Speculation: The 2026-27 Roster Speculation Thread: Summer Edition - Throw in All The Oars, We're Trading for Battleships

[LiseL]

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Yep, hope someone's paying attention to the analytics.

 

[LiseL]

From what I've heard In June 2017, Chayka invited Shane Doan to breakfast at First Watch in Scottsdale. Doan assumed the young GM wanted the captain's input and advice moving forward into the offseason. Instead, eight minutes into the meeting, Doan was told he was no longer wanted.

edit: & Josh Doan is best friends with Knies

Knies also took a personal leave at the beginning of last season. Wonder what that was about?

 

[LiseL]

So you're thinking 4 and Trocheck for 5? Gotta think we'd need to kick something else decent-ish.

Krebs or MacLeod to replace their center depth? Both younger and faster.

 

[LiseL]

thank god maybe these morons will stop blabbering about 4OA

Well, if pick # 31 does it, shouldn't # 20+ be better? Unless he'll waive for Carolina but not us.

 

[LiseL]

Im a huge DeBrincat fan. Yes please!

If Yzerman trades both Larkin and Debrincat, time for another rebuild I guess.

 

[LiseL]

Wait.

We give up: 4 OA AND 20 OA AND Krebs or McLeod AND a RHD prospect AND maybe Levi and a 2nd

We get: Trocheck and Schnieder


........that is orders of magnitude worse than what Jarmo did to Davidson. That's a package I would expect to give up for Adam Fox.

I guess I am higher on Schneider because he's a young RD in their top 4 and should complement Power. I didn't think you could get Fox with 4OV but what do I know?

 

[LiseL]

Wait until I tell you that one of the Woods was in Rochester as part of the Sabres in the same way Devin Cooley was a few years later. (Wedgewood in '18-19, Cooley in '23-24.)

Damn. I only started following the Sabres last year so not very familiar with their history.

 

[boots electric]

friedman posted a very late 32 thoughts podcast and they interviewed jarmo. a few details

• talked to tuch for more than a year about an extension (adams was doing this even before jarmo took over)
• same with byram. when he signed the 2 year deal, he made it clear he wanted to go to ufa and to be a #1 somewhere. tried for about a year to convince him otherwise and extend, but he ultimately didn't want to do that.
• sounds like the framework for the benson extentsion was made at the same time as doan's, but signing the extension so would not give them enough "tagging room" to also extend tuch before july 1 (if tuch changed his mind).
• friedman explained what the "tagging room" rule entails but i don't fully understand. bottom line is it sounds like the benson extension was figured out for quite some time now, but they wanted to make sure they could accomodate a tuch extension as well. when it became clear that tuch wasn't returning, they finalized the benson deal.
• jarmo doesn't want to put odds on whether they will be picking at #4. has made it clear to teams that they are willing to listen on pick #4, pick #20, or a combo of the two, but it needs to be for the right value.
• to succeed, buffalo needs to be a "draft and develop" team.
• talked about carolina's excellent conditioning and said he believed buffalo's players took very big strides in that area this year.
• talked about younger guys making strides going into next year. mentioned jack quinn as a player he believes is ready to breakout some.
• one forward leaving will not decide the success of the forward group; one defenseman leaving will not decide the success of the defense group.

 

[LiseL]

I mean, I would like Robertson for a 3rd too.

Seems like he may want to go home to California? Maybe the Sharks? Guess eventually we'll find out. Right now it's the NHL franchise version of 99 err, 32 beer bottles on the wall until they get to the one he'll go to.

Sharks have a lot of young stars who will need to be paid. I think Sharks need and want D. Can't see them blowing $14M on a winger but what do I know?

So now, many of the star players want to get paid and be on a winning team. Someone needs to point out, there's only so much cap space bud and they've already blown their trade capital on the other stars who wanted to go there.

 

[alehman42]

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I will breathe a sigh of relief if/when we get through tomorrow (today for EDT'ers) without the Sabres trading for Knies. Yes, he's young, he's big, he's fast, and he can shoot...but he's an absolute disaster defensively.

His contract isn't prohibitive, but it isn't cheap, and it's possible he develops/is coached some defensive chops...but the reported asking price is ridiculous. Top 10 pick plus other assets? Nopity-nope-nope-nope. For the cliched "#20 + Mrtka + other random stuff" offer, sure...but that's a big step down from the reported ask.

I know they have to replace Tuch, and I know this probably won't be a popular opinion...but they may have the pieces in-house. If they can't swing a fair deal for another power winger who can PK, I would not be upset with them handing Tuch's role to Doan, and hoping a combination of Helenius and Kulich could fill Doan's role. If it doesn't work, revisit at the deadline

 

[LiseL]

Im not sure what you're getting at here? You can sign and trade an RFA.. he literally just turned down St. Louis and Seattle who were doing just that.

But for a 3rd? I guess Robertson really has them by the balls. What a no win situation when Robertson refuses $12M deal to stay on a contending team in a no tax state but somehow expects a contender to have $14M to spend on him. Ouch.

 

[LiseL]

Chicago didn't try to get 2 from San Jose. San Jose and Chicago are kind of rivals because of their rebuild timelines kind of matching up. Chicago made the Byram deal partly so San Jose couldn't get him. With Chicago not an option to take Reid at 4, SJ might be willing to swap 2 for 4 if they are super set on reid and think they can squeeze more assets out of us. 2 + 20 + Mrtka would get us close.

I thought I read somewhere that Chicago tried to get # 2 from SJ. May have misunderstood, so much going on in the trade market.

 

[LiseL]

friedman posted a very late 32 thoughts podcast and they interviewed jarmo. a few details

• talked to tuch for more than a year about an extension (adams was doing this even before jarmo took over)
• same with byram. when he signed the 2 year deal, he made it clear he wanted to go to ufa and to be a #1 somewhere. tried for about a year to convince him otherwise and extend, but he ultimately didn't want to do that.
• sounds like the framework for the benson extentsion was made at the same time as doan's, but signing the extension so would not give them enough "tagging room" to also extend tuch before july 1 (if tuch changed his mind).
• friedman explained what the "tagging room" rule entails but i don't fully understand. bottom line is it sounds like the benson extension was figured out for quite some time now, but they wanted to make sure they could accomodate a tuch extension as well. when it became clear that tuch wasn't returning, they finalized the benson deal.
• jarmo doesn't want to put odds on whether they will be picking at #4. has made it clear to teams that they are willing to listen on pick #4, pick #20, or a combo of the two, but it needs to be for the right value.
• to succeed, buffalo needs to be a "draft and develop" team.
• talked about carolina's excellent conditioning and said he believed buffalo's players took very big strides in that area this year.
• talked about younger guys making strides going into next year. mentioned jack quinn as a player he believes is ready to breakout some.
• one forward leaving will not decide the success of the forward group; one defenseman leaving will not decide the success of the defense group.

Actually encouraged that he considers Buffalo a draft and develop team as that is their reality being a small market team in a cold climate. Would have to become a true contender to have good players clamoring to sign here.