Team: 2023-24 Buffalo Sabres

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 19, 2023

Published: Jun. 19, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

This is mainly for fun. There's a lot of discussion on this alleged "promise" Ovi was made about the team remaining competitive for the duration of his contract, but the organization seems in desperate need for a rebuild. Ovi would obviously be in full control of where to go, but there really are not many teams that can take his full contract and remain competitive for the duration of his contract. BUF checks both of those boxes.

WSH trade: Olofsson is a young top 6 scoring winger to "replace" Ovi, while Krebs is a young middle 6 center for Kooznutsoff. I'm viewing Kooz as more of a "cap dump" here, as the organization seems to have been trying to get rid of him for a few years now. Add additional propect(s) or picks as necessary, but I think this is a reasonable base all things considered.

WPG trade: WPG loses PLD at some point in the off season, so they are in search of a new top 6 center. To try to recoup assets for players that want to leave, they move forward with this trade. They get a top 6 center and a couple of potential Helleboy replacers. For BUF, Helleboy is kind of a rental; they hope that Levi will be able to be a bonafide #1 goalie after his strong showing last year. However, it was a small sample size, so they certainly need a goalie to split the load with him. If Levi really pulls away, perhaps Helleboy is dealt at the TDL.

BUF the following year has a projected 35mil in cap space (provided the cap does go up to 87.5mil as predicted). That sounds like a lot, but they have many high profile free agents, and only 12 contracts all together. Dahlin arguably eats up 10mil of that, and then they have Middlestadt, Labooshskin, and Power to sign, as well as Helleboy if they feel they need to. That could be pretty tight, but certainly doable, especially if Levi can take the wheel.

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