- 2 months ago
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00:00line and after all of that setup about countdown to kickoff i'm going to ask paul about connor
00:05hellebook again that's that's my plan paul how you doing buddy good before we do that i mean you
00:11were talking about i would love to see a lot of wind here and i think we're going to i'm
00:15sitting
00:15in my car right now in the parking lot people's like shirts are really blowing hard the hair is
00:21blowing hard because i'm interested to see all right we were told the wind is not going to affect
00:27us in fact i'm sorry i don't didn't mean us i meant everybody whether it's the fans or the teams
00:33on the field like it used to in the other stadium because they built it differently so i want to
00:39see
00:39a lot of wind here i hope this wind keeps up my phone says it's about 78 degrees right now
00:44but it
00:44is very windy outside as i said i'm not inside yet but i'm hoping it stays this way because i
00:50want to
00:50see what the what the conditions are like on the field i'm with you i i want to i want
00:54to take this
00:55all this this wind uh resistant panels i want to take all this stuff for a spin we got the
01:00rain
01:01and we found out like that the wind can blow the rain around the canopy and you're not even though
01:05you think you're going to be covered you might not be covered we found that out at the first uh
01:09at
01:09the first open practice and maybe we'll find out about the wind uh tonight i've seen video of
01:15players walking in and it looks like michael hoyt was like fighting the wind it looks like to me
01:20you you got it right i'm watching as i said i'm watching people walk by me right now in the
01:25parking lot and uh yes so the hair is blowing their their shirts are blowing uh it's it and the
01:30trees are moving uh yeah they're probably not the windiest thing i've ever seen in a football game
01:35it's windy it's that the impression you got is correct more on the wind coming up with paul
01:41hamilton live out at the new highmark stadium uh just to refresh everyone i i think i feel
01:47comfortable uh describing your uh the appeal of the hellebuck trade idea to you is like
01:55yeah right uh but let's just like reset everything the news of the day today despite it being a bills
02:01preseason game day is that connor hellebuck has gone public now with his trade request
02:07demand from the winnipeg jets and we know i think we know i i feel pretty comfortable that the sabers
02:13were very much in on that and maybe even very close to having it happen but whatever it got derailed
02:19and here we sit and so now as hellebuck said in his statement we're you know training camp is closing
02:26in and i just you know i want some resolution here do you think the cost comes down and does
02:32that make
02:33it more appealing to you or you're still kind of a buyer beware on this idea i'm a buyer beware
02:38and
02:38it i mean they could trade for him and it may work out great and i always use bob roski
02:44as the example
02:44i mean he was always a very very good regular season goalie and he was awful i mean awful in
02:51the
02:51playoffs and then he all of a sudden he wasn't and he won two stanley cups he got in gold
02:56the year
02:57they got to the finals he went in for lion by the way and played great for the first time
03:02ever
03:03in the stanley cup playoffs got them to the finals and then two years in a row he won the
03:07stanley cup
03:08after that so just because hellebuck has only won eight of his last 23 playoff games
03:15doesn't mean he can't all of a sudden become a playoff goaltender it's happened it doesn't happen
03:21often but it's happened um so and just so you know at least my what i was hearing back when
03:29you know
03:30the sabers were involved the player i heard was quinn not mcleod okay that that would have been going
03:37back to uh and i'm pretty confident in that that uh that that would have been the player going back
03:44that's who winnipeg wanted um some people thought norris i would buy that i mean i i could see maybe
03:51they would want norris um but i i quinn was more in my ear than any than anybody else the
03:58problem
03:59being you're right the price because if you got to trade quinn and you got to trade two youngsters
04:06that are named two of those names are going to be hullabuck or i'm c uh helenus austin murtka
04:15uh uh um cleaver somebody of that nature cleaver the kid they just drafted i mean any any of those
04:24you know let's say two of them have to go and then you're going to throw quinn in there to
04:30me
04:31if if they take austin and helenus and quinn you've and tuck is gone you've gutted your forwards yeah well
04:38you and and now yeah that's crazy now you're you would never have to give up two two of those
04:43kids
04:43are all three of those guys i i don't think i think i think i think you did and that's
04:48why the
04:48trade was never made i think you did i think that's what winnipeg wanted and well it was because the
04:53the the draft hadn't happened yet so you look at it this way they wanted to take four and they
04:59didn't
04:59want to give back eight sabers wanted to switch it right and then some of the some of the kids
05:04would
05:04have been involved also right so sabers would have drafted eight winnipeg would have drafted fourth
05:10some of those kids would have still been involved i still think two of them would have been involved
05:14and quinn and um or if one of them was involved then your number one pick next year um they
05:22they
05:22they they got ridiculous and you know armo kekalainen rightfully so said no i'm not going to get ripped
05:29off here and nor should he be ripped off here um i'm i i'm just not going to make a
05:36trade for the
05:36just for the sake of making a splash because well you know uh things haven't worked out you want to
05:42make a splash and and that's just my opinion i i just wouldn't sit there and say well now i
05:47i've got
05:48to make this trade because you know i'm i'm old enough as you know to go back to when brayer
05:55and
05:55drury left and the sabers actually could have had them both for 12 million combined and then let's say
06:03the vanik thing happened and they could have told vanik go and then they would have five first round
06:07picks and drury and brayer for 12 million dollars well instead brayer and drury go and campbell's
06:14going to be on his way and they're like we got to do this we have no choice we've got
06:19to match whether
06:20we want to or not or whether we think it's worth it or not we got to match this and
06:25and see i don't
06:27ever want to see a team any team get put in that position where well we've got to appease people
06:33it's like well if you think it's not good for the team then don't do it right find something else
06:38to
06:38do at some point that's your job is to find something else to do but not just to do something
06:42because you have to do something and um but i just think it's an eight and a half million dollar
06:49gamble
06:49that could work out he could all of a sudden catch fire in the playoffs they could win a stanley
06:55cup
06:55but if the offers don't if the price doesn't come down and they make the deal for what as you
07:02said you
07:02wouldn't make the deal if we're talking about no i know i wouldn't have made it i wouldn't have made
07:06it back then but if you make that deal you basically have said hell about has to win the stanley
07:13cup for
07:13us we he has he has to stand on his head because we don't have the team we had last
07:18year but we do
07:19have a goaltender who we think is better and when he's connor hullabuck he is better he he he had
07:25a bad
07:26year last year and then that's the other thing i say to myself what happens was that just a one
07:32-off
07:32could have been he may be back to being connor hullabuck this year we don't know
07:37but it's an eight and a half million dollar gamble on your salary cap to to to hope and i
07:42never uh was
07:44uh zucker said it and i agree a thousand percent is not a strategy yeah i'll steal that from him
07:51and
07:51i i agree with him so um it could work out great it really could but i it is not
07:58they their three
07:59goaltenders had the third best save percentage in the national hockey league last year lucanen's
08:04numbers were better than hullabucks i'm not saying they would be this year but they were last year
08:08lucanen just did an article uh they had uh european players in munich germany and uh david uh i can't
08:17think of his name amber i believe his name is up in toronto sure david and i'll talk to lucanen
08:21uh
08:22and lucanen is like gung-ho in buffalo he goes he loves the city of buffalo just because it is
08:29buffalo it's not hustle bustle you know he likes the pace of buffalo and everything and he said he
08:37wants to do everything he can to give these fans a winner and he knows he has to be a
08:42little bit better
08:43than he was last year and he has vowed to do that and that doesn't mean he's going to you
08:49know he's
08:50somebody that absolutely wants to be a saber he enjoys it here he doesn't want to leave um i don't
08:57i didn't see anything in the article about winnipeg being on his list or anything like that but um you
09:05know and how many times three has has kekeleinen said that pretty good chance they're going to be with
09:11their three goalies they had last year and he seemed convicted about it but if if you were in
09:16on hellebuck i don't know if you were really convicted about it if uh right you know you were
09:21that serious earlier but he has said that uh you know that likely not definitely but likely will be
09:28their goaltending scenario and this thing about hellebuck today shouldn't surprise anybody we knew
09:32we knew this he just made it official that's all right but everybody knew who's in the know in hockey
09:38you and i knew we all knew that you know hellebuck wanted to be traded he just made it official
09:44and
09:44that in my mind makes it harder right well you know you know how i am paul like the the
09:50gm of any
09:51team in a pro sport is going to say the guys we've got are it's a great plan it's very
09:55likely we're
09:56very happy with that until the other thing oh well hey well you know i know what i said then
10:01but this
10:01is now uh real easy to turn that around you're listening to um buffalo football game day so of course
10:07course we're talking to paul hamilton about connor hellebuck and the sabers uh here on wgr we'll get
10:12to the football part i promise when we planned this we were going to we were going to talk football
10:16nothing but football it was going to be the most football football that ever footballed but you know
10:22here we are uh the news the news did you know did sort of take over there um yeah i
10:29i you know me i was
10:30never my favorite idea here but i still what i worry about paul more than maybe more than most
10:37um and it's you know maybe it's an irrational concern because i have no way of knowing whether
10:43it's true or not but i i think about the players on the team that were you know a contending
10:50level
10:50team last year that have watched alex tuck leave and watched bow and byram and they could certainly
10:56applaud you raking the fourth overall pick out of that trade but if i'm tage thompson or rasmus
11:02dalene i might wonder what the fourth overall pick is going to do for me right now um and so
11:07i i wonder
11:07like about the the mindset of the team and whether they're maybe much like the fans are wondering
11:15where's the move where's the where's the we're a stanley cup minded organization because waiting for the
11:23kids to come hit and look it can work anything can work like you're saying hella book could work
11:28the kids could work but it doesn't feel like what a contending level team does what a contending level
11:35team does is prize brady kachuk out of ottawa to come join his brother in florida like that that's
11:41and that's you know they had a they had an advantage there you're not getting brady kachuk um no matter
11:47how
11:47hard you tried if you're armo kekalainen so i'm not criticizing him for not doing that but something
11:53of substance to deliver the message not only to your fan base but to your locker room that we are
12:00going for it i think was called for and it hasn't happened yeah and uh it is your job i
12:09used to say this
12:10about kevin adams so it wouldn't be fair if i didn't say about kekalainen i know it's hard to make
12:14trades in the nhl i know you need two to tango but it's your job it's your job to make
12:19it happen
12:19somehow some way now if you tach thompson could take dylan larkin to vegas for a weekend and convince
12:26him to waive his no trade and you know this they can go to some suite somewhere and have the
12:31time of
12:32their lives and whatever and then i'm all on whole hog day that's the guy that's the guy i would
12:39now the
12:41the compensation we're talking about i'm in that's the only guy of all the guys we've talked about
12:46that i'm like yes i will overpay for dylan larkin i personally i would not overpay for hellebuck
12:53i would overpay for dylan larkin if he would say yes i will come to the buffalo sabers
12:59now how how annoyed is he right now is he annoyed at all is he waiting to see who the
13:04new gm is and
13:05maybe wants to stay in detroit if it's somebody he likes i don't know he hasn't commented on it nobody
13:10there's no reporting on that at all nobody's commented on that whether he's entertaining
13:15thoughts of okay let's see how this works but they still haven't hired a gm they have a and and
13:24you know they they haven't made that deal so if larkin really really i mean he gets tired of this
13:30just like hellebuck has gotten tired of it obviously and really pushes it he's got to come off of four
13:35teams right because if the fort if anybody of those four teams wanted to make a deal the deal
13:41would have been made and they didn't so that those four teams don't want them or the red wings are
13:47just
13:47being completely utterly ridiculous um and maybe those teams can't do it you know be one of the
13:54teams doesn't have the prospects to do it or the you know right the what it would take to get
13:59or maybe
14:00they're just waiting like maybe yarmo has been doing for the price to come down and maybe that's
14:06exactly what happens in both of these scenarios like who knows paul right i mean it certainly could
14:10happen it would make sense to me if we get to this point that it should cost you less to
14:16acquire
14:16connor hellebuck than it was going to on june 28th yes um and if it doesn't then you're not doing
14:22it
14:22right right exactly