Sabres have to see where their salary is going to be, they already have a 6 million dollar black hole and a log jam on D

I don’t mind this at all.

I think both Connelly and Ferland should be priority targets for the oil this offseason.

Moving Russell’s contract would help with that. He can still play and I believe his real money is smaller than his cap hit over the next 2 years.

I like your additions on wing. I might see if Maroon can come back instead of Pirri, but either way is better than what we have now. I don't know if Puljujarvi is coming back though. I think they might package him with one of the D.

I think you can trade Sekera or Russell before July 1st... at least that would be my interpretation of 2019-2020 NTC. I do not know that Sekera would want to return to Buffalo, though. It is not a fav destination for NHLers. Between the two, I would definitely trade Russell first.

I like the idea of getting Keumper. But were I Arizona I would hold on to him until trade deadline and at that point I would be asking more than a 7-8 D with less than 20 NHL games. I think they are going to plunge forward with Koskinen as the 1st next season and are likely to sign a backup, like McElhinney (if we are lucky). If we are not lucky, they will just resign what we have.

I will start by saying i like the Kuemper add, as he would be a strong push for Koskinen. EDM will need competition in net next season.
However i would not drop 18 spots to rid myself of Sekera. Assuming EDM is drafting anywhere from 7th - 10th they will be looking at adding a key piece that could join the core in 3yrs roughly. This is looking like a deep first 15 picks in this years draft. Moving Sekera is less of a priority in my eyes as moving Russell (note the affect he has made since his return on Benning and the 6 man unit as a whole). I would rather EDM pursue adding a 3rd line center (Cogliano, Nash, Smith) in dealing Sekera rather than drop out of the top 15 but in my opinion EDM should be working every avenue of moving out Lucic & Russell in order to add space and youth.