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00:00I'm Sabres GM, Jarmo Kekalainen.
00:03The last thing was interesting.
00:05Google Translate made me think of watching World Cup
00:09and managers from other countries singing anthems.
00:14Was that something that they had to learn?
00:16Was that job one, maybe, that you'd have to learn the anthem of the country?
00:19I'm going to be on TV. I've got to belt it out.
00:21Hard-working.
00:22Well, otherwise...
00:25Close-up shop.
00:27July 1st.
00:28Is what that sounds like.
00:29Another July 1st.
00:30Does that not sound like close-up shop?
00:32I mean, we're always looking.
00:35Sure, Paul asked at the end there,
00:37is there anything else you're still looking?
00:39Oh, we're always looking to...
00:42I think they're done.
00:44It's very curious to me that he would choose, Kekalainen,
00:48would choose to speak at 4 o'clock on this day.
00:50Because, you know, 4 o'clock is the NHL trade deadline, too,
00:54in March or late February, whenever that comes.
00:57And when that comes, there is often...
01:00I can remember years where Darcy Regeer spoke before 4 o'clock,
01:04because we're done.
01:05We've done whatever we were going to do.
01:07It was usually not much to get us excited,
01:09but we're done, so I'm available now, and I'm going to talk.
01:12It was the famous example being that they hosted a live chat with him at noon.
01:19On free agency, on this day.
01:21So here we are.
01:22We're 4 hours into the free agent market being open,
01:26and one of the first things I said to you,
01:28we're trying to figure out when do we talk to Paul,
01:30the timing of the day.
01:31And Paul said, you know,
01:33I feel like Kekalainen might be talking early in your show.
01:37I thought, that's weird.
01:39Like, why would he talk 4 hours into free agency?
01:42Because that will symbolically say, like,
01:44we've done what we're going to do.
01:47And, I mean, it doesn't mean that literally has to be the case,
01:50but the way he sounded just now,
01:53their team is on the floor, I think.
01:56That's how he sounds.
01:58Any trade talks, I think you walked in while that was our...
02:01That started at, like, 5 to 4.
02:03Yes, I missed the beginning.
02:05One of the first things he mentioned was,
02:08any trade conversations in the run-up to the draft,
02:11we're so focused on our young guys that, you know,
02:15we just don't want to, we didn't want to give up.
02:18And, like, oh, okay.
02:22Including Benson, apparently, in terms of Winnipeg.
02:25I guess that, yeah.
02:26Reportedly.
02:26That's a hang-up on you ask, I think, to me.
02:30Like, what?
02:31If they really ask for him.
02:34I mean, I guess shoot your shot, right?
02:36Maybe you never know.
02:36How desperate are they for this goalie?
02:38Maybe they'll give us this guy that they just signed to a seven-year contract.
02:41It's a really interesting thing,
02:43how big you choose to go in those negotiations.
02:47Right.
02:47You can offend.
02:48Yeah.
02:49And I think that, for me, that offended me to read it.
02:53I'm not the manager of the Sabres,
02:55but I'd rather, like, get out of here.
02:58I know.
02:59You're not getting that guy in that trade.
03:01But, look, the big news here is, I think, that they're done.
03:08I'm reluctant.
03:09I mean, there's still a whole offseason here.
03:12But he's talking like, we're going to replace talk with the guys we have.
03:18He says we feel like we've competently filled the hole left by Byram.
03:22And he talked about, despite Paul pushing the left-right-handedness of the defense pairs,
03:29he said, I think Zellweger's ready to play, not at the level Byram did,
03:33but to take on that role and eventually fill those shoes.
03:36So they have a mind, I think, at least if Kekalainen's not just BSing us,
03:42that the guy they traded for from Anaheim is going to be Power's partner, which is fine.
03:47That's what I thought initially.
03:48Paul was the one who stuck a stick in my spokes on that idea and said he thought maybe Crevier
03:52because he's the other hand.
03:54Zellweger is his player.
03:55Zellweger, thank you.
03:56So, I don't know, man.
03:59Like, Sabres fans, if, should I have to say if, if they are indeed done, if this is it,
04:05there's no more Hellebuck trade.
04:08I don't know if there ever was a Dylan Larkin trade or a Jason Robertson trade,
04:13Matthew Nye, whatever.
04:14They sound like they're ready to go to the cottage.
04:17Yeah.
04:18The Sabres.
04:19And I just, I'm pretty curious how that's going to go over.
04:26Because it does not feel good to me right now.
04:30I think they needed something that isn't speculative young guys that they're very hopeful about.
04:38I mean, I'm, I'm as encouraged by, I can't say as anyone because someone may just think
04:43any one of those guys can just play Alex Tuck's role and get 70 points for them.
04:48I think that's a little presumptuous.
04:51So, I always thought at least something had to happen there and we got kind of sherry today.
04:58That's almost funny.
05:00I, um.
05:01That's Corkum-esque.
05:02Yeah, yeah.
05:03A player from the past.
05:04Look, I, I don't feel, I just, I don't, I don't feel good at all right now about this.
05:09I don't feel good at all right now.
05:13Well, I want to be a little bit more optimistic than that.
05:17Um, because I think it's always been reasonable to believe that everything he says about his
05:25young forwards will be correct.
05:27It doesn't even necessarily have to be all of them, but they're in a, their roster is
05:32in a great place, I think, in that way.
05:35And I don't mind that he was unwilling to flip even Zach Benson, but the other names are,
05:43we know, Helen Use, Osland, Kulik, uh, to get to some, uh, potentially some sort of kingpin,
05:52uh, player.
05:54And it also, I want to say this at least once, it also doesn't have to be a done deal
06:00that
06:01they won't end up because those guys, like we talked about yesterday, still have not been
06:06traded to other teams.
06:07I don't hear anything about anybody on that list today at all.
06:11Do you?
06:12No.
06:13Larkin, Robertson, Nyes, I guess Wierenski a little bit, if it were he, but it's not,
06:18that's not a Sabres idea.
06:19No, right.
06:20And then Hellebuck, I haven't seen anything today.
06:22About any of those guys.
06:24So, yeah, let's get the press conference in and let's have a beer.
06:29And, you know, if somebody doubles back, then we can talk about that because there is still,
06:35each case is different.
06:37There is still perhaps some urgency on behalf of those players' teams to do something.
06:43I have thought that the way the insiders treated Hellebuck in their reporting, that
06:49Winnipeg wanted to do that with somebody.
06:52But they got locked out on Florida and Buffalo, it seems, just would not bend the knee.
07:00Right.
07:00And I don't know where that leaves them or where it leaves him.
07:05I mean, he has only so much control over the situation.
07:09But I wasn't dying for that anyway.
07:10The very, the very best, listen, I'm disappointed that nothing, certainly nothing big is imminent
07:20and nothing big has happened yet.
07:23It, this could work.
07:25I mean, one of those kids could be the rookie of the year or like a contender for that.
07:29All right.
07:29I mean, there's a lot of talent there.
07:32So, you know, okay.
07:35But the best I can do to sort of swallow the last 20 minutes or so, listening to how Kekalana
07:44just sounded, is that the timing of it four hours into free agency, while you're making
07:51the point that is the right point to make that any, any of the Kingpin guys have not
07:55been traded, any of them, they're still out there and maybe Kekalana is enough of a card
08:02player to say, you know what, let me go, let me go talk to the media and sound like I'm
08:09about to go rip into a 30 pack of Molson's and let's see if that jogs anything loose.
08:15Like, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe Kevin Sheveldayev calls me right at 4.15 because he heard
08:23what, you know, that we sound like we're closing up shop for the summer and we're done and maybe
08:28something breaks loose that way.
08:30Maybe it was a tactical decision to talk at four o'clock.
08:34That's that.
08:35That is the most glass half full thing I can give you.
08:38And it, I mean, it could be, I doubt it, but I mean, it's possible.
08:43Well, what we don't, why you and anybody else might be a little bit twisted about this is
08:52really two things.
08:53It's that Alex Tuck is gone and has not been replaced by anybody new.
08:58The simple fact that there's a big minus on the roster from last year, but it's also the past
09:05and referencing other July 1st quote experiences, which are basically all this.
09:13Like this, yeah.
09:14They're all just sort of sad in Sabre's history.
09:18It's, it's really both.
09:19And I think I said this yesterday and I think this is the most interest, maybe the most interesting
09:25conversation to have at this point in time about them is whether that second thing is,
09:31is really a thing right now that they can't attract players.
09:38They don't all have no trade clauses and the Sabres have ammunition for trades, but the players
09:45have a lot of power, they have more power than ever.
09:47And if a guy, one of those shortlist names it's known would not be happy, then I think
09:55you just don't do it.
09:56And I'll say again, I think the kind of rebuild of the reputation or even simply build, because
10:04I'm not sure what they're rebuilding from the seventies with the Sabres.
10:08I mean, really, it's not just when Briere left, like the Sabres have almost always had
10:13a certain, different ownership, but almost always had a certain reputation that kind
10:18of stops short.
10:20And is that something that is in their way in 2026?
10:26Is that something that Kekalainen just experienced in the last two weeks for the first time being
10:32in charge of it here that I can't necessarily get what I want, even if I think my offers
10:38are fair because there's like a Buffalo problem.
10:41And I think that there's still, it's case by case.
10:45We don't know how everybody, it would certainly vary among players, of course, but it takes,
10:51probably would take more than one good season when you lost in the second round.
10:56If it's even possible to get to a point where you're on like a high, the highest level of
11:02teams, cause they're almost never going to be that, but where you can really advance to
11:08become an organization that you're going to get a certain respect that you heretofore did
11:13not.
11:13I don't, I don't know if that's different.
11:15He's not going to give you that, you know, is, is there a stigma?
11:21Because, you know, Adams did kind of show you his cards, but he shouldn't.
11:26I mean, it had burned Adams to sort of go in on his particular disadvantages.
11:34I think most guys would want to, would maybe Adams too, would prefer not to do that.
11:39And so is Kekalainen going to, you know, brush off any question about whether he's got that
11:49problem, that particular problem.
11:51It's just, it's, it's broad and there'd be a pretty wide range of takes among players
11:57about it.
11:58So you can only go so far with it, but that that's part of, I expect if we get any
12:02phone
12:03calls about this today, I mean, it's 90 out and it's July 1st.
12:08This is a day where I would like to take a break from the radio myself, but if we get
12:14five phone calls today about this, I bet three of them are going to talk about the past.
12:21And I don't know that that's wrong, but it's not necessarily something that really is part
12:27of the equation right now.
12:28We don't, we don't get to know just how much, you know, I mentioned yesterday, like, you
12:33know, a guy that's a free agent now or, or being asked to waive a no trade clause.
12:38I have no, he might've been four years old when Breer and Drury left.
12:42So like, I doubt that there's scar tissue there or that they even know about it, but
12:47you know what star players in the league do know about, especially American ones that are
12:53good friends with a certain former departed number two overall pick is that this organization,
12:58the ownership of this organization would not allow Michael to get the healthcare he wanted
13:03to get the surgery he wanted.
13:05And Larkin, for example, is, has always been described as being very close with Jack Eichel.
13:13And frankly, it would not surprise me in the least if Dylan Larkin was someone who was like,
13:18I don't care if I have a one team, no trade Buffalo's on it.
13:22I'm not going to play in there.
13:23They did not take care of, you know, players are, they're not going to get lost in the weeds
13:29of he said, and then she said, there's like Jack couldn't get what he wanted done.
13:33I'm not doing it.
13:35It's like that.
13:36And that's, that has nothing to do with, you know, signing guys or winning games.
13:40It's just a thing that is there that I don't like to think about, but when it comes to a
13:46moment like this and you think about like, what, what does the new GM of the Sabres, what's
13:52he up against, right?
13:54How hard is it to convince people that this is a desirable location?
13:57Now, when you're talking about the best of the best in the league, that's a thing that
14:03would be on the list.
14:04And that's pretty recent.
14:07So I just, I, I hate, I hate that I have to even acknowledge that, but I think to be
14:11thorough, it has to be said.
14:13In other news, Trochek to Utah.
14:19You go to Utah, Trochek, you stay in Utah.
14:25Well, go long on that.
14:26I'm ready.
14:27I don't, I don't want to keep saying what I'm saying.
14:28This is classic July 1st Sabres content.
14:32Not enjoying the sound of my voice right now.
14:33The best part is other guys going to other places, skipping the conference.
14:39At least I never got to a place where I'm mad that the Sabres didn't get a guy I didn't
14:43want.
14:45Because we've been there and we've been there like, I don't even want that guy.
14:49How come you couldn't get him?
14:52Yeah.
14:53It's insanity, right?
14:55Well, you can have that today if you want it.
14:57Yeah.
14:57Whether it's Trochek or Hellebuck or whoever else.
15:01Um, I mean, where, what are they going to go into next season as in terms of a favorite?
15:08We know a little bit about that already because the cup odds came out right when the cup was
15:11won and the Sabres were kind of down the list.
15:15So from that perspective, it wasn't too much of a compliment about who they are.
15:21And I suppose, I mean, these are pretty sophisticated things.
15:26Um, expectations on Tucker, even Byram are probably baked into it.
15:30At least a little bit, but you know, not, not great, but I'm not going to spend the
15:37next, what, four months, three months sitting around and imagine them finishing fifth.
15:45Like the, this, I think we can, we can hopefully safely say about them that they can get after
15:52it.
15:53I guess that doesn't, that's not the right phrase for right now because what exactly did
15:59they get after, you know, what do they do?
16:03But I mean, there's a lot to like is all I'm saying.
16:06And if they want to play it forward with Helenuse, Kulik, Benson, obviously Benson, because he
16:16signed and Ausland, I'm here for it.
16:19I'm really excited to see what that is.
16:23I mean, they're probably not.
16:24Kekeleinen said the law gets stronger and better and the odds aren't necessarily so that
16:30they'll all get better.
16:31Yeah, I think the move when you're that flush with guys, including now the draft picks from
16:37this past Friday, not to mention Saturday, but really it's, you know, they had two first
16:42rounders on Friday night.
16:45The move there is to turn, pick one.
16:50You want to pick the right one, but you get to pick one, pick one, send them away and turn
16:55them into something to help you right now.
16:58And, you know, whether that's, you know, Ausland and Mertka and a future pick or whatever, like
17:04that, that to me, when I've got, I've got all three of those guys, Kulik, Ausland and Helenuse
17:11are not all playing top six minutes on this team next year.
17:15Again, there's not roles for all those guys.
17:18So if you divested yourself of one of them and plugged a hole with a veteran, you know,
17:23you're creating competition, you're also, I think, representing to the team, to the veteran
17:28players that are still here.
17:30Like we recognize Tuck's importance and we want to make sure that we bolster this thing
17:35and keep this thing full speed ahead.
17:38And I don't know, I'm really curious how I know what the players will say when they get
17:42a chance to talk about it months from now, which is like, oh, these guys are super talented.
17:46We're really excited about them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
17:49But I don't know, man, I think if I'm Tage Thompson, I'd rather be lining up with a 28
17:54year old dude who can grow a beard to go try to win the Stanley cup instead of, you know,
18:00filling in with 20 year olds.
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