The Mittelstadt move still doesn't make sense. I like Byram, but we have 2 d-men locked up for 19M dollars for the next 7 years. Both are puck moving d-men with a high draft pedigree.
So, in the best case scenario where this works out, in 2 years, you are spending 25-27M on 3 d-men. Only one of which has, to this point, has had an elite level season.
I think you can make that salary structure work with the rising cap, I just don't know how you make 3 defensively challenged d-men in your top 4 work.
Adams has make two huge bets in the last year, 1 that Power is going to be a top tier d-man, and another that he two of Power/Dahlin/Byram can become an effective pair long term. And if Ruff can't make one of the combos work, we will be paying a bottom pair d-men big dollars for a long time. Or we will have to flip Byram at a loss within the next year.
I think with Byram we saw he has some chemistry with Dahlim, but he needs to be more consistent. We know the Sabres needed another top 4 dman, and getting one via UFA wasn't likely to happen. Byram is the right age and has the potential to be better than anything the Sabres could have gotten through the UFA route. Maybe there could have been a Pesche or someone of that ilk brought in via trade, but weren't there rumors Pesche nixed a potential trade to Buffalo?
Losing Mittelstadt absolutely hurts, but they are also committed to Tage and Cozens long term so signing Mitts to a long term deal to potentially end up being your 3C would have been a bit of a waste since he's shown himself to be able to perform at a 2C/borderline 1C level. They could have shifted him to wing also or had him center Tage, but then you're holding back JJP, Benson or Quinn. That or pushing Skinner down the line-up and we saw how that worked out under Ralph.
Personally, I'd like to see them get someone more suited for that 3C role like a Cirelli, Sissons, Colton etc. We'll see how this summer plays out, but Adams has some glaringly obvious holes he needs to fill, and they don't have the answers from within to address some of the roster needs.
All that said, they also NEED Tage and Cozens to be the players they were in 22-23. UPL gave them a chance to win every time he played, and if they were scoring even remotely close to the level they were in 22-23 we'd probably be watching playoff hockey. I just hope Lindy can fix the god awful powerplay, because they were actually still solid with their 5v5 scoring (13th in the league I believe) while being 3rd from last on the powerplay and allowing the 5th most shorties against.