- 8 hours ago
Sneaky Joe DiBiase and Owen Parker kick off this Tuesday morning by discussing the idea of a Dylan Larkin trade for the Buffalo Sabres. The guys start by laying out exactly why Larkin would be a perfect addition for the team, highlighting his goalscoring, speed, and veteran leadership. Then they analyze how likely it actually is, as Larkin has a full no move clause and can pick where he is moved.
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00:00Good morning, it's Jeremy and Joe. Jeremy's off through Wednesday. It's a little chilly Tuesday
00:04out there right now. You're going to see a number four as the first number when you look at the
00:09temperature for today. I did see, and we'll talk with Pat Hammer later in the week, that there is
00:16a chance of it raining on Sunday for the game. Maybe not a very strong chance, but a small chance,
00:24and otherwise, it's going to be a nice fall day. It's a cloudy fall day as we're back at the
00:30stadium
00:30for Bills and Ravens. And a lot of Lamar talk coming up too, but want to start on Larkin?
00:38Want to start on Dylan Larkin? And we've got Chad D. Domenicis coming up at eight o'clock,
00:45and he wrote at Expected Buffalo yesterday, his site and podcast, that the Sabres have interest
00:52in Dylan Larkin, and they have had conversations with the Red Wings. Now, even he lays this out,
01:00that there is not a strong chance that it will happen because the Sabres are not on Larkin's
01:0810-team list. But I am once again conflicted because I don't want to give too much credit
01:19for wanting to make a big move. However, it does feel to me, and this is where I do feel
01:28good about
01:29what's going on right now and where the Sabres have ended up with who their general manager is and
01:33the ideals of the franchise right now, I feel like the GM is hell-bent on getting a big deal
01:41and getting a big-name star player through the doors here. This is going back to last year's
01:49trade deadline now. I've got Pareko. I've got Vincent Trocek. I've got Hellebuck. Larkin now?
01:58That's the biggest ticket item that's out there, and you could even argue, and I think many would,
02:03it's a bigger ticket item than Hellebuck was. It at least is going to cost more than Hellebuck.
02:09Yes, that's certainly true. Than Hellebuck would have. So, I can appreciate that the GM
02:16wants to make a move like this. He is looking to win right now, challenge for the Stanley Cup,
02:23and any move that is available to him that is going to do that, he's going to be in on
02:28it.
02:28And they also are in a position to make an offer for any player of this magnitude because of
02:35what they've got. The cupboards are full. Yep. They've got the young pieces. They've got
02:39the prospects. Am I going to get that guy to wave to come here? There were reports that he
02:45wouldn't wave for Philly in the offseason. Yep. And what was Philly in the offseason? Fresh off a
02:49second-round exit, big market. You know, some thought that they would be good again.
02:54Like, they hadn't been terrible yet. He went to Montreal early in the season and they chanted
02:59his name. Yep. And he still did not add them to his list. Correct. So, it seems like it's a
03:05tough
03:05list to crack. But I will, I saw a report yesterday from Chris Johnston. I heard Friedman on this.
03:12There is a belief that he will, you know, there's a good chance he gets moved to somewhere that isn't
03:19on his list right now. Yeah. And whether that's Montreal or a place like Buffalo or another one
03:24of these teams that might be close to being on the list but not on the list, that Friedman laid
03:30out,
03:30essentially what you've got to do in that scenario is convince the GM of the Red Wings, give him a
03:37deal
03:37good enough that he goes to Larkin and asks him. And if you do that, then you're in the conversation
03:42and you've got a shot. And that is, I think, right up Yarmo's alley. It sounds like the kind of
03:49thing
03:49he would love to pull off. And I, you know, I don't think there's a great chance of it happening
03:55either, but I think it's good to talk about because I think he'd be perfect. What did they lose in
04:01talk?
04:01They lost goal scoring. They lost play in their own end. They lost penalty kill speed. They lost speed.
04:07Yep. And what does Larkin bring? All of that plus really, really good power play.
04:14Right. How many issues does that solve for you? Pretty much everything. He becomes your number
04:19one center immediately. Immediately. And I, so at the Olympics, Larkin centered a line with Thompson
04:27on the wing. And there, there was a clip I saw yesterday circulating of one of the goals. I think
04:32it was against Germany where Larkin feeds Thompson high slot. He like zooms around and finds
04:37Tage in the opening and he bangs it past Grubauer, NHL goaltender, by the way. Yep. Like you
04:44have, you know, a little experience between those two. I don't know if they played together
04:49at the national development program. I know they were both there. I don't know if they
04:52played there at the same time. Larkin was drafted a little bit before Tage was, so maybe
04:57not. But either way, like, you know, there might be some relationship there. Either Tage would
05:02just move to the wing or you would have two awesome centers at the top of your lineup.
05:08You'd find a way to make it fit. Like that, that part is not going to be difficult. He's
05:13too good a player to not find a solution there. And really the idea that the Sabres are deep
05:20at center, which felt true before the season and on paper still looks true. They've so many
05:26NHL centermen. It's not showing up on the ice, right? Like you're at the moment. How many
05:34of those nine centermen do you feel like are giving you what you want? And really I should
05:39throw out like three of the fourth line guys because whatever Kozak, Carrick, Danforth,
05:45like those guys, whatever they're, they're fourth liners. Tage is giving you some of what
05:51you want. Maybe not all. He's got the five goals, but overall play so far, right? You're
05:58getting everything you want pretty much from Osland. And then what's the rest of the list?
06:05Norris, McLeod. No, no, no, no, not, not at all. You're not getting, I mean, Krebs is playing
06:12mostly on the wing, but when he has played center energy line, like fine. Good. Yeah. Like
06:17it's not, it might be deep, but it's not really giving them an advantage night to night. And
06:26Larkin would just shoot to the top of the list. He would be up there with, if Tage is going
06:29to be a center, then, you know, to me, they're neck and neck. Tage is a far better goal scorer.
06:35Larkin is a far better all around player. So it's a, it's a great idea. And more than just
06:44the idea itself. Again, it, here's another example of you got a GM who wants to do something
06:53and their lineup at the beginning of the year is not what he wanted it to be. He wanted it
06:59to be filled with Halibux and Trochex and he wanted Byram, right? He wanted to keep that
07:04around. Like I, I don't discount that, but now let's go, right? Like how, how much leeway
07:14will fans give if we go through another little mini saga here? I can't imagine that, you
07:20know, we're going to talk Larkin for the Sabres as long as Halibux was a conversation. That
07:25was a four month thing. Yeah. So it won't be that long. No, but what do you think? You
07:30think Sabre fans will get like tight? Like, Oh, here we go again. Like it's the Brandon
07:36Bean calling to check in. Like when does it get tired for fans or is it still, Oh no, I'm
07:43excited. I like this idea. You're telling me it's a non-zero chance. All right, let's
07:47go. Let's go get it. I think that the, the, the problem with that narrative is that the
07:53other, that Brandon Bean exists in this town and, and people are already so frustrated by
07:58that narrative with him that I think it's going to be quicker to fall on Yarmo in that
08:04way. And I think he's going to have a harder time if he doesn't get this or another big
08:08move soon across the line, that's going to follow him around probably more because of
08:14the other GM in town than him, but it will. I think that's going to be difficult for him
08:20to avoid. Uh, and you know, what, how do you fix that? You do it. You, you find a way
08:26to get one of these moves done. And I don't know. I don't want to tell you that I don't
08:31think he can do that. I, how good is Tage at, at selling guys? How, how easily are
08:38they? Can, can Don Granato give a call? What's that? Like, what are you going to do? How do
08:43you, how do you try and make this for Columbus now? Right. That's probably not right. Yeah,
08:47that's, that's a good point. Um, but you just, you think about what, what, how is this going
08:52to go? Where, where do we go from here? And I think we need to see that play out before
08:57we know whether we'll be mad or not. Cause if it comes out that they're a name and that
09:01this is being considered and you know, maybe Larkin's thinking about it now and then it
09:06doesn't come out and then it doesn't come across the line. I think that's going to be
09:10frustrating, but if it stays exactly as it is right now, and we're just talking about
09:14it as an idea with a quote, non-zero chance, then I think not getting it done will not be
09:20as annoying as the Hellebuck thing. Yep. I do like seeing, you mentioned the Johnston
09:25report yesterday, or he said it on Chris Johnson of Sportsnet when he was on with the PDO
09:31cast, I believe it was the podcast he was on that he believes where we ultimately land
09:37is that Larkin will get dealt to one of the team, to a team that's not currently on his
09:4310 team list, which, okay, good. Who Montreal, he doesn't want to play in Canada, apparently.
09:50No. So like maybe he makes an exception there ultimately, but it doesn't feel that that's
09:57going to happen. That's been lingering for weeks, months, even the Montreal connection.
10:04Does he end up adding the Sabres here? Here's the, the one other part of this that is interesting
10:09to me. What are the Sabres today as a destination to a guy like that? And a guy like that
10:18is looking
10:19for the best chance to win he can get. And apparently he wants it in the U S he has
10:27not
10:28made the playoffs since he was a teenager when he was in the NHL. It has been a decade. His
10:34drought of not making the playoffs is almost as long as the drought that we all experienced
10:40as fans with this team. 10 years, not making it in Detroit. Okay. I'm sure top priority
10:50right there with, he just would rather be back. He would rather stay in the U S is I need
10:57the
10:57chance to win. I need to make it to the playoffs. I need to challenge for Stanley cups. What are
11:02the Sabres as the destination for that right now in the summer? They improved a lot. Halibuk
11:08said, yes, Trocek was willing to come here. Like there were lots of players that would have
11:13been more willing to come here that would not have been a year before right now. Middling
11:20starts, slow ish start. Do they look still like a team that a Larkin would look at and he wouldn't
11:30just totally dismiss them like players would have before last season? That's what I wonder.
11:37That's to me, the biggest roadblock for this thing becoming real is this team getting on track. And,
11:45and I think they need to prove to him, if this is a conversation that you're going to get here
11:51and
11:51it's going to be good. I think that's that for me is their biggest roadblock in this concept.
11:57Get hot now. See if you can't win four in a row and sort of, all right, they're good. Uh,
12:05that,
12:05that would make sense for me. I'll win there. I'm going to be back in the playoffs and I'm going
12:09to,
12:09I'm going to have a look. I think that that above anything else is the biggest question that he
12:15likely has about this place. I don't know. He's Detroit is not that much bigger of a town than
12:23Buffalo, that it's going to be a downgrade, like going from New York to Buffalo. Right. And it's
12:28not, it's U S still, which is what he wants. It's, it's got a lot of what I think he
12:33would be attracted
12:34to aside from not being as confident in them being great as you would be in a Florida, in a
12:42Tampa,
12:43in a Minnesota, in a Vegas. Like there's a long list of teams that I think you get to where
12:49you
12:49would trust them to be in the playoffs more than the Sabres right now. And that's going to be their
12:54biggest problem with this. Yeah. I think you don't want to take it for granted the, Hey, we got off
13:01a bunch of no trade lists. You can easily end right. You can end up right back on all those
13:06lists.
13:06Yeah. Like it doesn't, the playoff birth last year in the, the, the divisional win and you know,
13:13the first round win bought you a lot of good grace. Like the play, a lot of old, uh, not
13:17even old
13:18players, right? Like the who we're doing podcasts now, it's active players, the Kachuks, it's other
13:22guys that were talking up Buffalo, the scene that it was in the playoffs. Like, man, that looks fun.
13:31I would love to be a part of that. Right. Like a lot of that from players that'll buy you
13:36some,
13:36but I wonder for how long, because if they have a bad year or a bad start to the year,
13:44I think there could be a lot of players that would have said yes to you in the summer that
13:50come
13:50the middle point of the season, when maybe you're trying to save it would go, uh, not so hot.
13:56Was that year you just had fluke, a fluke? And do I'm sure I want to sign up? What's happening
14:01there in goal right now? Like, I don't know that, I don't know that I trust coming there,
14:06you know, after, uh, you know, 500 start through two months. I just think that should not be lost
14:13on everybody that it's not just, Oh, we got good for one year and now anybody will come here.
14:19Yeah. That's definitely not the way it is. You've got to convince more people. It was,
14:23it was a reason why it really frustrated me when Adams was the GM and they missed the playoffs by
14:30one point that they didn't try harder to make it that year. And everyone's reaction was, well,
14:37whatever, he was just going to lose in the first round anyway. And I always thought like, yeah,
14:41you may, you don't know that. And two, you're going to buy yourself a lot with players around
14:46the league. If you make it to the post season, even if you do lose in round one. And I
14:51felt like
14:51the last GM never appreciated that. And then maybe now the new GM is going, yeah, I need to cash
14:57in
14:57on this before, you know, maybe it goes away. Right. 803 05 50 is the phone number. I want to
15:03get to
15:03some Lamar Jackson talk in a moment because I've got a couple of, I got a couple of quotes throughout
15:09his career, not from him, but his coaches about his availability. And that was a big story yesterday
15:14because of what Jesse Minter said and, you know, his being ruled in for bills and Ravens like six
15:21days out. But what kind of wrap on the Sabres conversation for now, rich and Lakeview's next
15:26Hey, rich. Hey, good morning, guys. Morning. You know, I think you guys hit the nail on the head
15:31about what they built last year. So kind of a two part question. And then, you know,
15:37a guy being kind of guy thing. Number one, how long is it going to take to fritter away the
15:45goodwill they built with the fan base? The tickets are already paid, but you can't tell me the vibe
15:50in the building is the same as it was in February of last year. Just seems different. The amount,
15:56I hate this word, but the amount of compete doesn't seem there for whatever reason. The reason
16:01why I asked is the fans are feeling with it. It could be drought trauma. I get that. But I
16:06kind
16:06of thought, and maybe you guys, I don't know if you chimed in yesterday, the how sick the capital
16:13social media laid it on with the talk stuff, you know, OB in the locker room. Yeah, that's one thing
16:21and zoom, whatever, but there are four or five different posts. So there has to be something more
16:26that, I mean, players go to different teams all the time. So is there some sort of undercurrent,
16:33which there's a reason why Buffalo's not on the trade list. And players copycat, right? They used
16:39to all live downtown when you're younger. Now, you know, they're buying $2.6 million homes in
16:44Clarence and they're all moving out there as an enclave. Is there an undercurrent? Has the drought
16:49trauma, has the perception of our front office really not changed? And it only took what,
16:5510 or 11 games. That's where my biggest concern is. Thanks, Rich, for the call. I'm looking
17:00through the Capitol's Twitter right now. I don't see anything that is really out of sorts
17:05for talk. There was him being screenshotted on the absolute cinema meme. The Scorsese meme,
17:12yes. It's his head on Scorsese. But other than that, it's him talking postgame. It's him being
17:20named one of the three stars. Do you see the video he's referring to? Yeah. Ovi singing.
17:26Okay. Is that, you're not finding that on there? I haven't seen that one, but that's out there.
17:30He basically says, you know, those bleeps, they really didn't want you. And then he starts
17:35singing, I want you, Tucker, la la la la la la. Like he just starts singing. But apparently
17:41they do that. That's what the Capitals do to many of their acquisitions. They sing?
17:44Yeah. Ovi, I guess. It's a thing. So the Sabres give out a sword and the Capitals serenade
17:52their new guys? Well, this was before the game. Before the game. This was, yeah, this
17:56was before the game. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I totally, totally missed that. I'll play it coming back
17:59from the break. All right. I can hear it. I think, you know, the fan, I would agree that
18:03the vibe in the building is different, but that's because it's the beginning of the year
18:07versus the end of the year. And they're also just not winning as much, right? Like I was in
18:12the building for the opener and the very beginning of that game. It felt like it did
18:19at times at the end last season, people were ready, but yeah, I don't think you give all
18:28that away. Not with a 500 start through 11 games, but yeah, the season ticket base being
18:36back fans, being back and excited beer savers, like everyone's feeling good about what the
18:42experience is supposed to be at the arena. And I do think that doesn't just go away.
18:48That doesn't evaporate immediately, but what it, because there's so much trauma from 15
18:54years of living on drought Island that when, you know, from law, what happened in lost in
19:02the, in the very last season that I didn't even watch, but I know it's a meme, like Jack
19:06saying, we have to go back. Everyone's afraid of that guy right now. Like, Oh, we're going
19:11back. I don't want to go back to drought Island. I never want to go back there because we were
19:15there forever. And any sign that we might be headed to something similar in the future
19:22of just, Oh, we missed the playoffs and we're a middling team or we're even a bad team.
19:27Like that is scary. That is so scary because we never want to do that again ever or even
19:34do anything near that. Right. Yeah. They're not going to miss the playoffs for another 15
19:38years or I think I'm trying to be knocking a wood right now. I think I feel pretty secure
19:42in, in saying that, um, it's not gone from 11 games. That's for sure. And I, I feel more
19:53confident in this GM than I would have easily in the last GM that if the season continues
20:00to fall short of expectation, they will not just sit on their hands and do nothing that
20:05there will be an effort to make moves. And hopefully there are actually be moves. Eventually
20:09803 05 50 is the phone number. If you've got a thought on the Sabres, feel free, give us
20:13a call. We're going to have Chad Dean and minutes is coming up at eight o'clock from expected
20:16Buffalo for more on this. When we come back, Lamar Jackson and his availability is becoming
20:22a story, not just in Baltimore, but now it's getting notice nationwide. And with the, with
20:28the bills and the Ravens on the schedule this week, it's an interesting time for Jackson coming
20:33back, practicing and, you know, dealing with this ankle thing that he's been dealing with
20:38and what Alan is currently going through in terms of a start streak. I got a thought on
20:43that. I got a couple of quotes from his old coach and his new coach about his availability.
20:51803 05 50 is the phone number. Also the Sabres, uh, we, we might have seen a leaked hometown
20:57remix uniform. And I've got a thought on that Jersey because I like it way more than I thought
21:04that I would have when it was first described to us like months ago. It's Jeremy and Joe.
21:08Jeremy's off through Wednesday. Chad today at eight o'clock. We've got, uh, also Matt Perino is going
21:13to join the show at some point. He's got a new podcast with Sal and Jordan Poyer, which is going
21:18to
21:18be great. And then Matt, um, Mike Florio is going to join at nine 15 as normal on Tuesdays. Jeremy
21:24and Joe here in WGR.