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00:00So, thanks for joining us, Paul.
00:02The Sabres just in the last couple of minutes announced the qualifying offers.
00:07Is that the right terminology?
00:08Right, qualifying offers for Krebs and Zellweger,
00:09the defensemen they traded for on Friday from Anaheim.
00:12Those are the only two.
00:14Yeah, they had the four on the Amarks.
00:16I did not actually send a text just to make sure that those four were not qualified.
00:21Zach Jones, I would imagine, would not want to come back.
00:24He never got the opportunity to play.
00:26And, you know, he came from the Rangers.
00:28So, he's a guy who had played in the league.
00:30So, I can't imagine that he would want to come back.
00:34But he would have been one of the.
00:37Right.
00:38Yep, nope.
00:38They said, that's right.
00:40The four on the Amarks were not qualified.
00:42So, it's just the two Sabres.
00:43And the two that were.
00:45The two that were, were formalities.
00:48Right?
00:48There was never.
00:48It would have been news.
00:50Certainly, after just trading for Zellweger, that would have been ridiculous.
00:53And Krebs would be news if they passed on that, I think.
00:56It would be.
00:57But you know how squirrely that GMs get with arbitration, which he has.
01:01Yeah.
01:03But, you know, and there's still, you know, very often, like, the morning of the arbitration hearing, teams come to
01:09an agreement.
01:11Because, really, neither side wants to go to arbitration, really.
01:14Yeah.
01:14So, you know, very often, they figure it out, like, the morning of the hearing.
01:18Yeah.
01:19Well, at the very least, if, you know, Krebs' name has come up a time or two talking about potential
01:24trade packages.
01:25And, you know, this does not rule that out.
01:28I mean, you obviously want to keep his rights and have him under your control if you want to make
01:34him a part of something, Paul.
01:35And how likely do you think it is now that we're through the draft but not yet to free agency?
01:40You know, it's very interesting to both Mike and myself that, you know, we woke up to Elliott Friedman still
01:47talking about the Bills, the Bills, the Sabres and the Jets sort of being engaged on a Hallibuck deal.
01:53Hallibuck was willing to waive.
01:55It still seems like that's percolating.
01:56And, you know, I don't know.
01:58How are you viewing the trade market right now?
02:02It is just everybody's asking too much, you know.
02:06And so the, quote, big fish are not moving because the prices are just way too high.
02:14Whether they come down is anybody's guess.
02:18But, you know, I saw, you know, the fourth overall pick and Jack Quinn and Lukonen.
02:24Yeah, the fourth overall pick is an overpayment.
02:27But I'm not sure Lukonen and Jack Quinn get it done.
02:31You know, I think you'd have to come off of Jack Quinn if I don't think Winnipeg's going to accept
02:36that.
02:37So, yeah.
02:39And, you know, knowing Yarmou, he probably wanted to switch the fourth and eighth pick and then deal with prospects,
02:45you know, and flip it.
02:46And, well, Winnipeg wouldn't want to do that, you know.
02:49You know, so it's just, you know, and the thing is, you know, number four and 20 are still in
02:55play.
02:56It's just their players now instead of picks.
02:58You know, you can still trade the number four overall pick.
03:02It's just now the team, they know who they're getting.
03:06They don't have the option of picking somebody.
03:08So, just because the Sabres have made the picks doesn't mean they won't trade the guys either at four or
03:1520 to make a deal if the other teams like those players that Buffalo drafted.
03:19How much, if at all, are you, I don't know, warming up is a sloppy way to phrase it.
03:25You didn't want to trade the fourth pick for a goalie.
03:28You made no qualms about saying that bluntly.
03:32Like, I do, in no way, no how, never want to do it.
03:35Doesn't matter who the goalie is, pretty much is how you felt about it.
03:39You know, now that we're past that, and, you know, assuming that they don't include the fourth overall pick in
03:46the draft in a trade,
03:48how open, like, are you to a Hellebuck trade?
03:53I'm open to being better at the position, but he's coming off a pretty bad year.
04:01So, what does that mean?
04:02Does that mean he just had a bad year?
04:04Does that mean at age 33 he's starting to lose it a little bit?
04:08None of us know.
04:09I mean, so you are taking a risk when that way, you know, you have a guy who has never
04:18performed well in the Stanley Cup playoffs,
04:21but you can point to Bobrovsky.
04:23He, for years, didn't perform well in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and then all of a sudden he did.
04:28And he won two Stanley Cups.
04:30Both of them are very good regular season goaltenders and have won all sorts of hardware because of it.
04:36But, so there's that.
04:41There's, if you do get him, you're probably done.
04:44That means you're not replacing Alex Tuck and you're going with the younger players.
04:48So, you're going basically with the team you're looking at right now and Hellebuck and goal.
04:54And basically, I kind of would venture and say you're probably, if you're going to make the playoffs or do
05:02anything,
05:02you're going to have to have Hellebuck stand on his head.
05:06Because, you know, you've lost your, arguably, your best forward.
05:10You've lost your third best defenseman.
05:11You've got some other talent, but it's going to be hard for youngsters to fill in for what Alex Tuck
05:17does,
05:17at least right off the bat.
05:19I mean, I think they're eventually going to be very, very good players,
05:23but I don't know if you want to put that on them right off the bat.
05:27When, you know, maybe they should be down a little bit in the lineup for a year or so.
05:31And then you pop them up into the top of the lineup.
05:34But you probably, at eight and a half, would have to maybe get rid of a guy.
05:39And this is your team.
05:40It would be the team you're looking at right now with Hellebuck.
05:44And I'm not sure that gets it done.
05:47Paul, so Dax and Rudolph, the fourth overall pick.
05:51How much time, my answer for myself is none.
05:54How much time did you spend on him or even with him, potentially, at the combine or something?
05:59You and I didn't talk about him.
06:01There was no need to because he wasn't going to be available at 27.
06:06He's right back then.
06:08Or 20.
06:11You know, there wasn't any need to, and the Sabres didn't.
06:14And so next thing you know, they're at number four.
06:17So he wanders over the morning of the draft over to the Sabres' offices.
06:22They have their meeting then, and they talk about it.
06:27But as Kekalainen said, that meeting is more so everybody in the organization gets a chance to know him.
06:34There are scouts all season long that the Sabres have that have never talked to him.
06:39They talk to him after the games.
06:42Or they talk to the coaches after the games.
06:46So it's not like nobody from the organization had ever talked to them.
06:50It's just that's what the meetings are for in the combine to let the scouts sit in and the GMs
06:57sit in and very often Terry Pagula to sit in and get to know some of these guys that might
07:03become Buffalo Sabres.
07:04How much did Kekalainen talk about how they landed on this player, Paul, as opposed to the German kid or
07:13Chase Reed from Sault Ste. Marie and end up on Daxon Rudolph?
07:20He said that it was unanimous amongst the scouts.
07:24They all felt he was the top defenseman in the draft.
07:28And then they gave their reasons why.
07:31You know, he's got size.
07:32He, of course, is very good offensively, but is also good defensively.
07:37He has an edge to him, which they like.
07:41So just a lot of things that they felt made him.
07:45And the guy that most people thought was the number one defenseman was the fourth defenseman off the board.
07:51Right.
07:51Not the first.
07:53You know, it reminds me a little bit when Wright was supposed to be the first guy off the board
07:57in his draft, Shane Wright.
07:59And now, you know, he wound up being I think he was fourth overall.
08:03I, you know, I don't have to look it up, but I'm pretty sure he was fourth overall.
08:09And now Seattle's looking to trade him, get rid of him.
08:11I mean, he hasn't worked at all, but he was supposed to be the number one overall pick.
08:16And here's Reed was supposed to be the best defenseman in this draft.
08:19And most people felt the Sabres were going to get him because three forwards were going to go in the
08:25first three, which happened.
08:27And the Sabres went another way.
08:29And then other defensemen kept going.
08:31And Reed was the fourth defenseman off the board.
08:34So it'll be interesting to see how this all breaks down throughout the years.
08:39The second pick the Sabres made on Friday night at 20, Ilya Morozov from Russia.
08:45What do you know about him?
08:47It's funny, I mean, he's huge for a forward.
08:50He's 6'3 already, 17, not even 18 yet.
08:54He was the second youngest college player at Miami University, which for anybody that doesn't know is Miami of Ohio.
09:03But it's, you know, he was more of a two-way guy.
09:06And being 17 in college hockey, remember, a lot of guys aren't true freshmen.
09:12So they play in junior in the USHL for a couple of years.
09:16So he's going up against guys.
09:1822-year-olds.
09:2022?
09:20Yeah.
09:21Yeah.
09:22Yeah.
09:22At 17.
09:24You know, so don't get, you know, fans, don't get excited that he didn't have great numbers offensively.
09:30You know, at age 17, 8 goals and 12 assists for 36 points.
09:37But he was a very good two-way player.
09:41He's a guy that, you know, came over at age 14 to learn the language and to learn things.
09:47He's a straight-A student at Miami University.
09:52He, you know, it's just everything he seems to do he is able to accomplish and has been really impressive
09:59to people that have run into him.
10:02So, you know, it's one of those things at 20.
10:05And that, when the Sabres moved up from 27 to 20, I almost, remember I talked to you, I said,
10:11I know Jerry Fortin has a guy on his mind.
10:13I know he does.
10:14Right.
10:14He had a little group of guys, and this was one of them.
10:17And he was the last one of the group that was still there.
10:20Didn't I read that Morozov himself noticed, did he not comment after the draft, that he noticed the Sabres moving
10:28from 27 to 20?
10:30Because he thought, like, maybe the consensus rankings that he was looking at had him pegged as around 20.
10:36So, like, he thought it was notable.
10:37He paid attention when the Sabres moved.
10:40He's like, that's where I could go.
10:41That's where I'm projected to go.
10:42So, it's pretty neat that it worked out that way.
10:44Yeah, and Jerry Fortin knew he wasn't going to get him at 27 in this group.
10:48And he said there was a significant drop-off between this group and the next group, which is another reason
10:55why they wanted to get out of 27 and get up to 20,
10:58because it was a significant drop in the quality of player.
11:05Paul, I hear activity behind you.
11:08Are you still downtown development camp?
11:11Yeah, I just stayed here.
11:12Yeah, well, actually, St. Joe's is playing right now.
11:15I saw Rob Ray bouncing around here, but he didn't, of course, he didn't say hello to me, but, so
11:20his son probably is on the ice here.
11:21And, yeah, I stayed down here.
11:25I'm actually in the middle of writing my article.
11:26I figure I might as well, because I have the TV show on Channel 2.
11:30This is actually our last Monday until football season, so I figured I'm already down here.
11:35There's no sense driving home.
11:36So, I'm doing some work here with a hockey game behind me, or actually, it's in front of me.
11:42And, you know, once I get the article written, I'll head over to the TV studio.
11:47Anything stand out from the first day of development camp today?
11:51No, not really.
11:52You don't get too much out of it.
11:54It's just basically drills.
11:55And the thing is, you really don't get much out of it from the fact that they do a lot
12:00of dry land training before they get on the ice.
12:04The players that we talked to were, like, whipped.
12:07They were like, okay, can we get this over with?
12:09We want to kind of go to bed.
12:12Because, you know, they were on the treadmills, you know, getting killed, and then, you know, they wound up on
12:16the ice.
12:17Getting killed, and so it's hard to kind of pick up because they're fatigued before they even make the ice.
12:24But I did get a picture I sent out of the three huge defensemen, Kleber, Mertka, and Sturbeck.
12:33They were all standing together, and I'm going, wow.
12:39Mic drop.
12:41Let's just leave it there.
12:44And end it on wow.
12:46It's an appropriate way to end the thing.
12:51Paul, if you can hear us, you're good.
12:54Onward for you.
12:55Paul's appearance with us brought to you by Raylax Honda.
12:58Raylax, we got this.
12:59I don't mean to make a decision to blow that off, but, you know, if you've got more for Paul,
13:03we can bring him back.
13:04But I'm good.
13:06Mertka, last year's number one.
13:09What's the plan for him?
13:11I mean, he's a tryout, right?
13:14To make the roster.
13:16What do you mean?
13:17Well, he'd be considered.
13:20I guess he'd be considered, yeah.
13:22I think he's a long shot.
13:23Do you?
13:24Okay.
13:24I do.
13:25I mean, that's sight unseen.
13:27I mean, you know, it's possible he has improved through the season.
13:33His, you know, offseason is really now.
13:36So, I guess he could, you know, work on his skating or his strength or something and show up and
13:40just be, like, ready to play in the NHL.
13:45But, for me, the minute they picked him, it was interesting.
13:47They kept him around like they did.
13:49And then he went to Rochester and then he eventually went back to juniors.
13:52I just felt like a guy that age, that size, with that toolkit, that's a project.
13:58Like, that to me, if you think any first-round NHL defenseman could take, like, Paul will often tell you,
14:04like, how long it took Darlene not to get here but to actually become Darlene.
14:09You know, you're talking about many years.
14:11I feel like a kid like this, like Mertka, is going to be on the higher end of timeline.
14:17Like, it's going to take time for him to put it all together because of just the – there's a
14:23lot of rawness, I think, to his game.
14:24Or there was.
14:26And I'd be surprised if enough of that got ironed out to the point where he'd be an option here.
14:33In one season in Seattle.
14:36Juniors.
14:36Right.
14:37So, maybe that ends up if he's – I think he was – I mean, he was in Rochester, so
14:44he was eligible to do that.
14:45I think because of his status.
14:49Like, he's not North American, so he could have been, but they wanted to get him back to juniors, so
14:55he didn't stick in Rochester.
14:56Maybe that's where he's ticketed for next year.
14:58I don't know.
14:59But to me, it would be very surprising.
15:01With their roster, with the trade they made on Friday, and Timmons is still here.
15:07You've got Mets is still here.
15:10I would just anticipate that it's a pretty crowded room right now for him.
15:14And they – so I don't think they need him.
15:16But, you know, again, if he surprises and is more polished than I'm suggesting he is right now, you know,
15:25maybe they could have to – you know, he could force them to make a decision, I suppose.
15:29But I feel like their D are known already.
15:34Right?
15:34I think that the kid Zellweger slides into Byram's spot.
15:38You know, Timmons and the guy – what's the name of the guy they got from Chicago?
15:44I can't think of his name.
15:45Trevier?
15:45Yeah, that's it.
15:47You know, I think that's a third-pair guy.
15:50And so they've got seven guys right now that I think are outranking Mirka.
15:56I just thought of two more things I would have brought up to Paul if he not left us so
16:00abruptly.
16:01Well, here, I'll try to – I'll be Paul.
16:05I've always wanted to do this.
16:06Well, one is that he called Justin Bieber on Friday.
16:12Paul.
16:13Paul called Justin Bieber.
16:14He called the celebrity correctly.
16:16Oh, okay.
16:17Who it was going to be.
16:18Okay.
16:19Wow.
16:20Good job, Paul.
16:21Major A-list celebrity introducing the Leafs pick at 101 in the draft.
16:26I think there were two names.
16:27Him or Drake.
16:28Him or Drake.
16:29Yeah.
16:30I couldn't think of anyone else who I think – I mean, it wasn't going to be Ann Murray.
16:33Due respect.
16:34Somebody associated with the Leafs.
16:36Michael Myers.
16:38Mike Myers.
16:39Mike Myers.
16:39Yeah, he's not A-list anymore.
16:42Isn't there a new one of them?
16:45Yes.
16:45Yeah.
16:46Austin Powers.
16:47Yeah, yeah, right.
16:47Yes.
16:48But he's not – I don't think he's A-list.
16:50Or, as Emily Kaplan put it, major A-list.
16:53Yeah.
16:54Bieber is?
16:55I guess Bieber still is.
16:56Yeah.
16:57I don't know.
16:58You sell out arenas?
16:59I have no idea.
17:00Drake is.
17:01I don't – I honestly don't really know what he ever has been up to.
17:08I can't help you.
17:11He could have as many records out as the Kardashians, for all I know.
17:14I really don't – I have no idea.
17:16I assume he's a recording artist.
17:18Yes.
17:18That much –
17:19I can confirm.
17:20Yeah.
17:21I can confirm.
17:21Some acclaim.
17:22So, that was one thing I could have said to Paul, because Paul was correct in his prediction.
17:26He doesn't like to make predictions, but he had that right.
17:28That's right.
17:28He had that nailed.
17:30And the other is, he described Byram as the Sabre's third best defenseman.
17:33Who's second?
17:35Power.
17:36Not Samuelson?
17:39Would it be possible that Paul or somebody could rank – yeah, sure it could be.
17:45Byram above Samuelson?
17:46Yeah.
17:47Yeah, you could.
17:48I wonder if he might have said Samuelson second.
17:50Yeah, I don't know.
17:53Yeah, I don't know how he – see, I –
17:56Byram, to me, a clear fourth.
17:58Yeah.
18:00But, you know, you don't have to agree with that.
18:04Paul certainly doesn't.
18:05Paul ranked him higher than that.
18:06Ranked him higher.
18:07I do – I happen to agree with that.
18:09With Paul?
18:10No, with you.
18:11With me.
18:11With – that Byram was the fourth of four of four.
18:15Four of four?
18:15Four of four.
18:16Yeah.
18:17Not that it had to be by miles.
18:18Miles.
18:19Right, no.
18:19I think you were always lower on him than I was.
18:24But, you know, the stats don't lie.
18:26I mean, there are defensive shortcomings.
18:29I'm really – you know, I don't want to get carried away with how interested I am,
18:34but I'm pretty curious to see how that hits.
18:36Like, if he's going to play 27 minutes a night and anchor the power play, which, you know,
18:42they're going to pay him – they're going to pay him 12.5 million bucks or something here in a
18:46few days.
18:46He's absolutely going to get the runway to do all that stuff, and I'm just really curious to see how
18:51it goes.
18:52That is not a fully formed team yet, and they could – that could get – that could be rough
18:58for a little bit there, I think.
19:02The fact that this kid that they got in the trade, Crevier, was playing top four minutes there,
19:07and some people were describing him as their best defenseman, I think that's a nice compliment to the kid,
19:13but it also does shine somewhat of a light on what they had in the room as far as defenseman
19:18goes.
19:18Like, not much.
19:21So, you know, it's all laid out there for Byram.
19:24I just don't know – he wants this.
19:26He should want it.
19:27He's got a tremendous toolkit.
19:29He's a great skater, powerful skater, good puck handler.
19:33I don't know.
19:34I don't know about him playing 27 minutes a night without Darlene on his hip.
19:40Or power, for that matter.
19:41Yeah, right, right.
19:43We'll take a break.
19:44803-0550 for your calls.
19:47We still have Connor Hellebuck speculation, which still, for me, is the same as last week.
19:54I believe everything, but I doubt the Sabres would be bothering in this if they really didn't want to do
20:01it.
20:01Sure, everybody has their price, but it sounds to me and to Bulldog, too, that, I mean,
20:07why do we have this particular speculation?
20:10I mean, there's got to be some smoke there, right?
20:12So do you want it?
20:14At what price?
20:15I mean, there's got to be some smoke there, right?
20:15Hear Ilights.
20:16I'm not looking for someone I should goba.
20:16Either, I won't know.
20:16Alright.
20:16I am Ugh.
20:16And now, my face is coming to me, for my body.
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