00:00Travis Yost of TSN, one of our favorite, if not the favorite, hockey analysts of this show.
00:05The NHL trade deadline is tomorrow, so enough football for now.
00:10Travis, I know the answer.
00:12In your opinion, did the Sabres get off the hook by Colton Pareko not waiving his no-trade clause?
00:18Yes, and I want to be very nuanced in my answer, too, here, because I don't want to say I
00:24caught flack,
00:24but a good, healthy level of pushback of why don't you want to trade for an Olympian top-four defender
00:31after, you know, we're in this near-two-decade playoff drought.
00:34He clearly improves the team.
00:36What are you talking about, Trav?
00:37And it's like, pause right there.
00:39Colton Pareko makes the Sabres better tomorrow unequivocally.
00:42There's no doubt about it.
00:43But if you've watched Pareko this year, there is a, in my opinion, an interesting question about
00:50are we starting to see a slowdown in an otherwise uber-talented, potentially Hall of Fame-level defenseman
00:57who's now 32 years old, who's been dealing with intermittent back issues this year,
01:01and you'd like to believe those are temporary.
01:02I think the latest report was intermittent back spasms, whatever the case is.
01:06But when you watch St. Louis, and I wholeheartedly acknowledge that the environment and the blues
01:12and how bad they've been has likely sunk Pareko,
01:15because even superstars can get caught up in the muck on otherwise really bad teams.
01:21And I still think Pareko has a few years left.
01:23But this is a player on the wrong side of 30 with a very large cap hit
01:28that the Sabres were going to trade not one, but effectively two first-round picks for
01:33to add a position that I know they want a right-shot defenseman.
01:38And I think they do, in some respects, need a right-shot defenseman
01:42if you start thinking about them in the perspective of, is this a fringe playoff team
01:45or a team that can actually win in the playoffs?
01:47I think this is a team that can win in the playoffs.
01:50So the premium or the value proposition for chasing this type of player is elevated,
01:55and I recognize that.
01:56But they were giving a pretty significantly expensive package for Pareko
02:02when I didn't even think Pareko was the best fit or even a top-two fit from the blues lineup
02:09if Buffalo was really sitting in the driver's seat as a buyer.
02:13All of the talk in the last week about Robert Thomas, and I get it.
02:17Fans and analysts, coaches, you can never fall in love with an idea.
02:23And it's not clear with 24 hours still to go if Robert Thomas was an idea
02:28or a loudly talked-about idea.
02:30It seems like it was between the Blues and Sabres, even though reports indicate it's chilled.
02:34But he is really what the Sabres need, which is a pretty talented middle-six center
02:40who provides insurance down the middle of the lineup behind Paige Thompson
02:45and, by the way, provides insurance for a player like Josh Norris,
02:48who I like Josh Norris, but you do have a couple of players on this roster
02:53who have been in and out of the lineup for durability concerns.
02:56I think the acquisition price for a Thomas would be thinner than a Pareko,
03:00and I think he's more productive where he's at in his career right now
03:04on a relative basis than Pareko is.
03:06So, you know, I look at it, and by the way, I said top-two
03:09because, to me, the number-one player on my trade board,
03:13even when Breadman was available, and I'm not saying he's a better player.
03:18I thought he was the most interesting.
03:20Based on the likely price to acquire, he might be the best buy that you can find,
03:25and he's got a longer-term contract, and he's a winger.
03:27But Jordan Cairo on the Blues, too, is another player who, if I'm the Sabres,
03:31and I'm like, man, we can get rolling at five-on-five.
03:34Like, that's been true for two-and-a-half, three years now.
03:36It's remarkably true here.
03:38How do I even fortify further the middle six?
03:41Like, if I could simulate a trade package where the Sabres invested
03:46several current picks and future assets for a Thomas and Cairo combo
03:50and added that salary, there would be some serious financial wrangling
03:54in the years to come and what it means for Alex Tuck,
03:57a couple other guys on the roster.
03:59But in my opinion, that's the type of trade that actually elevates Buffalo into,
04:03can they win the Eastern Conference now?
04:05I don't know that Parika moves the needle in the same way.
04:08And I'm sympathetic to the idea, and I do like the player,
04:11but they were giving up quite a bit for a guy who,
04:14at least I think it was fair to say there are questions about,
04:17I recognize he's a fantastic defensive defenseman
04:19and still a very good one today, but what does his game look like to now
04:23and over the next 18 months?
04:24I don't know that it was as convincing as it might be
04:28for a couple of these other younger players out there.
04:30Okay.
04:32What's the difference?
04:33I've got about three minutes, Travis, if you do.
04:35What's the difference between making the playoffs in the East this year
04:39and making a run?
04:40Isn't it pretty flat?
04:43I'd say so.
04:44I think a lot of it comes down to team avoidance.
04:48I think there's two teams, if you're the Sabres,
04:51that you probably don't want to play if you have your pick,
04:53and that's the Hurricanes, obviously, and the Lightning.
04:58And I think the Sabres can play with both of these teams.
05:00And quite frankly, I think there's an argument,
05:05depending on what Tampa Bay does.
05:06Let me just say this.
05:07I'm very curious to see what the Lightning do in the next 24 hours
05:10because, I mean, they've been connected to Blake Coleman,
05:12a couple other names.
05:13I don't know how much they can reasonably add, though,
05:15with their cap situation.
05:16I think Carolina is always going to remain one of the league's preeminent teams.
05:20They've been one of the most winning teams the last six, seven years.
05:23It's no different this year.
05:24They actually have the makeup of a team that can skate.
05:27They're one of the few teams that go three, four lines deep,
05:29two, three pairings deep.
05:31And when the Sabres play against the Carolina team,
05:34it hasn't always been true.
05:35But that's one of the few teams in the league that you can look at
05:37if you're the Sabres and say, yeah,
05:38they can not only play with us five-on-five,
05:40they might be a little better than us.
05:41But that list is getting shorter and shorter by the week.
05:44I think the path to winning the East really comes down to,
05:47can you only just play one of those teams?
05:49Can you get some fortune in the other division
05:51and see Carolina bounce early and you only have to get through Tampa?
05:54Or maybe someone else takes care of Tampa.
05:56Montreal's a pretty live team in that division as well.
05:59But playing both those teams certainly makes the road a little bit harder.
06:02But if we've seen anything from the Sabres this year,
06:05they're resilient, which is crazy to say.
06:07They're one of the hottest teams in the league,
06:09which is also crazy to say.
06:11And they're likely going to be buyers in the next 24 hours.
06:14We don't know what that name is yet or if he has a no-trade clause.
06:18But it seems likely that this team will be better, not worse, one day forward.
06:22So, yeah, I think there's every reason to be optimistic
06:24about where the Sabres are right now and where they're headed into April.
06:27One thing we know about this Eastern Conference field,
06:30no Patrick Mahomes, so that's open.
06:32You don't have to worry about going through him.
06:35Travis, if you can, in like two minutes or less,
06:38do you have a thought on how the story got out with Pareko
06:41before he had decided on his future?
06:45To me, it's interesting.
06:46I think we might have some of the same sensibilities
06:48about how the insider machine works.
06:51And I wonder if, like, the agents were in play here.
06:53There's discussion online today about whether this was done
06:56to put pressure on the player.
06:58And I think that that's logical because he can look bad if he says no.
07:02Well, this stuff only gets out for a handful of reasons at best,
07:08and one of them absolutely is to apply pressure.
07:11And, by the way, like, I don't blame – I've got to be honest,
07:15I don't blame the insiders who are reporting this stuff
07:19because they're down the line from this information.
07:22Like, you can yell at these guys all day long.
07:24I work with a few of them, right?
07:26Like, you can scream until you're blue in the face.
07:28They're recipients of information.
07:29They're sitting on this information.
07:30It's not a trade secret.
07:32It's not a state secret.
07:33Like, this is real NHL news.
07:37And just because the GM of a team says, hey, we're making this trade,
07:41you've got 24 hours to decide if you're going to waive, like, okay.
07:45That doesn't mean that's not going to hit the newswire.
07:47And to your point, by the way, it is worth underlining here,
07:50this is not a one-off with Pareko.
07:53It happened with Tyler Myers and the Detroit Red Wings just the same.
07:56And Myers eventually said, no, thank you, Detroit.
07:58Ends up in Dallas.
07:59So, like, there is – I think this is a bit of a new wrinkle that the league,
08:05the front office, the agents, and the insiders kind of as an aggregate are all
08:09dealing with.
08:09But I think some real learning lessons were handed out this week because multiple
08:16times news got out in front of the actual trade being completed.
08:21The trade had to be walked back.
08:23And, by the way, the damage that does to the guys who didn't know they were being
08:27traded, but all of a sudden are being traded, but now they're not being traded.
08:32Boy, whether it's the Sabres, the Red Wings, any other team for that matter, it's not just
08:38about the guys like Pareko who have the decision to say, I'm not interested in waiving.
08:42It's prospects and young players and even rostered players who are saying, what, you were trying
08:46to trade me?
08:47I don't know how that goes around in the locker room, but it can't go well.
08:51Well put.
08:51As always, Travis, great to talk to you again.
08:53Enjoy deadline day.
08:55Take care.
08:56And tell Bill O'Dog to get better.
08:57I don't know what's going on around Western New York.
08:59It's, you know, flu B and some different, you've had your experiences as we've had in my house
09:05too.
09:05It's that, I was feeling maybe if you're superstitious, this would be my fault.
09:12A couple of weeks ago, I haven't gotten sick yet.
09:15And he and I both for the last week or so have kind of been back and forth.
09:20But anyway, we'll get through it.
09:24Sal Capaccio.
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