Good remaining options for the Sabres in the top-six + third line center

Good remaining options for the Sabres in the top-six + third line center

couple days later in free agency we have a very minor signing in goal we have options still to talk about for top six Winger third line Center is it too late what is left out there for the Sabers to still make a move we’ll get into it trade free agency coming up here in the lock on Sabers [Music] podcast your locked on Sabers your daily podcast on the Buffalo saber part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday and thanks for making lock on Sabers your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel sports book make every more and more right now playoffs have wound down the Sports Stop Sports like we want them to but this summer FanDuel hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily it’s right there’s something for everybody every day all summer long visit fanduel.com lockon to get started it is Wednesday July 3rd couple of days into free agency no big mov since we last spoke for the Buffalo Sabers development Camp keeps going with a lot of the draft guys that they just had by all accounts conto helenus looks awesome uh compared to at least his peers uh which should be the case he should should look like he’s ahead of course of the mid and the late round picks from the last two draft class so we’ll spend a lot of time today on what’s left to do I also want to get into Jeff Skinner a little bit and whether or not they’re going to regret buying him out and whether they could undo it even only a week later if they really could so some time on that top six forward third line Center the number one number one and number two things that the sabes reportedly want wanted to add this off seon that they still have not added well what’s left trade market free agency I actually think you should the saers should be playing in two very different markets for those two things third line Center and top six Winger to me you should be shopping in different stores we’ll get to that coming up here on the lock on Sabers podcast at sneaky Joe Sports if you want to follow me on Twitter and of course if you want to get in on our lockdown Savers text la and become a subscriber all the breaking news all the back and forth with each move that they have be sure to go to join subtext docomo ons saers that’s where you could sign up there and then from there on out you’re just texting with your phone back and forth and we had a lot of uh going on in the group chat yesterday after the Sabers signed James Rhymer one-year deal for the veteran goenda contract don’t get that confused though with any notion that he’s the backup I don’t think at all he’s the backup if Devon Levi had a really bad training camp and bad preseason then ryr I think is your backup anything short of that it’s Lucan in number one and it’s Levi number two Rhymer is insurance ryr is new Eric comry an goalie with NHL experience a lot more than Eric comry by the way that actually had a decent year last year ryr a 904 save percentage in Detroit last year not bad not bad at all for a number three goenda their number three goenda have to use him all that much and I hope they don’t have to use him at all but better goenda comery at least from what I’ve seen in the last couple of years but oneway contract all that really means is if he gets sent to Rochester before the season he’s going to get an NHL salary and if they want to call him up then they’ll have to pass through waivers so maybe they would even lose him in that circumstance I don’t think so um I think this is just a depth signing and that it was a one-way deal they worked it out that way for money reasons that ryr wanted so we’ll see if he ends up playing in the AHL uh I think that’s probably where he is going to play though so Rhymer gets signed they’ve got things to do still top six forward bottom six uh Center is still to me on the to-do list and there’s a lot of out there well the off season’s not over listen that’s true but as I I said the other day like 80% of the offseason is is over maybe not by the calendar by the sheer number of days remaining in the offseason sure a lot of the offseason is still left but if you were to compute at the end of this summer the number of players that moved from one team to another 90% of them have already moved 90% of the player movement that you’re already going to see that you’re going to see has already happened so they are now shopping in the clearance aisles they are now shopping in the Overstock uh sites right they are not looking at the best of the best that are available they do not have a lot of options but there are some options and we will get into those coming up in the second and third segment of today’s show but the reason top six forward is as much on the radar as it is they made a choice last weekend to buy out Jeff Skinner and when they did that let’s revisit that for a moment and whether or not we are already having regret about the buy out of Jeff Skinner because I sat here a month ago and told you I think it’s my number one choice I don’t need him in the top six anymore I don’t want him in the top six anymore I want to do better than Jeff Skinner in the top six and he’s incapable of playing in the bottom six so buy him out buy out Jeff Skinner in my mind that was always mer with the idea that you were going to add somebody better than him the the whole the whole idea was I’m buying him out because I don’t have a spot for him anymore in my top six well it’s three days into free agency and there is still a spot for Jeff Skinner in the top six there very much is at this moment in time he is a better option than anything else they have even a diminished form of Jeff Skinner is a better option and you know what one defensive Skinner really quickly here that I don’t know that I’ve ever mentioned since the end of the season why is it fair to give Tage Thompson a pass which I would do by the way I would very much give Tage Thompson a pass for last year because the dude was hurt all season he had a wrist injury in the first couple months of the year then he rushed back because he saw the way the season was going and he wanted wanted to be there he wanted to try to lift everything up but he wasn’t healthy yet so he came back from that early he injured his back to along the way he was dealing with that stuff all year long he was never really healthy until maybe right at the end of the season well one thing we’ve always known about Jeff Skinner as I’ve mentioned is he’s very reliant on who his Center is to create for him and to bounce off of and you could say it’s a criticism of him it’s what he is it’s what he’s always been so shouldn’t it be kind of fair to think well if that’s the type of player Skinner is and his Center was hurt all year uh his numbers probably would go down right that’s what happened maybe that’s as simple as this explanation is Skinner actually didn’t decline all that much Skinner didn’t hit a wall he’s just a player that’s very riant on who his Center is and his Center was hurt all year maybe that’s all that happened and I bet it is all that happened he’s going to go to Edmonton score a lot of goals and I bet you that if they had brought him back and Tage Thompson stayed healthy from beginning to end and they played Skinner with Thompson I bet it would have went pretty well I bet he would have scored 25 to 30 goals maybe more than that but at least 25 to 30 goals and you know what that’s probably more goals than you’re GNA get out of Jason zuker that’s I like Zack Benson a lot I think Bon is a better 200 foot player by a lot but I think that’s more goals than you were probably going to get out of Zack Benson and this team I fear right now is not going to be able to score goals sure being hard to play against was on the list being tougher to play against was not was something they needed to address and they needed to get better at but it wasn’t number one for me number one on their list last year why they missed the playoffs why they weren’t the team they should have been was because they couldn’t score goals and I think they’ve gotten worse I think they’ve downgraded in their ability to score goals from especially two years ago to this year they do not have the same team talent and they have a coach who I like and I liked the Lindy hire and I think he’s going to make them more competitive but he’s certainly going to bring in a more defensive style and we’ll see if that works but it’s not going to breed goals the talent is going to be relied upon even more to score now than it has before because under Don Granado it was two things it was the talent and it was the style wide open Score outscore your mistakes right don’t worry about it if you make mistakes the style and the talent LED towards scoring goals now you got to take one of those away the style is not going to lead you to scoring goals the talent will and I’m just not sure there’s as much of it I’m not sure there’s enough of it for them to score goals to make the playoffs but that’s where Skinner would have helped doesn’t matter he’s gone they have not used that $7.5 million really uh they still have more than 10 million in space and they have a couple guys to sign RFA wise but they have not used to me enough of the available cap space you wanted to get rid of Skinner to clear a spot that you haven’t filled to clear money which you haven’t really filled either I’m questioning the Skinner buyout at this moment in time until they do something what are they going to do I still think they’re going to do something I think they’re well time out I would not want to put my name to that that I think they’re going to do something I think they want to do something still I have definitely found myself to Kevin Adams wants to do something still that doesn’t mean it’ll happen because they have not shown the ability for that uh to get things done in the past couple of years on this front but should they pull it off who’s still out there top six forward third line Center who is still available we’ll start with top six forward when we come back free agency still has a couple of options trade market still has a couple of options that’s coming back here on the lock on Sabers podcast we are brought to you on the show by game time game time is an authorized ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch with killer last minute deals all at prices views from your seat their lowest price guarantee game time text the guest takes the guest work out of buying tickets use the app features like Flash Deals Zone deals save even more with exclusive inapp deals on select seats ahead of the game or event last minute deals tickets are available right up to the start of the event sometimes even an hour after 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reports they wanted a top six forward and a third line Center and they don’t have either so how are they going to get that done what is still available though I keep throwing out the number 80 90% it’s kind of a guess that of the player movement that has already happened in the NHL well what about the 10% what about the 20% that is still out there there are not bad options I don’t think on either front but it’s not going to be easy here is where we go start with top forward then we’re going get line Center options still available Kevin Adams and the Buffalo starting with top six options number one I’m looking right now at Daily Faceoff Matt Larin top remaining free agents and it’s got the original rank next to it that the enter free agent the number 26 free agent is still available Stanley Cup champion Vladimir tereno is still on the open market 33 years old $5 million cap hit last year 76 games played 23 goals 55 points fell off a little bit in the playoffs but he did have a couple of important goals right A Series winner in the Conference Finals got a couple along the way was on the third line wasn’t PR as much as he was before right eriso also would might be key here figuring out if he wants to come here does he want a re of what he just did last year and what tereno did was he went to a small Market team that’s not a destination in the Ottawa Senators he spun that into control he basically signed up for Ottawa and said all right you’re G to give me the money I want and we’ll take a shot at this and if we’re good then we’ll we’ll go for it and if we’re bad then you’re to trade me to a contender that I want to go to and that’s exactly how Terra played it he got the money he wanted because he went to that small Market team that wanted to get him badly and then when it was time to trade him because the team wasn’t successful he said to Ottawa uh you’re only allowed to trade me to Florida that’s it and they only got a third round pick for him because he told them this was the deal I’ll sign with you but at the deadline I’m picking my destination that’s what he did Savers offer him the same deal that’s how you sell it Kevin Adams goes to terce than go and he says all right I’m going to put you on our top line or our top six you’re going to play you’re going to put up points if we’re good great and we’re going to go to the playoffs with you if we’re bad then you’re going to get to do the same thing you did last year you’ll get to pick your spot you you get we’ll get a third round pick whatever we don’t even care because the goal here is to win I don’t care about the third round pick versus the second round pick so Vladimir tereno again 23 goals 55 points some of the advanced numbers last year look pretty good on tereno his evolving hockey page looks like it’s still a productive player that can fill in in your top six and I think is a better option than anybody they currently have in their lineup so Vladimir teras senko to me very very goodlook option one thing though that is similar between him and Skinner still producing a lot of chances offensively really bad defensively so you got to be willing to take that on defensive wos with tereno at this point in his career number two free agent option top or excuse me top six option Jack rosovich this is a player I’ve liked for a long time going all the way back to his days in Winnipeg he was somebody that I very much liked and have always really liked he is a not a huge player but he’s not he’s average size six foot one um quick hands decent speed I think he has got some good offensive instincts he’s not a horrible defensive player you’re not signing him because of that and also he is someone that has kind of gone back and forth between Center and Wing more Center earlier in his career last year with the Rangers pretty strictly on the wing in the 20 games that he finished with there but did play some Center in Columbus before that so you can move him to Center third line Center if you want I think though he’s better on the wing he’s probably more uh apt to play on the wing which is why I’m putting him in the top six category I think he’s a little bit better of an option than the guys they’ve got not as good as teras senko maybe him and Benson would be close depending on what type of season you get Benson I think he’s a better option than zuker though last year 31 points in 59 games to 43o Pace year before that 44 points year before that 45 points so really it’s three straight years of 40 plus points for Jack rossovich and I think he’s someone that would like teraso would only cost you a one-year deal and at this point one-year deal should be very very easy for the sav to do because long-term cap space is what you’re more worried about at the moment with guys to sign and this guy’s not going to threaten that my number three free agent top six option still available is Daniel sprong Daniel sprong is very fast this is a guy that scores on the rush a lot he is like the top two before him this is what you’re getting at this point uh very bad defensively but he’s going to put some goals in for you he also though is someone that is not very often played in the top six in his career very rarely actually M look at his ice time 12 minutes last year 11 minutes 25 seconds the year before that but in those two years where he didn’t get a lot of ice time he put up some decent production last year 18 goals 43 points in Detroit in 76 games the year prior sprong had 21 goals 46 points in 66 games with the Seattle Kraken points per 60 Minutes were through the roof for him again like the previous two before him he is not going to give you much of anything in his own end he’s a bad Defender no doubt about it he generates chances he is somebody that I would look at on a cheap deal and maybe someone that is a little bit more Rocky though a little bit more inconsistent um but an option that could help you score goals somewhere in your lineup that I think you could probably get for cheap on a one-year deal tereno Jack rossovich Daniel sprong tereno to me though easily is the most accomplished and the most proven and the best of those three ideas even though rosovich is a player that I have liked for a long time Anda is someone that’s going to help your speed out a lot and given the last two seasons of evidence he give you a good amount of goals but you might be getting less of a 200 foot game with him than even the previous two the two trade options that are still out there I won’t belabor them because we’ve talked about them a lot uh Martin niches Nikolai eers those are still the best ideas right trades you’re gon have to give up prospects for that maybe you have to give a pick next year eer one-year deal n just needs a contract right now those two have not been traded yet and any trade bait board you look at they’re still very high on I think that they’re both probably getting traded between now and the start of the season and it’s up to Kevin Adams to make sure that he’s the team for one of those two both are much more comp or much better options better players I would say right now than the three players that I just previously mentioned so eers and niches are still the best two options sprong rosovich tereno would be the easier options when we come back what about third line Center is there still an Avenue to get something done on that front I got three names for you that are all trade options when we come back here in the lock on Sabers podcast that is coming up next final segment here on the lockdown Sabers podcast thanks for making us your first listen every day we went through some top six options for the Sabers what’s remaining out there if they’re still looking for it what about third line center now interestingly Kevin ads wasn’t really asked a lot about or really at all about are they still seeking a third line Center he did talk a lot about Payton Krebs and that makes me think Krebs he’s more comfortable with Krebs being the third line Center than he is without addressing top six I think though I put a poll up yesterday on our Twitter at locked on Savers more people more of our listeners voted that they think Benson or zuker will work better in the top six than Krebs will on the third line basically to say our listeners are more concerned about Krebs playing third line Center than they are Benson or zuker having to play in the top six so what can be done about it free agency Is A Wasteland with center right now in fact if you look at Daily faceoffs top remaining free agents none of them are centers rosovich kind of right you might have to kind of put him in that position but and Tyler Johnson in Chicago is a is an idea as well he is still a free agent um but the year that he is coming off of in Chicago 31 points in 67 games he just hasn’t had a real good offensive season in a long time um Tyler Johnson is the best free agent option that you’re really going to get I guess my problem with Johnson is I just don’t expect he’s going to be much better than Payton Krebs and I think you’re getting a much worse defensive player at this point in Tyler Johnson uh D evolving wild last year evolving hockey Tyler Johnson was the fifth percentile defensively and 27th percentile offensively but again fifth percentile defensively and meanwhile uh Krebs on that front um was looking at the 68th percentile defensively so a far and way better defensive player Tyler Johnson so trade market what do we got we got one big idea a middling idea and then two middling ideas the big idea is someone we’ve done a whole show on you could go back on our feed you can find it Trevor zis Trevor zis is the big idea that is your Prime casy middlest replacement he is a similar player to Casey middle stat you plug him right in on your third line or maybe you mix him in on the top six as well you move him around the lineup uh you figure out maybe what’s best for him but I feel like third line Center might end up being a good spot you let him lead the charge with Zack Benson or a Jordan Greenway and you say all right we had a Casey middle stat two years ago that had 60 points in this role can you do the same thing can you give me 60 points in this role like Casey middl did because you know what bottom six five of the six right now I got good defensive players I’ve got hard to play against right for five of the six bottom six spots that’s what I’ve got right now I think the sabes can very much afford one offensive player in their bottom six when they’re surrounded by the the other type of player down there zis would cost a good amount Prospect pick this is a big level trade um but he’s always on the market and I think offensively he would really help the Sabers and I like this idea a lot for the Sabers would be trading for Trevor zis two cheaper ideas go to the Daily Faceoff trade bait board from earlier in the offseason and number nine on the daily Faceoff trade bait board centerman Jean Gabriel Pou with the New York Islanders 31 years old he’s had a couple of down years with the Islanders 33 points last year you’d be taking out a bit of a risk RK kind of like Skinner has this guy hit the wall you have to ask that question and with Paso I think I might feel confident that he has but I think the veteran presence that he gives you any type of resurgence even if it’s not all the way back to what he was before the Islanders you bring him in probably pretty cheap I think the Islanders might be they’re have $1 million in cap space they would probably gladly get out of that $5 million contract per year you might even get him free or near free so take that contract from the Islanders you can afford it for two years plug them in third line Center and see if you get any better results pageo is a nice cheap idea uh with the New York Islanders um if you’re wondering his numbers before last year I mentioned last year 11 goals 22 assists for 33 points year before that 13 goals 27 assists for 40 points playing about 17 minutes a night so definitely offensively he’s taking a big step back and then finally this guy to me is your upgrade this guy is your upgraded pton Krebs this is a good defensive player that is going to play center and has a more proven track record offensively than pton Krabs 41 points this past year 46 points the year before that he comes in at number 13 on The Daily Faceoff trade bait board he also by the way the point totals he had 30 points in his last 44 games last year so he was closer to a 60o pace in the second half of last season Morgan Frost Philadelphia Flyers 25 years old one year remaining on his contract at 2.1 million Morgan Frost is the idea that I have for the Buffalo Sabers as their third line Center and listen they’re a team that has showed interest in pton Krebs this could be a swap this could very much be Payton Krebs to Philadelphia for Morgan Frost maybe you throw them a second round pick on top of that maybe you throw them in Isaac Roseanne on top of that because I think Frost is that much more of a better idea at this moment because of what he’s done offensively over Payton Krabs you’d have to figure out a contract with him in a year um I would take the risk I think he’s an upgrade and I would absolutely put him uh at Center uh 49.5% Faceoff percentage last year by the way which I had this up I want to make sure that’s better than Krebs was last year Krebs was 46% so you had a little bit better of a Faceoff man in the line too and the Sabers don’t really have a good Faceoff guy on the whole team so maybe Frost could help that out as well he might be my favorite idea of these three if you’re just going for a third line Center if you want someone that has more upside than that then zigris is the best idea Frost though for the combination of offense and defense I think would be um the idea and the reason why by the way if you’re wondering like okay wait why is he available 25 years old put up 30 points in his last 44 games he’s good defensively why is he available if reading from the trade bait list uh from daily Faceoff um he was a healthy scratch for a chunck of the year last year it’s maybe possible or maybe even very likely him and John torella do not see eye to eye so this could be a thing with the coach um and that would be your Avenue to get him out of town and the fact that they like Payton Krabs due to uh or according to a couple of different reports so there you go Paso zigris Morgan Frost and then Tyler Johnson but I hate that idea really if I’m being honest let me know what you think for your third line Center idea let me know for your best idea for third line Center let me know best idea for top six uh amongst players that are not currently on the roster of course it’s very possible they didn’t do any of this but right now my dream might be of the all the options we’ve just gone through that’s that’s realistic because zus is such a big idea eers and Nick just are Big Ideas I just I I guess I’ve lost confidence that they’ll make a trade like that give me terao in free agency Morgan Frost in a trade and I’m good I’m good that’s I’m good with that teras senko and Morgan Frost and I will be satisfied for the saber season coming up if they’re able to pull those two things off but they gota they got to do it all right that’s it for us today here in the lock on Sabers podcast hotti kakes by the way if you’re wondering we’ve been tried to connect with him he no no fault of his own I feel bad for him he was in Vegas for the draft he had a bunch of travel delays as of last night he still was out of Vegas um so we’ve had to push back his visit with us a couple of times talking about the uh the prospects uh toddy the poost of lockdown NHL prospects um so we’re just going to keep that in flux right now we’ve got tentatively talked about Friday or Saturday to get him on to talk more about the Sabers draft class um but I promise we’ll get him to you because I’m I am very much looking forward to even uh his thoughts on the Sabers draft pick so we’ll get to that to you as as quickly as possible as soon as he gets back de for listening at sneaky Joe sports check out our text line join sub tex.com lockdowns saers this is the lockdown Sabers podcast part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day

The Sabres have not added in the top-six or added a third line center. What’s left out there to add? Sneaky Joe finds some good options remaining including Tarasenko, Zegras, Roslovic, Frost, Pageau, and more.

Plus, will the Sabres regret buying out Jeff Skinner if they don’t figure out how to fill his spot?

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