Buffalo definitely declines the Arizona trade. Mitts >>> Crouse

Controversial, but ok

Stop with the Ethan Bear trades

Andrew Copp is going to want far more term then that. Probably in the 7 x $5,500,000 range Zach Heyman money.

Thank you. It's going to take more than a 3rd liner and a meh prospect to get him. Ignoring Raanta, that's already a no.

You got it for Foegele, and it's not like he's very important to you, it's a pretty fair deal.

What's your problem with Bear? It doesn't look bad.

And it was highway robbery.

This is an awful deal for the Canes, giving up a young RD for a pending UFA and an eh prospect. No. He'll be used in a deal for someone with term most likely.

Wait, Olofsson RFA and probably sign a very friendly contract. 3.5 - 4.2 million for 3-4 years is quite possible. He may be an option at PP, but it has also improved at ES over the years. I saw different attitudes towards Bear among your fans, you can't speak for everyone. Now I see that he is playing the minutes of the third pair and is unlikely to beat Pesce and DeAngelo, also you have Morrow and some other RD prospects for the near future. It looks fair, imo.

He's fine with limited minutes or on a great team like Carolina but if you watched him in Edmonton he was not solid in his own zone and had high amount of giveaways. I would take him as a 3rd pairing RHD but I would not give up Olofsson for him. I think we are better off signing one of the many solid defensive UFA RHDs. Dahlin and Joki have been very good together so keep them as 1st pair. Power needs a stable and reliable partner to help him out, a guy like Lyubushkin imo would be the perfect fit. 3rd pair I'd do Sam and Bryson/another UFA signing.

Wait, but the charts show that he was fine in Edmonton, that he doesn't get much time in Carolina, I'm not surprised, they have very strong defense. He won't play 25 minutes in Buffalo, but he could probably play 18-20 minutes and be fine. Olofsson hasn't scored in 30 games in a row, maybe we really overestimate him? So I signed Lyubushkin, this would not exclude trading for Bear or someone else.

Dahlin - Jokiharju are literally a horrible pair, they just don't work together. - https://www.expectedbuffalo.com/buffalo-sabres-its-time-to-move-on-from-the-dahlin-and-jokiharju-pairing/

Samuelsson - Jokiharju would probably make a lot more sense. I think if we could draft Simon Nemec and pair him with Dahlin in the future, that would be very well. Because Nemec = Heiskanen, and a pair Dahlin - Heiskanen would be great.

It's not. Morrow is 3-4 years off, he was only drafted this summer. TDA is an unknown. He's had his locker room issues in the past. THAT'S why it's important to keep Bear. In case those come back up.

Olofsson is an RFA by 4 days, your right, I miscaluclated. My mistake. He's gotten worse at 5v5 over the last 3 years by the numbers to the point he's a meh powerplay specialist. There's cheaper guys to go on the 3rd line than him.

I can speak for everyone that Bear has struggled while dealing with a bad bug and an ankle injury. Shockingly, most players would... they won't trade him for a package that does nothing for the team on the back end, the team's glaring weakness.

It's actually not true, Olofsson was horrible at ES when he entered the league, he couldn't do anything other than stand on the PP and shoot, in these couple of years his game has definitely improved at ES, he has improved in many aspects of the game. Even if Morrow is still a long way off, Carolina is unlikely to have problems finding a decent RD for third pair instead of Bear, who plays very little time. If you don't agree, no problem, that's ok.

They'll use Bear to replace Bear. He's TDA insurance, he kills penalties, and he's still young. Olofsson is awful at 5v5 and has gotten worse in the last few years, and there's no reason to trade a good, young D man like Bear for him. That's the end of it. There's no disagreement. Analytically, he's getting worse at 5v5, Bear's improving.

Well, it's just not true, any Buffalo fan will tell you that Olofsson was worse at 5v5 three years ago than now, I don't know where you came up with this story.

Bear is improving but still playing 10-11 minutes a game, that's what I'm talking about, he could get a bigger role in a weaker team.

Did you ever watch Bear play with Edmonton? I certainly did and what I saw was a young, agile defenseman who could produce some offense but struggled mightily in his own zone and coughed up the puck in the worst circumstances. (I live in Edmonton in case you wonder why I watched him). I have not watched him play much in Carolina, but from the 2 years I watched him in Edmonton I do not have the confidence in him as a player despite what a WAR chart may show.

As to Dahlin-Jokiharju. They are not a perfect pair, I admit I was exaggerating when I said they have been "very good" together. Imo they have been good though. I think it mostly boils down to them finally playing together night-in-night out without much interruption (under Kruger, the lines changed almost every game). Furthermore, Dahlin's offensive game has really developed well this season and watching him play excites me as he is so confident with the puck. Hard to be confident if you don't have faith in your partner to cover for you. In that regard I think Dahlin trusts Joki and plays better when with him. Down the road, Joki should only be a 2nd pairing guy for us. Drafting a guy like Nemec would be awesome as he truly projects to be a first pairing guy. I think another guy who could be in the mix on the right side is Ryan Johnson. He can play the right side and has the skating and instincts to be a very reliable player

In fact, I hardly saw Bear play in Edmonton, maybe a couple of games that I don’t even remember now, that’s why I use metrics, otherwise it’s hard for me to determine what kind of player he is, if I only trust other people’s comments. According to the metrics, he looks decent, but I can also you believe that he really has warts in his game, one does not contradict the other.

The whole problem of the pair Dahlin - Jokiharju is in defense. Rasmus isn't always good at it and we know it, but he's good at everything else and he's one of our best players, if not the best, and he's only 21 years old. Jokiharju, on the other hand, is also not always good and stable in defense, and then a fire starts in our zone, so it would be logical to move Jokiharju into a pair with a more defensive defender - Samuelsson or Bryson. For Dahlin to find another partner, with more defensive qualities. For all time in Buffalo, Bogosian was the best partner for Dahlin (so the metrics say), although the sample is not so large.