- 1 day ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00GR, Sports Radio 550.
00:05Hi there, July 1st, happy birthday Bulldog.
00:09It always seems to be on this day, July 1st.
00:12Hockey happens in some places, and your birthday, and Bobby Bonilla.
00:18And happy birthday Canada.
00:20And Canada.
00:21Yep.
00:21Just lines up. Amazing.
00:24Isn't the equinox really something when it does that?
00:26Nature is incredible.
00:28Yep.
00:29So, thank you.
00:30Sure.
00:31You are the one of the two of us who I think has been more restrained on Saber's stuff.
00:39Let's see what they do first.
00:41That's completely reasonable.
00:42I should be more like that.
00:44But I've been more along the lines of giddy and excited and hopeful.
00:52Yeah, I'm very much in, okay, Yarmul.
00:55You want to have the memes with the sunglasses and all that.
00:58I don't know if he really gives a crap about that, but whatever.
01:00The fans want to have their fun with, like, Wheeler Dealer, Big Baller, Kekalainen, or whatever.
01:05You know, today's odd day is maybe even the day to, you know, make your team better, which has not
01:17happened at all yet.
01:19No.
01:19Through the run-up to the draft, the draft itself, you know, they might be more well-positioned for 27,
01:2928, and 29 than they were because of the fourth overall pick on Friday.
01:34And that's really nice for 27, 28, 29, me and us, us being not just you and I, but the
01:41collective here.
01:43You know, Saber's fans, something's got to happen, I think.
01:50Otherwise, you are, you know, running the risk of just running back the same team.
01:53So there's only three hours in here.
01:56It was a good team.
01:56It was a good team, but it lost two of its most important cogs, I believe, that really made it
02:03run.
02:05I was certainly not prepared ever in any universe, in any way, shape, or form, to pay Bowen Byram $12
02:13.5 million a year, which is what he's getting from Chicago.
02:15So, good luck.
02:17God bless.
02:18Good luck.
02:19How about that?
02:19Go for it.
02:21I hope that works out for you.
02:22I think there are two players today that deserve our, not our, but perspective and sort of a commentary about
02:31how things have gone for them.
02:33And one is Byram, who is now, is he not, the highest paid average annual value defenseman in the National
02:41Hockey League?
02:42He will be.
02:43The problem is he still has a year on the contract he signed last year here.
02:48Okay, well, poor guy.
02:49So, his 12.5 will probably be passed by the time he actually is earning it.
02:55But for right now, into the future, he has the highest annual average value on a defenseman contract.
03:00So, he won.
03:01Yeah.
03:01He got everything he wanted.
03:04Last year, I couldn't wait to get him out of here.
03:08And it was less insane by a lot, I would say, for me to think he would have been good
03:16for the Sabres than this happening.
03:18Right.
03:19I mean, I guess they are correlated, of course.
03:22He needed to have a good year.
03:23He had a great year.
03:24And be on a good team.
03:26Yep.
03:26To showcase, you know, his strengths.
03:29And now, you've got, I mean, that's insane.
03:32The other guy is Levi.
03:34Think of, it wasn't last summer, but maybe two or three summers ago.
03:39Right.
03:39It's a long time ago now.
03:40Where it felt like the Sabres were just sort of pinning their hopes on Devin Levi.
03:44And he barely ever even got up here.
03:47Yep.
03:47In that period of time.
03:49So, he goes to Edmonton and they'll, you know, they've been searching for a better idea for three, four, five
03:57years there.
03:59Really, almost the entirety of McDavid's career there.
04:02I feel like they've been looking for a better idea and goal.
04:05So, I'm going to guess, despite the modest, I mean, it's not like any kind of a blockbuster trade.
04:10He's a minor league goalie and an undersized minor league goalie at that, if that matters.
04:15You know, some teams have more of a preference towards bigger framed guys, whatever.
04:20I'm positive he'll get a look there.
04:22Like, he's going to get a shot to win that job.
04:25Because I don't think they have not had a better idea.
04:28So, you know, good for him.
04:30But, yeah, I mean, his name, I mean, that whole.
04:35That whole experience, and I think it was an experience.
04:39Like, he was sort of buzzy when he got traded here.
04:44Like, even though he had been a seventh-round pick the year before, there was excitement about him in the
04:50NHL.
04:50Not just in Buffalo, where they acquired him.
04:53But it was like, oh, look out for this.
04:56He's been great everywhere he goes.
04:58You know, 940 save percentage in college.
05:01And, yeah, they started it way too soon.
05:05And it never got, it never stabilized.
05:09He never really, you know, a nice little start at that first year when he got here.
05:13He was pretty good.
05:15The next fall, the wheels came off really fast.
05:18And it never got, it never got back to any kind of exciting status.
05:22Well, let's pin this down.
05:24The second year is the year where Lukanen kind of took off.
05:29That's the second half of that year where he was excellent.
05:33The Sabres just missed.
05:34No, that's not the second year.
05:35That's the year before.
05:37But, am I wrong already?
05:39Like, there was the potential that Levi would be given another longer-term stint.
05:48But Lukanen kind of blocked him.
05:49And then he got a contract.
05:50And then he got a contract from that.
05:53And then, yeah, that's right.
05:56And then the next year, he was just kind of stuck down there.
06:00And the results when he did come up were not good.
06:03He played a little bit.
06:04He played nine games in 24-25 for the Sabres.
06:08Goals against over four.
06:10And never seen again.
06:11Well, it's funny, not funny, but all the Hellebuck stuff, which we'll get to, because he's still a Jet at
06:18this point, is the conversation revolves around the trustworthiness of goalies and how predictable they are.
06:28And this is always the problem.
06:30Even for a guy of the stature of Connor Hellebuck, this is the problem, is what can you really count
06:36on?
06:37What's reliable?
06:37And Levi was quintessentially this.
06:41I mean, he was a low draft pick.
06:43Seventh round, wasn't he like a low draft pick?
06:46Yes.
06:46That killed it in college, was the best goalie in college hockey for two years running.
06:53And he became our great hope that, well, at least we've got that figured out.
06:59And, you know, you never did.
07:01No.
07:01You never had that figured out because it's goalies and it's not the best forward or defenseman in college hockey.
07:08It's just a very different calculus, I think.
07:11So that never worked out.
07:13Yeah, the whole thing was just presumptuous is really what it was.
07:17Every side of it.
07:18The Sabres side of it and the outside side of it.
07:21Yeah, I'm not pointing fingers by saying that.
07:23I mean, the Sabres, I think they pinned too much on him too early.
07:28But I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I was excited about him, just like everyone else.
07:33I mean, I thought there was a lot of potential there.
07:35And there still might be.
07:37Who knows?
07:38New situation, whatever.
07:40It does strike me today.
07:42Again, we're three hours into free agency.
07:45And there has not been.
07:46Now, everyone's different.
07:48You may have had your eyes out there on big-name players or other smaller role-type players that have
07:55signed elsewhere.
07:56I would tell you that I'm sure there's degrees of this for me.
08:01But there's nothing that's happened yet today that I'm envious of.
08:04Yeah.
08:04Right?
08:05That I feel like, oh, I wanted that.
08:08Right?
08:08Bobrovsky to Toronto.
08:09It's a reasonable contract, but I was scared of him as an idea, even for just three years and $21
08:16million because of his age and what he looked like this past year and where he's at in his career.
08:21I just was really not.
08:25I felt like that could be like victory lap, thanks for the $7 million a year type territory.
08:30So we'll see what he does in Toronto.
08:31But that was not something I wanted to do.
08:34It is interesting, by the way, that Toronto is playing for the present with Radish and Bobrovsky.
08:43Like, they're trying to get good.
08:45And I don't know.
08:48It's Toronto.
08:49Yep.
08:50This is sort of like old Toronto before Matthews where they would always kind of be going for the quick
08:57fix.
08:58There's been a lot of talk about them and Wierenski, although the Wierenski stuff I feel like has kind of
09:05calmed down.
09:05The last thing I saw on that, that doesn't mean it's the last thing that's been out there on that,
09:10but a little bit before we started, was that he told Columbus, like, you know, we don't have to do
09:16it.
09:16I'm okay.
09:17He's got two years left.
09:19You know, he's okay staying there, basically, was what I read.
09:22Which, you know, I don't know if that's trying to spin, you know, trade partners one way or another or
09:27what, but maybe that's calmed down.
09:29But Toronto's been right in the center of that.
09:31And, like, if they were to pull that off, you know, assuming they have to trade Matthew Nyes as probably
09:36the centerpiece of that trade, that's a remade defensive core with a two-time cup-winning goalie all of a
09:43sudden.
09:43It's a little, they become, the present day becomes a lot more palatable with Wierenski back there, and Radish, for
09:51that matter.
09:52So we'll see what evolves there.
09:54But anything else, like Jacob Truba signed a contract I cannot believe with San Jose.
10:00Like, he's looked finished to me for three years, and he got, like, $8 million a year.
10:06I was like, you know, no thanks.
10:09There's been nothing really today.
10:11Mason Marchment, I think, signed a pretty significant deal.
10:15No foot speed, not a fit.
10:17Like, to me, he was not a tuck replacement.
10:20So as much as I feel sort of desolate in that the Sabres have not done anything that I think
10:25improves their team for the next season, there also isn't anything today that's happened.
10:32You know, really, we've got still the trades that haven't taken place.
10:35And that's Nyes, or that's Larkin, or Halibuck is seemingly the most talked about anyway.
10:41Idea out there.
10:42Jason Robertson, we had some fun with that on Thursday last week.
10:47Dallas traded someone else.
10:48Right.
10:49Bork.
10:50Yep.
10:51And Toronto traded his brother.
10:52What a day in the family.
10:54Yeah.
10:56Where do you meet?
10:57All I'm saying is, the stuff that I, anyway, speaking only for myself, have been most interested in, if it
11:04ever was available and still is available, it's still out there.
11:10Like, if Toronto still wants to trade Matthew Nyes, I can still be on the other end of that phone
11:15call.
11:16Same goes for Jason Robertson.
11:17Same goes for Connor Hellebuck and Dylan Larkin.
11:19Like, the ideas that made the most sense to me for the Sabres are still out there.
11:24What they don't have is the arsenal of this year's draft picks to deal with anymore.
11:29But that doesn't have to be, you know, the end of it.
11:33Well, it is sort of a familiar July 1st so far.
11:36Yeah.
11:37In that, it's other teams having fun.
11:39But I don't disagree that it's just kind of going by me.
11:44I'm not thinking, we weren't thinking that any of these free agents were going to necessarily be that appealing to
11:50the Sabres.
11:50The list never looked good.
11:52No, there's no one that we ever pined for, that we talked about at all, that they should want.
11:58I mean, maybe in passing it happened once or twice, but really there was no big idea.
12:02So, okay.
12:04But they don't want, I mean, what explains this?
12:08They don't want to get through the action section of the summer without a couple of real acquisitions, or at
12:17least one.
12:18I mean, the trade with Anaheim is fine.
12:20They gave up a guy that was fringe NHL and a second-round pick.
12:24I mean, it wasn't such a cost that you can think just by the trade itself that there's necessarily big
12:32upside there.
12:33There might be some.
12:34I don't mind it.
12:36But what explains how there hasn't been something else?
12:42Because I've wanted, you know, sort of as a, if not entirely, as a defender of Kekalainen's here through this,
12:50well, he didn't think he was going to have to give up the fourth overall pick, or even the 20th
12:56overall pick, to get whoever it is that he wants the most from that list.
13:02And, I'll put it this way, the excuse I'll make for it so far is that no one else has
13:07traded for any of those guys either.
13:09So, he's still, if it's right that he's in the room on these players, he would probably still be in
13:15the room on these players.
13:16Yesterday, or Monday, we had a caller who was, like, hitting hard at him because he hadn't done it yet.
13:22And, like, well, is really the time, is now the time to do that?
13:25I mean, can we just get into, get past July 1st, noon, and get into it?
13:30But you're going to have to, you're going to want to see one addition, if not more, that we can
13:38really sort of get excited about, even if that is, I mean, or quintessentially if that is Hellebuck.
13:43Because that would be a big, a big change.
13:46And how the wind is blowing on that, let's take a minute and kind of lay that out, just in
13:53case, you know, you're hopping in your car,
13:54you haven't been just sitting on Twitter all afternoon or morning, the Winnipeg Jets have acquired Stuart Skinner.
14:04So, they have, and that's like a three and a half to four and a half, I don't remember the
14:09money now, but they've got Stuart Skinner there now.
14:13Late of Pittsburgh, most recently, also Edmonton, that was one of the spaces on the board Edmonton stopped.
14:20Oh, let's trade Skinner for Tristan Jari and see if that works.
14:23It didn't.
14:25So, anyway, Skinner now goes to Winnipeg.
14:28And on one hand, you can look at that and go, well, that's a starting caliber goalie, I guess.
14:36Yeah.
14:37And so, does that make, is that a sign, right?
14:40Is Hellebuck about to be moved?
14:42Well, I think most of us have always thought, not that you can't build a trade around other things,
14:48but that Lucanen would be a part of a Hellebuck trade.
14:51And to me, Hellebuck, excuse me, Skinner, I'm higher on UPL than I am Skinner, but they might be the
15:01same sort of rearranging of deck chairs.
15:04Why would you need both?
15:05Right.
15:05If you, unless you want to make them a tandem or something, I mean, I don't know.
15:09But I feel like that closes the door on Lucanen being a part of a Hellebuck trade.
15:16So, it doesn't necessarily have to close that door for Buffalo, but I think it causes a pivot of some
15:23kind.
15:25Because, again, I think you'd want to offload a $4.5 million goalie in a trade where you're acquiring an
15:30$8.5 million goalie.
15:32I guess there's other ways you could do that, too, but then you've got to add more stuff to the
15:37package to get Winnipeg across the finish line to send you Hellebuck.
15:41So, I don't know, I did not take it as a positive sign that they got Skinner.
15:45I thought, more than making Hellebuck expendable, it makes Lucanen useless to them, and that could be a real problem
15:54in building a trade.
15:55What's left for Winnipeg, then?
15:57Jersey?
15:59If not Buffalo?
16:00Carolina has been mentioned as being in there.
16:03What are the taxes?
16:04And all these guys, each team has had a turn, Buffalo, New Jersey, Carolina, like, oh, they're in on this.
16:12Oh, it seems like it's cooled off.
16:14Like, there's just a rollercoaster ride with that, depending on the timing with which you see the various insider tweets,
16:22you know?
16:23So, I think there's still a market, and I would assume Winnipeg is still exploring that, and it's not just
16:30like Buffalo's the only team in the room.
16:32So, you've got to consider that, too.
16:35Well, I'll say again from yesterday, not to sort of be a dark cloud about this kind of thing, but
16:42it is and was nice and exciting to think that the days of the Sabres being basically off the grid
16:53with free agency and trades, you know, and stars around the NHL were over because of the year that they
17:00had.
17:00And I just will say again, I think that that takes longer than one year to manifest where you become
17:09a team that players want to be a part of.
17:12And the palm trees, sorry, but the taxes stuff and the ancillary stuff is never going to be different.
17:19I mean, the market is not going to grow, the weather is not going to change, like you're never going
17:24to have sort of the natural advantage, if you will, that other teams will have.
17:30The NHL has changed, and you can now, I mean, not even right now, but you can now, you can
17:38claim Florida and Tampa Bay and other teams, Vegas, are teams where you can win.
17:45Not just be warm, but those teams have won all the Cups almost in the last, you know, seven years
17:53or so.
17:54Carolina, I mean, it has changed to that extent.
17:58That was always, I mean, a longer time ago, that was always our sort of defense in this stuff was,
18:06well, sure, it's nice there.
18:09It's pretty nice here.
18:10It's unmanageably hot today here, by the way, if you're not in the area, so not the perfect day for
18:16this.
18:17But it's, you know, it's fine.
18:20But Florida is Florida, and you can want to go there, but you used to be kind of a chump,
18:25I think, if you wanted to go to play for the Florida Panthers or whoever else.
18:31And that is obviously not the case anymore.
18:33Yeah, like back when, you know, I mentioned this, like, I'm worried about Bobrovsky having, like, a retirement tour, signing
18:38this free agent contract.
18:41When a couple of Leafs went down there at the same time, Neuendijk and Roberts, maybe?
18:46Yeah, yeah.
18:46I saw, like, they're just going to play golf all day.
18:50Like, what is even at the stage they were at at their careers?
18:53Right.
18:54So, yeah.
18:56Another thing that happens today, by the way, is there are guys, like, you talk about no trades and being
19:03able to get guys to wave to come.
19:05Something that happens today when the new league year begins, which is what this is, is guys that maybe didn't
19:13have trade protection previously now have some.
19:17Josh Norris has, effective today, a 10-team no-trade list.
19:22Uko Pekalukkanen, effective today, a 5-team no-trade list.
19:26So, I don't know how cumbersome that has to be, but if, right, if you could get a deal with
19:33Winnipeg where they wanted either of those guys, they both have to agree to that now.
19:40And that was not true yesterday.
19:43Winnipeg would seem maybe a natural candidate to be on someone's no list.
19:46Yeah, if you've only got 5, you know, unless you just have always loved it there or something.
19:51You're from there.
19:52That could complicate.
19:54And that's only two guys that I've just thought of because they've been mentioned in, you know, not as much
19:59Norris, but UPL, obviously.
20:02So, like, there's that piece, too, that could complicate things.
20:08So, you know, not ideal that they have not moved yet.
20:11I think it could get harder.
20:14Yeah, I'm not sure what I want right now that, well, I guess the answer is still Larkin or Jason
20:24Robertson.
20:25It's still like a whale.
20:27And, again, they haven't been traded anywhere else.
20:30So, I think we can, I think the Sabres, I mean, they're never going to be Florida, but I think
20:36we can talk about them on the level that they might be in play for somebody that good.
20:42I don't think that's gone away.
20:43I think it became realistic and reasonable, and I think it might still be reasonable to talk about because they
20:49haven't been traded anywhere else.
20:52But there's nothing yet.
20:54Like, there's no addition yet that we can really hone in on.
20:58Levi gone to Edmonton, that's more of a perspective.
21:04I mean, he was not in the plans anymore, and that doesn't, that's not surprising.
21:09It shouldn't be surprising to anyone.
21:11But that's just one where you think about maybe what could have been and what the hype was all about
21:18and just what could have ended up parallel universe kind of situation with him that just never materialized.
21:25And that's it so far.
21:27So, the day is young.
21:30Paul Hamilton's going to join us next.
21:31I think Paul was worried that we would book him for a time when maybe there was going to be
21:36a move, and then he would have to do interviews, and let's get Paul in.
21:41Let's file Paul.
Comments