Confirmed with Link: Buch traded to STL for Blais + 2nd (2022)

[NYSPORTS]

Sam Bennett got a former 2nd rounder + a 2022 2nd. Compare Blais’ stats Pre-trade to Bennett. They’re pretty close. So his value is probably a 2nd + prospect. Drury got that plus a 2nd.

Reinart, Bennett and Lundell.

Are they planning on Barkov leaving?

 

[Filip Chytil]

Can someone explain to me who the f*** Sammy Blais is?

Sammy Blais

First Name: Samuel

Last Name: Blais

Possible nicknames: Sammy, Sam, Sammy B, Blazer, Bleh

Born: June 17, 1996. This makes him 25 years old. He's 188 cm tall and weighs 93 kg. If Musk and Bezos succeed in getting humanity to Mars, Blais will only weigh 35.18 kg there.

He's from Montmagny, Quebec, Canada. His favorite team growing up was Montreal. His favorite player was Crosby.

When he was 16, he failed to make the AAA midget team for the Levis Commandeurs. Fortunately, Frederic Lavoie, on the advice from scout Jean-Philippe Glaude, signed him to the AAA midget team Trois-Rivières Estacades. He played there in 2012-2013 before splitting time between Levis Commandeurs and the QMJHL team Victoriaville Tigres in 2013-2014.

He was then drafted 176th overall in 2014 by the St. Louis Blues after being spotted by scout (and former AHL great) Michel Picard. His only draft interview was with the Blues.

His favorite restaurant in St. Louis was Napoli. This is an Italian restaurant that does offer vegan and gluten free options. It remains to be seen which Italian restaurant Blais will enjoy in NYC.

He's a big Travis Scott fan. His favorite road city is Montreal. Vince Dunn says Sammy Blais never makes his own bed, but he does his own laundry. Blais tends to leave his pan out on the stove after cooking breakfast, but is usually reliable with putting his dishes in the dishwasher.

His instagram is private for reasons unknown.

 

[aufheben]

Sammy Blais

First Name: Samuel

Last Name: Blais

Possible nicknames: Sammy, Sam, Sammy B, Blazer, Bleh

Born: June 17, 1996. This makes him 25 years old. He's 188 cm tall and weighs 93 kg. If Musk and Bezos succeed in getting humanity to Mars, Blais will only weigh 35.18 kg there.

He's from Montmagny, Quebec, Canada. His favorite team growing up was Montreal. His favorite player was Crosby.

When he was 16, he failed to make the AAA midget team for the Levis Commandeurs. Fortunately, Frederic Lavoie, on the advice from scout Jean-Philippe Glaude, signed him to the AAA midget team Trois-Rivières Estacades. He played there in 2012-2013 before splitting time between Levis Commandeurs and the QMJHL team Victoriaville Tigres in 2013-2014.

He was then drafted 176th overall in 2014 by the St. Louis Blues after being spotted by scout (and former AHL great) Michel Picard. His only draft interview was with the Blues.

His favorite restaurant in St. Louis was Napoli. This is an Italian restaurant that does offer vegan and gluten free options. It remains to be seen which Italian restaurant Blais will enjoy in NYC.

He's a big Travis Scott fan. His favorite road city is Montreal. Vince Dunn says Sammy Blais never makes his own bed, but he does his own laundry. Blais tends to leave his pan out on the stove after cooking breakfast, but is usually reliable with putting his dishes in the dishwasher.

His instagram is private for reasons unknown.

Thank you, Pierre.

 

[broadwayblue]

Would Buch's value at the trade deadline not have been worth a 2nd? I'm still confused about the paltry return.

 

[aufheben]

I don’t know if it’s all of the Cape May brewing co. beers I’ve had today or if I’m repressing my fear of what’s to come but everything everyone is posting has been hilarious today








It’s probably the beers

No, it’s 100% me.

 

[TheGortonConspiracy]

Would Buch's value at the trade deadline not have been worth a 2nd? I'm still confused about the paltry return.

Blais was a player we wanted. He's not a throw in bottom 6er. At least that's my interpretation of the deal.
Blais has played all over the lineup, decent time spent with Perron and ROR too. Not a 4th liner

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Blais was a player we wanted. He's not a throw in bottom 6er. At least that's my interpretation of the deal.
Blais has played all over the lineup, decent time spent with Perron and ROR too. Not a 4th liner

Yeah, I like the player. And honestly, I’m behind the idea of diversifying the roster to add more quality grit. Just felt we sold Buch at 70 cents on the dollar.

 

[broadwayblue]

Blais was a player we wanted. He's not a throw in bottom 6er. At least that's my interpretation of the deal.
Blais has played all over the lineup, decent time spent with Perron and ROR too. Not a 4th liner

Thanks. I'll reserve my judgement until I see Blais play...I really know nothing about him other than what I saw posted here.

 

[will1066]

Thank you, Pierre.

Or Emily Kaplan

 

[smoneil]

I generally take Carp with a grain of salt, but in one of his pieces today, he says that a source told him that Panarin and Shesterkin are "livid" (his quotes, as in quoting directly from his source) about the Buchnevich trade. Thats a concern.

 

[mike14]

I generally take Carp with a grain of salt, but in one of his pieces today, he says that a source told him that Panarin and Shesterkin are "livid" (his quotes, as in quoting directly from his source) about the Buchnevich trade. Thats a concern.

It really is. Players not being aware that Buch was most likely gone shows that we may not have the brightest group going around and that roster changes are going to have a bigger impact then what would be normally expected

 

[smoneil]

It really is. Players not being aware that Buch was most likely gone shows that we may not have the brightest group going around and that roster changes are going to have a bigger impact then what would be normally expected

Possibly. But it also shows the (continuing) lack of communication between the team and the players (a problem that has come up repeatedly over the last several years).

 

[NoQuitInNewMexico]

I think there's a difference between moving a good player out because of the cap crunch as a last resort and making a trade that just looks like you're making an example of Pavel Buchnevich. Totally the wrong guy if you're whining about the grit and toughness stuff.

 

[EdJovanovski]

I generally take Carp with a grain of salt, but in one of his pieces today, he says that a source told him that Panarin and Shesterkin are "livid" (his quotes, as in quoting directly from his source) about the Buchnevich trade. Thats a concern.

I got made fun of for pointing this out earlier, I know I’m being doom & gloom but I don’t know if people realize how close knit these guys were. Buch & Shesty were very close friends and have played together so many times and were even teammates in the KHL. Following two teams being a Ranger fan from Vancouver, I notice a huge difference in the dynamic. You don’t see Pettersson Boeser & Hughes hanging out all around town, especially not getting together during the offseason. They all have their seperate friends outside the team, they aren’t each others best friends. You don’t see videos of them in quarantine together playing Fifa & Chess everyday, meeting up in the middle of summer, etc.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I got made fun of for pointing this out earlier, I know I’m being doom & gloom but I don’t know if people realize how close knit these guys were. Buch & Shesty were very close friends and have played together so many times and were even teammates in the KHL. Following two teams being a Ranger fan from Vancouver, I notice a huge difference in the dynamic. You don’t see Pettersson Boeser & Hughes hanging out all around town, especially not getting together during the offseason. They all have their seperate friends outside the team, they aren’t each others best friends. You don’t see videos of them in quarantine together playing Fifa & Chess everyday, meeting up in the middle of summer, etc.

They're pros and have all dealt with friends being traded before.

If they can't deal with it, they'll be next. Well at least Shesty will be because Panarin can't be moved.

 

[EdJovanovski]

They're pros and have all dealt with friends being traded before.

If they can't deal with it, they'll be next. Well at least Shesty will be because Panarin can't be moved.

I know, just saying even if we came away with trades people were happy with and thought we won; it can still f*** up team chemistry. The fact that it’s pretty unanimous that we got hosed, and the players are pissed; isn’t great. Just imagine waking up tomorrow and seeing “Confirmed with Link: Igor Shesterkin to Return to KHL”

 

[stan the caddy]

Trading off a young RFA that was almost a ppg scorer to dump cap is unheard of. You'd think he had Drury or Gomez's deal the way this is being talked about.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I know, just saying even if we came away with trades people were happy with and thought we won; it can still f*** up team chemistry. The fact that it’s pretty unanimous that we got hosed, and the players are pissed; isn’t great. Just imagine waking up tomorrow and seeing “Confirmed with Link: Igor Shesterkin to Return to KHL”

It'd suck but hes not leaving the league because Buch got traded lol.

I heard these same things about pretty much everyone we've traded away since 2017. They'll be fine.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

Thank god we have:

4.5 in dead cap, then 3.5 the year after that.
8 M in Trouba.
6.5 in Kreider
4.5 in Strome this season
3.5 in Goodrow
a 2nd and Blais on an expiring deal instead of Buch.

Amongst all that there's definitely no way we could've made one or two or three different decisions which would've allowed us to keep him
And thank god we didn't give him a longer deal when we had the chance

The dead cap, all the dog shit decisions that led to the dead cap and the failure to sign Buch for longer, stick out significantly.

Never was a fan of the trouba decision either. He has never even remotely been worth what he's making (overpaid by a good 2-3 M) let alone the extra we traded for the privilege of overpaying him. Terrible pro scouting. Terrible asset and cap usage. Terrible foresight

 

[PuckLuck3043]

I got made fun of for pointing this out earlier, I know I’m being doom & gloom but I don’t know if people realize how close knit these guys were. Buch & Shesty were very close friends and have played together so many times and were even teammates in the KHL. Following two teams being a Ranger fan from Vancouver, I notice a huge difference in the dynamic. You don’t see Pettersson Boeser & Hughes hanging out all around town, especially not getting together during the offseason. They all have their seperate friends outside the team, they aren’t each others best friends. You don’t see videos of them in quarantine together playing Fifa & Chess everyday, meeting up in the middle of summer, etc.

Cmon man, you're really reaching now. So now we need to worry about what the players friends think before a trade is allowed? Who is Strome friends on the team because he's probably next?

 

[Hire Sather]

I don't know, this trade is just more and more mind boggling.

It just doesn't make sense. Buch as a UFA rental gets at least a 1st + roster player

 

[Ned Braden]

I understand it can be difficult to lose a quasi fan favorite, talented, home grown player like Buch for what looks like an underwhelming deal based on point production. However...

The Rangers are clearly a better, more complete TEAM right now than they were at the end of this season. On a team that has as much offensive skill as the Rangers do, replacing Buch, Blackwell, and a nothing like Howden with Goodrow and Blais is just a win. The Rangers are a better team with that swap even before you factor in the cap savings and draft pick.

They went from a team with a lot of skill that was easy to play against to a team with a lot of skill that maybe isn't going to be so easy to play against. We want that deal.

And this is what good GMs do. They make deals that make the team better even if the fans are going to bitch about it. Good GMs don't give a sh*t.

 

[smoneil]

I understand it can be difficult to lose a quasi fan favorite, talented, home grown player like Buch for what looks like an underwhelming deal based on point production. However...

The Rangers are clearly a better, more complete TEAM right now than they were at the end of this season. On a team that has as much offensive skill as the Rangers do, replacing Buch, Blackwell, and a nothing like Howden with Goodrow and Blais is just a win. The Rangers are a better team with that swap even before you factor in the cap savings and draft pick.

They went from a team with a lot of skill that was easy to play against to a team with a lot of skill that maybe isn't going to be so easy to play against. We want that deal.

And this is what good GMs do. They make deals that make the team better even if the fans are going to bitch about it. Good GMs don't give a sh*t.

I'm not disagreeing with any of that. I was prepared for Buch to be traded. My concerns are that he was traded when we don't really need that cap room in the immediate future. He was traded for what was clearly far below his worth (nobody thinks the Rangers even broke even here, and a hockey trade of a non-household player had four different terms trending on Twitter the other day). And finally, he was traded with very little communication. Based on the return, it's pretty clear that Drury was going to trade Buch no matter what. He's been an important player on this team for several years. He's done everything he's been asked to do. A bit of a heads up would just be good business. You can't expect the players to "bleed for the team" if those players think that the team (aka the GM) "doesn't give a shit" about them.

Frankly, the move makes no logical sense to me. If all Drury could get is a 2nd and a scrub, then he should have spoken to Buch, signed him to a one or two year deal with the intention of moving him at the TDL (if Kakko/Kravtsov do live up to their potential) or signing a long-term deal (if one or both of them don't). I half wonder whether or not the Buch move was done as a shot across the bow of the locker room. There were issues around the top six ignoring the coach and doing what they pleased on the ice. Nothing reminds the stars that they aren't in charge like shipping out one of the more popular (yet supporting player) teammates.

 

[Ned Braden]

I'm not disagreeing with any of that. I was prepared for Buch to be traded. My concerns are that he was traded when we don't really need that cap room in the immediate future. He was traded for what was clearly far below his worth (nobody thinks the Rangers even broke even here, and a hockey trade of a non-household player had four different terms trending on Twitter the other day). And finally, he was traded with very little communication. Based on the return, it's pretty clear that Drury was going to trade Buch no matter what. He's been an important player on this team for several years. He's done everything he's been asked to do. A bit of a heads up would just be good business. You can't expect the players to "bleed for the team" if those players think that the team (aka the GM) "doesn't give a shit" about them.

Frankly, the move makes no logical sense to me. If all Drury could get is a 2nd and a scrub, then he should have spoken to Buch, signed him to a one or two year deal with the intention of moving him at the TDL (if Kakko/Kravtsov do live up to their potential) or signing a long-term deal (if one or both of them don't). I half wonder whether or not the Buch move was done as a shot across the bow of the locker room. There were issues around the top six ignoring the coach and doing what they pleased on the ice. Nothing reminds the stars that they aren't in charge like shipping out one of the more popular (yet supporting player) teammates.

Come on, bud. Drury doesn't care what's trending on twitter and he shouldn't. Also, yes, Butch was a good soldier, but Buch was obviously going to want to get paid. The business aspect of this goes both ways.

And Blais is not a scrub.

 

[TheGortonConspiracy]

One of Wilson's suspensions was a hit on Sammy Blais in 2017. Something something small world