As Much as sabres fans don’t wanna admit it, if they miss the playoffs this season, Eichal is going to have a long and hard look at this team

I think MTL would rather keep Kulak, he's been an important piece so far and did very well with Romanov on the bottom pair. May we interest you in a Victor Mete instead? :P

Haha, at the beginning of the year there was talks of Kulak not cracking the top 6 and I was all for getting him before the season even started.

I agree, another reason why you need to go "all in" on your "win now" mode. You cant get Taylor Hall and half a** the rest of it.

I like Montour, but with their injuries, 3 forwards out right now, and the depth they have on d (minus the injuries) it doesn’t make sense for the Avs.

He probably won’t ask for a trade if they are still bad until after next season. That’s when his NMC kicks in. He doesn’t want to Go to another bad team like the Rangers.

The NYR has had a lot more success than the sabres. If they could add eichal without depleting their whole team they’d be stacked

Assuming they're healthy at the deadline, I'd take a long hard look at Montour

me too

Not really. They have no forward depth, Kakko still isn’t good. They would ask for a lot which would make the Rangers even more shallow than they already are.

Why? If the team is healthy then there is no room for him. Who sits?

Its Eichels fault, so if he asks for a trade, hes a scum bag. He is not scoring at his average 5v5 pace and thats directly hurting the team. Everyone but the stars have been pulling their fair share of the weight

How would you figure that, the Sabres are ahead of them

I like Montour as well. His transition stats with Anaheim were in the 99th percentile in the league, there's no doubt that he's an excellent puck rusher. Given how Bednar managed to get the best out of Barrie and now Makar, I'm sure Bednar would find a way to make things work with Montour as well.

I read an article a few months ago that analysed Montour's statistical data and advanced stats, and showed that although he's known as an offensive Dman, he's not actually that great at creating offense in the OZ. He's actualy much better when he starts in the DZ and given the task of transitioning the puck up ice through the neutral zone. In that sense he's a very similar to Tyson Barrie.

That said, with 4 high end puckmoving Dmen (Toews, Girard, Makar, Byram) already, plus Timmins who is better at moving the puck than we have seen thus far, there just doesn't seem to be a fit for Montour on this team. Especially since Bednar has said that he wants the 3rd pairing to be in the 'shutdown' mould, with Graves-Johnson holding down those positions as the teams main PKers.

I suppose we could acquire Montour and go with the lineup below, but it just seems unnecessary to try to squeeze Montour in like that when we aren't really lacking puckmoving Dmen to begin with, and given that we have other much bigger needs to address (ie. 3C and 2/3G).

Toews -- Makar
Girard -- Montour
Byram -- Johnson
Graves



How would you see Montour fitting into our lineup?

Though I am a fan of the way Montour plays, I'd lean more towards acquiring a Dman like Savard or Manson if we were to acquire a RHD at the deadline.

actually, Habs should keep both ... it's going to be a long short season .... need depth on D in case of COVID or injuries

Further to the post above where I only discussed the merits of whether or not Montour would fit into the Avs D group, I also want to echo what Xqb15 said about forward depth.

Donskoi is quite streaky, but he still manages to produce points. I don't think Avs have any business reducing the forward depth right now, particularly seeing as Donskoi is the only bottom 6 forward regularly producing on the scoresheet.

That said, if Buffalo feel inclined to trade Staal and/or Hall (50% retained) at the deadline then I'd be open to moving Donskoi in that deal to balance cap and open a roster spot.

Alternatively I'd very much be open to trading Donskoi to Buffalo in the offseason if there's still an interest then.

Btw, iirc Buffalo were one of the teams who were interested in signing Donskoi when he hit UFA in 2019, but that was back when Botterill was in charge.

If you get Montour, Graves becomes expendable, so my assumption would be that we'd deal him for an upgrade at 3C.

That's a fair take but leaves me with some concerns. One is that Montour is a ufa, so there is no defenseman that will meet the xdraft requirements. Unless Johnson waives then the team needs to figure that out. The other is that Graves fills a nice role on the pk. Others xan do it, but it's not the ideal utilization for guys like Makar.

I'd prefer to pass on this trade and go directly for a C. Keep the D intact, as they are earning it (imo).

That's fair, I suppose I'm operating under a number of assumptions, mainly that EJ will waive and Joe would pay whatever he needs to in order for Seattle to take Compher. I disagree with Graves earning it though. He must be feeling immense pressure or something because it just looks like he's gripping his stick too much. He's over thinking everything and suffering for it.

This year sure, but looking at both teams previous success, and also their future outlook, I’d be hard pressed to be sabres ahead of NYR.

Yeah only 2 goals this year isn’t exactly lighting the lamp.

He has been asked to play a different role, had a number of different partners, and moved from left to right at times. He hasn't been as good as last season, (mainly due to inconsistency), but he also hasn't had the same continuity. And even then he hasn't been been a drag on the team (outside of a couple stinkers).

I think he'll settle in more as the season progresses. Just my take.