I "don't have sufficient privileges" to post this question in the trade chat, but what's Alex Tuch's value and why are lots of Sabres fans so reluctant to move him? Guy is 28 and is a free agent next year, doubt that he'd stay when the team doesn't appear to be very close to contending...thoughts?
Because there's no point in them trading their few decent veterans for more magic beans. What they need to do is trade their youth for veterans, even if some of those veterans are downgrades on paper. The team is way too young and inexperienced and thats why they are so wildly inconsistent game-to-game.
If I was the Buffalo GM, I'd try to do something like the follows, based on who's been rumored to be available:
Boeser for Cozens + Kulich + 3rd
Brock Nelson for Ostlund + Kleber + 3rd
Helenius or Wahlberg for a 25-27yr old gritty forward like Rasmussen or someone similar. I'm just using him as an example because I'm familiar with him, but anyone of his ilk will do. A Blake Coleman lite. I wouldn't even want to give Ras up for a prospect but just spitballing here for academic purposes.
Rasmus Andersson for Byram + Strbak + 2nd
Go into next year with:
Boeser-Thompson-Tuch
Zucker-Nelson-Benson
Rosen-McLeod-Rasmussen
Malenstyn-Krebs-UFA signing
UFA depth
Dahlin-Andersson
Power-Jokijarhu
Samuelsson-Clifton
Bryson
They need to essentially replace 3-4 of their young players with a similar, maybe slightly worse player, that's like 5 years older. I am convinced this is the issue with the team.
Compare them to Detroit. Based purely on talent and ability, a core of Raymond/Larkin/DeBrincat/Kasper/Kane + Seider/Ed should not be THAT much better than Peterka/Thompson/Tuch/Cozens/Benson/Zucker + Power/Dahlin, but it is. It's because the Buffalo guys are all super young other than Zucker and Tuch.