GDT: 2017 NHL Trade Deadline Day

[Der Jaeger]

Not mad. Trades take two dance partners.

Gionta: if he requested not to be traded, you don't trade him. Captain and Cup winner, from the area. One of the quick ways to screw up reputation around the league.

Kulikov: Teams know he's hurt, and he hasn't played well. Why trade anything for that type of player? Silver lining is that the Sabres get the first crack at him in free agency. Healed, he fills a need on defense, and he won't need to be protected in the expansion draft.

Franson: I was surprised he wasn't traded. His trade return isn't a make or break for the franchise.

 

[SabresFan26]

Not mad. Trades take two dance partners.

Gionta: if he requested not to be traded, you don't trade him. Captain and Cup winner, from the area. One of the quick ways to screw up reputation around the league.

Kulikov: Teams know he's hurt, and he hasn't played well. Why trade anything for that type of player? Silver lining is that the Sabres get the first crack at him in free agency. Healed, he fills a need on defense, and he won't need to be protected in the expansion draft.

Franson: I was surprised he wasn't traded. His trade return isn't a make or break for the franchise.

That's where I am at. Franson should've been moved for an asset to get something even if it isn't a great pick.
I'm sure TM tried to make a hockey trade (acquire a top 4 defenseman or one with that potential) and maybe he set the wheels for a trade this summer.

My biggest concern with this team is the leadership and culture.

 

[hizzoner]

We cannot get rid of Moulson, Ennis, Bogosian.( We are paying a ton of money for ROR, Okposo and Kane who're playing well but are no bargains financially) So we take the cap hit. Bylsma plays them and so younger cheaper players do not get a chance to play and get better. Gionta was making 4 million and I respected all he did for us. But he is another bar to young players developing. Oh we throw Nylander into a rockem socket league and on a crap team to boot. That is development. But no way we want to overplay Bailey, Baptiste....As for the Amerks? Are we all bloody masochists?

 

[Der Jaeger]

We cannot get rid of Moulson, Ennis, Bogosian.( We are paying a ton of money for ROR, Okposo and Kane who're playing well but are no bargains financially) So we take the cap hit. Bylsma plays them and so younger cheaper players do not get a chance to play and get better. Gionta was making 4 million and I respected all he did for us. But he is another bar to young players developing. Oh we throw Nylander into a rockem socket league and on a crap team to boot. That is development. But no way we want to overplay Bailey, Baptiste....As for the Amerks? Are we all bloody masochists?

Moulson's nose dive in play was predictable, and I think his contract was bad. There's no way GMTM could've anticipated the string of injuries to Ennis. Bogosian has only been the player he traded for in stretches.

Moulson and Ennis are off the books in two years. Gorges after next season. Gionta's huge salary is off the books in a few months. None of these contracts are the Dustin Brown/Clarkson/Horton albatross contracts. All survivable.

Nylander's brother played in the AHL, didn't screw him up at all.

The young wingers are developing fine.

 

[sabrebuild]

Gotta have dance partners.

I am hoping for cheap show me deals for both franson and kulikov. This defense needs to get better and those two are not the problem. Get rid of bogos ugly cap hit and use that money productively.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I actually have no problem at all that nobody was traded.
I think it was the right move to keep Gionta. I also would rather take our chances signing Kulikov to a short term deal than trading him for a late round pick (as we need top 4 LHD badly, and I think Kulikov can be that when healthy).
And I wouldn't even mind signing Franson on a cheap short term deal to be a bottom pair defenseman next year.


I wouldn't say that I loved the way Tim Murray handled that press conference though. I thought he kind of almost insulted Kulikov and Franson. IMO he should have just said that he didn't get offers for them that were acceptable to him and left it at that. I thought he kinda made it sound like he tried to get anything he could for them and had no takers, then goes on to say "but I don't want these guys coming in with their tail between their legs". Well then, why say it at all? Unless he was trying to send a message to them to improve their play? I don't know. It's not that big a deal or anything, but I thought he was maybe a little too honest.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

I would take Kulikov and Franson back on short term deals, hopefully lose Bogo, and add another rotation player in the offseason shuffle.

 

[paulmm3]

One minor silver lining of today is that I take GMTM not moving Kulikov and his comments about how frequently he discussed Kuli's injury history with other GM's to mean there isn't a ton of demand for Kulikov out there. So, to the extent we want to re-sign Kulikov this offseason, the price might not be too crazy.

 

[sabresfan129103]

Sounds like a lot of us called exactly what would happen with Gionta. Murray called him into his office and asked him what he wanted to do. Gionta wanted to stay and Tim felt he had earned that, so he didn't trade him. That's a good look for the organization.

 

[Jame]

I never thought I'd say something like this... but Benning won the trade deadline

 

[JackTheRipper]

What a disaster. Much worse players than Kulikov and Franson went for 2nd round picks and Murray couldn't move either of them. WTF!?!?!?

 

[Cirris]

I'll say it again. When you look at the trade list on the trade forums and look at the returns. Holy crap buying GMs were damn stingy.

It was like "bucket of pucks, box of tape" trades.

Quincy deal hit hard. As he was a comparable to what Kulikov and Franson might bring. And all NJ got was a career minor league player.

The only thing I can think of, is that teams want to hold onto their late firsts, 2nds and try to poach teams that are hard up on leaving players unprotected in the expansion draft.

Anahiem is going to be in a real pickle with their defense core

 

[Paxon]

I never thought I'd say something like this... but Benning won the trade deadline

Yep. Goldobin is a great prospect, Dahlen is really good return for Burrows (he sucks now), and if SJ somehow wins the Cup, Vancouver gets a 1st.

 

[dkollidas]

Expansion Draft made this deadline different than usual. Typically a team would give up a lot more for a player with an extra year on their contract. This year that kind of deal was rare because teams realize they'll be limited by their expansion Draft protection lists and want to be able lose a relatively expendable piece of their teams

 

[Chainshot]

Sounds like a lot of us called exactly what would happen with Gionta. Murray called him into his office and asked him what he wanted to do. Gionta wanted to stay and Tim felt he had earned that, so he didn't trade him. That's a good look for the organization.

Agreed. This goes way beyond some middle ground chump change draft pick. They still have years of bad reputation to erace and how they treattheir players now is important.

 

[old kummelweck]

One minor silver lining of today is that I take GMTM not moving Kulikov and his comments about how frequently he discussed Kuli's injury history with other GM's to mean there isn't a ton of demand for Kulikov out there. So, to the extent we want to re-sign Kulikov this offseason, the price might not be too crazy.

He was very coy about what exactly occurred around Kulikov. He indicated that he took some calls about him, and that he was looking for 'fair value'. He also said the injury history kept coming up. What wasn't really clear is if it was one team or more than one team, and what also wasn't clear was if someone was really low balling him.

This was all in the context of trying to get a hockey trade done. Wondering if that wasn't Ennis related for defense. Since that fell through, or it was looking like he may still be in trouble with defense, his plan B could be to try and sign Kulikov to a one year deal.

All speculation of course, but maybe being able to negotiate with Kulikov was worth more to the club than a 2017 4th rounder.

 

[Chad Thundercock]

**** off with that. He came here to help this franchise through the rebuild and he wants to keep doing that. If you don't respect that you're a **** fan.

Gionta came here because we gave him the most money.

Can we stop this team leader bleeds blue and gold garbage, along with thinking any free agents will give the slightest thought of how great of a team the Sabres are because they kept an old guy on their team, please.

 

[Jame]

Gionta came here because we gave him the most money.

Can we stop this team leader bleeds blue and gold garbage, along with thinking any free agents will give the slightest thought of how great of a team the Sabres are because they kept an old guy on their team, please.

No. You stop.

 

[enthusiast]

It's not the players, it's their shared agents

 

[Steddy33]

Gionta came here because we gave him the most money.

Can we stop this team leader bleeds blue and gold garbage, along with thinking any free agents will give the slightest thought of how great of a team the Sabres are because they kept an old guy on their team, please.

Wow new low on your almost always wrong embarrassing takes

 

[Husko]

I'm bummed we didn't get some of the top values speculated (1st for Kulikov, 2nd for franson), but don't really care one way or the other if the offer was just late round picks.

 

[hizzoner]

You think we got a discount from Gionta because he loved the Sabres? Or Okposo? Treating the players well is important and is part of good business practice. But the nhl is a business and if something was available to help Sabres improve and TM decided to let his highly paid players have an extra 2 months off instead then he ought to be canned. If the offers--if any--were low ball then I hope TM gets the message come contract time. The message from nhl gms was that the players we had available were not worth a decent offer due to poor play, inflated salaries or both.

 

[MayDayMayDay]

One minor silver lining of today is that I take GMTM not moving Kulikov and his comments about how frequently he discussed Kuli's injury history with other GM's to mean there isn't a ton of demand for Kulikov out there. So, to the extent we want to re-sign Kulikov this offseason, the price might not be too crazy.

It's possible. But then again, all it takes is one GM to get stupid and that price starts climbing.

Like many of you, I'm a little perplexed after today. But I'm going to remain patient. I have to believe that better days are ahead - that a blue line overhaul is coming, a new coach is around the corner, our youth movement is almost ready to emerge - whatever it is. It has to be closer now than it was 8 hours ago.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

Gionta came here because we gave him the most money.

Can we stop this team leader bleeds blue and gold garbage, along with thinking any free agents will give the slightest thought of how great of a team the Sabres are because they kept an old guy on their team, please.

That's not really how it went down though. When he found out Montreal wasn't going to re-sign him, Buffalo was the first team he contacted. He is from Rochester and grew up a Sabres fan. He said he wanted to come home and play for his hometown team. From what I read/heard, I don't believe he even attempted to negotiate with other teams. Buffalo was his first choice (outside of Montreal) and since Tim Murray was very interested, Gionta had no need to look elsewhere.

Also, the way a team treats their players is absolutely something that makes it way around the league, and it matters.

 

[wunderpanda]

Excellent, I was worried he would mess up the amazing winning culture and chemistry in the locker room.