Confirmed with Link: Casey Mittelstadt traded to COL for D Bo Byram. Straight up.

[Satanphonehome]

Interesting piece in the Athletic on the Av's thought process that also provides insight into the Sabres:

LeBrun: How the NHL trade deadline was won — inside 4 teams' approaches

How did the Hurricanes, Jets, Avalanche and Golden Knights pull off their gold-medal deadlines? Their GMs take us behind the scenes.

theathletic.com

“The Sabres weren’t going to move Mittelstadt for picks or for an older player, and from our standpoint, we know how good Bo is, how good of a person he is, and if it wasn’t for (Devon) Toews and (Cale) Makar, he would be a top-pairing guy,” MacFarland said. “His time here was nothing but incredible. But at the end of this deal, he’s going to want to spread his wings a little bit, I think, and deservedly so.

“But we weren’t going to move Bo for a 30-year-old center on an expiring deal or a 30-year-old defenseman. It had to be a very specific situation. It had to be for a young, controllable (contract-wise) center.

“I know Bo is going to do his thing there in Buffalo and be a real important piece for them.”

In Mittelstadt, the Avs hope to have finally solved their second-line center riddle — and in a long-term fashion.

“But for that hockey deal to happen, we needed to get that D. We weren’t going to weaken one area to try and strengthen another,” MacFarland said. “The stars aligned, I guess.”

Couple that with Adams being very clear that he's been on a long-term mission to add another top 4 D, and with the Sabres depth in terms of younger offence-first forwards, and the "why" behind this deal seems pretty obvious to me.

I think Adams presser also made it clear that it is the Sabres intention to backfill the Mittelstadt hole with another move — in similar fashion to how the Avs were only going to do this deal if they could add Walker (or another similar piece) to replace Byram.

Unlike the Avs, Adams was under no pressure to make that move prior to the deadline.

The disappointment of this season on top of a decade of disappointment seems to have clouded our ability to immediately recognize that what just happened here is something many felt was necessary and that Adams did not have it in him to do: the moving a core piece in order to shake up the room and adjust the composition of the roster.

You don't give away players like Casey Mittelstadt for free. You don't get players like Bowen Byram for free. And you don't get better without taking a few swings when they become available.

Sometimes it takes time for the stars to align.

And even longer to judge whether or not they aligned in your favour.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Interesting piece in the Athletic on the Av's thought process that also provides insight into the Sabres:

LeBrun: How the NHL trade deadline was won — inside 4 teams' approaches

How did the Hurricanes, Jets, Avalanche and Golden Knights pull off their gold-medal deadlines? Their GMs take us behind the scenes.

theathletic.com

“The Sabres weren’t going to move Mittelstadt for picks or for an older player, and from our standpoint, we know how good Bo is, how good of a person he is, and if it wasn’t for (Devon) Toews and (Cale) Makar, he would be a top-pairing guy,” MacFarland said. “His time here was nothing but incredible. But at the end of this deal, he’s going to want to spread his wings a little bit, I think, and deservedly so.

“But we weren’t going to move Bo for a 30-year-old center on an expiring deal or a 30-year-old defenseman. It had to be a very specific situation. It had to be for a young, controllable (contract-wise) center.

“I know Bo is going to do his thing there in Buffalo and be a real important piece for them.”

In Mittelstadt, the Avs hope to have finally solved their second-line center riddle — and in a long-term fashion.

“But for that hockey deal to happen, we needed to get that D. We weren’t going to weaken one area to try and strengthen another,” MacFarland said. “The stars aligned, I guess.”

Couple that with Adams being very clear that he's been on a long-term mission to add another top 4 D, and with the Sabres depth in terms of younger offence-first forwards, and the "why" behind this deal seems pretty obvious to me.

I think Adams presser also made it clear that it is the Sabres intention to backfill the Mittelstadt hole with another move — in similar fashion to how the Avs were only going to do this deal if they could add Walker (or another similar piece) to replace Byram.

Unlike the Avs, Adams was under no pressure to make that move prior to the deadline.

The disappointment of this season on top of a decade of disappointment seems to have clouded our ability to immediately recognize that what just happened here is something many felt was necessary and that Adams did not have it in him to do: the moving a core piece in order to shake up the room and adjust the composition of the roster.

You don't give away players like Casey Mittelstadt for free. You don't get players like Bowen Byram for free. And you don't get better without taking a few swings when they become available.

Sometimes it takes time for the stars to align.

And even longer to judge whether or not they aligned in your favour.

We said Adams didn’t have the guts to make a big move. Well he made probably the biggest move of the deadline. Not going to “well but..” him now

But now we need to see him improve the margins of this roster and a more traditional 3C player this offseason. Unless Krebs explodes which I wouldn’t mind. More work to be done, but he got the top 4 guy we’ve been asking for.

 

[Chainshot]

Interesting piece in the Athletic on the Av's thought process that also provides insight into the Sabres:

LeBrun: How the NHL trade deadline was won — inside 4 teams' approaches

How did the Hurricanes, Jets, Avalanche and Golden Knights pull off their gold-medal deadlines? Their GMs take us behind the scenes.

theathletic.com

“The Sabres weren’t going to move Mittelstadt for picks or for an older player, and from our standpoint, we know how good Bo is, how good of a person he is, and if it wasn’t for (Devon) Toews and (Cale) Makar, he would be a top-pairing guy,” MacFarland said. “His time here was nothing but incredible. But at the end of this deal, he’s going to want to spread his wings a little bit, I think, and deservedly so.

“But we weren’t going to move Bo for a 30-year-old center on an expiring deal or a 30-year-old defenseman. It had to be a very specific situation. It had to be for a young, controllable (contract-wise) center.

“I know Bo is going to do his thing there in Buffalo and be a real important piece for them.”

In Mittelstadt, the Avs hope to have finally solved their second-line center riddle — and in a long-term fashion.

“But for that hockey deal to happen, we needed to get that D. We weren’t going to weaken one area to try and strengthen another,” MacFarland said. “The stars aligned, I guess.”

Couple that with Adams being very clear that he's been on a long-term mission to add another top 4 D, and with the Sabres depth in terms of younger offence-first forwards, and the "why" behind this deal seems pretty obvious to me.

I think Adams presser also made it clear that it is the Sabres intention to backfill the Mittelstadt hole with another move — in similar fashion to how the Avs were only going to do this deal if they could add Walker (or another similar piece) to replace Byram.

Unlike the Avs, Adams was under no pressure to make that move prior to the deadline.

The disappointment of this season on top of a decade of disappointment seems to have clouded our ability to immediately recognize that what just happened here is something many felt was necessary and that Adams did not have it in him to do: the moving a core piece in order to shake up the room and adjust the composition of the roster.

You don't give away players like Casey Mittelstadt for free. You don't get players like Bowen Byram for free. And you don't get better without taking a few swings when they become available.

Sometimes it takes time for the stars to align.

And even longer to judge whether or not they aligned in your favour.

Good read, thanks for posting it.

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Ive been told my multiple fans of other teams recently that we have the best top 4 in all of hockey going forward. That may not be true but many people are actually jealous of Buffalo's back end.

People outside of Buffalo like the trade for us.

I think in a year's time, it will be hard to argue that Buffalo doesn't. And that may still be true even if they do something around Power and Tkachuk, for example. The ability to have a guy like Sammy on the bottom pair (I know he struggled this year but almost everyone did) is pretty wild. I'd be comfortable with him resuming top 4 duties. And this doesn't even take into account how good RJ has been this year as a true rookie.

 

[Irie]

Don't confuse my posts as hyperbole that Mittelstadt is an elite offensive player. Compared to the TO machines that Thompson, Cozens, and Krebs have been all season and parts of last, Mittelstadt has been a positive possession player and one of the top 2-3 board battlers on the team. Compared to the other three, there is a significant gap in a category of play that the FW group as a whole sorely lacks. That is not hyperbole. He played with a level of compete and intelligence that bridged the gap of talent that Thompson and Cozens have, and put him well past Krebs.

So when people start talking about what wins in the playoffs, I know Mittelstadt at least brings a certain type of play that makes up for not being elite, or not being big and physical. We can't judge any of this roster very well in those terms until/unless they get there and show something, but we can at least see some aspect of Mittelstadt's play that should translate well in May/June. I haven't seen much of that out of the other guys yet...hence the frustration.

There has been substantial hyperbole on the subject in this thread.

All the same things being said about Cozens and Krebs (and more) were said about Mitts when he was their age and even older.

Just 15 months ago I was in here defending Casey in every other GDT against half this board demanding to "launch Mittelstadt into the sun".

He is a useful player but he is not irreplaceable, and I do not believe that his ceiling is high enough to warrant all the doom and gloom we are seeing here.

Emotions got the better of many in this thread, admittedly, myself included.

 

[Royal Thunder]

We said Adams didn’t have the guts to make a big move. Well he made probably the biggest move of the deadline. Not going to “well but..” him now

But now we need to see him improve the margins of this roster and a more traditional 3C player this offseason. Unless Krebs explodes which I wouldn’t mind. More work to be done, but he got the top 4 guy we’ve been asking for.

It was nice after 2 years of extreme inactivity to be part of one of the most intriguing trades in recent years. Feels a lot like the RyJo/Seth Jones trade from a few years ago after Johansen finally broke out.

We definitely need to see some sort of shake up up front this summer. Center is a need for sure but my favourite target is Ehlers, that’s a guy who could be a legit top line winger and Bowness isn’t a huge fan so I feel like he isn’t untouchable.

 

[MOGlLNY]

It was nice after 2 years of extreme inactivity to be part of one of the most intriguing trades in recent years. Feels a lot like the RyJo/Seth Jones trade from a few years ago after Johansen finally broke out.

We definitely need to see some sort of shake up up front this summer. Center is a need for sure but my favourite target is Ehlers, that’s a guy who could be a legit top line winger and Bowness isn’t a huge fan so I feel like he isn’t untouchable.

if we moved out Peterka I’d be intrigued. I love Ehlers but he’s definitely more of the same on our roster

 

[Chainshot]

If Thompson (most) or Cozens (some) of this season hadn't struggled as much, it probably makes this easier to digest. If this was last year, the tension about the move is likely less since part of the Mittelstadt team value is in being able to help them with the deficiency of their first two centers this year. I've like Byram thus far. He's fun and that's always added entertainment.

 

[valet]

Interesting piece in the Athletic on the Av's thought process that also provides insight into the Sabres:

LeBrun: How the NHL trade deadline was won — inside 4 teams' approaches

How did the Hurricanes, Jets, Avalanche and Golden Knights pull off their gold-medal deadlines? Their GMs take us behind the scenes.

theathletic.com

“The Sabres weren’t going to move Mittelstadt for picks or for an older player, and from our standpoint, we know how good Bo is, how good of a person he is, and if it wasn’t for (Devon) Toews and (Cale) Makar, he would be a top-pairing guy,” MacFarland said. “His time here was nothing but incredible. But at the end of this deal, he’s going to want to spread his wings a little bit, I think, and deservedly so.

“But we weren’t going to move Bo for a 30-year-old center on an expiring deal or a 30-year-old defenseman. It had to be a very specific situation. It had to be for a young, controllable (contract-wise) center.

“I know Bo is going to do his thing there in Buffalo and be a real important piece for them.”

In Mittelstadt, the Avs hope to have finally solved their second-line center riddle — and in a long-term fashion.

“But for that hockey deal to happen, we needed to get that D. We weren’t going to weaken one area to try and strengthen another,” MacFarland said. “The stars aligned, I guess.”

Couple that with Adams being very clear that he's been on a long-term mission to add another top 4 D, and with the Sabres depth in terms of younger offence-first forwards, and the "why" behind this deal seems pretty obvious to me.

I think Adams presser also made it clear that it is the Sabres intention to backfill the Mittelstadt hole with another move — in similar fashion to how the Avs were only going to do this deal if they could add Walker (or another similar piece) to replace Byram.

Unlike the Avs, Adams was under no pressure to make that move prior to the deadline.

The disappointment of this season on top of a decade of disappointment seems to have clouded our ability to immediately recognize that what just happened here is something many felt was necessary and that Adams did not have it in him to do: the moving a core piece in order to shake up the room and adjust the composition of the roster.

You don't give away players like Casey Mittelstadt for free. You don't get players like Bowen Byram for free. And you don't get better without taking a few swings when they become available.

Sometimes it takes time for the stars to align.

And even longer to judge whether or not they aligned in your favour.

Adams has consistently shown that he’s not afraid to move big pieces. He blew up the old core pretty methodically, and imo got very good value in all of those moves. i think the pattern continues with the mitts trade.

we’re not losing any on any of these deals. adams just seems to have a second sense for managing these types of situations. we’ll just have to wait and see what it all amounts to

 

[Dingo44]

Sabres’ Rasmus Dahlin sad to see Casey Mittelstadt leave in trade, excited by Bowen Byram’s arrival - Buffalo Hockey Beat

On Monday, following the Sabres’ first practice without center Casey Mittelstadt, a beloved teammate, defenseman Rasmus Dahlin felt his absence.

www.buffalohockeybeat.com

 

[debaser66]

Now Adams probably needs to deal one of the prospects to get some experience back at forward.
They cant just go into next season with the same forward group minus Mitts and ecpect to make the playoffs.

 

[Misko]

I was reserved about this trade when it was announced, I used to follow Colorado closely and always liked Byram the player but he's had at least two major concussions that he barely recovered from, so I thought acquiring him carried a lot of risk. But honestly, after seeing him play for 2 games, I am completely fine with the trade now. If you keep Byram healthy, I think he'll be great for this team and will be more useful for us in the long-term than Mittelstadt would have been. In just his first two games I feel like Byram has exposed how listless and stagnant our PP and offensive structure is, and has shown that when given top opportunity like here he can be dynamic unlike his diminished role in Colorado, so I am actually feeling pretty optimistic about him.

 

[Tsyolin]

Is it too early to take a victory lap? (yes it is but the vibes are immaculate rn)

 

[Chainshot]

Is it too early to take a victory lap? (yes it is but the vibes are immaculate rn)

Seems like this one could be a nice win-win for both teams. Mitts looks good with the Avs so far, just hasn't hit the scoresheet.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Seems like this one could be a nice win-win for both teams. Mitts looks good with the Avs so far, just hasn't hit the scoresheet.

Hope so! Avs fans have been nothing but kind and supportive about Byram and the Sabres. Hope the same for them and Mitts.

 

[Chainshot]

Hope so! Avs fans have been nothing but kind and supportive about Byram and the Sabres. Hope the same for them and Mitts.

I've been toggling back and forth with the Calgary-Colorado and Dallas-Florida games. Mitts set the table earlier and Vladar made an excellent save. I'm curious to see if he is able to do his chameleon act and blend in with whoever or if they settle on a particular tandem of wingers for him.

 

[Chainshot]

Mitts goal!

 

[Dirty Dog]

Mitts goal!

 

[BG82]

Now Adams probably needs to deal one of the prospects to get some experience back at forward.
They cant just go into next season with the same forward group minus Mitts and ecpect to make the playoffs.

We need another veteran piece and trade route is the way to go. Make a move at the draft.. Make Ryan Johnson, Isak Rosen or Jiri Kulich available and package our 1st for a legit young top 9 guy

 

[RefsIdeas]

Watching the Avs game and I’ve had to do a double take on Mittelstadt a couple times. He’s showing speed out there that I never really saw in Buffalo. No clue why that is

 

[Tsyolin]

Seems like this one could be a nice win-win for both teams. Mitts looks good with the Avs so far, just hasn't hit the scoresheet.

Oh I'm not saying a win on the trade, I'm just saying a win on Byram. Seems like a lot of people were really soured by this trade the day it dropped, hoping Byram gives the board a change of heart.

 

[Dingo44]

 

[Bobby Bottle Service]

Gladly will dine on crow, but not liking this deal today.

Omg, this crow is f***ing amazing!

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Good for Casey. I'm a fan for life.

 

[HaNotsri]

Watching the Avs game and I’ve had to do a double take on Mittelstadt a couple times. He’s showing speed out there that I never really saw in Buffalo. No clue why that is

Maybe they pass the puck to his tape instead of behind him or way up in the air?
Another option could be that all players move and creates space for each other instead of clogging up the blueline...