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00:00So, we have a Sabres trade.
00:01Moving along. Yes, we do, Paul.
00:03Paul, I bet it doesn't shock you that Kesselring is gone already.
00:06No, and he's never, to my knowledge, publicly asked to be traded,
00:12but I'd be probably pretty surprised if he didn't ask.
00:15He did say to us in the media that, you know,
00:20when he was the healthy scratch as the season was winding down
00:23and again in the playoffs, he did say he disagreed
00:25with the way Lindy Ruff was handling it.
00:28But I will tell you this, in practice, he gave it his all.
00:34I mean, he did not slough off in practice or he kept himself ready.
00:39You know, he at least wasn't pouting on the ice
00:42when he was out there for practice and that type of thing.
00:45But, you know, he's trying to get back in the lineup,
00:47and, you know, all of a sudden, Timmons is now ahead of him,
00:52and then Mets is ahead of him, and then Stanley's ahead of him.
00:56And then Shen's ahead of him.
00:58Right.
00:58And they're all, like, bouncing ahead of him after, because of injury.
01:03Now, let's all be honest here.
01:04I mean, he never had a chance to become the defenseman he was in Utah
01:09with Team USA because he was hurt in training camp.
01:12And then he came back too early.
01:14He admitted that.
01:14And he didn't have his speed.
01:17He didn't have his strength.
01:19And while this all was happening, number one,
01:22because the trade was almost not quite to the day.
01:25It was the 26th last year.
01:27We're on the 17th.
01:28Okay.
01:28So it's almost to the day a year ago.
01:31But back then, Byram hadn't signed a two-year deal yet.
01:35And I don't think he had yet.
01:37And Samuelson was like MIA.
01:40And Samuelson had emerged into what we saw many nights.
01:44He was Buffalo's best defenseman.
01:46So he was the cog.
01:49Now, sure, Kevin Adams very wisely wasn't going to make the trade
01:54without Doan being thrown in there.
01:56But Kesselring is who he wanted to be a right-handed shooting defenseman
01:59to pair with power, to be in the top four.
02:02And had he not been injured,
02:05he probably would have gotten that opportunity to do that.
02:08But being injured just took that opportunity away.
02:12And by that time, there no longer is a top four position for him,
02:17depending on what Byram winds up doing.
02:19He has one more year left on the deal.
02:21So he'll be with Buffalo for sure next year.
02:23But Kekelein has already said he's very interested in re-signing him long-term
02:29because he believes that you start from the back end out,
02:32he also believes the Sabres have the best top four defense in the league.
02:37I think you could argue that for or against.
02:41It's not crazy to say, though.
02:42No, no, not at all.
02:44Not at all.
02:44He could be right.
02:45I mean, as I said, you could argue it for or against.
02:49And so the best Kesselring could do right now is try to work himself
02:55in the bottom pair.
02:58But I think Lindy Ruff likes Timmons better than Kesselring.
03:02I don't think there's any question about that.
03:03I mean, the choice is made, I'll tell you that,
03:06without anyone having to say it at a news conference.
03:08It was the playoffs.
03:09Yeah.
03:10It wasn't game 71 of a lost season.
03:13Right.
03:13It was the playoffs.
03:14Play your best guys.
03:16They used everyone they could ahead of him.
03:19And the one game he played, he played less than five minutes.
03:22What was it, 425, I think?
03:23Right, right.
03:24You know, and actually in that 425, I actually liked him.
03:29He made two good plays.
03:29I remember writing in my notes.
03:31But he only played for, you know, a little bit.
03:34So he saw the writing on the wall here.
03:36Lindy Ruff has a contract extension.
03:38I think if you're Michael Kesselring, you're thinking you're not Lindy Ruff's guy.
03:43And you're not going to be Lindy Ruff's guy.
03:45So let's get a new start somewhere else.
03:49And I read when you're talking about value,
03:52it's about a middle second round pick moving up from 27th to 20th.
04:00And then the question is, are you looking for a trade that maybe the other team wants 20th
04:08instead of 27th, you know?
04:10I don't want to cut it too fine and have it be too convenient here.
04:15And maybe it's overthinking.
04:17But yeah, I mean, it's trade season, you know?
04:21It could be that Kekalainen has talked to a team or 10 teams.
04:26And 27, you can get me to 20, you know, maybe that opens a door.
04:32And that has value in a big deal, you know?
04:35So I want to be hopeful for that, that this is,
04:38because otherwise it's really just a dump.
04:40Like if you're picking 20th instead of 27th,
04:43recognizing that, you know, there's, you know,
04:46obviously it's seven picks higher.
04:47There's some value there.
04:49I just hope it's a bigger, there's something bigger in mind here.
04:52Because otherwise I'm just dumped, I dumped what could have been,
04:56and should have been even, a useful player to move up seven spots in the draft.
05:01And I just don't think that would be smart.
05:02So I'm expecting, I'm hoping, I'm hoping.
05:06I can't say I'm expecting.
05:07Guys, I wouldn't be dumping on Kevin Adams myself here,
05:11because he can't predict three injuries for a guy that they thought was going to
05:15step in and be a good defenseman.
05:18And let's face it, Kevin Adams also, and both GMs have confirmed this,
05:23would not make the trade without Doan being in on the trade.
05:26Right.
05:26And when Doan came here, Adams, one of the first thing he says,
05:29he goes, we see an upside with Doan.
05:32I don't know if he saw 25 goals in his first year here.
05:35And a seven-year contract extension before Christmas or whenever that was.
05:38You know, so I give him credit for that,
05:40that he wasn't going to make the trade without Doan,
05:42and even though Doan wasn't the main cog at the time,
05:45he is going to turn into the main cog.
05:48He actually, they both, he and Paterka both had 25 goals,
05:52but Doan had four more assists,
05:54and I'll take what Doan brings on the ice any day of the week over what Paterka,
05:58I don't care if Paterka scores 35 and Doan scores 25.
06:01I'll take what Doan brings on the ice every day of the week
06:04over what Paterka brings on the ice.
06:06So even without Kesselring in it, as I said, I would not rip on Adams at all.
06:13Saying, well, this failed because of Kesselring.
06:15Well, you can't predict three fairly major injuries that kind of took him out of this season.
06:21Do you have a fresh Alex Tuck take?
06:24Has anything changed for you in the last week or two on him?
06:27No, you know, we've talked about, you know, the, you know,
06:31I would just, you know, sat down with the age thing.
06:35Yeah, right.
06:35You wrote about that.
06:36I don't know if you talked to him, Mike, when I was off Monday.
06:39Yeah, yeah, that's fresh.
06:41I heard you talking to Jared and Joe about this.
06:43Well, it was a number of things.
06:44We had talked about what he had talked about in his press conference,
06:48talking about sports science, which is true.
06:51And Lindy Ruff does talk to sports science and believes in it.
06:55And that older players are becoming a little more, you know, I don't want to say useful or, you know,
07:04keeping up, you know, not falling off is what I'm trying to say.
07:08So then Stahl goes out at 37 years old, scores 20 goals this year,
07:13scores in five consecutive games in the finals and wins the Conn Smythe.
07:16So I said, okay, I got to sit down and start looking at some of the older players
07:20and how they produced this year.
07:23As far as, you know, I didn't look at goalies, but as far as skaters,
07:26Burns and Perry are the oldest two at 41.
07:29Brett Burns plays all 82 games for Colorado, did score 12 goals from defense.
07:33And Corey Perry with L.A. and Tampa gets 17 goals at age 41.
07:38Ovechkin at age 40, scores 32.
07:41Malkin has 61 points in 56 games at age 39.
07:45A guy, you know, I thought, look, look at Matt Cuccarello.
07:48He's 38.
07:49He got 54 points in 59 games for Minnesota.
07:53Marchand is still 54 points in 52 games at age 38.
07:57Stahl, we already talked about.
07:59Even if you want to go back two years, Stamkos is 36.
08:02He scored 42 goals this year.
08:04So maybe with the technology and the types of things that sports science brings to the game,
08:11maybe 38 isn't necessarily a death sentence in hockey anymore for a hockey player.
08:17And we have no way of knowing what Tuck is going to be at age 38.
08:21But you know me.
08:23You guys have been around me long enough.
08:24I was always the guy going, you don't sign guys until at age 38.
08:29That's just crazy.
08:30You just don't do that.
08:32And now I'm the one saying, well, you know, maybe you do that.
08:36Because things are changing.
08:38Tuck Burke used the example of Landeskog, you know, talking about he felt five years ago,
08:44Landeskog probably his career would have been over.
08:46He goes, but with the technology and with the treatments and the things and the sports science
08:51and the way things are done now, he was able to resurrect his career at a high level and be
08:56Landeskog again.
08:57Now, he's only, what, 32 or 33 years old.
09:00But still, that was the example he used.
09:03Right.
09:03Well, unfortunately, none of this changes whether the Sabres want to pay him 10 and a half or more a
09:08year for eight years.
09:09But it's good to have in your hip pocket.
09:11Right.
09:12Well, the other thing I looked up is the Stamkos year, which was 2016, when he was the free agent.
09:20He signed on the 29th of June.
09:22Right.
09:22And that made up Poso the best free agent.
09:24And remember last year, Besser got the free agency and then went back and a half hour into free agency,
09:31went back to Vancouver, could only get seven years because he had hit free agency and re-signed with Vancouver.
09:37So just because it's June 17th and Tuck hasn't and they're still far apart, that doesn't mean things can't move.
09:47Right.
09:47Because we have seen examples where it has.
09:50Now, if the eight and a half million figure is correct, if that's all the Sabres are offering,
09:56I think that's a total embarrassment to Tuck.
10:00But is that also a negotiating ploy?
10:02All right.
10:03We'll offer him eight and a half million and on the 29th, we'll offer him 10 million or whatever.
10:07You know, who knows?
10:08You know, I'm not a negotiator.
10:10I don't know.
10:11But I just don't.
10:12If I'm Alex Tuck, he says, you're not taking eight and a half million dollars if that figure is correct.
10:18Paul, thanks for this.
10:19We'll talk again next week, maybe.
10:22Very soon.
10:22Or maybe even on Friday, Paul.
10:24Draft is next week.
10:25Keep your phone on, Paul.
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