Confirmed with Link: Sabres sign Nathan Beaulieu (2yrs, $2.4m AAV)

[Jim Bob]

True but teams don't carry 9 healthy dmen on their NHL roster.

Yes, but you need organizational depth on D.

Tennyson is a UFA.

And then people are talking about moving a couple of more D.

That means that Botts has to bring in a significant number of D that will need to be counted on to play in Buffalo next season. That is easier said than done.

 

[joshjull]

At the time it made sense, we had a bunch of right-side guys and basically zero left-side guys other than Risto. Then Kulikov forgot how to hockey after he got the Wile E Coyote treatment with the bench door.

Not to go too far down this rabbit hole but..... If Murray was just patient and didn't make the big trades. Then took a different path with the 8th pick in 2016. We could had the following dmen to work with in the 16-17 season (Jack and Sam's 2nd season)....

Zadorov/Risto
Sergachev/Myers
McCabe/Pysyk
Gorges as the 7 with Ruhwedel/Nelson in Rochester.

 

[sabrebuild]

Not to go too far down this rabbit hole but..... If Murray was just patient and didn't make the big trades. Then took a different path with the 8th pick in 2016. We could had the following dmen to work with in the 16-17 season (Jack and Sam's 2nd season)....

Zadorov/Risto
Sergachev/Myers
McCabe/Pysyk
Gorges as the 7 with Ruhwedel/Nelson in Rochester.

Go right down the rabbit hole, avoid all the big trades, let Eichel and Reinhart take a beating in year one and have a great look at Matthews and Laine, as well as a ton of trade ammo.

One last tank year might have just been the ticket.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

Not to go too far down this rabbit hole but..... If Murray was just patient and didn't make the big trades. Then took a different path with the 8th pick in 2016. We could had the following dmen to work with in the 16-17 season (Jack and Sam's 2nd season)....

Zadorov/Risto
Sergachev/Myers
McCabe/Pysyk
Gorges as the 7 with Ruhwedel/Nelson in Rochester.

That is interesting. This kind of fuels the fire of GMTM dislike i have.

 

[Gordo21]

That is interesting. This kind of fuels the fire of GMTM dislike i have.

Yes, very interesting

 

[joshjull]

 

[joshjull]

 

[joshjull]

 

[ZZamboni]

Who leaked this story? Whoever it was is a twit.

Nathan could have sat down with Housley and JB together and expressed his opinion about playing time. Now if he did in fact do that AND was ignored and not given ice time, then sure, just ask for a trade and don’t look back. It’s not about the city, fans, or roster. At that point it’s about the coaches, GM, and wanting to contribute to a team more than he’s being asked to.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Oh great, now they're looking at ways to get Hunwick on the ice too.

 

[Reddawg]

Oh great, now they're looking at ways to get Hunwick on the ice too.

I wonder how he feels about being Matt Moulson’s teammate?

 

[5 Minute Major]

This should be great news to most that have done nothing but bash NB since he arrived.

 

[slip]

Trade this bum yesterday.

 

[Snippit]

"Trying to work him in the lineup"

AKA waiting for Pilut to make mistakes lmao

I'd happily put in Beaulieau for Scandella though.

 

[brian_griffin]

Oh great, now they're looking at ways to get Hunwick on the ice too.

That's what I read from Phil's quote !!

 

[Gordo21]

Not to go too far down this rabbit hole but..... If Murray was just patient and didn't make the big trades. Then took a different path with the 8th pick in 2016. We could had the following dmen to work with in the 16-17 season (Jack and Sam's 2nd season)....

Zadorov/Risto
Sergachev/Myers
McCabe/Pysyk
Gorges as the 7 with Ruhwedel/Nelson in Rochester.

Yeah,

An overzealous GM can really do a lot of damage to an organization.

It's a damn shame. At least Pegula eventually took care of it.

Better times ahead.

 

[K8fool]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.... play better or hide Scandella's keys, I have liked his game during streak.. but its a log jam from 5 to 9

 

[wunderpanda]

1st bold Hunwick should either be bought out or trade-dumped in the offseason, waived to Roch after camp, or only planned on being a #8 depth for BUF if he's up all year. He should not be counted in a plan to be the 1st replacement on the left side.

2nd bold Even if he's a malcontent, make the guy play out his contract.
Why waive an NHL caliber depth d-man without attempting to get a pick or player in trade?

*****ing about playing time is so high-school (or I guess NFL, too).

I agree about Hunwick, just that he is under contract for another season at a lower salary than Nate currently. He would be acceptable to play 12 minutes once every 3 weeks.

Waiving was a harsh suggestion, was focused on freeing up cap ahead of the deadline. That Nate may not get claimed ahead of the deadline if teams are holding contract spots open for possible moves. Or may be more attractive to other teams after he clears and can be assigned to AHL affiliates.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Not to go too far down this rabbit hole but..... If Murray was just patient and didn't make the big trades. Then took a different path with the 8th pick in 2016. We could had the following dmen to work with in the 16-17 season (Jack and Sam's 2nd season)....

Zadorov/Risto
Sergachev/Myers
McCabe/Pysyk
Gorges as the 7 with Ruhwedel/Nelson in Rochester.

Is that group supposed to look good? Because it's one 2-3 D and a bunch of 4-6 D. Sergachev would've been absolutely crushed in Buffalo without the advantage of taking 70% offensive zone starts deep in the line-up of an elite team. Don't get me wrong, I agree Murray's trades were largely ill-conceived and paid too much, but you'd be pressed to convince me that D isn't bottom 5 in the league.

 

[joshjull]

Is that group supposed to look good? Because it's one 2-3 D and a bunch of 4-6 D. Sergachev would've been absolutely crushed in Buffalo without the advantage of taking 70% offensive zone starts deep in the line-up of an elite team. Don't get me wrong, I agree Murray's trades were largely ill-conceived and paid too much, but you'd be pressed to convince me that D isn't bottom 5 in the league.

Its supposed to look as good or better than what we had in 16-17 and it would have cost absolutely nothing to acquire. A good base of youth to work from as the team grows. The right side of Risto, Myers, Pysyk, Ruhwedel is certainly better than any right side we've had since Jack was drafted.

 

[joshjull]

Oh great, now they're looking at ways to get Hunwick on the ice too.

Maybe. Phil said he's wanted to get him in but didn't want to break up a winning lineup. I'm terrified to see what a losing streak worthy of Hunwick's return would look like if the last couple weeks was a "winning lineup".

 

[Thorton02]

What do you think he returns? 2nd round pick & a B prospect?

 

[jcbeze]

I wonder if Botts indicated to his agent that the team is actively trying to make a move on D to clear a spot for him. Could explain how the story went from Nate requesting a trade to now just wanting playing time.

 

[Moskau]

What do you think he returns? 2nd round pick & a B prospect?

A 4th.

 

[Rowley Birkin]

Josh - I'm totally with you on the D & it's been my single biggest issue / agenda with this team since even before the Eichel draft.

I was never a fan of the Myers/Bogo swap or the Kane trade as a whole.

I loved getting ROR but losing Zadorov was a bitter pill to take with that trade. What's worse is that his loss seemed like an afterthought & he wasn't 'replaced' for 3 years until the recent D heavy draft.

Drafting Nylander over Sergachev or Chychrun made me more angry than any other sports related incident. Time has proven my reaction to be somewhat justified.

Pysyk trade seemed a wash at the time but given what happened seems like an easy loss in hindsight.

I have no doubt Risto would be a better player today too if he actually had a supporting cast for the past few seasons.

Even without Dahlin - who will be as important as any player to any team - I easily take 2 years of that group, no SJ/STL firsts, no Thompson & maybe no Dahlin... But we keep the 2 extra firsts, Compher etc from original Kane/RORI trades. I'm confident we'd have made the playoffs at least one of those years & a better team for it today.

This isn't even taking the Lehner trade back which is the most obvious of them all...