Sabres say no thanks

Winnipeg isn't paying to take on half the salary of a cap dump.

Quick point - you can only retain on 3 contracts at a time, so one of these trades happens at full cost.

-I think Buffalo passes. Meier is young enough to be a building block, sure, but Quinn lines up with a lot of the Sabres' young core age-wise. I think they hang on to him and don't try and skip a step in the rebuild.

-Don't know if there's enough here for Philly? Couture & JVR probably offer similar levels of production at this point, with the big difference being Couture's insane amount of term left. Reimer is probably worth Sandstrom/Frost, but I can't see any reason for Cam York or the pick swap happening here to be included - and I don't see any good out of San Jose retaining $2.5M over the next 5 seasons. Couture's 29-team NTC probably blocks this one anyways.

-JVR fully retained gets this if he can play at his usual 25-goal pace.

-No need for the Islanders, really - Labanc is a middle-6 guy at best, and they have a glut of middle-6 wingers with heavy AAVs(Beauvillier, Palmieri, Bailey, Lee) so there's no room to add him. I'd think about this if a bad contract gets sent back with the picks but I just don't see a fit at all.

Don’t think the Sabres go for this, it would upgrade the forward group right now, but I think Quinn has a good shot at becoming a Meier level player. Our forward group looks pretty full in the future (and has been solid this season), and the weakness projecting forward appears to be RD, I’d rather keep the picks for that.

Buffalo pass, our attack looks decent, and Quinn is only gaining momentum. Target - top 4 RD

Sabres aren’t in a rush to make a move like this
It’s a possibility, but a slim one imo