00:00Sabres play tomorrow in Columbus to open their season.
00:03How surprising, if at all, was it to you that they didn't do something
00:08other than pretty much count on Helen Euse and Ausland to, like,
00:14they acquired Zellweger to an extent to replace Byram, which I kind of,
00:19that's a bet I like.
00:20I would make that bet.
00:22Not that he's going to entirely replace Byram, but offset his departure.
00:26But nothing else.
00:28And, you know, they were so close.
00:31They had such a great year.
00:32It felt like maybe a moment to make a move, you know.
00:37And I guess hellebuck could still happen at some point or another.
00:42But I don't know, just status quo or really letting proven, vested,
00:47productive vets walk out the door and not really bringing in guys
00:50who can grow beards to replace them.
00:52How did you feel about that?
00:54Well, I mean, there's two ways to answer that.
00:56The first is obviously it's not for a lack of trying.
00:59You mentioned the Hellebuck situation, and that's unsettled.
01:02I mean, you have the best goalie in the world right now sitting on his hands,
01:06losing money every few weeks, suspended by the Winnipeg Jets.
01:11I was speaking with some people today about that situation,
01:14and they wonder, you know,
01:16how long Hellebuck will want to take a financial hit of being out of the lineup.
01:21Their GM left the door open for him to return the team.
01:24And, I mean, he's close with all of his teammates.
01:26It's not as if he couldn't come back.
01:28But ultimately, I think a lot of us feel that situation is going to end with a trade.
01:32And the fact is, is that the Sabres are pretty well positioned to give the Jets
01:36some assets from this NHL roster to get this guy to, you know,
01:40ultimately solve any goaltending questions that they'd ever have.
01:44But the other answer to your question is that they do have this collection of young players.
01:49And I think that as we saw with them, not, you know, re-upping with Alex Tuck, for example,
01:57like they're thinking about the long game.
01:59They're thinking about if we go out and get ourselves a blockbuster trade for a veteran player,
02:04A, what is the cost of acquisition vis-a-vis these young players?
02:07And, B, is it more advantageous to see what we have in these guys
02:12than to try to go and import something to them?
