I feel like you are not evaluating this trade, but evaluating Adams entire offseason and calling this a bad trade because of it.So useful we are 3rd last? Worse than last year? When you make trades to improve the roster you want to improve in the standings too especially when its blue chip prospects.
Arizona wanted Savioe+ for Chychrun and Adams said no. He also wouldn't be standing around like Samuelsson when a scrum breaks out.
If we spend our assets on players like McLeod and still come last what good are those players if we continue to miss the playoffs? You are right Adams ignored a position off need that could have been filled with other assets but my belief is you build from the back end first. Thats why I don't like the trade.
A bad team can still make a good trade…
Do you think they would be a better team without McLeod? or with Savoie in the lineup instead of McLeod? (and another gaping hole at C)
I am not an Adams fan at all, but McLeod has been really good for Buffalo. He’s been a good fit and has made a good impact on the ice.
The Sabres were never 1 trade away from the playoffs.
Basing a single trade on whether it pushed the Sabres into a playoff position, or improved their position in the standings doesn’t seem like a good way to evaluate trades. There is a LOT more that goes into overall team results than 1 trade. By that standard, the Eichel trade was bad for Vegas because they got worse his first year there and missed the playoffs for the first time ever. (when reality is that it was a home-run trade for Vegas)
McLeod certainly isn’t the reason the Sabres got worse. That would be on Adams overall roster construction, the coaching and all the struggling players on the roster (which McLeod isn’t one of). The problem this offseason wasn’t the McLeod trade. It was everything else.
IMO, you need to evaluate a trade by the impact each player has on their new team over the years they spend with that new team.
Now, if this was a deadline deal for a UFA to be, meant to help Buffalo get into the playoffs or something like that, then yeah you could evaluate it by their impact on the standings post deadline.