Proposal: Buffalo/Washington Blockbuster

[HogtownSabresfan]

This is under the assumption that Washington is entering a retool/rebuild as the sun sets on Ovie's career. A lot of Washington fans think they're going to keep trying to make the playoffs and they're probably correct. But I think this would be the perfect time to start a Dallas-style rebuild, where they're back in like 2-3 years.

To Washington:​

2024 1st (11th overall)​

2025 2nd ​

Peyton Krebs ​

Henri Jokiharju ​

Jiří Kulich​

​

To Buffalo:​

Nick Jensen​

Dylan Strome​

Nic Dowd​

With Kulich and 11th OA in the deal, buffalo is giving up the best two assets in what many feel is a top prospect pool, so it's painful from their side. I'm sure they'd prefer a 2025 1st or Ostlund/Savoie, but I wanted to try to make it realistic...still too light on the Buffalo side? Would adding one more asset from Buffalo help?

Jensen is practically a cap dump. LOL Jokiharju is better. Dowd is horrible. They would make Buffalo worse. Strome is the whole deal. I don't even want the other two guys. Strome for the 1st and Krebs.

 

[DJN21]

This is terrible for the sabres...

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

No shot

Buffalo isn't trading multiple high tier assets for an old Dman, an old guy, and Dylan Strome.

No joke. Strome is the only guy in there with value.

Strome is a weird add in the trade. As a 3rd party fan I could see the other pieces make sense? Sabres can probably take their 1st and 2nd out, and then the remaining assets could be a trade (not sure about how good Kulich is).

I can see Krebs + Jokiharju for Dowd and Jensen (plus adds on either side to balance out) to shore up the bottom-6 defensively and RD for Buffalo while the Caps can get younger and build for the future. However, Strome seems like an odd fit, both in why the Caps add him instead of keeping him for their future and why the Sabres need another offense-only C costing north of $5 million.

How do guys with horrible possession stats shore up Buffalo defensively?

 

[Beerz]

What a doozy

 

[Djp]

This is under the assumption that Washington is entering a retool/rebuild as the sun sets on Ovie's career. A lot of Washington fans think they're going to keep trying to make the playoffs and they're probably correct. But I think this would be the perfect time to start a Dallas-style rebuild, where they're back in like 2-3 years.

To Washington:​

2024 1st (11th overall)​

2025 2nd ​

Peyton Krebs ​

Henri Jokiharju ​

Jiří Kulich​

​

To Buffalo:​

Nick Jensen​

Dylan Strome​

Nic Dowd​

With Kulich and 11th OA in the deal, buffalo is giving up the best two assets in what many feel is a top prospect pool, so it's painful from their side. I'm sure they'd prefer a 2025 1st or Ostlund/Savoie, but I wanted to try to make it realistic...still too light on the Buffalo side? Would adding one more asset from Buffalo help?

WTF....

Strome 4 yrs $5M
Dowd 1yr 1.3M 34 yrs old
Jensen 34 at start of season 2 yard st $4M


This is $9M coming on to buffalo cap for 25/26. Thry cant fo that.

Thats before you factor in weed hat gets traded.

11OA and Kulich not getting moved for this

Buffalo does not need Strome

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Proposals should come with a poll, and if 90% say it’s bad you lose posting privileges for a week.

Horrendously lopsided, no way man.

 

[MagnumForce2]

Glad your not the Sabres GM

 

[PullHard]

I think trying for something like Sissons + Fabbro for not a gross overpayment might make more sense for Buffalo

 

[DJN21]

WTF....

Strome 4 yrs $5M
Dowd 1yr 1.3M 34 yrs old
Jensen 34 at start of season 2 yard st $4M


This is $9M coming on to buffalo cap for 25/26. Thry cant fo that.

Thats before you factor in weed hat gets traded.

11OA and Kulich not getting moved for this

Buffalo does not need Strome

I would like to invest in this weed hat...

 

[Maurice of Orange]

That’s gonna be a no from Buffalo.

The Kulich kid looks to be the goods as his shot is lethal attacking the goaltender.

Jensen is an aging defender who didn’t have his best season in 23-24 and old 4C Dowd only has 1 year to UFA.

 

[Roshi]

As a Caps fan it sure look like Sabres is giving a whole lot than required at first, but putting it to pieces im not sure its actually that far off. Drop out two pieces (who the Caps necessarily dont need to be involved) propably and its not that bad.

Strome for 11th overall
Jensen & Dowd for Kulich + 2nd or Krebs or Jokiharju

Is atleast close (or 'ish) value and you could argue for Caps it would take an overpay for Caps to give all 3 here, as these guys are big part of why Caps can even dream of a fighting for a playoff-spot..

But yeah, Strome isnt propably the target where the Sabres should be looking to use their 11th overall. And the Caps are unlikely to move him anyways.

Jensen is practically a cap dump. LOL Jokiharju is better. Dowd is horrible. They would make Buffalo worse. Strome is the whole deal. I don't even want the other two guys. Strome for the 1st and Krebs.

You can disagree the value but whats the point trashing on the players. Jensen and especially Dowd are both good players for their roles, and would make Sabres a better team.

But anyways, the 11th overall+Krebs for Strome is actually very interesting offer and puts Caps in a difficult spot.

The deal OP suggested might be terrible for the Sabres, but its not like the fleece-of-all-times for Caps either.

 

[lanceuppercut75]

If you want to pay a bunch of assets to become a playoff team now, I would

- trade Krebs for Copp from DET with some retention (pay assets to 3rd team to retain)

- Jokiharju plus to Washington for Jensen

- sign a cheap 4th line center that can either become a press box guy if more than one top 9 forward rookie makes the roster this year, or be a good 4th line C, or be upgraded at trade deadline if necessary. Kampf from Toronto can probably be had for future considerations if you're willing to take on term, which IDK if that's wise. Or try to do Clifton for Kampf, Clifton + late pick for Kampf, something like that

- sign a stop-gap goalie to play with Luukkonen on a 1 year deal. If goaltending needs upgrading at deadline and Levi as a callup also isn't cutting it, it's easy to trade a rental goalie dump plus picks/prospects for a better rental (or a 2026 UFA with 1.5 years)

I think Krebs is on the way out, and Clifton doesn't fit Buffalo's plans, so should be traded at some point in the next year.

Skinner - Thompson - Tuch
Peterka - Cozens - Quinn
Benson - Copp - ( Kulich / Savoie )
Greenway - Kampf / UFA 4C - UFA RW (1 year contract)
13 = Rousek? UFA? not sure and not important
14 = 1 year contract UFA depth forward
callup = Savoie / Kulich / Rosen / Ostlund

Samuelsson - Dahlin
Power - Jensen
Byram - UFA RD (1 year contract) / Clifton
7 = Bryson / UFA 7D
callup = Johnson

Luukkonen
Nedelkjovic / Brossoit / Copley / Talbot
callup = Levi

 

[lanceuppercut75]

If you want to pay a bunch of assets to become a playoff team now, I would

- trade Krebs for Copp from DET with some retention (pay assets to 3rd team to retain)

- Jokiharju plus to Washington for Jensen

- sign a cheap 4th line center that can either become a press box guy if more than one top 9 forward rookie makes the roster this year, or be a good 4th line C, or be upgraded at trade deadline if necessary. Kampf from Toronto can probably be had for future considerations if you're willing to take on term, which IDK if that's wise. Or try to do Clifton for Kampf, Clifton + late pick for Kampf, something like that

- sign a stop-gap goalie to play with Luukkonen on a 1 year deal. If goaltending needs upgrading at deadline and Levi as a callup also isn't cutting it, it's easy to trade a rental goalie dump plus picks/prospects for a better rental (or a 2026 UFA with 1.5 years)

I think Krebs is on the way out, and Clifton doesn't fit Buffalo's plans, so should be traded at some point in the next year.

Thought about this more...

If you really want to spend assets to make SURE you're a playoff team

- go for Connor Murphy from Chicago instead of Jensen from Washington. If they ask for a lot, simply give them what they want. The best thing possible would be to give Clifton and add pick(s)/prospect(s) but keep Jokiharju. If necessary to stay under cap, pay CHI to retain a little bit of salary

- instead of signing a UFA stopgap goalie, trade pick(s)/prospect(s) for Ullmark, Knight, Vejmelka, Georgiev (if COL pursues a better starter) or Gustavsson

- trade a 1st round pick (not 11th overall, something less valuable, maybe 2025 1st) to New Jersey for Mercer to play 3rd line C/RW, and ALSO trade Krebs for Copp and pay 3rd team to retain on Copp

Skinner - Thompson - Tuch
Peterka - Cozens - Quinn
Benson - (Kulich/Mercer) - (Mercer/Savoie)
Greenway - Copp - UFA RW (1 year contract)
callup = Kulich / Savoie / Rosen / Ostlund

Samuelsson - Dahlin
Power - C Murphy
Byram - Jokiharju
callup = Johnson

( Ullmark / Knight / Georgiev / Vejmelka / Gustavsson )
Luukkonen
callup = Levi

This will cost a lot and put Buffalo right at the cap, but the premise of the OP seems to be that spending probably too many assets isn't a problem or concern.

 

[lanceuppercut75]

I think trying for something like Sissons + Fabbro for not a gross overpayment might make more sense for Buffalo

This is smart. If they could get Nashville to take Clifton back, even pay Nashville more value to get them to take Clifton back, that would be lovely.

Sissons could be a 3C or 4C for a while as the kids start breaking into the roster. Fabbro and Jokiharju are basically both auditioning for longer-term spots in direct competition with each other, and only one or neither comes back for 25/26. With the addition of Byram, it makes no sense to have a guy like Clifton on a team that also has Dahlin, Power and Byram. He gotta go.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Ignoring that this is a trade that involves 8 legitimate pieces and has way too many moving parts, the value is also way off

 

[bert]

Wow this is so bad for Buffalo haha.

 

[Djp]

Thought about this more...

If you really want to spend assets to make SURE you're a playoff team

- go for Connor Murphy from Chicago instead of Jensen from Washington. If they ask for a lot, simply give them what they want. The best thing possible would be to give Clifton and add pick(s)/prospect(s) but keep Jokiharju. If necessary to stay under cap, pay CHI to retain a little bit of salary

- instead of signing a UFA stopgap goalie, trade pick(s)/prospect(s) for Ullmark, Knight, Vejmelka, Georgiev (if COL pursues a better starter) or Gustavsson

- trade a 1st round pick (not 11th overall, something less valuable, maybe 2025 1st) to New Jersey for Mercer to play 3rd line C/RW, and ALSO trade Krebs for Copp and pay 3rd team to retain on Copp

Skinner - Thompson - Tuch
Peterka - Cozens - Quinn
Benson - (Kulich/Mercer) - (Mercer/Savoie)
Greenway - Copp - UFA RW (1 year contract)
callup = Kulich / Savoie / Rosen / Ostlund

Samuelsson - Dahlin
Power - C Murphy
Byram - Jokiharju
callup = Johnson

( Ullmark / Knight / Georgiev / Vejmelka / Gustavsson )
Luukkonen
callup = Levi

This will cost a lot and put Buffalo right at the cap, but the premise of the OP seems to be that spending probably too many assets isn't a problem or concern.

Buffalo needs none of those goalies

no need for Copp
No interest in Murphy

This is smart. If they could get Nashville to take Clifton back, even pay Nashville more value to get them to take Clifton back, that would be lovely.

Sissons could be a 3C or 4C for a while as the kids start breaking into the roster. Fabbro and Jokiharju are basically both auditioning for longer-term spots in direct competition with each other, and only one or neither comes back for 25/26. With the addition of Byram, it makes no sense to have a guy like Clifton on a team that also has Dahlin, Power and Byram. He gotta go.

This makes no sense

Jokiharju and Fabbto are similar
Clifton is more physical
Both of those signing long term costs more than Clifton.

 

[Krieger Bot]

I actually think the value is closer than folks are making it out to be, but I seem to be higher on Strome than most. The guy is a second line center in his prime who's signed to a sweetheart deal for the next 4 years. If Washington decides to blow it up, he would fetch a lot. A young player in need of a change of scenery (Krebs/Jokiharju), a pick (11 OA), and a prospect (Kulich) feels about right to me. Though I might try to push Washington to take Rosen instead of Kulich.

Then you're left with another young player in need of a change of scenery (the other one of Krebs/Jokiharju) and a second for veteran bottom 6/bottom pair help (Dowd/Jensen). That also feels about right. It just looks kind of weird because of the number of pieces being grouped together.

That said, I do wonder if Adams would realistically part with this much to get a center after he just traded away Mitts. My sense is that he feels mostly set at C, and is going to be looking at a smaller move. But I certainly wouldn't be unhappy if he took a bigger swing at the position to give Lindy some flexibility/options with the roster.

 

[TageGod]

I actually think the value is closer than folks are making it out to be, but I seem to be higher on Strome than most. The guy is a second line center in his prime who's signed to a sweetheart deal for the next 4 years. If Washington decides to blow it up, he would fetch a lot. A young player in need of a change of scenery (Krebs/Jokiharju), a pick (11 OA), and a prospect (Kulich) feels about right to me. Though I might try to push Washington to take Rosen instead of Kulich.

Then you're left with another young player in need of a change of scenery (the other one of Krebs/Jokiharju) and a second for veteran bottom 6/bottom pair help (Dowd/Jensen). That also feels about right. It just looks kind of weird because of the number of pieces being grouped together.

That said, I do wonder if Adams would realistically part with this much to get a center after he just traded away Mitts. My sense is that he feels mostly set at C, and is going to be looking at a smaller move. But I certainly wouldn't be unhappy if he took a bigger swing at the position to give Lindy some flexibility/options with the roster.

He traded away Mitts because he didn't want to sign him 7x7, or Mitts no longer wanted to resign. So he grabbed Byram, knowing he has to replace Mitts this offseason. Krebs is not it. So 3C is needed.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

As a Caps fan it sure look like Sabres is giving a whole lot than required at first, but putting it to pieces im not sure its actually that far off. Drop out two pieces (who the Caps necessarily dont need to be involved) propably and its not that bad.

Strome for 11th overall

As a Caps fan it sure look like Sabres is giving a whole lot than required at first, but putting it to pieces im not sure its actually that far off. Drop out two pieces (who the Caps necessarily dont need to be involved) propably and its not that bad.

Strome for 11th overall
Jensen & Dowd for Kulich + 2nd or Krebs or Jokiharju

Is atleast close (or 'ish) value and you could argue for Caps it would take an overpay for Caps to give all 3 here, as these guys are big part of why Caps can even dream of a fighting for a playoff-spot..

But yeah, Strome isnt propably the target where the Sabres should be looking to use their 11th overall. And the Caps are unlikely to move him anyways.



You can disagree the value but whats the point trashing on the players. Jensen and especially Dowd are both good players for their roles, and would make Sabres a better team.

But anyways, the 11th overall+Krebs for Strome is actually very interesting offer and puts Caps in a difficult spot.

The deal OP suggested might be terrible for the Sabres, but its not like the fleece-of-all-times for Caps either.

Have you looked at Jansen's possession stats and his salary and added in his age? At $4.06 M for a third pair, including him adds value to what Washington must pay. Dowd is a fourth-line centre who does some hitting and a $1.3 M he has typical mid-round fourth-line centre value on his own. Sorry, that is as lopsided deal as they come, an 11th overall, 2025 2nd, Krebs (yeah his value is like a 2nd now) Jokiharju who is still team controlled and close to our top prospect in Kulich for Strome???? Taking on Jensen's contract might be worth giving us a 1st.

 

[TGWL]

I like Strome but expectations need to be a little lower if the object here is to trade all that and acquire him as your main piece coming back. I don't see him jumping anybody on PP1 for Buffalo, so you immediately are taking a hit on the point production. He either has to move to wing or you're going to use him as your 3c. I don't think it makes sense to move that much just to fit Strome in somewhere.

 

[BLNY]

This is under the assumption that Washington is entering a retool/rebuild as the sun sets on Ovie's career. A lot of Washington fans think they're going to keep trying to make the playoffs and they're probably correct. But I think this would be the perfect time to start a Dallas-style rebuild, where they're back in like 2-3 years.

To Washington:​

2024 1st (11th overall)​

2025 2nd ​

Peyton Krebs ​

Henri Jokiharju ​

Jiří Kulich​

​

To Buffalo:​

Nick Jensen​

Dylan Strome​

Nic Dowd​

With Kulich and 11th OA in the deal, buffalo is giving up the best two assets in what many feel is a top prospect pool, so it's painful from their side. I'm sure they'd prefer a 2025 1st or Ostlund/Savoie, but I wanted to try to make it realistic...still too light on the Buffalo side? Would adding one more asset from Buffalo help?

With no skin in the game here,

Buffalo gets: a 33 year old mid-pair defender, a 26 year old center who has put up modest numbers playing with an aging Ovi, and a 33 year old 3/4c.

Washington gets: 11oa, 2nd, a contract in Krebs (RFA), a 24 year old mid pair defender, and a 2022 first coming off two productive years in Rochester.

If I'm the Caps, I "start the car". Sabres get older AND give up picks to NOT get appreciably better.

 

[Sabresruletheschool]

I actually think the value is closer than folks are making it out to be, but I seem to be higher on Strome than most. The guy is a second line center in his prime who's signed to a sweetheart deal for the next 4 years. If Washington decides to blow it up, he would fetch a lot. A young player in need of a change of scenery (Krebs/Jokiharju), a pick (11 OA), and a prospect (Kulich) feels about right to me. Though I might try to push Washington to take Rosen instead of Kulich.

Then you're left with another young player in need of a change of scenery (the other one of Krebs/Jokiharju) and a second for veteran bottom 6/bottom pair help (Dowd/Jensen). That also feels about right. It just looks kind of weird because of the number of pieces being grouped together.

That said, I do wonder if Adams would realistically part with this much to get a center after he just traded away Mitts. My sense is that he feels mostly set at C, and is going to be looking at a smaller move. But I certainly wouldn't be unhappy if he took a bigger swing at the position to give Lindy some flexibility/options with the roster.

It's not even a little close value wise. Two of the guys have about zero value. I'd rather keep Joker then Jenson. And Strome is ok, but not an 11th overall, a second round pick, and a top 10-15 prospect in the NHL ok. This isn't even in the realm of reality.

 

[mydnyte]

a 'blockbuster' proposal with no blockbuster assets?
and yes, really bad for Buff.

 

[CanMerc]

Today, on “let’s fleece a team”…If you pay through the ass for Dylan Strome, we’ll throw in Nic Dowd and Nick Jensen for free….