To trade or not to trade, that is the question

Ted Black hints that the Sabres are not beholden to their core players.

Jason Pominville follows Ryan Miller's lead and says that he wouldn't trade anyone in the Sabres room for anyone at the All-Star Weekend.

Now, I doubt that Pominville was being completely truthful when answering Luke Adam's question that he knew would be made public. If you were a close friend of Jason's and had a private conversation over a few pops, I'm sure he'd love to swap out a few of his teammates for a few All-Stars.

Here are some of the moves I'd like that would work cap-wise:

Jonathan Quick ($1.8M cap hit) for Ryan Miller ($6.25M)

Logan Couture ($1.24M) for Derek Roy ($4M)

Claude Giroux ($3.75M) over Jochen Hecht ($3.525M)

Erik Karlsson ($1.3M) over Andrej Sekera ($2.75M)

Tyler Seguin ($3.55M) over Brad Boyes ($4M)

I could go on, but I'm depressed now.

Back to reality and the first question is will the Sabres make moves before the deadline beyond merely shipping out some (or all) of the UFAs-to-be for picks and/or prospects?

Regier has reportedly been talking to GMs. But, who knows if that means that he pulls the trigger before the deadline or if we hear that the off season is a better time to maximize trade assets.

The other question is if they make moves, will it be the reported "top 6 for top 6" type moves or will they accept that they need a sizable change on the team and instead move "core guys" for picks/prospects/NHL-ready young players in an attempt to bottom out and rebound as quickly as possible?

I hope they go the rebuild/retool route. But, I fear that they will go the "top 6 for top 6" route thinking that they are closer to winning the Cup than they really are.

The next 8 months will be really interesting.