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00:00But a great night, great night.
00:01And we learned on the bench, you don't get this a lot anymore.
00:04And I think Owen might have experienced something that maybe he hasn't before.
00:09I'm not sure if you have.
00:11Informing a large group of people of something that's happened, like it's 1965,
00:18because nobody has cell phones, because we're all playing hockey.
00:23So Owen's got his, and it was funny as the news goes down the bench
00:33and around the guys coming off the ice.
00:37They don't know.
00:38They're out there on the ice.
00:39They come back to, they traded Byram.
00:42That was really cool.
00:43And experiencing that together and kind of like all at the first time,
00:49because everyone usually has your phones and you learn at different times.
00:53So we all learned about the Bo Byram trade,
00:55and it just kept going with what the Sabres were getting in the deal.
01:01First, it's, all right, they've traded him to Chicago.
01:04All right, let's hear what they got.
01:05Oh, they got the fourth overall pick.
01:08Wow.
01:09Okay, great.
01:10Oh, they also get a second.
01:13Fine.
01:13To me, second round picks, not worth that much.
01:16But whatever.
01:17You throw in the second round pick, I'll take it.
01:20But you also have this defenseman, Louis Crevier, who didn't know much about him at the time.
01:28And we didn't learn about him, I think, until after the game, because there was like an hour there.
01:32Yeah, yeah.
01:33Where it was the player hadn't been informed.
01:35So we didn't know who the player was for a while.
01:38But okay, they're getting a player back.
01:40I never really expected they were going to get a substantial player because they were getting the fourth overall pick.
01:46They might have got a bigger, I mean, size-wise, literally, they got a bigger player than I was expecting.
01:51Sure, yeah.
01:52You can't really get bigger.
01:53But I didn't think they'd get like a real rosterable, and I thought like maybe we were getting like a
01:59C- prospect or something.
02:02Like some guy was a third-round pick a couple of years ago.
02:05Like really just the throw-in of all throw-ins.
02:07And I don't feel like that's all that they got.
02:09Not that Crevier is like the main piece of the deal.
02:12And then it's, oh, wait, no, we're still going.
02:15The Blackhawks are taking Jordan Greenway off the Sabres' hands.
02:19And that's, I think, honestly, the second most valuable piece of the trade that the Sabres are acquiring.
02:29The things they get, I would rank fourth overall, obviously, as the top thing they're getting by a lot.
02:36And then you have Crevier, the second-round pick that you're acquiring, and getting rid of the $4 million Jordan
02:43Greenway salary.
02:44And of those three things, I feel like the Greenway cap dump is the second most valuable thing they got
02:50in the trade.
02:50That gives them flexibility to do a lot of different things.
02:54I mean, the Sabres last night got so much credit from the hockey world for what they got.
03:04I mean, I listened to a couple of Chicago podcasts.
03:09Jay Zawalski was one that I listened to yesterday.
03:11I think he's Chicago Hockey Now.
03:14And he was beside himself about this trade.
03:18And that the Blackhawks felt that they had to do this.
03:22And Mark Lazarus, who covers the Blackhawks for the Athletic, ripped the trade apart and wrote the line that somewhere
03:33in Vancouver, Connor Bedard must be screaming into a pillow about this trade.
03:39That basically Chicago, what they needed to do was get a top winger for their superstar young center.
03:48And their biggest chip to do that this summer would have been the fourth overall pick, and yet they did
03:52it for Bo Byram, a defenseman.
03:54And I think Byram, I read about this with Chicago last night too, that he's going to be set up
04:02for unfair expectations.
04:05That they paid a price as though he is Quinn Hughes.
04:10And he's going to get that role.
04:13He's going to be their number one defenseman.
04:15He will get what he wanted for that.
04:17But how well is it going to go?
04:19So, I wonder if it could get ugly there, if he's only as good as he was here in Buffalo,
04:25which was good, a very good player, but not worth what the price they paid was, if that might not
04:31go well in Chicago.
04:33I mean, also, I haven't seen anywhere whether Byram has committed to stay in Chicago long term.
04:40I almost feel like I can't believe for a second Chicago doesn't have an indication he would sign there.
04:45Or else, paying that price is even worse than, I think, what the, for a rental, yeah.
04:51It would be incredible.
04:52Yeah.
04:53But when is the last time the Sabres got, when the trade was immediately made?
05:00Not years later, down the road, when you look back on a deal and go, yeah, that was a great
05:04trade.
05:05I mean, even some recent ones, right?
05:07You look back, especially before Matt Savoy got rolling a little bit last year,
05:11you'd look back on the McLeod trade and go, well, the Sabres did great in that trade and many others.
05:18But the last time they made a deal and the immediate reaction from the hockey world was the Sabres committed
05:26grand larceny
05:27and that we need to check on the other team's general manager to see if he's okay.
05:33Like, that type of commentary was made about this trade from all corners of the hockey world.
05:41And I'm pretty much with it.
05:44Here are some numbers.
05:45I got some stats of the day for you on this trade and the rarity in which the Sabres acquired
05:54draft capital that is never traded.
05:57The Sabres get the fourth overall pick for Bo Byram, and they trade Jordan Greenway along with it.
06:06That's it.
06:08The last time, the first number in Saturday is 18.
06:13It has been 18 years since an NHL GM traded a top five draft pick that they knew was in
06:21the top five.
06:22No, like, oh, this team traded a future first and then two years down the road it ended up being
06:26number four.
06:26No, like, the last time a GM traded a top five pick, knowing it was a top five pick, was
06:3318 years ago.
06:34That was the Islanders trading down from number five to number seven.
06:39Okay?
06:41Two-pick trade down.
06:43How about the number 23?
06:51The last time a player was involved in a trade involving a top five pick was Florida trading down for
06:59number one to number three, and they got Mikkel Samuelson.
07:02They still got the third overall pick.
07:05The number 25.
07:07The last time a team traded a top five draft pick and acquired a player without another draft pick going
07:18back was 25 years ago.
07:22When Mike Milbury, a famously horrific general manager in the National Hockey League, traded for Alexi Yashin.
07:33It took the second overall pick and Chara to get Yashin.
07:38That's the last time a player was traded for a pick that high.
07:47That's what Yarmou got last night.
07:49So, we'll, I mean, the draft has got a hell of a lot more interesting, right?
07:54Like, them picking 27th a week ago was, all right, like, the draft's in Buffalo, cool.
08:02We kind of all want them to trade that pick because 27, like, sometimes a player becomes a guy.
08:07Kulik was the 28th overall pick.
08:08But it usually takes some time.
08:11But then they're picking 20.
08:13Even then, not a whole lot of difference.
08:16At least we get to see them pick earlier was good.
08:21Now, we're talking, we're talking, we're talking about the meat of the draft.
08:25We're talking about the real draft.
08:26The players that are going to make real impacts on their team and are going to do it soon.
08:31When you're picking fourth, it's different than 20.
08:35It's different than 27.
08:36The NHL draft is so different than football especially.
08:41A late first-round pick, you might as well think of it as a fourth-round pick in football
08:45at the rate that those players make the league and are impact players.
08:49It's just, it's not likely.
08:51But when you get to the top of the draft, you should expect that guy to be a star.
08:59Not all the time is it going to happen.
09:01You have Buss and looking back at the history of fourth overall picks and how good the players were.
09:11You know, if I go back five years, you might not have any names that are going to blow you
09:15away.
09:16Part of that though is these players are just either arriving in the NHL or aren't even here yet at
09:20all.
09:20Will Smith in 2023 for the Sharks is a really nice player.
09:23Luke Hughes in 2021 for the Devils, like, good player, not a star.
09:29But before that, you had to run.
09:31You had to run.
09:32Like, the guys that are really established in the league that went fourth overall.
09:35Lucas Raymond from the Red Wings is an awesome player.
09:39Byram was fourth overall.
09:41I know, it's funny, right?
09:42Like, they're trading the fourth overall pick.
09:45Chicago did get a guy that was the fourth overall pick.
09:47Brady Kachuk was the fourth overall pick.
09:50Great player.
09:51Cal McCarr was a fourth overall pick.
09:54He's the best player in the world.
09:55There's Jesse Pui-Arvey.
09:57There's a bust.
09:57It does happen.
09:58Mitch Marner was a fourth overall pick.
10:01Sam Bennett and Seth Jones before that is good.
10:03And then you have a couple others that aren't that great.
10:05Like, it was a little bit back and forth there.
10:08But you have some stars.
10:09Marner and McCarr and Kachuk and Raymond.
10:14This is a valuable, valuable asset the Sabres just got.
10:17And I really can't believe they got it.
10:20Yeah.
10:21And not via a draft lottery.
10:23Like, how much more exciting is it that, hey, they're contending and they have the fourth
10:28overall pick versus they're at the bottom of the barrel?
10:30Like, it makes such a difference.
10:31When is the last time the Sabres made a trade and everybody went, you just committed grand
10:38larceny?
10:39Yeah.
10:39Blackhawks Twitter was in shambles last night.
10:42Yeah.
10:42Bad.
10:43No, yeah.
10:44Their fans hate it because they just extended this GM in, like, April of this year.
10:48So, a lot of those posts were recirculating.
10:51I, this is how I am in fantasy a little bit, is sometimes you figure out, not to say anything
10:59disparaging about anybody, you find the GMs that you feel like aren't always right on
11:05top of things.
11:06I mean, I try to trade with everybody, so really, for me, it's no different.
11:09But, I think in hockey, especially, you want to find the GMs that you feel like you can
11:15get.
11:15You know?
11:16You can take advantage of them a little bit.
11:18We had an era in the NHL where there were a bunch of those guys.
11:21Like, Jay Feaster, I remember in Calgary, was just not, not on it.
11:25And Peter Shirelli, when he was in the league, as a GM.
11:28Like, there were GMs in the NHL.
11:30Mike Bilberry, I mean, way back when.
11:32That's a long time ago now.
11:33But, he's famous for some of the worst trades you've ever seen.
11:35Like, there were GMs in the league that you could take advantage of.
11:39And, I think we found a guy.
11:42Chicago wasn't just this trade.
11:44Like, I guess there's a bit of a reputation there from Kyle Davidson for really poor asset
11:48management.
11:50And, he really did a lot of damage, I think, to that even further last night.
11:55So, yeah.
11:56Yarmou, good job.
11:57Find the GM you want to do business with.
11:59I think they might have found it.
12:00And, I tweeted this out, like, the last time this was the immediate reaction to a Sabres trade.
12:05And, I got a couple of good responses.
12:08Because, I hadn't, I couldn't really think of one off the top of my head.
12:11It's been a while.
12:12Well, but, I think Andrew tweets in the Risto trade.
12:17And, I think that is pretty good.
12:19Like, not quite to the same degree.
12:22Because, they only got the 14th pick.
12:24This is the 4th pick.
12:25But, that's correct, I think.
12:28I think everybody thought, well, that's better than I thought you were going to get.
12:31You got a top 15 pick in the NHL draft for Ristolainen.
12:34Who, I think, was also maybe one year away from free agency at the time.
12:38I think, though, there's another answer here.
12:42MHannon85 tweeted this to me.
12:43This is the answer.
12:45For me.
12:46When Darcy got a first round pick for Paul Gostad.
12:51That's the last time I remember this degree of, wait, the Sabres got what?
12:58That was crazy.
12:59Nobody expected that when they got a first for Gostad.
13:03So, I mean, we're talking about a trade there that's 15 years ago, though.
13:06Like, it's been a long, long time.
13:09That's the reaction to it.
13:10And now, it gives us a few days here, unless they make a trade quickly, to really dive our teeth
13:17into who is worth that 4th pick.
13:20And, I think, the greater conversation, which is, do you flip the pick?
13:26Or do you keep the pick?
13:30And I think there are good arguments on both sides.
13:35It might depend on what player is sitting there.
13:39Avar Stenberg, Swedish, top-level prospect.
13:45I think there was a minute there a couple weeks ago where I was reading about whether he would even
13:48go No. 1.
13:50And then Toronto and, you know, it sounds like the Leafs have pretty much shut that down.
13:54Like, they're going to go McKenna.
13:55They're going to take Gavin McKenna.
13:57But, that guy, Stenberg, is going to be a great player and probably right away.
14:08But, if he falls to 4, I don't...
14:11It sounds to me like he's a good enough...
14:13And this is just reading with the draft guys, prospect analysts, which we'll have on in the next couple of
14:18days,
14:18to really go in on him further and these other players.
14:21Caleb Malholcher has another one.
14:23That he might be so good, you could never trade that pick if he was on the clock.
14:28And you might want to save the pick until you're up to see if he's there.
14:32Why would he be there, though, you're asking?
14:34I guess, when I'm trying to look at it, like, the Sharks need defense.
14:39And they're open for business as much as anybody is for that No. 2 pick.
14:44Every...
14:44Nobody wants you to know the Sharks are trying to trade the No. 2 pick more than the Sharks.
14:50I got a different insider every day telling me that they want to trade that pick.
14:55So, do they want to trade down?
14:57Because, hey, this guy is worth the 2nd pick.
14:59We don't think the defensemen are worth the 2nd pick.
15:01But we'd rather have Chase Reed.
15:03Or we'd rather have Carson Carrolls.
15:05We'd rather move down a couple of spots and pick the position that we like more.
15:08So, alright, Buffalo, you want to move up 2 spots?
15:11I don't know what that costs, though.
15:12Like, those trades don't really happen in the NHL.
15:14Again, like, trade-ups even haven't happened in 18 years in the top 5.
15:19So, does that cost me a second?
15:21Or does that cost me 20?
15:23I don't know.
15:25But, that's the guy, Stenberg, that it feels like is worth staying or even maybe moving up a little bit
15:32if it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg.
15:34Otherwise, if the Sharks just sit there and pick a defenseman,
15:38and then Vancouver's got a decision to make because Caleb Malhotra is a top 5 pick,
15:42and their head coach is Manny Malhotra.
15:45So, how tempted are they going to be to pick his son,
15:49who's a top 5 prospect when they have the 3rd overall pick?
15:53Probably a little tempting.
15:54And if the draft goes that way, well, there's the Sabres on the clock and Stenberg's there.
15:59And then I think you just pulled off a heist.
16:03But if he's not, and you expect him to go 2, or you even know that he's going to go
16:082,
16:10then suddenly I think trading that pick does become an okay idea.
16:16It's going to be very dependent, though, on what you're getting back.
16:21And even as much as I love the Connor Hellebuck idea, part of why I love the Connor Hellebuck idea
16:26is I don't expect him to cost you multiple first-round pick plus-plus type of offer.
16:3533 years old, little bit of a down year, Winnipeg wants to move him,
16:39and they want things right now that I have a surplus in.
16:42Part of why I love the Hellebuck trade idea is that Winnipeg wants second-line center,
16:47which the Sabres have a bunch of.
16:50It works.
16:53I don't think I would trade the number four pick for him.
16:57But the guy that I think you should be thinking about the most
17:02when it comes to flipping that fourth overall pick is Matthew Nyes.
17:08There was a report earlier in the week that if they were to move him,
17:11and I don't know how many people believe they're actually going to move him.
17:14There's a lot of, are the Leafs even serious about this?
17:18Nyes for a top-ten pick.
17:21If they're going to move him, they want a top-ten pick.
17:24Well, I'm picking fourth now.
17:26So hang up with Ottawa because they're at nine, and I'm at four.
17:31So if you're serious about trading this guy, I'm going to have the best offer.
17:35I have more of the youth and prospect pool that you might need.
17:39I've got the draft pick that you need.
17:42Nyes is going to be really interesting.
17:44But, again, we don't really know if Toronto is serious about wanting to move him or not,
17:48but there certainly is a lot of talk about him.
17:52803-0550 is the phone number.
17:54How good is this trade?
17:55Is there any downside to it?
17:56Is there any counter?
17:58Do you want to make the other argument here?
18:00Because there aren't a lot of people wanting to do that.
18:02It's mostly applause for Jarmo Kekalainen.
18:06His first monster move with the Sabres.
18:09You had deadline moves, which were not super expensive and not that impactful,
18:17but also weren't really that big.
18:19You know, when you're trading for third-pair defensemen and fourth-liners,
18:23those are minor moves.
18:24The first big, big trade of Jarmo Sabres' career is going over as well as it possibly could.
18:34Byram for the fourth overall pick.
18:36Shout-out Casey Middlestad.
18:37Casey Middlestad.
18:38Turned into the fourth overall pick.
18:40A couple years down the road.
18:42But Byram, to do the post-mortem on Byram's career, which we'll do as well here,
18:46Byram thought had a fantastic season.
18:49I thought he was their best defenseman in the Boston series.
18:51Little lesser version of Tuck, though.
18:53I thought he was not as good in Montreal.
18:55I wanted to keep him.
18:57You know, in part it is a little bit sad to me that they are losing the best top four
19:03defense
19:04that I've seen this team have in my lifetime.
19:08I mean, maybe it's the best one they've ever had in franchise history.
19:13I mean, I'd have to really go back and ask the fans that watch Sean Feld
19:19and, you know, you get to your Housley teams.
19:21Like, was there another top four blue line that was as good as the one we just saw?
19:26The one we just saw was arguably the best in hockey.
19:31And now they don't have it anymore.
19:33They have a great top three.
19:35And they will have to figure out who that fourth defenseman is going to be.
19:38I don't think it's Crevier, the guy they just picked up, but we'll talk about that.
19:43Paul Hamilton will be along.
19:44Brian Koziel as well.
19:45Your phone calls.
19:46So we've got some things to figure out.
19:48If Tuck walks and there was a report about him last night,
19:51they're still going to need a winger.
19:52And with Byram gone, they're going to need a number four defenseman.
19:55But they have the number four pick, and they did great to get that.
19:59803-0550 is the phone number.
20:01Brian Koziel coming up and your phone calls as well here on Jeremy and Joe.
20:05Jeremy's off today.
20:05Owen's off today.
20:06This is WGR.
20:07This is WGR.
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