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00:00Tony Luffman and EJ Raddick from NHL Network discussing scenarios surrounding the Sabres.
00:08Patrick Kane, the focus there, and I don't, I, I don't love it, but I don't, I don't have
00:20a hot take, Sal.
00:21Sal Capaccio is with me for another half an hour still.
00:24I don't feel like I have a hot take on Patrick Kane.
00:26I should.
00:27I think I would rather not.
00:29I'd rather some other veteran, but I want a veteran, and like maybe he fits if they
00:35do.
00:36I think they need to make a trade that involves a package like Matt Bove was laying out last
00:42segment, you know, whether it involves a goalie or not, to open up some room, and then I think
00:48maybe you want to, you want to tell me you want to swap Quinn into, or Kane into Quinn's
00:54spot.
00:54I think I'm, I think I'm listening to that.
00:56I think that's a respectable enough idea.
01:00Here's where I'm conflicted on the Patrick Kane stuff.
01:03They need a guy just like Patrick Kane.
01:06I just don't know if they need Patrick Kane, if that's the best fit for him to come to
01:11Buffalo and finish his career here.
01:13If you stripped away the fact that he's from Buffalo, things that have happened in the past,
01:18I think that would be a guy I'd want to have.
01:21I think they, I would have loved to have Claude Giroux.
01:23Yeah.
01:24Chip has sailed now.
01:25Like, they need that.
01:26Now, he's not going to help on face-offs.
01:28I did look back.
01:29I didn't realize.
01:29He played center a bit in 2011 and 12, and his face-offs, he actually took over 200 face-offs
01:34that year.
01:34Otherwise, like, he's never really done that.
01:36He's a right winger.
01:37But that's not going to help you.
01:39But, yes, power play, like, the things that they need, he can provide.
01:43He can help.
01:44Giroux would have been a face-off guy as well.
01:46That's why I would like him.
01:47If you just took the name Patrick Kane from Buffalo, New York off, I'd be like, hey, go
01:51get that guy.
01:52That's the veteran you need after Alex Tuck left and what you need on your power play.
01:56I just don't love the fact, because I've kind of said for years and believe maybe Patrick
02:02Kane coming to Buffalo wouldn't be the best for Patrick Kane or Buffalo.
02:06Yeah, I feel that.
02:07I feel like so much of that is, it's a long time ago now.
02:14And so, you know, we're talking about a different person at a different point in their life.
02:19I think, you know, eight years ago, maybe ten years ago, I definitely would have been with
02:25you.
02:26I just worry about whether five-on-five he can skate with this team.
02:31You know, that's my concern.
02:34It's not what his name is and where he's from, because I think the power play stuff,
02:39he only had two power play goals last year, but he did have 17 assists.
02:42The year before that, he might have had 12 power play goals.
02:45So maybe it was just a weird year.
02:46Maybe it was, what?
02:47I don't know what kind of factors could have contributed to that.
02:50But his power play goal scoring was way down last year, just FYI for everyone out there
02:56listening.
02:56I just worry about foot speed at his age to be able to skate five-on-five with a team
03:02that plays like this team likes to play.
03:05But I also could be guilty of sort of overstating that concern.
03:11Maybe it's offset by the help he might provide on the power play.
03:15Because he's not getting as much five-on-five, he's more of a DH, right?
03:17It's just kind of, you're inserting him when you need him on the ice.
03:20What's his ice time?
03:21Yeah, or it's just, you know, we got him to do this.
03:24We know there's going to be shortcomings elsewhere.
03:27But if he does this, it's a net win kind of thing maybe for them.
03:32So I wonder.
03:33But it definitely, to me, any thought to signing him requires moving a couple of pieces off
03:42of the current roster.
03:43Like, there's no room.
03:45Like, I did, I made the lines last week, Sal, and I forgot Ausland.
03:52Like, I didn't have, you know, I'm someone who thinks, like, Sam Carrick should be this
03:56team's fourth-line center.
03:58I think that you talk about face-offs, I think that's a great idea, right?
04:01I think they're going to re-sign Krebs.
04:04So he and Malenstein, like, that's my fourth line.
04:07And then everything else is kind of spoken for.
04:09If McLeod is still here, if Quinn is still here, if they're not, then that opens up a
04:15center spot for Ausland, that opens up a wing spot for Patrick Kane, and I think you've
04:20pretty much got, you've got your team.
04:22You've got Helen Euse in there, Ausland in there, Kulik in there, all that.
04:27But I think without a move taking a couple of forwards away, I don't even have room for
04:33Ausland right now, let alone Patrick Kane.
04:36And they want room for Ausland, you know?
04:37Of course, yeah, they should.
04:39I know that next to my name is Buffalo Bills Beat Reporter, but we both know enough people
04:43in this town and people who work around these teams to be able to, you know, hear things.
04:49And I will tell you, this isn't, like, super secret information, but the Sabres absolutely
04:54love their young guys.
04:56And not only love them, but Jarmo, it was even said in the press conference, like, he
05:01doesn't want to trade these guys.
05:02Part of the reason that he doesn't want to trade them is there's just not quite enough
05:07of a book of work on them yet, right?
05:09Which is, man, if you do that now, you could really regret it.
05:12Maybe a year from now, you understand a little bit more.
05:15And maybe you say, hey, we should have done it last year.
05:17You'd rather do that than trade one now and say, oh my God, what did I do?
05:22Then wait a year and go, you know what?
05:24He never really developed.
05:25The other thing I'll tell you is, I'm telling you, they love Yuri Kulik.
05:29Look, they love Yuri Kulik.
05:32And even though I love Yuri Kulik, I think coming back, that is still some if and hope,
05:39right?
05:39Because you don't know.
05:40It is still if and hope on Helenos.
05:42There is still if and hope on Auslan.
05:45Like, you just don't know.
05:46You asked me about their offseason.
05:48Look, it feels to me, I know Matt said he feels like another move's coming.
05:51Maybe.
05:52It feels to me like they are really banking on the way they'll be better is simply the
05:57growth of those kids.
05:58And I don't know if I like that, because they're certainly not a better team on the
06:02ice right now than they were the night they lost Game 7 to the Canadians.
06:06That's exactly where I am.
06:09Could it work?
06:10Yeah.
06:10I mean, if Helenos becomes a Rookie of the Year candidate, then, you know, yeah.
06:15You know, you expect more production from all of the kids.
06:21Kulik is a true wild card.
06:22It's funny, you, I mentioned this with Nate yesterday, because you've mentioned this to
06:27me about Kulik before, and you're like the third or fourth different person that I know
06:34in media, you know, not all of them work here, that has said that to me.
06:40And what I said to Nate yesterday is, I always get a little, like, the first time, like, maybe
06:45you were the first person to tell me that.
06:47And I went, oh, wow, that's interesting.
06:49Okay, file it away.
06:50Then I get another person telling me, and then another, and I just start to think, like,
06:56stop trying to sell me how good Yuri Kulik is.
07:00Like, I don't know, it feels like, buy a billboard already.
07:02It just feels like a campaign a little bit.
07:06That doesn't mean it's disingenuous.
07:08I just, it makes me skeptical.
07:10It feels like they're trying to sell us on him, and that, I don't know, that just sets
07:15off alarms for me a little bit, I guess.
07:17I totally get that.
07:18I totally get it.
07:19But you're right.
07:20If you kind of put the pieces together right now, I don't know where the room is, and you
07:25would have to move a couple of people to make these things happen.
07:27And even then, though, I'm a little bit, myself, I'm skittish.
07:31I don't want to trade any of these young guys, but I also don't know if I'm going to
07:34get the same growth I think, I hope I get, and you do have to stay healthy.
07:39I mean, that is part of the sport, and that has happened here, and they were not completely
07:43healthy at the end of the season.
07:44So, you're banking on a lot of ifs, and right now, I think that's where they are without
07:50saying another move is coming.
07:52I'm not as firmly entrenched on that as Matt is.
07:54I think it's possible another move is coming.
07:56They certainly could sign Patrick Kane.
07:58They certainly could make a trade for Hellebuck, which would be, obviously, a really big deal.
08:03I just think they really have a lot of belief that they're going to get better simply by
08:06internal growth.
08:06Yeah.
08:07I want to say, like, I love Matt's trade package because it didn't involve, although
08:13he did say one more thing.
08:15Like, I think if you can put a trade package together to get Hellebuck from Winnipeg, whether
08:23it involves Lucanen or not, that doesn't involve one of those three kids.
08:28I mean, wizardry.
08:30Yeah.
08:31Because I just think whatever Winnipeg is going to ask for back, they're going to ask
08:36for something that's going to hurt.
08:38Right?
08:39And what you have to decide if you're Jarmo is, you know, I'm sure they've got their own
08:44internal rankings on the three guys, and maybe it's exactly right, like you said, that Kulik
08:48is at the very top, and they're like, okay, well, you know, which guy would we, you know,
08:53most easily maybe bet against?
08:55And that's the guy you include in the trade.
08:57And then you cross your fingers that the guy doesn't turn into, like, a 100-point, you
09:01know, animal or something.
09:02But I just, none of the names, I like Mertka Fine, and Quinn has kind of grown on me, McLeod
09:11I can take or leave, like, none of that hurts.
09:14Like, I'm riding in my car, and they announce a trade, and I hear it's Mertka, and it's Quinn,
09:19and it's McLeod, and it's a future number one.
09:22I'm like, this is the Bowen-Byram trade all over again.
09:25I think you just took this team to the cleaners.
09:27It almost has to include a guy that you go, oh, I didn't want to give him up, because
09:33it's Connor Hellebuck, you know?
09:35Like, I don't know, it just seems, it seems far-fetched to me that you could pull it off
09:39without giving up one of those kids.
09:41And it feels to me like Mertka would be a really important player here for all of this
09:48because he's not Jarmo's pick.
09:50I know he was in the organization, but he wasn't his pick.
09:54And when you draft a kid that size, at that position, and he's regarded as a really top
10:00prospect, but you don't have that same attachment to him that Kevin Adams would have, that makes
10:05it a little more palatable, right?
10:06So, it feels to me like he's got to be some sort of really big piece of whatever's happening
10:13this offseason in these talks.
10:15I think that's absolutely right.
10:17I mean, the fact that Kleber has come along like he has, and you just drafted Rudolph.
10:22Well, Rudolph's very different than those two.
10:25Kleber's more defensive-minded.
10:26Mertka's more like sort of a work-in-progress type guy.
10:29But still, you're stocked with right-handed D-men here that, you know, one of them could be expendable.
10:37You know?
10:38So, maybe that ends up being enough to get something across the finish line.
10:44I don't know.
10:45All right.
10:45Well, I'm glad we had some time to play with that.
10:47Sal, I'll tell you what.
10:48But we're getting close to – well, we're going to take a break and then another break
10:52quickly.
10:52So, I know you've got to get to Hurdle for the – it's a house playoff game you've got
10:58tonight?
10:58We've got a house playoff.
10:59Well, they started last night.
11:00Our team plays tonight.
11:01Right.
11:02There's 12 teams.
11:03We're the four seed.
11:04Five seed.
11:04Well, get yourself a little 10-minute head start and go get rolling there.
11:08And thanks for this.
11:09And we'll pick up probably next week sometime.
11:12All right.
11:13You got it, buddy.
11:14All right.
11:14There's Sal Capaccio.
11:15He's been cool enough to hang out with us for almost a couple of hours.
11:19But we'll let him roll out to his evening commitments.
11:22I've got Paul Hamilton booked to come in and ruin everything at the top of the hour.
11:26So, you can look forward to that.
11:27Always a fun and, you know, can be adventurous visit with Paul.
11:32So, stay tuned for that.
11:34I'm the Bulldog.
11:35Mike Shope is away on vacation this week.
11:36You're listening to WGR.
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