Why should the Devils do this?

Not for bear. Give them a 3rd and keep oloffson

What

I keep seeing this deal and keep happily accepting it despite not really understanding why there’s a pocket of Sabres fans giving Olof away for nothing. I’ve heard the explanations but I still don’t get the rationale.

Olofsson will likely sign his 1 year arb deal and the Sabres will see how he does this season. If his play warrants another contract in their minds, we keep him moving forward. If not, we trade him at the TDL and try and get good value back

He will put himself in the same position Reinhart did. All the leverage entering his last RFA year with a higher QO and arbitration rights

If that were true, wouldn't you know why then? lol

The simplified version, his shooting talent doesn't make up for the weaknesses off the puck. Kinda like Hoffman i guess. You can live with having 1 or 2 guys who provide offense like that at the cost of major flaws defensively, but the Sabres have 2 lines worth of players who fit that description to varying degrees. He just happens to be the one in line for a raise that might price him out. If he and mittelstadt swapped contract situations/age, yould be hearing this about casey.

Edit: If anyone were willing to touch the Skinner contract it'd be him moving not olofsson.

Guess my choice of words was poor - I hear the reasons on here, they just don’t make sense to me. At the very least get good value for the kid.

Well, for starters, this is the disconnect. He's spent few years in the league, but he'll be 27 in a month, and a UFA next summer. I agree, a swap for Bear probably doesn't make any sense, but they're going to get less for him than most of his fans would like.

Then don’t trade him… he’s one of our few scorers on the team; why not just sign his arb and if need be trade him at the deadline? Ethan Bear is worth at most a 3rd whereas Olofsson could probably fetch a late 1st or early 2nd plus a good prospect if it came down to it

If the Sabres are trading him he is worth a first round pick. Anything less than equivalent to that is the Sabres getting robbed. He has the ability to put in 30 goals a year if he remains healthy, and add another 20-30 assists to that. He played injured for around 20 games this season and still managed about 50 points in 72 games.

"He has the ability to put in 30 goals a year if he remains healthy". You see the problem with this though, right? Until he actually does it, its all just hypotheticals. Nobody is going to offer a 1st rounder for someone they'll only have one year of control of who hasn't actually hit this mark yet.

I agree that it's entirely possible, but the acquiring team assumes all the risk so they're not going to pay a premium for it. Well, unless they're nuts.

Im a big proponent of giving him the 1 year deal and moving mittelstadt instead, I was just trying to explain why his time may come to an end sooner rather than later because of the contract status. Fwiw the walk away number is something like 4.5 mil, which I think Olofsson will come under. So either someone gets desperate leading up to free agency, or they just stick with him for the year. But I don't think he's part of their long term plans unless he puts together a very good year at 5v5.

Yes, I agree, he's very underappreciated on here. If it's me, I'm most likely planning to keep him. But you could twist my arm if a first or a young talented right d was coming back. Chances are- neither is coming back for olofsson this summer. I'm keeping him 11 times out of 10 if I don't get that.

Even if he isn’t healthy he’s a 20 goal, 50 pt man. Teams pay 1st rounders for that every year. Anything less he doesn’t get moved, and only does if Buffalo doesn’t need him anymore.

They pay that for guys with major defensive upside or other attributes that are generally favoured by playoff bound teams (leadership, winning experience, locker room fit etc.)

Or an ability to score on the power-play? Yeah, they usually want that too.

what did hoffman go for?

He got a second, fourth and fifth round picks. That’s about even with a late first. What’s your point? If you’re referring to the dump trade Ottawa made it had more to do with the fact he pissed off their star player Who forced them to trade him away for whatever they could get.

Would you trade a late first for a 2nd 4th and 5th? probably not. If i did an acgm right now all sabres fans would yell at me for that deal. They're not equal in value and thats before factoring in what could happen to the team via injuries that affects their pick or the draft class strength

Edit: the picks in the hoffman deal were 44, 123 and 139. No way you'd trade 28 for that, let alone a pick that has the potential to be higher than what you may project.

You are a championing a false equivalency between Olofsson and Hoffman. Of course nobody’s going to talk you out of it either because you like it so much. I maintain that unless someone is offering a first round pick or an equivalent prospect the Sabres are not trading him away. You don’t have to agree with me, and it’s pretty clear you’re not going to.

It's not a false equivalency to compare two relatively similar players and make an educated assumption that their trade returns may be similar. The whole premise of a false equivalency relies on false reasoning. If I had said Olofsson will get the same return as Hoffman because they shared the same birth month, that would be a false equivalency. This is just a comparison lol.