Phase 2 of the Sabres remodeling

While some fans want to blow up the Buffalo Sabres and pretty much start from scratch, I don't see the Sabres going down that path. And while I'd love to see the Sabres use the 4 picks that they have in the first two rounds of June's draft, I'm expecting that they could use those picks in trades to upgrade the NHL roster during the off-season.

With that in mind, here are some things to watch for.

Sabres Needs:

The Sabres need to bulk up the NHL roster. It shouldn't be too surprising that the Sabres have one of the smallest lineups in the NHL today. That will likely be helped with Marcus Foligno and Brayden McNabb being in Buffalo next season. But, the Sabres not only need to get bigger, but they could use to get tougher. The good thing is that the top three players in the NHL this season in major penalties are UFAs this summer in Ottawa C Zenon Konopka, Boston LW Shawn Thornton, and NY Rangers LW Brandon Prust. Ottawa defenseman Matt Carkner is a 6th/7th defenseman type that would bring some toughness to the Sabres back end for a reasonable price on the UFA market.

The Sabres need to upgrade over Derek Roy with regards to the other top 6 center to go with Cody Hodgson moving forward. Derek Roy is entering the final year of his contract and is slated to be an UFA in 2013. It will be interesting to see if his $4 million price tag and expiring contract will be highly marketable this off season for a team that may have budget constraints and a better, and higher priced, center. Another option to consider would be shopping Thomas Vanek to a team that has depth at center and needs help on the wing. Kind of like the Kassian for Hodgson deal, just on the veteran front. With all the attention that Rick Nash was getting, one would think that plenty of teams would be interested in Vanek.

The Sabres need to replace Paul Gaustad on the PK and at the faceoff dot. One UFA-to-be that could potentially bring a lot of what Gaustad did is LA Kings center Jarret Stoll, although he doesn't get huge PK minutes in LA. Colorado center Jay McClement is 2nd in the NHL in SH TOI per game and he could be a cheap UFA pick up.

The Sabres would do well to add to their young core of 25 and under NHLers.

Teams to watch:

Colorado Avalanche - Colorado has both depth at center with Paul Stastny, Matt Duchene, and Ryan O'Reilly and they have a very interesting cap situation with 8 RFAs (including Duchene & O'Reilly) and 6 UFAs to deal with this summer. If Colorado has cap or budget issues after getting their RFAs re-signed, they could shop Stastny who counts $6.6 million per year against the cap. He isn't the ideal center to target, but he could be available this summer.

Florida Panthers - I mentioned them running up to the trade deadline and nothing changes here. They still have a ton of center prospects, including Nick Bjugstad. This could potentially be a team that might want a guy like Thomas Vanek if he were on the market and Bjugstad would be a great addition to the Sabres.

San Jose Sharks - The Sharks were reportedly interested in Rick Nash, likely because they traded away high scoring winger Dany Heatley to the Minnesota Wild in the offseason. Logan Couture is likely untouchable. But, Joe Pavelski is a guy that would be a great addition to the Sabres as a compliment to Cody Hodgson.

LA Kings - The Kings are interesting as they would appear to be a team that could be in the midst of a culture change with the addition of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter since the end of last season. Center Anze Kopitar and captain and  heavy hitting RW Dustin Brown are two guys that would look good in Buffalo. The question is whether Vanek as the centerpiece of a package could get Kopitar and what the Kings would want for Brown [if he's made available].

Philadelphia Flyers - The Flyers were able to get two of the better young centers in hockey over the summer when they traded Richards to LA and Carter to Columbus in Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn. Couturier is a the type of young center that I'd love the Sabres to get their hands on. It would be interesting to see if the Sabres had the assets to offer Philadelphia to get him.

Washington Capitals - The Capitals are another team that could go through a culture change if they miss the playoffs with a roster that was expected to challenge for the Stanley Cup this season and had their coach fired when things weren't going well. I doubt Nicklas Backstrom would be available. But, you never know.....

Pittsburgh Penguins - I am going to leave the best for last. A year from now, the Penguins could have a real dilemma on the hands as Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal are both slated to become UFAs on 7/1/2013. Crosby's issues with concussions over the past year have to have the Penguins wondering what to do with Crosby and whether they need to do whatever it takes to retain Staal. Although, if Crosby recovers from his concussion over the summer and he has a strong, and injury-free 2012-13 campaign, they could re-sign Crosby to a deal that makes it hard to re-sign Staal. Whatever happens, the whole NHL will be watching.

Toughness for Skill

People that want Old School Hockey probably aren't too happy with what Darcy Regier did yesterday. The Sabres traded away two big forwards in UFA-to-be Paul Gaustad and Power forward-to-be Zack Kassian and got back a 2012 1st round pick and 22 yo skilled center Cody Hodgson.

Hodgson was the 2nd best prospect in The Hockey News' 2009 Future Watch rankings, he's 2nd in the NHL is goals and 5th in points amongst rookies this season, and folks in Vancouver are pretty distressed that he's been traded away.

I really liked Zack Kassian as a potential Milan Lucic. But, I'm really excited about this deal. The Sabres need for top 6 centers has been well documented here and elsewhere. Hodgson was a player that I always liked, but thought was pretty much an untouchable. There was a mention on TSN's TradeCentre show yesterday that there are GMs out there that will be upset that Hodgson moved as they were told that he was untouchable. The fact that Regier was able to acquire a young top 6 center that was previously untouchable is awesome.

There is some risk with the deal. Hodgson butted heads with the Canucks over a back injury that cost him most of the 2009-10 season and over a lack of playing time this season as he was behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler on the Canucks depth chart. There is also the risk that Kassian does develop into a dominant power forward that can hit, fight, and score like Lucic, Todd Bertuzzi, Cam Nealy, and other prototypical power forwards.

But, the Hodgson deal could free Regier up to move Derek Roy in the summer to further move along with the remaking of the leadership core of the Sabres.

The other move that removed size and grit from the Sabres lineup was trading Paul Gaustad and a 2013 4th round pick to Nashville for their 2012 1st round pick. That deal gives the Sabres two picks in the first round (Nashville and their own) and two picks in the second round (Calgary and their own). With four picks in the top 60, the Sabres have options. And things could get better as if the draft were held today, the Sabres would own the 6th, 26th, 36th, and 41st picks in the draft. The Sabres picks may improve if the team falls off the rest of the season. The Nashville pick will improve if they get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. So, thongs could get even better. With that many picks, the Sabres will have options if they want to try and trade up from the 6th pick, if they want to trade up fromn the 26th pick, or if they want to move a pick or picks in deals for NHL talent.

In the past, the Sabres had financial reasons to not sell when they were in a similiar place at the trade deadline. I'm glad that they didn't have that pressure this year and I'm glad that they pulled off the deals that they did. This gives Regier a ton of options this off-season. It will be very fun to watch what happens heading into next season.

Rumors are flying fast and furious

With Columbus shipping Jeff Carter to LA for D Jack Johnson and a conditional 1st round pick, the trade deadline rumor mill is spinning out of control.

LA is a team that most insiders expect to make more moves and the Sabres are getting mentioned as a team that is talking to the Kings about their captain, RW Dustin Brown.

TSN's Darren Dreger was on WGR this morning and he said that the Kings are looking for a young defenseman and secondary scoring in return for Brown.

The big question is whether that young defenseman that LA wants is a young NHLer like Andrej Sekera, an AHL/NHL guy like Brayden McNabb or TJ Brennan, or a prospect like Mark Pysyk whom the Sabres took in the 1st round of the 2010 draft.

As far as secondary scoring goes, do they want Drew Stafford [this report says that LA is interested in Stafford and Sabres captain Jason Pominville] or someone younger and cheaper like Tyler Ennis or Nathan Gerbe?

I think most Sabres fans would give up Stafford and Brennan and not even think twice. I might even give up Stafford and Pysyk without much thought. I'm much more wary of giving up Ennis or Gerbe as the secondary scoring part of the deal. And there is no way I give up Pominville in a deal for Brown.

The only deal with LA that I would part with Pominville in would be if LA's #1 center Anze Kopitar is headed to the Sabres. I'd give up Vanek or Pominville to get Kopitar.

That gets us to the major issue with the roster: the center position.

There are a lot of people that are talking about dealing Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy. Gaustad is an obvious trade option with his pending UFA status. Roy is a guy that a lot of people view as addition by subtraction. Personally, I'd target either young NHL/AHL centers with upside or C prospects that can be expected to arrive in the NHL in the next 2 or 3 years.

I talked about the Florida Panthers and their depth at the center position. I'd love to get Nick Bjugstad on the Sabres. Roy to Florida for Bjugstad and a 2nd would be a dream scenario for me. Well, other than Regier figuring out a way to pry Mikael Granlund out of Minnesota.....

Then I'd try and get either Riley Sheahan or Calle Jarnkrok out of Detroit for Gaustad and we're cooking with gas.

Sure, the Sabres center position would still be a mess in 2012-13, but you'd have the off season to address that. One wild card could be Sabres 2011 1st round pick Joel Armia. If he leaves Finland a year earlier than expected and makes the Sabres next season, he could make a guy like Pominville more available than ever.

All in all, there are a lot of options for the Sabres right now. And I hope that there is something positive to talk about after the deadline comes and goes on Monday. I don't know what I'll do if Regier stands pat at the deadline and no moves are made.......

Trying to guess what the Sabres will do

While I was driving to work today, I listened to the Ted Black interview on WGR.

I liked the fact that Ted said that the Sabres are no longer in a position that they have a financial incentive to sneak into 8th place. I liked that he said that they will make moves based on the long term and not just with this season in mind.

But, Ted never said that the team will be sellers at the deadline.

With the rumor that the Sabres are trying to re-sign Paul Gaustad, it makes me wonder what Darcy Regier is thinking. Although, given the Sabres lack of center depth, the fact that this year's UFA crop of centers is worse than last year's puddle deep center class of UFAs, and I can kind of understand why Regier would want to keep Gaustad (and even Derek Roy).

Add in that Brad Boyes & Jochen Hecht are injured and the Sabres may HOLD at the deadline.

That would be par for the course with Regier. But, it would be frustrating as heck.

I don't expect Regier to blow the whole thing up and ship out Miller, Roy, Stafford, Gaustad, Leopold, Regehr, and Vanek.

I'm starting to get to the point that I expect Regier and Ruff to get 2012-13 and 2013-14 and if there aren't solid results by that point, then Pegula and Black will make changes. While I would prefer not to wait that long, I'd rather have that scenario than have Golisano back as the Sabres owner.

1st anniversary of Pegula Day

A year ago, Sabres nation was alive with hope as Terry Pegula was introduced as the new owner of the Buffalo Sabres.

Today, not so much.

The team is in 12th place in the Eastern Conference and 25th overall in the NHL after spending in Free Agency and having been at the cap for all intents and purposes.

With last night's win the team is within six points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The trade deadline is five days away.

Given Darcy Regier's past record, I am expecting that the Sabres will stand pat, not sell off guys like Paul Gaustad for futures, and that by keeping the team together for the rest of this season that won't end in the Sabres raising Lord Stanley's beer mug over their heads, they will actually be stepping away from the Cup.

At the end of the day, one team wins and 29 teams don't. I believe that the odds of winning the Cup in 2013 and beyond will increase if the Sabres trade away guys and add draft picks or other players.

That is what would give me hope for the Sabres future a year after Pegula Day.

Who Darcy should be calling

Pierre LeBrun is hearing that Darcy Regier is calling other GMs and may make some major moves before the trade deadline.

Here are a couple of teams that Regier should be talking to:

Florida Panthers

The Panthers are currently in first place in the Southeast division. But, they are on a three game slide, are struggling offensively, and have Winnipeg and Washington breathing down their necks.

Florida is also hurting at the blueline as Jason Garrison (LBI) and Dmitry Kulikov (knee surgery) were 2nd & 3rd in TOI this season and are out currently.

The reason that Regier should be calling them up is that they have a lot of top end prospects, especially at the center position. While I don't think there is any chance that the Sabres could get 2010 3rd overall pick C Jonathan Huberdeau, perhaps big University of Minnesota C Nick Bjugstad could be had for the right trade package.

I'd ask what Florida would give up for guys like Roy, Stafford, and Leopold.

LA Kings

With LA GM Dean Lombardi potentially having his job on the line, LA head coach Darryl Sutter calling out his #1 center and his team captain, and the Kings are dead last in the NHL in goals for this season.

The Kings prospect pipeline isn't as stocked as Florida's. But, they do have some interesting players.

One intriguing prospect is Regina Pats center Jordan Weal who is currently 4th in the WHL in scoring with 34 goals and 94 points in 59 games this season. Weal, at 5'10" 171 lbs, isn't the big monster center that many fans want. But, he could turn out to be the type of offensive wizard that could put up numbers in the NHL.

Another intriguing Kings prospect is Ottawa 67s RW Tyler Toffoli who leads the OHL in scoring with 45 goals and 88 points in 54 games played this season.

And if Lombardi is willing to part with Kopitar, I wonder if the Sabres would be able to come up with a package to do it. It would likely have to be something like Vanek & Roy for Kopitar. But, that is worth giving up for a legit #1 center.

But, I'm expecting Regier to have another meh deadline day and the team won't get the type of makeover it NEEDS. But, I have hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thank you, Mr. Black

So, a week or two ago, I filled out the survey from the Sabres about their broadcasts.

I love RJ, can live without Harry Neale, I like Rob Ray between the benches, don't really like Kevin Sylvester as a play by play guy, I'm OK with Danny Gare as a color guy, and think the addition of Brian Duff has been solid.

I also hope that Mark Jeanneret, Rick's son, is NOT the person that replaces RJ as the voice of the Sabres. I don't want Sylvester getting the job, either.

I filled in the comments that I hope that the rumor of a black based alternate jersey was not true. Thankfully, Ted Black wrote that he expected that Terry would strangle him if he proposed something like that.

I think it is really cool that someone as busy as Ted Black is writing emails to fans and that they are real emails and not just boilerplate, copy & paste jobs that lots of people in his position put out there.

The next big thing for the broadcasts will be replacing RJ one day. Hopefully that won't be for a while!

The NHL trade deadline sell off has begun

I could talk about last night's epic meltdown by the Sabres. But, I'd rather not.

With Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Dallas making "seller" type trades in the past 24 hours, I really hope that the Sabres are getting ready to get maximum return for guys like Paul Gaustad, Brad Boyes, and Jochen Hecht (if he gets healthy).

I also would love to see the Sabres hunt around for some deals that would mix things up to try and build the team for the next 3 to 5 years.

For instance, the LA Kings are desperate for offense. Would they part with picks/prospects/young NHLers for guys like Roy & Stafford.

Unfortunately, they moved a couple guys I really liked in Brayden Schenn & Wayne Simmonds in the Mike Richards trade last summer.

One intriguing player is Ottawa 67s C/RW Tyler Toffoli. Regina Pats C Jordan Weal is on the small side, but he's an offensive dynamo.

Basically, I want Darcy and the Sabres to SELL, SELL, SELL!!!!!!!

Fun while it lasted

The 5-0-1 hot streak was fun.

But, with back-to-back losses where they scored one goal each game, the Sabres are back in 14th place in the East (well, tied for 13th with Tampa Bay is more like it....) and currently are sitting 4th in the pre-lottery draft order.

Sure, they are only 8 pts out of 8th in the East and they have a game in hand over the Leafs.

But, this team isn't making the playoffs regardless of what moves they make between now and the trade deadline.

Now is the time to sell the UFAs-to-be, perhaps move core guys that need to go for chemistry/leadership reasons [Roy & Stafford, I'm writing about you two], and get some young guys some NHL playing time down the stretch.

One season backward to move forward the next two seasons.

That's what I HOPE the Sabres do.

Bucky, Bucky, Bucky


Bucky Gleason says that the odds are against the Sabres landing Columbus captain/LW Rick Nash.

To that I say, Thank Goodness.

Nash is a really good LW. His stats and contract are in the Thomas Vanek neighborhood.

The last thing the Sabres need to do is give up a premium package in a trade for another Thomas Vanek. Now if Rick Nash were a center that could play with Vanek and Pominville, I'd be coming up with all the crazy trade package ideas that I could think of.

But, Nash doesn't make sense for the Sabres right now as a $7M+ LW is not going to make this team better.

And I definitely don't want the Sabres trying to get his teammate Jeff Carter. While he's a center, his issues are some of the issues that cause me to want the Sabres to deal away Roy & Stafford.

Sell, Darcy, sell

Mike Harrington has a piece in today's Buffalo News that talks about how the Sabres approach to the trade deadline could change depending on what happens over the next two weeks and seven games.

Personally, that shouldn't change a single thing.

I don't care what happens over the next two weeks. It won't change two important things:

#1 - The Sabres are NOT making the playoffs in 2011-12. The Sabres are not only 8 points out of 8th place in the East. But, they have to jump over a half-dozen teams or so to do it. There is no way that this team can do that regardless of what they do at the trade deadling.

#2 - This team still has flaws when it comes to leadership and character. I don't value Bucky Gleason's opinion pieces very often, but that is about the only part of this column that I agreed with. Derek Roy and Drew Stafford are just two of the flaws with the Sabres. If Regier can move them for players that can help the Sabres over the next 3 to 4 years, then he has to do it.

I hope that Regier moves the UFAs-to-be for whatever he can get and look to move "core guys" that are a part of the problem and not part of the solution for players that can help get this team where everyone wants it to be over the near term.

Some random thoughts from the Sabres weekend:

- That comeback versus Dallas was awesome.

- The regression to the January version of the Sabres against Tampa Bay was less than awesome.

- Watching the Amerks destroy the Texas Stars on Friday night was awesome.

- Luke Adam pouting after getting sent down to Rochester on Saturday was less than awesome.

- I hope Ryan Miller's recent run of solid play is what he can bring to the Sabres for the rest of his time here. I want to believe in Miller. But, he's still too up and down for my liking.

A team we can believe in

I don't know if it was getting their manhood questioned after the poor response to Lucic running Miller.

I don't know if it was a "Win one for the Gipper" moment with Ruff upstairs with 3 broken ribs from the practice accident with Jordan Leopold.

I don't know if the team secretly hates Thomas Vanek and are winning without them. [note: that's sarcasm, folks]

Perhaps it was as simple as having their top 6 defensemen healthy, their goalie playing well, and Boston not dealing well with the Sabres getting some homecooking on the goal that was wiped out because Miller barely got touched.

All I know is that the Sabres team that defeated the big, bad Boston Bruins on Wednesday night is the type of team that Sabres fans want to root for.

My biggest question about the current team is about the character, leadership, and heart of the team. Wednesday night showed that they can play the way that they need to on occasion. The recent 4-0-1 stretch shows that they are a far more talented team than a team that is in DFL in the Easter Conference like they were not too long ago.

What needs to happen to get THAT team to show up to the rink far more often than the sad sack team we saw in December and January?

Do they need to swap out a few players?

Do they need a new coach?

I like the way that this team is going right now. But, I don't trust that keeping the status quo will get this team to show up enough. But, I'm just a keyboard warrior......

Injury bug bites Ruff

The Buffalo News

You know the injury situation is getting ridiculous when your head coach is getting hurt at practice.

Yesterday, the Sabres entered that area when Jordan Leopold fell in a chase drill, wiped out Lindy, and Lindy ended up day-to-day with 3 broken ribs.

That's just wrong.

Standings-watch ahead of the trade deadline

NHL Standings

The Sabres are 13th in the East and trail 8th place Ottawa by 11 pts with the Sabres having 30 games left to play.

The Sabres are 25th in the league overall if you are more concerned about draft positioning than making the playoffs this year.

And if you are in #failfornail mode, there is next to no way that the Sabres "catch" Columbus for the worst record as Columbus has only 34 pts to the Sabres 50 pts. I can't see the Bluejackets getting 17 more points in the last 30 games.

But, with the Oilers sitting in 29th and having 47 pts, it is possible that if the Sabres recent 2-0-1 stretch is a mirage and they play like they did in January for a large portion of the remainder of the season, then it is entirely possible that the Sabres could end up in the 2nd slot heading into the Draft Lottery.

I can't root for that scenario. But, getting one of Yakupov or Grigorenko would be a nice consolation prize for a horrible season.

Boos & Cheers

Cheers:

The Sabres won back-to-back (sort of) games!

Tyler Ennis looked pretty good at center.

Goose had a 3 point game.

Leino's dirty dangle.

Miller only giving up one goal and that was a rebound of a breakaway save.

Boos:

Vanek down with an UBI. I don't want to say the C word, but.....

The Habs whining to the media about a Gaustad chirp.

Only scoring two goals before the Kaleta empty netter.

Up Next:

The Sabres host the Rangers who lost to the Devils in a shootout last night. With Marty Biron getting the start for the Rangers last night, I would expect Henrik Lundqvist in goal for the blueshirts.

Get ready for another 2-1 game.......