I think the return is good if Sabres are in a situation where the doesn't wanna resign. Tho Rags don't need him. Give Laf that top 6 role instead and go after Hertl instead. Do the same deal but with a 1st instead of that 4th.

we don't need wingers? we don't need help on the 2nd powerplay unit?

the laf, chytil, blais line has been really good, and panarin has been good on the 1st line with zibs and kreider. i feel like a lw to pair with strome and kakko, who can always play on the right is exactly what we need. we also have panarin and zibanejad, two of our best goal scorers on the 1st powerplay unit, so we dont really have a goal scorer on the 2nd one. having olofsson with lundkvist gives us so many more options for a unit that has struggled for the past few years. what we dont really need is a center, we already have zibanejad, chytil, strome, barron, and rooney for the 4th line, and we have a few center prospects who could be good in the future. we're much more in need of a good offensive winger than a center.

We don't need rentals. We need 22 picks and future Cs. We don't have future cap...

the Ranger's centers aren't exactly doing their job.
43% faceoff percentage is the lowest in the league and in my opinion, a stat not emphasized enough.

i am so much more worried about our lack of depth on the wing than our faceoff percentage. i mean yes, the faceoffs are a problem, but our offensive depth without buchnevich of kravtsov is soooo much more of a worry. if we want some good at faceoffs there are much cheaper alternatives, its a bit unnecessary to waste a lot of our trade assets to get better at faceoffs.

I think this is not being emphasized enough in this case. With Mika's new contract, Fox likely getting a huge pay raise, and Kakko/Blais needing new contracts, it looks like we may not be able to afford to renew Strome (some may argue we wouldn't want to, anyway, but that's beside the point). Hence the interest in Centers who hopefully have low cap hits extending beyond this season. Hertl may not be the right fit for this situation due to his salary, but the cost of renewing Olofsson beyond this season would be similar and take ice time away from Kakko and/or Laf.



Personally, I think both Blais and Goodrow have been solid as depth wingers. With Kakko healthy, this gives us 6 wingers to work with. Not sure we need to add another Top-6 Wing to that mix, especially with our cap situation after this year. We could, however, benefit from improving our performance in the faceoff circle, in all three zones.

Since the last CBA a team can't get extra picks based on a player resigning

Sabres will take that deal.