Sabres Expansion Draft Protection Discussion (Skinner waives NMC for Draft)

[Buf fan in Nash]

Tough call whether to go 4/4 and protect Pilut or 7/3 and protect Olofsson. I really want to keep both.

Hoping we pay off Seattle with other prospects and picks to take Okposo.

Probably have to give up a lot to get them to take Okposo

 

[coastal]

Give them Risto and Okposo

 

[itwasaforwardpass]

I vote Sabres strategy should be the Pegulas pay the $21.67 million each team gets from the expansion money to be exempt, like Vegas, from giving up a player. What's another well or twenty?

 

[Onry]

What are the chances that this issue is Botts' strategy for stockpiling LD? Use as currency to buy off Seattle's interest in more valuable assets that the Sabres will need to leave exposed?

 

[Djp]

Based on current roster I expect thrm to go 7-3-1

F Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mitts, Olofsson, Risto**, ???
D Dahlin, signed Montour, ???

** I think Risto will be traded for a forward that would be protected or they convert him to aRW power forward type.

Montour could be traded instead of extension/protection

They have Dmen depth they can survive an expansion draft

Borgen, Joki, Pilut, Miller and maybe a vet Dman like McCabe would be there to protect.

I am unsure if Joki is exempt because he didn’t accrue an nhl season.

If thewingers outside the first 4 don’t do anything that really stand out thrn you go with 8 skaters.

Is 4D more valuable than 5,6, or 7???

If the players opt out after this season then the owners would likely have a CBO and Okposo would be bought out prior to this draft.

You have enough depth you lose one so be it without giving up draft picks to protect players from there isn’t much difference in the players.

 

[Djp]

What are the chances that this issue is Botts' strategy for stockpiling LD? Use as currency to buy off Seattle's interest in more valuable assets that the Sabres will need to leave exposed?

Could be that or you have depth to replace what you lose.

Joki burned his first year of his ELC by playing 37 g but didn’t accrue an NHL season. He might be exempt from the draft. Hope he is but I don’t know the expansion eligibility rules. If the rules are being waiver exempt as the rule for being exempt in the draft thrn he will not be exempt. If you didn’t play 3 pro seasons then you are exempt ynrn he would be exempt.

 

[Genny Screamer]

https://thehockeywriters.com/seattle-mock-expansion-draft-win-now-team/


Hockey Writers conducted a mock expansion draft.

Buffalo Sabres​

Protected Forwards: Jeff Skinner (NMC), Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Casey Mittelstadt

Protected Defencemen: Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, Brandon Montour, Rasmus Ristolainen

Protected Goaltender: Linus Ullmark

Exposed Forwards: Marcus Johansson, Kyle Okposo, Conor Sheary, Jimmy Vesey, Evan Rodrigues, Tage Thompson, Victor Olofsson, Rasmus Asplund, Zemgus Girgensons, Vladimir Sobotka

Exposed Defencemen: Colin Miller, Lawrence Pilut, Zach Bogosian, Jake McCabe, Marco Scandella, Casey Nelson, John Gilmour, Brandon Hickey, Will Borgen, Devante Stephens

Exposed Goaltenders: Carter Hutton, Jonas Johansson, Andrew Hammond

SELECTION: Colin Miller, RD, $3.875M for three seasons

Colin Miller, now of the Buffalo Sabres, seen here as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights. (Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY)​

ANALYSIS: Miller has been through the expansion process with Vegas, making him a valuable commodity to Seattle. His play and production slipped last season, resulting in a trade to Buffalo, but Seattle can bank on 30 points from Miller, which is also good value on his contract.

The Sabres are the first team to protect four defencemen in this mock — 4-4 instead of 7-3 — but they could expose Ristolainen rather than the recently acquired Miller. Or perhaps expose Ristolainen in order to protect three more forwards in Johansson, Olofsson and Asplund.

Difficult decisions with Buffalo’s current roster, but Ristolainen is also a candidate to be traded for a top-six forward this offseason. If that were to happen, the Sabres would likely protect 7-3 in order to keep their new forward, which means Miller would still be available for Seattle.

As is, at 4-4, Marcus Johansson was the other consideration for Seattle’s win-now team, but Miller’s experience from Vegas was the deciding factor.​

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I don’t need to protect any Defensemen other than Dahlin and Joki. This should be an easy one.

 

[Gabrielor]

I don’t need to protect any Defensemen other than Dahlin and Joki. This should be an easy one.

I’d include pilut, but that’s still <= 3

 

[N.Y. Orangeman]

I'm hoping we are in a position where burning the draft pick is the play.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Just make a protection trade, but a reasonable one.

 

[Chainshot]

Just make a protection trade, but a reasonable one.

That's an option. Or just suck it up and not make the mistake in evaluation like the Wild or Columbus did. And heaven help them if they decide to get into contract shuffling like the Panthers did... Tallon undoing the work of the interim team to flex his managerial muscle just so bit him in and Florida in the ass.

The protection trade could be viewed as a 2nd and a 5th for Miller already.

 

[Der Jaeger]

That's an option. Or just suck it up and not make the mistake in evaluation like the Wild or Columbus did. And heaven help them if they decide to get into contract shuffling like the Panthers did... Tallon undoing the work of the interim team to flex his managerial muscle just so bit him in and Florida in the ass.

The protection trade could be viewed as a 2nd and a 5th for Miller already.

I'd be fine with a picks-for-protection trade. I'd give up a 2nd and a lower round pick for Seattle to take the player the Sabres choose.

Or even a 1st and a decent prospect for them to take on Okposo.

 

[ceky]

I'd be fine with a picks-for-protection trade. I'd give up a 2nd and a lower round pick for Seattle to take the player the Sabres choose.

Wouldn't chains "The protection trade could be viewed as a 2nd and a 5th for Miller already" mean it's just the picks for seattle (as the player is the picks if they choose miller)? Or did I miss something?

Anyways, I would hate to lose one of the young swedes and 2nd/3nd round picks would be absolutely well spent protecting them. I'm a little hesitant trading (our) 1st though.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

2nd+2nd+Asplund/Davidsson for Seattle to take Okposo. Seattle gets 2 valuable draft choices and a young 3C. Okposo may very well still be a ~15 goal 35 point player still and can instill some leadership on an expansion club.

It just pisses me off with the bullshit expansion draft. Vegas was able to build a cup contender AND top prospect pool instantly. Seattle will get the same. Meanwhile if you go back to Columbus, Minnesota, Nashville and Atlantas expansion draft and they didn't get a quarter of the talent Vegas did. Why should an expansion team be gifted an instant playoff contender? The new teams should be forced to go thru some tough times like the other 4 recent expansion teams did.

Again it pisses me off knowing that we are probably going to lose either a top 6 25-30 goal scorer or a 2 way #3 dman.

If he holds Botts over a fire that means he is doing his job properly.

We got off pretty lightly with Vegas expansion draft as you say... So losing a semi decent player or having to give up top value to get a favour from Seattle is only fair.

There is a difference between being cutthroat and being reasonable like McPhee was. GMGM could have exacted even more from certain teams but also realized these were his peers and he would have to eventually converse with the other 30-31 GMs. If the Seattle GM is too overbearing and greedy then it impacts his ability to make trades with certain teams. Say hypothetically a couple years ago Ottawa was forced to pay through the nose to protect certain players they wanted long term and got taken to the cleaners and 2 deadlines later when they want to add Mark Stone, you think Ottawa would even pick up the call? Hell no.

 

[Chainshot]

2nd+2nd+Asplund/Davidsson for Seattle to take Okposo. Seattle gets 2 valuable draft choices and a young 3C. Okposo may very well still be a ~15 goal 35 point player still and can instill some leadership on an expansion club.

It just pisses me off with the bull**** expansion draft. Vegas was able to build a cup contender AND top prospect pool instantly. Seattle will get the same. Meanwhile if you go back to Columbus, Minnesota, Nashville and Atlantas expansion draft and they didn't get a quarter of the talent Vegas did. Why should an expansion team be gifted an instant playoff contender? The new teams should be forced to go thru some tough times like the other 4 recent expansion teams did.

Again it pisses me off knowing that we are probably going to lose either a top 6 25-30 goal scorer or a 2 way #3 dman.




There is a difference between being cutthroat and being reasonable like McPhee was. GMGM could have exacted even more from certain teams but also realized these were his peers and he would have to eventually converse with the other 30-31 GMs. If the Seattle GM is too overbearing and greedy then it impacts his ability to make trades with certain teams. Say hypothetically a couple years ago Ottawa was forced to pay through the nose to protect certain players they wanted long term and got taken to the cleaners and 2 deadlines later when they want to add Mark Stone, you think Ottawa would even pick up the call? Hell no.

There are 650 million reasons why Seattle gets to pick how they do and there were 500 million reasons why Vegas got to do what they did. The new owners aren't going to shell out 6-7 times as much as the last round of expansion franchise fees (Minny and Atlanta at $80 million each) to get crap teams and crap players.


Edit: Also, the move you propose while I'm sure you think is reasonable, non-core value is the sort of over-abundance in a deal that comes back to burn teams. Losing flexibility to deal 2nds at the deadline for potential playoff help or players already in the feeder system is a similar flavor to the way other teams over-reacted to the Vegas expansion. Prepare to lose a guy, look at what it takes to mitigate losing a guy, and don't be spendthrift with assets to prevent losing that guy.

 

[Aladyyn]

Everyone projected Vegas to be terrible lol

 

[Rowley Birkin]

Everyone projected Vegas to be terrible lol

Including me - ill be honest.

McPhee did such a good job there... Its not a given that it will turn out the same for Seattle. Some people think it's a given... But honestly it's not.

 

[krt88nc]

You are gonna lose one player. Teams will be more reluctant to be held hostage to protect extra players by giving away assets. This will likely mean less side deals. I say just lose a guy and move on.

 

[Chainshot]

Including me - ill be honest.

McPhee did such a good job there... Its not a given that it will turn out the same for Seattle. Some people think it's a given... But honestly it's not.

One would think that NHL GM’s have learned from what transpired. We’ll see who the bigger fools are but I have a hard time believing that Seattle will be able to rally around an event in their community to the degree Vegas did. But leveraging cap and turning up mid tier players? That shouldn’t be too much of a problem if they have a quality team in place in their front office.

 

[Chainshot]

You are gonna lose one player. Teams will be more reluctant to be held hostage to protect extra players by giving away assets. This will likely mean less side deals. I say just lose a guy and move on.

That’s my thought. Reach out to see what the new team might want but ultimately, suck it up and trust the scouts to backfill the lose.

 

[Gabrielor]

Depending on where we’re at, if we like more guys than we can keep, or development really is going well, hopefully we give away a 1st to protect our young group rather than lose one of them.

 

[Montag DP]

Protect Okposo, Sobotka, Bogosian, and Hunwick, just to make them think we really want to keep those guys. Then, switch it at the last minute to trick them into taking one of them off our hands. It's a flawless plan.

 

[Jim Bob]

You are gonna lose one player. Teams will be more reluctant to be held hostage to protect extra players by giving away assets. This will likely mean less side deals. I say just lose a guy and move on.

I wouldn't give up what it would take to have Seattle take Okposo.

Lose a D and call it a day.

 

[Chainshot]

Protect Okposo, Sobotka, Bogosian, and Hunwick, just to make them think we really want to keep those guys. Then, switch it at the last minute to trick them into taking one of them off our hands. It's a flawless plan.