Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolven
Sure, roster upgrades are cool. Like I said, if it is a choice between Kuznetsov and Poirier vs. Byram then I think that is a no-brainer.
However, if the choice is between finding out what we have with our home grown players vs. another year of Hanley (or some other vet) or adding Samuelsson then I am not sold that perpetually blocking our player development is worth it.
My hot take is that Samuelsson isn't a big prize, he is an injury-prone cap dump that the Sabres are trying to unload in order to keep their better players. He has 7 goals in 5 NHL seasons and he has missed almost half of those seasons due to injuries. The fact that his cap hit is on the wrong side of $4M doesn't help.
Leave the spot open for Kuznetsov, Solovyov, Poirier, Brzustewicz, Grushnikov, etc. to compete for.
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I think that's the point of adding Samuelsson. He has negative value so you'd have to give up less to get the player who you actually want. Weaponize cap space to get assets.
Having said that, I wouldn't do it to get Byram back. He's not that impressive to me and this team does have many young defensemen coming up. I would do it if Peterka was the return though. We need offense more than anything.
If we let go of Hanley and Miromanov, that still opens up 2 spots for rookie defensemen. I doubt they plan to go into the season with more than that.