Explain why Buffalo does this trade

Becasue Botterill said that they will try to add some more scoring depth but said the trade route is more “realistic". A Saad-Eichel-Reinhart top line would be amazing for Buffalo.

Saad is still young (26) and for some dumb reason gets a bad wrap because he had one weak season in 2017-18.

Hard pass from Buffalo. They need Dman and he is a quality RHD who is young were Saad is overpaid(my opinion) and didn’t look like himself at all last year

That doesn't mean he trades recently acquired young top 4 dmen for struggling second line wingers.

Don't know why Buffalo does this. Also, why does Chicago want Montour, they already have too many RHD (Jokiharju, Boqvist, Seabrook, Murphy)

Murphy can play both ides and Boqvist is still a ways out (2 years). Seabrook is well....Seabrook.

You know you can quote comments right? And it'll give people notifications so that they know you replied to them.

Hawks also say no. This is bad for both sides. Thumbs down.

It is unlikely that Montour is in the trading bloc, if anyone trades, then this is Risto.

Exactly, this move doesn't make sense for Chicago either.

Let me unravel the back ground to this trade. 28th OA and Guhle for Montour, then Montour for Saad and 43rd OA. By coincidence the difference between the 43rd and 28th is just about the same as 43rd OA. So to completely decode the trade it is an early 2nd and Guhle for Saad.
Then going back in history, as I evaluate this trade, my mind is reminded that Saad was acquired for Panarin (we all know it was a bad trade). So as I contemplate this trade, I am bemused that it would be categorically rejected by Sabre fans. Buffalo is looking for a top 6 winger, this trade seems to solve that problem for about the same value that was used to acquire Skinner. It would be remarkable to obtain between 60 and 70 goals per year for 2 seconds and 2 low value prospects.
To all of the Chicago contributors, I think I made my case that this trade greatly favors the Sabres.

I do not agree, just because I would not like to give Montour. Getting the top 6 wingers is a lot easier than you think you don’t have to trade your best RHD for this. I like Saad, but not for this package, I would simply prefer the options with Miller, Zucker, Connolly or Donskoi, then I think to get one of them you do not have to abandon Montour.

I agree with your comment, I was breaking down how little it would have cost Buffalo to obtain 2 all star forwards.
I actually hope none of our defensemen are traded. We need at least one more LHD (unless Pilut turns out to be better than McCabe) and maybe one more to sit in the press box. I do not see any UFA nor affordable RFA defensemen that would be a significant upgrade over Hunwick or Scandella.
That means a trade. I see Brodie, Trouba, Hamonic, Gudas, Shattenkirk and Zaitsev on the market, that last 2 IMO are under-rated by the ACGM contributors (often traded with assets to take them off of the roster) but are actually better than our 5th and 6th defensemen. IMO Trouba would be the best to obtain, but I do not know what he could cost. My second choice is Brodie, I have liked him for some time. I wonder if Brodie could be had for our second 1st round pick.

You really do not see the UFA LHD that will be at McCabe level or even better?
Jordie Benn
Ben Chiarot
Alexander Edler
Carl Gunnarsson
Patrick Nemeth
All these players are LHD and better than Scandella with Hunwick, not worse than McCabe, and some even better.
There are also a couple of interesting and cheap options: Oscar Fantenberg - LHD/RHD and Tim Heed - RHD.

Now RHD.

I think Colin Miller could be a not very expensive and good option. Trouba will cost Risto + and it is not clear whether he wants to sign an extension in Buffalo, plus apparently he will be looking for a huge contract. Gudas is a good option, will add rigidity and reliability to our defense. Honestly, I don’t have a very high opinion of Brodie, I prefer Hamonic. Zaitsev is a wild card, it seems he has a really bad contract, but I know quite well who Zaitsev is and what he is capable of, but then we definitely have to trade Risto and hope that Zaitsev will be good in our top 4, again there is a decent risk . Maybe if Montreal signs Erik Karlsson, they will trade Petry, by the way he played for Krueger in Edmonton. Carolina seems to have an excess of RHD and I think they can easily trade 1-2 for help forward, I really like Pesce, I think he would be an ideal partner for Dahlin, but it would be very expensive. I like Savard from Columbus, would also not be cheap. Larsson from Edmonton, Pysyk from Florida, Spurgeon from Minnesota. I forgot about Shattenkirk, I'm not sure that this is a good option, but probably it would be cheap. Niskanen from Washington, it seems he has gone down a bit and maybe they will trade him. UFA RHD I like only Stralman for the top 4, in Karlsson I don’t believe that he wants Buffalo, but Myers doesn’t feel like it, especially since he will probably beat a huge contract. In general, as you can see there are many different options for strengthening our defense.

I like Benn for LHD, TBH none of the other defensemen move the needle for me and I would wait on Pilut before I would sign any of them.
Let's agree to disagree with Brodie v. Harmonic
I did not mention Larsson because IMO EDM would not want to trade him due to how much they gave up to get him, Pysyk would be a stick in the eye to Buffalo considering DATM gave him up to get Kulikov, I really like Spurgeon, when one looks the size of the Blues defense I doubt Buffalo would trade for him.
I doubt TML and Buffalo could make a trade but I think Zaitsev would be a very inexpensive addition (but a very expensive #4 RHD). Another expensive option is Shattenkirk but would be obtained for very little. If Buffalo could get Petry he would be the Sabres second best defenseman. I wonder what he would cost?
Thanks for your feedback, I put this forward to you because I value your comments.

I do not know what Petry will cost, but Montreal seems to be looking for LHD in the top 4, I think this is their main need, McCabe+++ is unlikely to make a deal, and our prospects for LHD may simply not interest them, because they have enough LHD prospects, they need help in the top 4 right now.

Honestly, I don’t think that Botterill is even considering an option with Zaitsev, apparently he already has one foot in Vancouver or Carolina, while we have Risto, the idea with Zaitsev does not make sense, because Zaitsev asked for a trade from Toronto because he does not like the role of a defensive defender, he wants to run more into the attack and play the PP, we will not be able to give it to him if we have Dahlin and Risto.

I know Zaitsev will not come to Buffalo from the Leafs. If there is a trade for Trouba I would do it.
Betterall has a mess to clean up still. If the Leaf fans think Zaitsev is over paid, how much worse is Bogosian's contract? We think Scandella is over paid, but he has performed better than Bogosian that past 2 years and is $1,000,000 less expensive.
Edmonton complains that Lucic is an anchor, then what is Okposo? Think of JVR and Evander Kane getting paid $7,000,000 v Okposo for $6,000,000.
I do not see the Sabres making the playoffs next year, Which team will they jump over? Rangers, Flyers, Panthers, Canadians, Jackets, Canes, Penguins, Leafs? pick 5 teams that the Sabres will be better, that is what it will take to make the playoffs, jump over 5 teams. Since the Devils made the playoffs last year and have the first over all this year, I think they need to be added the mix which means the Sabres have to jump over 6 teams.
If Olofsson, Pilut, Asplund and Nylander can make the jump to the NHL then maybe there is hope to reach 90 pts (a 14 point improvement). BTW I am an optimist, and I am being as optimistic as possible.

Okposo is our anchor and he is unlikely to go anywhere, but you can lock him up on the fourth line or put him in the press box or send him to the AHL if he is not able to produce at all, but I have optimism about Krueger, so I would not be surprised that even Okposo can produce his 35-40 points on the third line for example. Playoffs are a wild card, you can’t know how things are going, it also depends on many factors, the coach, the coaching staff, the game of competitors, injuries, luck, the composition of the team, if we get 3-4 good players in the off-season, then why not? Rangers do not seem so cool with the attack, there are a lot of young people and it is unclear how they will play, the leaders of Pittsburgh will be another year older and this year they didn’t look very good, of course it would be very difficult to get into the playoffs, teams like Florida and Philadelphia add 1-2 very good players to your team, but who knows? Last season, Phil Housley and Jason Pominville and I were the leaders at the beginning of the season, and here we have a different coach and it seems like Botterill is seriously going to strengthen the line-up, but first I want to see our coaching staff and our roster, then look at the competitors and make at least some conclusions or predictions.

Well, before the season started, I thought the Sabres were good for 90 pts. I thought Skinner and Sheary would produce as many goals as Kane and O'Reilly (54 v 58 just short), Berglund would give us another 17 goals as he did for STL (I missed that by only 15 goals LOL), Hutton & Ullmark would be as good as they were in 2017-18 (Hutton had his worse sv% in 4 years and Ullmark's fell by .025%), Dahlin would produce (did as well I could have expected), Rodrigues would continue to improve (a slight regression IMO), finally, Mittelstadt was NHL ready (not even close). I do not think I was overly optimistic last year and missed on 4 of my 6 expectations. This year, I expect Sheary and Rodrigues to play well together hopefully give us 35 goals, Mittelstadt to bulk up and give us 40 to 45 pts, Montour to continue where he started last year and give Buffalo solid RHD, Dahlin to break out and jump to 50 to 55 pts. As you can see, I am very optimistic but I do not see more than 90 pts next year.

As I said, let's wait for the final roster and see who Krueger will take to the coaching staff, and then for the sake of interest we can bet on how many points the team will collect, approximate player statistics and so on, I think it would be fun.

OK, I will lose of course, you have a lot more knowledge than I do. BTW last year on December 22nd we had a family gathering and I told every one that they would miss the playoffs but get more than 80 pts. Guess which prediction every one remembers? The one I missed.
As for the coaching, I hope we can find a really good GK coach. If I had to give up a 2nd or even STL 1st to get Mitch Korn, I would then predict the Sabres could make the playoffs. If you will recall the Islanders were suppose to finish about the same place as the Sabres. Korn made both Greiss and Lehner look like all stars.