what it would cost them to acquire them. Yeah, that would make sense. I was blown away seeing the recent, you know, gaining of steam for the Chicago Blackhawks to be part of this.

Like I just, I don't get it. I don't know how they could do it. From a cap perspective, I mean, I guess if like, I guess maybe it's retiring. I'm going to come back, yeah. Right. But even like the assets, it's doc and. 11th.

Yeah. First round pick. And then what else? else you got off from me there. You know? Well, I think that would be, I mean, I like Karpi Dock a lot.

I think that would be very interesting to be the Sabers. For sure. But again, it gets the same point, the same conversation of Anaheim and Columbus. Okay, you just traded your young second line center.

What do you have there now? Like, Dylan Strom is, is that going to be the guy who's going to be behind Michael? Like, I mean, it'd be interesting from a story perspective that,

you know, those guys went one and three, but, or I'm sorry, two and three, but I just, I don't know. that team is just not that good.

You know, it's really just Patrick Kane, and that becomes a one-line team. Are you going to play Kane? I go together. That'll be electric. What about the rest of your team? It's, you know, the Sabre situation we talked about to be in the podcast.

What about the other 40 minutes of the game? What's going to happen? You know, I think you'll just, you'll get crushed. The goaltending situation is up in the air. The blue line there is up in the air too. Yeah, they have some young pieces there, but there's just too much up in the air. And I get it.

It's Chicago. So maybe they kind of feel like they have to get involved. But I just can't really figure out a realistic trade that makes sense for the Sabres at this point. Yeah. What about the Knights? How are you feeling about that? Because I keep coming back to them as like if there's one team that's going to find a way to make it work, it's going to be them. I think it depends if they can get by Montreal or not.

I think if they fall short to Montreal, they'll be more apt to make a run. run at them, but if they get to the finals, I feel like they're the way they operate, they're gonna, they can win the company, they could still just be like, all right, let's just, let's figure out of the salary cap not exist in Vegas though, like for real. I know, it would be crazy. I don't know how they would make it work with the money. I don't, I don't get it either.

Like, interestingly, I think they do have the assets to make an interesting. They definitely do. package of stuff, but yeah, it would involve, yeah, it would involve, I guess, moving pieces that Buffalo would then flip to a third team. I don't. The problem is, too, they've given everyone that team no movement clause and new trade clauses. So who's in a way to go to Buffalo? So they can be flipped again?

Yeah. It's, I mean, it logically, it makes sense they have the pieces and they like to be in the big names. We've seen a patch already, Pratrangelo. They're even trying to get to a hall to trade deadline. Right. at that point, Boston kind of already was in there. So they like to chase the big names.

They'll do it. It's just, I can't figure out logically with the no move clause for the money guys, they'd have to move out, just the salary cap, how they would make that work unless somebody pulls in a key to Kutra off. It is hurt until the playoffs or something. I just,

I don't see any way shape, a form that could work. Yeah, which is why it's going to happen. Right. All right. I think we covered all the, all the big stuff, right? Like, was there anything else that we wanted to mention on this? No, I think we covered the fun teams and potentially the boring teams and then the most logical teams too. So I think we kind of touched on all areas of this for sure.

Yeah. All right. Well, Chad, this is a blast man. I'm glad we got to do this. I'm really curious to see what's going to happen here. It does feel like it's going to happen sooner rather than later. So I'm glad that we got to do this while we still could. plug some stuff.

What are you working on? Where can people check all your work? It was all that good stuff. Yeah. So, Expected Buffalo is my site. Expectable Buffalo.com. You know, right now we are,

well, I, because the guy I work with is, he's coming back soon. He just had a new baby. So I made him go on baby hiatus until the beginning of July, but he'll be Anthony to be back soon.

So we'll get in some free agency stuff. You know, we'll be all over the ICOL stuff. You know, Ico content seems to be a big seller right now, for the people. So we'll keep pushing that out because people are eating it up

until that happens. And then it moves to Reinhart and Ristolining. That's amazing. Something we didn't touch on, which is funny. I don't want to go backwards now, but we really didn't talk about that there's a team out there that's trying to get Ico and Ristolining

and the hilarity of Ico being traded but has to take the big guy with him is pretty funny. Oh my God. Jesus. Anyways, that's where you can find me. Spragut at Buflo.com. at CMDD on Twitter.

I won't spell it. I'm sure Dimitri will tag me so you can. Yes. Yeah, we'll do that. And we'll have you back on definitely. Maybe after that ECHO trade does happen, we'll look like a mini emergency breakdown or something like that. We didn't miss that aspect with the wrist of line.

That's pretty funny. That is pretty funny. All right, man. This was a blast. We will check in with you sometime soon. Enjoy this little calm before the storm. I'm sure it's going to be a busy off season. I'm looking forward to covering with you down to our.

All right, man. Thanks. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. P.D.Ocast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey pdocast.