Way too much from Buffalo for Robertson

maybe a touch, but not by much.
my guess is it would take one of Krebs or Cozens, one of JJP or Quinn and a first to get a deal like that done.

Debrincat

He was sold for scraps because Chicago has no leverage when trying to tank, plus, $9.5M qualifying offer. He's not the norm.

Tanking teams have a ton of leverage, time, cap space, and the Sabres could easily OS Robertson. Dallas does not have leverage. Only relying on the kindness of 31 other NHL gms. And i see no reason why Buffalo should ever give Dallas any breaks. So theyre pretty comparable

Tanking teams do not have leverage when selling, with taking on cap hits you have a point, but selling quality assets? Not a chance. If the entire league knows that they are trying to tank, they're going to try to get them to sell off assets on the cheap. That's just how it works. As you said, they're relying on the kindness of 31 other NHL GMs.

Dallas is perfectly able to send Khudobin and a 2nd off to God knows where, or ship off Gurianov, freeing up almost $9M, more than enough to re-sign Robo. The owner may be bitter about paying young players, but I seriously doubt he's going to let a 23 y/o superstar leave. With that cap space, Dallas has a TON of leverage, they could easily re-sign Robo to a 9x3 and you'd have to put in a +10M offer to get them to let go. That's 4 firsts.

not a comparable.
also - with the stockpile of young forwards, why wouldn't Buffalo want to do this?
they would be trading one player that will live in the middle 6 and one player of high value but unknown potential for a young forward that has already proved himself.
all while not dismantling the roster or the stockpile.

if i were in Adams shoes, i would rather have Robertson and 4 1sts instead of Krebs, JJP and a 1st or Cozens, Quinn and a 1st or Robertson and no 1sts (hypothetically).

Why would they need 4 1sts when they already have a stock pile of prospects. Especially if Robertson is that good, the 1sts will all be late. Then you just moved a bunch of good young forwards for 1 and then are out of a position to draft similarly talented forwards and are more likely, on average, to end up with depth players.

so they can move the 1st's come deadline time or keep them and continue to have a strong pipeline.
moving 2 or 3 unproven assets for a proven one seems like a no brainer and would drastically alter the trajectory of the Sabres.
i realize Buffalo hasn't been in this position in over a decade but you know how this works.

1sts are even more unproven though. At least with prospects they know what they have. They can also be moved at the deadline or kept to keep a strong pipeline

1sts can have more value than recent 1st round picks because NHL GMs have God Complexes and think they'll do better when they get to pick their guy.