Botterill isn't as dumb as Bergevin

you mean that is a bad deal for Buffalo to make with Montreal?

Yeah, Buffalo isn't getting anything great in that deal. A bunch of 2nd's and a 3rd liner don't equal a 1C, this isn't NHL 18 Be A GM

I agree but if you want to we can at least make a case for this type of deal, here is breakdown. Let me preface this by saying I don't think Buf would do this but just for fun.

Byron is a solid top 9 guy, super versatile and shows up to play every night. Not too mention lighting fast. Only a few guys in the league catch this guy. Larkin, McDavid, etc. Just for those who don't already know, Byron had 2 more goals than ROR did last year and only 4 less this year. So in terms of goal scoring, you aren't losing that much. Plus Byron only costs 1.1M and ROR is 7.5M so they are saving a ton of cap. That is a bonus in a trade like this. Not as much as some people think but a plus non the less.

As for the 2nds, not all 2nds are equal. MTL and CHI's 2nds are 35th and 38th respectively. That's late 1st territory as is. Using both Wsh and Tor 2nds in addition to the other 2nds basically moves you up into late 1st round both times.

So this is essentially:

Byron
1st round ~28-31st
1st round ~28-31st

for

O'Reilly
(Not including Girgensens)

Plus Buffalo saves 6.5M in cap space.

Its not the greatest offer ever I agree but I wouldn't go crapping all over it either.

Why get goalie and then trade Nelson and MVS when we lost JT? We should be going into a minor retool after that.

You're not paying ROR for his scoring. He's an amazing F/O guy, defensive great, and doesn't take any penalties and can lead a PK like no one else in the league. Great defensive 1C's aren't easy to get in this league

Moulson will never play for the sabres again unfortunately.

I know, but I thought I would be whimsical and put him in the line up with his best friend and the center he ever had.

Trades 1 and 2 are great
Trade 3 makes me hurl.... cap space isn’t a problem so why would we trade ROR and Girgs for a bunch of lottery tickets who are 2 to 3 years away from being potentially relevant

Thank you very much for your comment, very valuable for me to evaluate the relative value. You are the 1st to comment on the other trades, which thought were very controversial. I think you can see this team is MUCH better than last year. Adding Byron, Nelson, Tavares and Rodrigues should have a huge impact on the scoring. If Bogosian and McCabe can stay healthy and the addition of Dahlin and Nelson, the defense will be top rate. Goal tending will be challenged but Ullmark looked ready to me. The 4 2nd round picks essentially translate to 2 late 1st round picks and Nelson, and trading O'Reilly freed up cap space to sign Tavares and will help Botterill to build for the future, the best of both worlds, playoffs now, prospects for the future. Again thank you very much for your comments.

Thank you for your post, greatly appreciated. While I agree we are not paying O'Reilly for his scoring, we were told he had character and was a great leader and two way player. Well we know he does not have character after he and his brother ran away after driving into a Tim Horton's, I now doubt his leadership since the team had regressed every year he has been here and please tell me one other "Two Way Player" who only has ONE penalty all year? As for being a shutdown player, he had the 14th worse +/- in the entire NHL. So tell me again why why we are paying him and how well he is performing those tasks.

Yeah I know but like I said I was just making a case for it. Realistically, when was the last time a team traded essentially two 1sts and a 20+ goal scoring roster player in one move?