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00:026'8", giant defenseman, I guess they are not re-signing Logan Stanley, not that anybody
00:08was really expecting that, but Louis Crevier, a part of the trade that sends Bo Byram to
00:14the Chicago Blackhawks, good morning, it's Jeremy and Joe, Jeremy's off today, Owen's
00:18off today, we had the 11 day power play last night, it was a great time, you can still
00:22donate, go to 11daypowerplay.com, you can search team WGR, or you can go to the player
00:27page, you can find me there, you can find Owen there, and we're still taking donations,
00:31they're still playing hockey down at Harbor Center for a while still, and it was a one
00:36goal game throughout the night, last night, so if you did stop by, I know we had a few
00:41people that did, hopefully you got some entertainment out of it, we got some celebrations on the
00:49ice, yeah, how did that guy, I was gonna ask, did any, was there any, Derek Kramer, that
00:52man loves a celly, I knew it, what did he do, he didn't do anything crazy this year, there
00:56was no, you know, surfing on the stick, or throwing anything up in the air, I think,
01:01unless I missed it, I don't think I missed it, though, at any point, yeah, yeah, the
01:06quad muscles are sore this morning, this is a, you know, this is a great morning, though,
01:11to have, like, just sitting in, just sitting down, talking about the Byram trade, like,
01:15what, what a godsend that was, couldn't have been better, last night, couldn't have been
01:19better, like, oh, I cannot wait for the show tomorrow, I love this trade so much for the
01:23Sabres, everybody loves this trade, for the Sabres, I mean, the Athletic, ESPN, all the
01:30trade grades you've seen, are A's, or A pluses, if they're doing A pluses, it's an A plus,
01:37yeah, I saw an A plus, and then, like, a D for Chicago, yeah, so, just not, not great
01:42for them all around, yeah, it does, though, it does not make them better right now, but
01:52whatever, I, I, not totally whatever, you want them to, if they're gonna lose Alex Tuck,
02:00and there was some reporting yesterday, Darren Dreger, that, and there was also a little bit
02:05on sign and trade, I saw that, yeah, that Tuck, like, he's probably going, he's probably
02:10going somewhere else, Seattle continues to get mentioned, and we're reaching a point
02:16now where we're hearing about, alright, well, if they're really still this far apart, then
02:21we're talking about a sign and trade, and you're not getting much in a sign and trade, it was
02:26a fifth for Radish in Toronto, I don't know, are you gonna get a third for Tuck, it doesn't
02:31even really matter to me, like, you're just getting a, a low-level lottery ticket to trade
02:37his rights somewhere else, it'll be really interesting what they put on the ice opening
02:43night, and we can't know what that's gonna look like, because how much more is going
02:47to happen throughout the remainder of the week, if they just sit with what they got, and
02:52they use the fourth pick, and they use the 20th pick, then everyone should feel great
02:58about the future of this organization, and the future of this talent pool, but they
03:03won't have a Tuck replacement, and I am very skeptical that they'll have a Byram
03:08replacement, I'm interested in this Louis Crevier character that's gonna be joining
03:15them on the blue line, but him being a, what is he replacing, what are you looking to
03:21replace in Bo Byram, Bo Byram was not worth the fourth overall pick, but he also is not
03:27nothing to replace, he was a 22 and a half minute a night defenseman that played number
03:34two power play, played shorthanded, was excellent for you in the first round of the playoffs, and
03:43gave you a certain type of defenseman that was perfect for the way the Sabres played.
03:49The Sabres play, I mean, the river hockey signs all around us, like, they wanted to play up
03:56and down the ice, they want their defenseman to be active. Now, they also made steps in their
04:02own end this year, and I think Byram was fine this year, like, his even strength defensive
04:06numbers are totally fine, and the offensive part of his game, being dynamic, skating, he
04:15has a great shot, like, a good finisher for a defenseman, and that was proven last year
04:20in the playoffs, four goals in 13 games. I think he tied the Sabres record for a postseason
04:24with goals scored from a defenseman. Yeah, he was up there with one-timers taken too.
04:29One-timers, right, like, he was good. He is a guy that can score goals for you on the
04:33blue line, can move the puck. Is he as good at moving the puck as Darlene is? No, but few
04:38are. He's perfect for the way the Sabres played last season, and the long journey to figure
04:47out who's Owen Powers' partner going to be. You might have felt like you finally found
04:53your answer on that, because Darlene, when Samuelson is going good, Samuelson is playing
04:59with Darlene. Those two are together. They were together in the 22-23 season, when they
05:04almost made the playoffs, and then Samuelson had his issues, injury, play went down, and
05:09they separated a bit. Last year, they get back together, and it's excellent. Power played
05:16more minutes with Henry Yoki Haru in his career than anybody else going into last year. It's
05:21probably still true. We've constantly wondered who would be that guy for Owen Power, and Byram
05:30got here and played with Power, and it did not go well. But then last season, they put
05:37them back together, and it did. And they had an excellent season, the two of them. And
05:43now Byram's gone. And we're back to square one a little bit with who's playing with Owen
05:49Power. The good news about Owen Power, he's a great player, and he's only getting better.
05:55He was amazing in the playoffs, playing through injury at the end of that Montreal series.
06:00I had as much faith in him as any other player on the team not named Rasmus Dahlene. He was
06:05locked in. He was calm. That was a difference that I saw in Game 7. I was in the arena,
06:14100
06:14level. They were right down in front of me. And I remember thinking at the end of that third
06:20period with all the anxiety and all the stress, every time Byram touched the puck, he never
06:28really had a big mistake. He never had a bad turnover that I remember, and it never really
06:32cost them. But every time he had the puck, felt like I was just a little bit more stressed
06:38out. Just a little bit more panicky. A little less sure of where to go with things. A little
06:46more panicky, especially when he was being pressured. And again, he did fine, and it never
06:52cost them. Power, I felt like when he had the puck, there was a confidence and a coolness
07:00to him that eased me. Like, Power would get the puck, and I'd be like, let me take a breath
07:05for a second. Because I feel like I know nothing bad is going to happen here. Yeah, it's like
07:10a safety blanket. Yeah. Even with a guy draped all over him. Like, he's fine. He'll make the
07:15right decision. And in years past, that wasn't the case. Right. Well, sometimes. Yeah. And
07:20in that game, it definitely was true that he was the guy that you want him to be. And
07:28he obviously sets up Darlene. I mean, of course, you know, Power has stepped up. And I feel
07:33like, with all that being said about him, I feel like you could, he's at a point now
07:38you could put anybody with him, and he's still going to play well. If you wanted to open the
07:42season with Zach Metza as his partner, I feel like you'd do fine. If you want it to
07:47be Louis Crevier, I feel like Power is going to do fine. And he might be at a point where
07:54he can really lift up the guy that's with him. But that doesn't mean I don't want a good
08:00player next to him. And I'm not sure how good Louis Crevier is. Because, yeah, he had
08:06a better year last year. And he was exposed to a bigger role. But it's a projection that
08:13he can just step in and play with Owen Power for an entire season and have that go well
08:19for you. It's the same type of projection, maybe even a less likely projection, than you
08:26would have been making with Michael Kesselring a year ago. Which was the same thing. Like,
08:31alright, the role went up a little bit in Utah. And he's big and can move. And there's some
08:38skill here. And I see some tools that make me think, yeah, Kesselring, he should be a top
08:45four defenseman in the league. And then he got here and he wasn't. Injuries, I know. But
08:50he wasn't a top four defenseman. And sure, Crevier at his size, let's see. Maybe he can
08:58do it. I'm not betting on it, though. There are excuses. Bad team. Tough assignment. A
09:07lot of tough matchups where he's going out against top players on the other team. And
09:12that could be why, you know, I pull up his charts at Evolving Hockey. And there's a lot
09:17of red. And red's bad. Red is the bad color. Blue is good. Blue is good. And
09:24there's not a lot of blue. There's some, but not a lot. I'd just be skeptical that
09:29he's going to play a full season with Owen Power and we're going to feel like that's
09:32good enough. I just, I see him as the Logan Stanley replacement upgrade a little
09:37bit, right? I would, see, that's where I would hope you're getting an upgrade over
09:43Logan Stanley. Sure. I feel like it's, there's a good chance he is just Logan
09:48Stanley. Yeah. And that's not a problem. He's the third piece, fourth piece even, to
09:55a trade in which you're getting the fourth overall pick, which is a steep overpay by
10:00Chicago. You're getting a second, which to me is whatever. And then you're getting a
10:05four million dollar credit, basically, for Chicago taking Jordan Greenway off your
10:11hands. And I can just plug in Kozak at $800,000 to his spot and save a bunch of
10:17money that I can use on other things. That's the value of the trade. So yes, there
10:23is something to replace in Byram. They had arguably the best top four in hockey a
10:29year ago. And right now, maybe they have the best top three, but you cannot tell me
10:34they have right now the best top four in the league. But I don't know that they're
10:37done. What's next? Are they going to go try to trade for Connor Hellebuck? Are they
10:42trying to acquire a goalie? Because in the last 24 hours, we have Kevin Weeks
10:47talking about Bobrovsky and the Sabres. We have Hellebuck as an idea. He's been
10:55connected a couple of times to Buffalo. Chad Dimenesis mentioned that maybe the
11:00Sabres have poked around on him. To what extent, we don't really know. And that
11:04Hellebuck, it's getting realer and realer. Every single report you see is
11:08like, that is a real trade that's going to happen at some point. The noise is
11:13getting louder. So are they doing a goalie move? They probably need a tuck
11:18replacement. Or somebody that you could sell as veteran player, could play with
11:24Tage, could play somewhere in the top nine. Where does fourth defenseman now
11:30enter in that equation? Third pair, I'm good. Third pair, I've got Crevier, I've
11:37got Timmons, and I've got Metza. And if one of those three have to play in the top
11:41four, my top three is so strong, I could get away with that. But if they feel
11:48like, no, those are bottom pair guys. We'd like to have another guy that could play
11:5220 minutes a night. Then I don't think that player is on the team. And I wonder what
11:58type of asset they would use on that trade. I don't think that is pick number
12:02four. Unless, I'll throw one idea out there. It's a big idea. But, you know, we're
12:11looking at Jarmo Kekalainen and his history. It's what you do in sports, right? Like a
12:14guy shows up to run your team. We're doing football. Sean McDermott and Brandon Bean
12:19come from Carolina. What do we expect? They're just going to get all the Panthers. And
12:22guess what happened? They got all the Carolina guys. They did. And, you know, actually it
12:26hasn't happened as much this offseason with the Bills where here comes the
12:32Denver coaches, right? You get Jim Leonard and Pete Carmichael. And it's, we're
12:37bringing a bunch of former Broncos. That has not happened a lot. Even though I
12:42thought we might get it, we haven't. Will we get a bunch of former Columbus
12:46guys? That's why I thought, like, hey, maybe Jarmo wants Patrick Laine on a cheap
12:51deal. Because he traded, made a big trade for Laine when he was in Columbus.
12:56Bobrovsky popping up in rumors. Well, there's a connection. Bobrovsky was in
13:00Columbus when Jarmo was there. And Jarmo drafted Zach Wierenski. Now that's a
13:09monster idea. He is not fourth defenseman. He is, like, in line with Darlene. And, I
13:18mean, you could have a super pair. That would be cool. I don't feel like you need to
13:22have a defenseman that good. But, I don't know. The fourth overall pick kind of opens
13:26up a lot of possibilities. And why I mentioned Wierenski is not just, he was, I'm just
13:31picking out a guy from Columbus. There are, you know, of course, a lot of reports about
13:34him potentially wanting out from the Blue Jackets as well. So, a lot of big ideas this
13:40summer. The NHL, it's kind of lined up perfectly. Where the Sabres have all these assets, they're
13:45good. And, there's so many star players that might want out that I'm really hopeful that
13:51they'll get one of them.
13:53Could you, I mean, Bobrovsky, just to sit on that for a second, the money he wants, I could
13:58never see that happening here. Even with the Jarmo connection, right? Like, for, you could
14:02get him for a season, maybe?
14:04Not at the price. He's asking for a six-year deal from Florida. No, thank you. And if I'm
14:10anybody. I'm not doing that. I know he's probably not playing all six years and there's
14:13retirement pieces of that. But, no. Like, the more interesting part of them being connected
14:18to Bobrovsky and even Hellebuck a little bit. And, there's this rumor yesterday, it's Dave
14:23Pagnota, the fourth period. I haven't seen it from anywhere else. But, that they're listening
14:26on Uka Pekalukkanen. I don't know how true that is. But, it's got a lot of smoke right
14:32now about Goalie. And, I kind of thought they would just run it back. Unless, maybe, they
14:38got Hellebuck. And, I don't know. All of that together kind of sounds like they're open
14:43to more ideas than just, well, the best goalie in the world is available? Sure, I'll do
14:47that. This is more, no, you're looking for somebody that you might trust more to be your
14:52number one. Your 1A. Pairing with others. And, Lukainen makes 4.75 million. Like, if
14:59somebody is going out the door and you're bringing in a big name on the other end of
15:04it, you know, not that Lyon necessarily has to be better than him, but Lyon makes a million
15:09bucks. Yeah. And, Lukainen makes 4.7. So, anyways. A lot of big things that can happen
15:14and a lot of big ideas that are now more, feel more possible because the Sabres have
15:21this pick fourth overall. Take Ron's phone call in a moment here. But, if you missed it
15:26in the last segment, I just want to reiterate. This is not a pick that often shows up right
15:33away and produces for you. That does not mean, this is not me saying that you should trade
15:37this pick. I've said earlier this morning, there are very few players in the league that
15:43I would be willing to trade the fourth pick for. But, that does not mean it's going to
15:47help you right away. Of the last 12 fourth overall picks in the NHL, only one has stepped
15:53in right away and played a full NHL season. Brady Kachuk. That's it. Scored 22 goals. Most
16:00of these guys showed up after one year. Like, Marner and others. They played one more year,
16:05wherever they were, and then they showed up. Cal McCarr, Luke Hughes, Shane Wright. Those
16:12are three fourth overall picks that took two years to show up. So, you're probably talking
16:19about a player that will be a great player, but it's going to be one year before he gets
16:24here. There is a small chance he could show up right away, and there's also a small chance
16:30that he could take two years to show up. That, to me, is where you sit if you look at
16:34the
16:34history of the fourth pick. Let's go to Ron in Alden. What's up, Ron?
16:38Hey, good morning, guys. One, I'm shocked we did not have to get the 20th pick. Normally,
16:43you see, on trade, the first are always swapped, but that's amazing there alone. Let's just say
16:49we don't trade the pick. I mean, he probably traded for the pick so we can use it, but let's
16:53just say he doesn't trade. Who do you feel, because normally we're always in the spot of who
16:58are taking in the top five or six anyways. So, it's really like another year. Who do
17:03you feel like, if, I don't even know the draft, so who would you think the Sabres could get
17:08or do you hope they draft if they make the pick? And I ain't gonna listen. Again, I
17:12don't, haven't looked at this draft at all because there's no reason to. So, now there
17:16is. All right, thanks, guys.
17:17Yeah, thanks, Ron, for the call. Yeah, like, I know enough to know the names before yesterday,
17:22but not really what, like, who they are, what the stats say, what the size even of the
17:26players are, and there's been a lot more of that for me in the last 12 hours. I just
17:30refreshed the YouTube chat, actually, and the name I was just gonna bring up is, James
17:34just mentioned him. Vigo Bjork is a small player, 5'9", that I've seen mocked to the
17:42Sabres a couple of times in the last, you know, 12 hours or so, and when I read about
17:48him, it reminds me of Benson. There's like an, like, ultra compete and winning battles
17:55despite his size and skill on top of it. He is a center. I mean, center slash winger.
18:02I'm sure, you know, you could get both out of him. So, that's one name. Caleb Malhotra
18:06is another. He's a center. The defenseman ideas are there as well. Chase Reed is a right
18:13shot defenseman. And then the Swedish kid that it doesn't feel likely to fall to you, but
18:20if it did, like, holy cow, Stenberg. Ivar Stenberg. For Lunda. Like, that probably is the dream
18:28outcome. And maybe there's an avenue for him to fall. San Jose takes a defenseman, and Vancouver
18:35takes Manny Malhotra's son. Takes Caleb Malhotra because his dad's the head coach. Like, if that
18:40happens and he falls to you, home run. Could probably not go better. But I'm not entertaining
18:49that as being all that likely. Oh, to be fair, though, I didn't think it would be all that
18:52likely the Sabres would get a top five pick for Bo Byram a day ago. And here we sit with
18:56the fourth overall pick, the draft in Buffalo. It's a lot of fun. Yarmo did great. Yarmo,
19:03I mean, you got to give it to him. His first trade, big, big trade. Everything it was cracked
19:09up to be. I don't know how you could, what you would even say to criticize it. There's
19:14nothing you would, the only thing you could say, and this would be one way of not taking,
19:20not giving him as much credit. Because this was, this is kind of how I look back on Kevin
19:24Adams' last big deal. Like, Kevin Adams trades J.J. Paterka, and he gets Josh Stone. And I
19:30look back at that trade and think, Kevin Adams did great in that trade. But you were forced
19:35to do it. If J.J. Paterka did not want out, you probably were not making that trade. You
19:43were going to sign J.J. Paterka. Right. So, yes, you did a great job. And from a position
19:49of weakness, when other teams know you got to trade the guy, you were able to get something
19:55of real value. So, like, that's a good job. This is kind of the same, right? Like, Byram
20:01wanted out. Byram at least wasn't staying. Sorry, he wasn't maybe demanding a trade.
20:07But you knew he wasn't going to sign. That kind of forced you into a deal that maybe you
20:13didn't want to make. I'm not sure they ever call or talk to Chicago if Byram just says in
20:18their first meeting about, does he want to extend? Like, okay, yeah, I'm in. Yeah, you
20:23want to sign me for eight years, $10 million per year? I'm in. I'll do it. I'll come, I'll
20:26be your second pair defenseman for the next decade. They're probably not making this
20:31trade if that's how this conversation goes. So, you're only even getting into this game
20:36because the player has pushed you into it. So, that would be one area where you could
20:41say, like, this is probably not a proactive move. This is reactive. But like Adams getting
20:49Doan, you should give some credit, a good amount of credit to, all right, even if that's
20:56true, you got to get something. You got to be able to make it work for you. And that
21:03happened with the Paterka trade. Thank goodness that Doan was the player he was or else it
21:08would not have looked that way looking back because he was the throwing piece. And this
21:11deal, immediately after it happens, feels like, yeah, all right, you were pushed into
21:17it, but you did great. And you could not have imagined, I think, doing any better.
21:21No, you just took him for a walk. And you saw Jarmo try to be kind of aggressive at the
21:25deadline. And you're like, okay, like, he's finally going to put a stamp on this team at
21:28some point. And I mean, you're starting to see that start to happen now.
21:31And that is the dream and the hope, I think, that is attached to this trade. It's not just
21:36that they get the fourth overall pick. It is adding to the cupboard of assets that they
21:43have and a GM that has a history and a background of making big trades and was trying to make
21:51big trades at the trade deadline that you should feel comfortable dreaming about all
21:57these big ideas because of the guy that's in charge. And he just added the fourth overall
22:01pick. And maybe he makes the fourth overall pick, but now he's more willing. Maybe you're
22:05more willing to trade Consta Heleneus or Noah Oslin, though. Right? Like, I'm not telling
22:10you I want them to trade Heleneus. But let's use Oslin for it. I love Oslin. Don't want
22:16to see them move him. But if you need him in a deal to get a star, a week ago,
22:24you might
22:25have been on the fence about it. Now, if I can just immediately replace Oslin in the
22:31system with Caleb Malhotra or somebody else like that in the top five, I'm more comfortable
22:38making that trade than I would have been before. Because I can, that young star center, potential
22:44star center that I already have a couple of others, I could just immediately replace him
22:49because I have pick number four. Sal, when we come back, Sal on this and also his stadium
22:55visit yesterday as we get closer to the opening of the new stadium, we talked to Pete Guelli
23:01yesterday and he talked about maybe some test events and some opportunities for fans to get
23:05in there that don't have tickets, season tickets, or might not have an opportunity to get to
23:10the blue and red game. So we'll see. Waiting on that. And Sal on his experience, plus this
23:16trade, when we come back here on WU.
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