Sabresfansince1980 wrote:
The trade deadline is for making a playoff push, the summer is for re-building. Buffalo isn't in any shape to make a serious playoff push, so trading away players under contract or decent draft picks should not be an option. If they can get anything, however small, for players that they don't need anymore (Grier, Niedermayer, Rivet, Lalime, Connolly if they fall out of contention) then that's fine. But why trade assets away for a player that you have a chance to land in the summer for nothing but cap room?
Quote:
Buffalo isn't in any shape to make a serious playoff push
Yes, they kind of are, and it took being the second best team in hockey for two months to make that possible. The business of professional sports is what it is, there aren't any safe scenarios or perfect decisions. Most of the time player dumps yield nothing in return, so how do you even know that getting minimal crap for impending UFAs will be worth turning your back and undermining everything your team and organization stands for? If they would have rolled over and tanked for a top 5 draft pick 2 months ago like I suggested, then I would see your point of view, but they have played their asses off and fought tooth and nail just to get back into it. That, as I am learning, is what the Buffalo Sabres do. Except for Hecht and Morrisonn who are still playing meh.
Maybe I'm just asking for more heartbreak but I am all in with this team. You don't need the 84' Oilers to win the Cup these days, any team that is good enough to get into the playoffs is good enough to win the Cup. Even the best team in the East is only about 20% better statistically then the Sabres. The Canes, the Habs, and a lot of other average teams have done well in the playoffs in recent years, but they didn't do it by dumping a few pending UFA's for 4th and 5th round draft picks.