If Seattle is taking Risto The Sabres cannot retain any of his money. Not even if they wanted to. Throwing away your best assets all for future lottery tickets is a great way to ensure zero fans buy any tickets for the next two or three years. Since all the Pegulas care about is money I have my doubts they would be willing to do this. I also see no reason to give the kings our first rounder this year. Just take the best player in this draft knowing he will be here in two years.

What the actual F just happened.

Rangers say no, they save more money by buying out DeAngelo & they have no need for Miller

I may have had a stroke reading all that. I get it sabres fans you’re beyond sick of sucking but that was a bit too much.

Lol Canucks would much rather wait one more year until the contracts end instead of giving up our next 3 first round pick and our best prospect

If there are more than eight pieces in a trade, it doesn't happen in the NHL. Not sure why, but can't think of a counterexample yet this century. Don't think there's been a seven piece trade in the last two calendar years? Only one or two with six pieces. Hundreds with two or three.

If you want to take on three cap dumps and get three first picks, you have to call three different teams. Not getting that done with Vancouver. Ever. They need RD. Could offer Ristolainen for Eriksson and a high 1st. Could get a high 2nd for taking a year of Roussel.

Buffalo fans already ask for too many high value pieces for Eichel. Throwing in the 1st overall pick with Eichel and expecting LA to trade another five pieces for that? You ask any team to give up half of its expected future lineup for one piece and they block your number. Whether or not the value is there, this is not how hockey works.

Don't think Seattle will end up short on depth at LHD enough to consider taking Pilut. Lots of good players available there. They might claim Ristolainen at full price if he's exposed, but he won't be.

I disagree with zero fans. We went to Bills games post-Ferguson and the strike year, Matheson/Bullough. No it wasn't a full stadium. Two year turn-around...Peguals did it with the Bills. Do you think that they don't think that it could happen with the Sabres?

Yes future lottery tickets. Idea is Sabres won't draft worst than 3rd (maybe 4th/5th) next year.

Seattle trades a 2nd for Risto retention. I don't think he has much value. Would rather keep Borgen.

This is terrible

Whatever drugs you take I want some. You were totally out to lunch on your Cannucks comments.

I would rather keep Borgen as well, but that’s easily accomplished by throwing one of the extra third round picks we acquired at the trade deadline for Seattle to take Miller. There is no arrangement where are the Sabres are allowed to retain salary on a player Seattle is selecting in the expansion draft.

Fans did not bother going to games this season even when they were allowed to. Even after Krueger was fired and the team started playing better, nobody wanted to pay to watch the team lose. If you trade away Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart and get mostly players who won’t be here for 2-3 years nobody is paying their hard earned money to watch this team lose. Be prepared to see less than 10,000 people in the arena most nights, and that will include fans of the opposing team. That’s not something the Pegula‘s will be willing to put up with. The prevailing wisdom is they got lucky finding the right management group for the Bills. They’ve been systematically destroying the Sabres for 10 years and at this point have nothing to show for it. No, I don’t have faith they will turn it around until they stop trying to make all the hockey decisions.

Did ask for too much in the trades, maybe still am.

There are more RHD available in this year's free agent market than LHD. And the Canucks could probably pluck RHD from the Kraken. I'm not saying Cody Ceci is the answer, but as tight to the cap as the Canucks are, what else can $2million get you. What to do with Horvat/Miller and having to re-sign Boeser are issues. I kinda think that Benning/management wants to make the playoffs next year, and want to sign Pettersson and Hughes to long-term deals and not bridge deals. I get thinking that it's best to ride out, or buy-out, the contracts, but that seems to be a great way to miss the playoffs next year. Yes, I'm assuming Benning is thinking differently from the fans.

RE: Canucks, if you can dump the contracts, you can max the cap and have something like

Pearson-Reinhart-Miller
Motte-Pettersson-Boeser
Hoglander-Horvat-Virtanen
Highmore-Gaudreau(UFA)-MacEwen/Hawryluk/Bailey

Hughes-Myers
Schmidt-Ceci
Juolevi-Hamonic
UFA D to push the 3rd pairing

Demko
a good backup UFA

That's assuming Seattle takes Holtby without retention. And assuming they sign Pettersson and Hughes to long-term deals (5 to 8 years). Bridging those two only kicks the cap issues down the road. But yes, bridge deals for Pettersson and Hughes, and the cap is probably manageable.

I guess if I was a Canucks fan, I'd try to move Miller and Pearson for picks, lock up Pettersson/Hughes, ride out the bad contracts, and yes, get a couple of young defensemen (basically tank this year, but hope for a quick rebuild and be good for 22/23. I just think Benning will try to build a playoff team this offseason.

Nice cope lol, not sure what drugs have to do with this. The Canucks are about to settle into where the Sabres were for multiple years, 7th/8th overall picks. I'm sure Benning has better ideas to fix the team, right?

If the idea is to write-off 21/22, it's fine, I don't think that's a bad plan. Certainly nobody is going to be knocking down your door offering to take 12 million in a cap (and prospects) in exchange for a 1st line player.

Ah I didn't know that, thanks.

I do think that attendance will probably be awful next season. I'm assuming that the Pegulas will want to push out the 3 obvious malcontents (Eichel/Reinhart/Risto). Taking on cap in a lost season to maximize asset return makes sense, but the Pegulas may want to just do the cap floor thing. If the issue is the Pegulas and their incompetence, this is all moot. But the Bills did in fact turn around, so to say that the Sabres can't turn around doesn't necessarily follow.

Adding Horvat/Miller, Fiala/Dumba, not sure if that helps attendance either.

Your proposal has less than 0 percent chance of happening

If I'm Van, trying to solve that issue, I'm offended first that you put anyone at #1C ahead of Pettersson. That's where Van fans stop listening, if they haven't already. Eichel? They'll argue, but not shut you out. Reinhart ahead of Pettersson? Ends the conversation. Can he play C? Yes. But he mostly plays right wing.

Reinhart for a lottery pick? Sure. Great replacement for Virtanen.

Dumping one year of Eriksson at 6M for a lottery pick? Not when DET took a year of Marc Staal for an early 2nd last summer. Agree SLE take Holtby if Van throws in a 4th. Now Van has cleared 10M for a 2nd and a 4th. They can sign Pettersson at 10M*8 to play #1C.

They offer Roussel and their lottery pick for Reinhart, but if it's declined, they just use their lottery pick to try to draft a future #2C, and they feel pretty good about that. Then they hold onto their next two 1st round picks because, you know, what if they don't contend next year? Would anybody be surprised?