Baker Fairburn Hockey Show 7/1/24: Did the Sabres do enough on Day 1?

Baker Fairburn Hockey Show 7/1/24: Did the Sabres do enough on Day 1?

all right what’s up everyone Baker Fairburn hockey show After Dark Edition is live July 1 happy July I am your host on the left the schlub Chris Baker you can find me on a at Sabers prospects on the right hand side long day for our Sabers writer over at the athletic Matthew Fairburn Matthew welcome to the fracus I’m sure uh thank you for staying up this late by the way long day I believe you just filed your last entry of the day for the athletic and wanted to get together real quick here we’ve been we’ve seen a lot of each other here on this screen but uh day one of NHL free agency open Sabers made some moves today might as well just jump right into it I don’t think by the way I’m gonna say it now and I say it every week but um I don’t think we’re going to go for an hour and 20 minutes tonight I think this will be a little bit more of a quick hit podcast for those listening audio maybe in the morning uh we thank you for that by the way it’s about 10:15 eastern time and both of these adults here uh on this YouTube stream are pretty tired but as people trickle in if you could please like this video subscribe to the channel hit the notification Bell so you know when the baker Fair bur hockey Show Goes live you can find the baker Fair bur hockey show on Apple Spotify wherever get your podcast and if you could please leave a festar review Matthew it’s gonna pass the puck over to you and uh get your opening thoughts on what day one of free agency bought brought to the Buffalo Sabers bot is is really the right word isn’t it for for the at this point I think so I mean they they had to do more right after the weekend they had at the NHL draft that was sort of where we left things on Saturday night when we spoke and they took a step today I don’t know if they took every necessary step but they took some necessary steps Jason Zucker was the big ticket item today and that sentence alone might have some people a little bit upset right you know Jason zucker’s 32 years old uh had 32 points last season I believe 48 the season before I think his best hockey is probably behind him but the Sabers view him as a player who can move up and down the lineup potentially as high as playing with your your top guys that’s you know we’ll see I I don’t know if that’s the big ticket signing people were hoping for certainly I can’t imagine too many people were were hoping for that to be the biggest move of the offseason but so far that is they also have remade their fourth line entirely that started with Beck Mal malinin over the weekend um they go out today and they get Sam laferty who can play center he’s taken a lot of faceoffs in the last few seasons over 300 last year two years ago he was over 400 faceoffs was up over 50% on his draws and they got Nicholas AB abuk Abu cabel I’m going to that’s going to take a while it’s a it’s a mouthful after a long day after a r on Saturday night still I think I’m still catching up on that one um and if my voice uh reflects that I apologize but that fourth line right there alone each one of those guys would have those would have been the top three Sabers forwards in hits last season MH 222 for marenstein up over a 100 well over a 100 for both of the others so we talked a lot about competitiveness physicality hitting foreing all these things those three throw block shots into that by the way throw block shots into that and and laferty yeah yeah those guys absolutely eat pucks they play defense they are to put a term on it difficult to play against they make the Sabers harder to play against I don’t know if it was Lindy Ruff or what but all of a sudden Kevin Adams is taking serious action to make this team tougher in a lot of ways something that he essentially ignored for his first four years as general manager he is now trying to correct in one Fell Swoop in in the span of three days uh even Zucker I think falls into that category couple years ago he had 170 something hits he can play sort of a physical game if he’s on that type of line so absolutely I think they accomplished the goal you know of being more abrasive whatever description you want to use they got more toughness they became a tougher team today and that is a step that is a step what we’ll get into once we break down these players and everything else is is that enough did they do enough on the rest of the roster they also signed Dennis Gilbert local kid who brings some of that on defense too so gives you another option on defense and somebody who can I think you know play a competitive and tough game hasn’t really been a full-time NHL yet in his career but has some of that to his game so I think the big question a lot of people will have is did they do enough is there more coming because if there’s not they’re banking on a lot of big question marks I think heading into next season yeah I think that they well first of all these moves were the moves that should have been made a year ago yes these types of moves maybe even some of these players were available uh a year ago and that was my first thought when looking at what they did overall I I think I totally understand this he told this that he was going to make these types of moves and I’m glad to at least see him do what he said he was going to do to me these are all moves for the bottom six I understand that they’re saying and zuker can he could play up if you need him to but man if you’re going out there open at night and that’s like you know I I don’t know if that’s the right situation if you go in there opening night and he’s on like your second line can he can Benson right it’s him or Benson or Jordan Greenway as the roster stands right now yeah it’s Benson I mean so we saw some good things at the end of last season what was it it was Benson cousins Quinn right I think that’s how they ended and I see no reason as of now to kind of bust that up see what you can get um you know manage the minutes better out of the gate on a Jason zooker unless he comes in maybe he plays inspired hockey but I mean you know you got a nice veteran two-way leadership there with zuker I don’t mind the signing five million is kind of what he’s been making past couple of Seasons past couple of contracts I believe I didn’t dive into it but I want to say he was like what 53 five and a half somewhere around there past couple of contracts that he had five 5’2 or 53 cents right yeah he was a little over five this is because i’ saw the sticker price at first and thought boy that’s a lot of money and then I looked at his other contracts and thought all right he’s he’s been in that range but I will say how the rest of the league views that range he got traded for a sixth round pick at the deadline last season he was a one-year Arizona Coyotes cap floor signing got traded at the deadline for a sixth round pick did not have a very good year and his number didn’t come down that much which tells me the Buffalo bonus came into play here I think oh was agent juice yeah there was some juice on that for sure to get him here no doubt about it um but it wasn’t that egregious overpay that maybe we thought that they were gonna have to do coming into this signing season right the moves for me I mean zuker great fine I can deal with it I just the moves for me really was Sam laferty um and OE coel you know if you go back um you know you got grit you got Grime you got Pace uh with those guys some tenacity that’s why I was saying like when you looked at everything that you and I talked about whether we were getting together after games or coming in you know between game days or whatever we were just talking about not being ready to play the compete level the compete compete compete they corrected that today so for that I’m uh excited to see laf has always been a player that I love he’s coming in up his best statistical season as an NHL and what I like is you know they got some you know the average age of the team has gone up you know and I you know it’s you don’t just do it for a number right but I think what you got 32y old Jason suer laffer’s 29 OBU Bell’s 28 and these guys can move quick and play hard and um hopefully hopefully these are the types of guys that lead by example when they get their shifts and they they force some accountability because these are guys that are gonna get ice time from Lindy Ruff if they’re doing their jobs and the others aren’t tell ly coaches and um so I don’t know I I was I was pleased to at least see Kevin do what he said he was going to do it’s kind of where I’m at right now for you know a few hours the paint’s still kind of wet on these sightings but no I’m with you though by the way did he do enough are there trades to be made yes there are at least conceptually is there a trade partner I don’t know but now that dust is settled on the guys that have been slotted if there were trades that were being held up because of agency that excuse is now gone the big guys are gone I think Adam Henry probably just signed he was the other guy that I think Sabers fans might have been looking at but um yeah I don’t know I like lafy though I really really like that signing and if you go lafy down the middle with manstein o kuel it’s pretty formidable fourth line and by the way lafy could play up if you need him to on the third that’s a part that I think is interesting because the two big remaining needs that they have right now are a top six forward theoretically right if we’re sketching out ideal off season beforehand you’d like to see a top six forward I don’t think Zucker is that maybe they think he is the other thing is a third center right and right now it looks like they think pton Krebs might be that guy and we’ll get into Kevin Adams press conference because there were some interesting interesting comments that might speak to how this team’s being built but one thing he said about Krebs he said you know something along the lines of we all know you know what he what he can do offensively and I thought he had four goals last year if you’re watching him play winipeg of the WHL you know sure we know what he could do offens ly in junior a lot of guys can do stuff offensively in Junior Steve scored like 48 goals in the we don’t know what he can do offensively I I think is part of the problem and banking on a lot of internal growth is a challenge for me to to picture them closing that Gap to where they need to be right these are the signings you make to reinforce a highly skilled team that that was already maybe in the playoffs I think they maybe need more punch at the top than he is giving them credit for now could this team as constructed with some bounceback years and a really strong coaching performance from Lindy Ruff get the Sabers into the playoffs maybe but it just feels like there’s there’s a little bit more there that could get done and I say that because they still have money they’re still at about 19 million in cap space before signing their rfas so if you have Lucan and yokahu Krebs and marenstein at you know what 11 million maybe total yeah that still gives you $8 million you saved s a half million doar on this year’s cap by getting rid of Jeff Skinner why did you do that unless you’re going to spend that money and today Kevin Adams said he doesn’t necessarily feel like he needs to go spend to the cap yeah so if you didn’t feel that way you know because when he talks about the cap he always brings up the future contracts right you know when petka and Quinn get their new deals those are going to be big cap numbers those don’t impact your cap right now you’ve got this space now you know what does impact your cap in the future Jeff Skinner’s buyou it gets worse as it goes along now is the time to use the money if you’re going to buy him out so I do think there’s an element of addition by subtraction there I get that but you’ve got to replace the offense somehow in a down year he had 24 goals that’s a good year for Jason Zucker so you know where’s the rest of the plan it is there a trade to be made is there is there a young player that that they think is ready is Yuri Kik ready to burst onto the scene I don’t know but I think that’s the part of it that fans should justifiably have some some hesitation about but that is to take nothing away from every player they signed including Zucker even at $5 million because I don’t particularly care about the Sabers overpaying on short-term deals with the cap situation they’re in they should do more of it they should have done more of it the last two years you have all this space use it instead of bringing back Tyson Joe Samus gurgenson kyok poso all these players that you know came up short so I think the risk they run though is two years ago you were one of the best offensive teams in hockey last year you were 23rd in goal scored you got excellent goal tending like some of the best in the NHL and if that goes back at all you need the rest of it to pick up you need to be much better defensively you need to score more and if you think that Lindy Ruff is the magic wand that will get all of these guys Tage Thompson Alex tuck Jack Quinn Dylan cousins JJ petka to their Highest Potential on offense I think you are you’re making a little bit of a gamble let’s take it back to Krebs real quick um he’s kind of being put on watch right now with laferty I think that You’ ideally have laferty just have this three-man unit with him and Obe kubel and manstein go out there and just hit play hard you know what I mean go out there empty the tank for 40 seconds get the hell off the ice take a breather you know and get back out there ideally krabo I think is on watch unless there’s another move to make right like that’s kind of what we’re saying laferty is do you I don’t know if you have seen enough of the player the like the vibe that I get we talked about Scott lton a lot he’s kind of like that poor man Scott LA but he can so and you can play him on your third line that’s what I’m saying Krebs isn’t gonna fit down there though between manstein and OB kuel so I don’t think so at least I I don’t see it right but um so you know to shift now forward the I know the fans won’t be happy if Kevin’s done I don’t think he’s done and I think there’s still names this is why I think the balance of this week is going to be really interesting because there were names out there some you may like some you might not like I don’t know there’s one that I’m not like crazy about but I even just as like I was jotting it down on our notes I got text about it and I’ll just read you the text it’s from a friend it’s not a Insider but I’m just going to feed this to you I won’t I won’t read the text but it’s about Trevor zis I’m not crazy about Trevor zis in Buffalo but the longer that this goes on is that a move that you think Kevin Adams has to make has to make no but should consider I think this is a great time to buy Trevor Eis that’s yeah to I think it’s an awesome time to buy that player because 12 months ago the cost would have been much higher I think he’s got is it a great contract no but it’s not bad gives gives you team flexibility I think he’s 5.75 for two more maybe it was a bridge deal that he signed so he’s got a reasonable number you’re not locked into this contract that’s impossible to move and when you have insulated your lineup the way that they have with these tougher players you know makes more sense now to go and think about it right I think so he can play center and Wing So it gives you the option you know that was something Kevin Adams mentioned today is just having more options for Lindy Ruff right H he can do different things with the lines and somebody like zis I think gives you that flexibility it gives you some insurance if some of these other guys don’t bounce back and you know Would Trevor zis love coming to Buffalo maybe not but too bad he doesn’t have no trade you know he hasn’t earned that yet in his career and he isn’t on some crazy contract unable he is you know from New York New York state right somewhere down state yeah um he’s one of those downstate hot dogs so I I I don’t mind the idea the other thing you know getting to talk to a lot of people over the weekend about this team and talking to some of our other writers at the athletic I was talking to Julian McKenzie our our Flames writer about how much sense the flames and Sabres make as trade Partners if the Flames keep you know tearing that thing down and he was 100% in agreement because he keeps talking about how they need more players that are like 18 to 23 18 to 24 in that age group young offensive players I know team that’s got a [ __ ] ton of them the Sabers have too many of them you know and he he didn’t seem to think that the idea of a Blake Coleman trade was was super far-fetched so you know we know he’s a a favorite of the baker Fairburn hockey show here but you know they got Nim cadri they they’ve got you know some players that could be reasonably attractive you know I know they they got got rid of manapan already but it feels like there should still be some trades out there to be made they only really need at this point one maybe two probably just one just for the right player because then you can push other guys down the lineup right let’s not get crazy that’s no you know no you know what I’m saying though no I’m with you 100% it’s I’m not optimistic just because I’m I still don’t understand where Buffalo fits into this market right now uh the the trade market I think he’s desperate I do believe that he’s trying I believe he’s genuine Kevin when he says that he’s trying to have those conversations and make things happen so it doesn’t and the fact that it hasn’t yet like in this past week doesn’t leave me with much optimism but I am expecting at the same time I just think that I don’t know if zis or you know I tell you what Calgary the script has definitely changed there you know what I mean some of those guys that signed there I think they it it’s changed fast you know Coleman maybe a couple weeks ago wanted to be there maybe he wants to be out maybe and he had to submit I think a trade list today right or maybe maybe he can do it when when asked I don’t know what what how it works with his contract but um kind of interesting man yeah there’s it’s I think that the next couple of days I wasn’t expect I I think what happened today from free agents coming in were what we expected but he can’t be done can’t be done but wrapping up on the free agents so we also brought Jacob Bryson back to town here in Buffalo so he stay in one year 900k I don’t know if you said that the the Gilbert and Bryson contracts so Bryson is 900k Gilbert uh 825 the full contract details aren’t available yet have to think there’s like a minor league salary baked in there you know few hundred grand for both those guys I’d be kind of curious to find out you’re not paying Dennis Gilbert 825,000 to play in Rochester no I wouldn’t think so unless you’re sending uh you know I I don’t know I mean who knows like I said things can change real quick if he makes move thato Henry Yoki har is included but um you know one other thing too Kevin’s talked a lot about not blocking the paths for his young prospects as it stands right now I think it could be kle just because he’s got that full season let’s call it a season and a third almost a season and a half playing Center primarily we talked about it last episode that you and I got together on I think that path is still there for as it presently stands to come in and maybe do something especially with the power play spice that he can have they give him a little bit of look there and set him up on his side um Payton kreb’s contract will probably tell us something in that regard right because if they you know just you know intend to pay him his qualifying offer take it or leave it situation then you know that creates that competition I think right there it’s you know making him earn it if they pay him you know closer to two million bucks that makes me think that he’s got a role so and they’re yeah they’re not right they’re they can’t think they can do that that high but the number they give him I guess will will tell me something about how up for grabs his job is and it should be up for grabs he should have to earn it I should that should have to be the point across the board but you know that’s where you know maybe somebody like seavo could come in and and steal a spot on the wing and if he’s stealing a spot on the wing you kind of want him high in your lineup so I’m kind of curious to get your take on this a lot of these guys aren’t at development camp this is a little bit of a segue but yeah relevant to what we’re talking about because one of these guys could get a job a ton of them aren’t at development Camp uh Kik Roseanne seavoy kov novakov Walberg osland vami mariala is not there also who had a great year in Finland he’s not on the camp roster not long list yeah it might be like 10 guys there might be a couple that I didn’t even mention and seavoy uh is not there I’m a little curious about it some of them it’s because they went deep seavoy and comav played in the Memorial Cup they played a lot of hockey so they’re getting kind of a breather Rochester didn’t go that deep in the playoffs this year so I don’t know have they just seen enough development camp for these guys you know Kevin Adams the explanation he gave was that they didn’t want to interrupt their summer training but especially a guy like kov I would think like this is part of your summer training here want to check in on his summer train they’re not I don’t know I mean it’s a different thought process than what it used to be you know development Camp five eight years ago they put a lot of emphasis on getting the guys in it was almost like an orientation um I don’t know like you they always talked about you wanted like some of those older prospects to be there to like embrace the leadership part of it and leading that new Young group of players and Prospects um they’ve totally shifted away from that it’s clear um I don’t know how I feel about this yet honestly but development Camp to me is just kind of bogus anyways on the ice where I’m at right like on the ice okay so the the the important stuff is off the ice meeting with the nutritionist the strength training getting your it’s like when when they brought Scott Ratz in at the end of the year in into Rochester it was almost just to get him FaceTime with Sheamus and and the Player Development staff just to chart out what these weeks and months were going to look like from his training they do that a lot they didn’t bring ratoff into play okay they brought him here to kind of meet with them and so and and that that’s kind of telling you I think that they’re okay with this yeah I think that when they I think that that’s right they’re they’re saying that they don’t want to interrupt what’s going on but at the same time check in with them for three days bring them in stay close to your I don’t see how it hurts I don’t see how it hurts it’s only it’s not even a full week so but well I don’t know that’s what I I I go back and forth a money thing they don’t want to spend like for 10 seriously well they have a pretty big Ross so this being I’m being a wise ass a little bit but I was just and there wasn’t a ton of time to get into it in the press conference today and Kevin seemed to only know the specifics on a few guys but gave that broad answer that didn’t want to interrupt the training but like a guy like kov to me the whole thing with him is like he needs to get stronger so wouldn’t you want him checking in how’s he doing maybe he’s back in Russia and it you know it’s too complicated but he’s been here every year I don’t I don’t know the it it’s a little weird to me because you if you so the theme of this offseason so far has been you know it’s tough to recruit guys to Buffalo no trade Clauses right all these things puts a huge emphasis on not only the draft but the develop part of the draft and develop philosophy so this is part of developing these players now are they going to get so much better in the next three days probably not but the other piece to this that I do Wonder this is maybe a stretch trying to connect too many dots but are they trying are they thinking about trading one of these guys did they not want a trade to go down you know but then then why is it 10 or 11 I doubt that I doubt that okay I I do doubt that but here’s the other thing though I want to throw this out there again like the on Ice stuff in development Camp who cares maybe they feel maybe they saw these and Player Development has changed they see these players so much during the season it’s a little different past decade than it used to be but the the biggest takeaway that I always had from development Camp was like the friendships and the relationships and kind of those players coming together like you know what I mean um you lose a little bit of that when you don’t have some of those core guys here Anton Wahlberg is still 18 he was drafted a year ago I understand he’s played you know he had a full year professional hockey I get it maybe this is a sign that he’s as a young human being is going to be leaving home for the first time fulltime in the fall and they don’t want to interrupt that also I don’t know but he’s also a professional hockey player he’s getting paid this is his job so is it like this country club atmosphere like have has any of these guys really like seavoy played deep but to your point about some of the guys that were in Rochester did they earn summer off or they teach the Memorial Cup also ended over over a month ago right it was Memorial Day weekend was it not went into uh June yeah months yeah I mean the AMS were out of the playoffs what six weeks ago I guess it’s peculiar it’s peculiar Matthew it’s a little pear it’s it’s different it’s you know to me what’s the point of development Camp if you don’t want all your top guys at development I want as many I want guys that actually want to be there also though like there’s guys like some of them you can rationalize some of them are kind of sketchy and doesn’t it only help your draft picks to see you know what they’re up against to go up you want you want the guys that have been there a few years leading the drills showing the younger guys way some of the 18-year-old guys coming in they’re seeing this they’re putting on an NHL jersey the crest anyways for the first time they’re all you know some of them are deer in headlights um I mean you’ve seen it like with the Jake Rashard the first year he comes back the second year they know what to expect they’re a little more seasoned there’s countless examples of those guys and they lose and I bet you having some of those older guys for Jake Richard’s first year helped him he’s here so he’s that guy now I mean yeah I thought but I thought that was interesting and I thought that Kevin Adams’s answer to development Camp missed the mark a little bit because he ended it by saying you know one of the things that stood out to him is how many Junior Sabers were there and and I get it like it’s a cool thing to have the local guys there but from a messaging standpoint that I think misses the mark I don’t think you want to bring up the junior Sabers ever if you’re Kevin Adams because people already do not have a good association with Kevin Adams and the junior Sabers right and they certainly don’t want to hear that you know that might play into decisions right that you know like they drafted Gavin McCarthy last year which I think is a fine pick but you know he grew up as Kevin Adams neighbor uh they signed Dennis Gilbert today again I think it’s a fine signing but you know if you were a team that had won over and over again that would be one thing I just don’t think it’s necessary to bring it up right I just think it’s missed the mark for me but um and again it’s not let people write the stories if they want to write the stories let hoppy write a junior saber story if Matthew Fairburn wants to write one for the athletic go ahead right let the people yeah I’m with you actually I’m with you on that if and if somebody asks about a specific specific guy by all means but to a broad stroke’s question about development camp and why certain guys aren’t here to say that was one of the first things that stood out to you how cool that was and and what a great job they’ve done building the junior Sabers I don’t know I not to mention that you know there’s a whole separate conversation to be had about you know Buffalo hockey and maybe this is an offseason podcast for us at some point about how much talent comes out of this area to begin with these days compared to how much used to maybe what role the uh the NHL team being a train wreck has has played into that but I don’t know I it just felt unnecessary to me I just yeah a complete side note but the development Camp is definitely not front and center this year but by not having all those guys here it’s even more not front and center and you almost should want it to be with uh the main way you’re trying to build this team so it’s hard to invest energy into development Camp if you’re telling your top prospects to not to not do it I was also not down there today they they also told me I didn’t need to be there clean your season you’ve been to too many of these you’re developed I’ll be down there I’ll get down there but um all right we’re half hour in you know just to kind of put a bow on free agency and then we we get into the chat how you you feeling you feeling good man feeling all you hanging in there all right good um Jeff Skinner so let’s talk about who left the organization Skinner got a one-year deal in Edmonton for three million zus gurgenson three-year deal in Tampa for 850k per year Tyson Jost and Eric Robinson go out to Carolina and Eric comry going to Winnipeg to be I guess what the third goalie some of the other um delete s from the Sabers today Jeremy Davies and Joseph zone are out Davies to the Ottawa organization I think and um former Junior saber Joseph Shone going to uh Minnesota’s organization then incoming um for the AMS Felix sandstrom Swedish gender coming out of the Philly system Jack Rathbone good player originally drafted by the Canucks Josh Dunn out of Clarkson I forget where he was last year then Brent Mar mason jobs also coming back so just some housekeeping there any thoughts on Skinner or good shout out here by David DEET in the chat Brandon brro off to good yep I didn’t catch that earlier um yeah a lot happened at once today huh just a lot of action but I I’d like to congratulate uh the edmont oers on their uh Stanley Cup that’s going to be going to be tough it’s a three horse race between the AVS with Casey midat the Oilers with Jeff Skinner and a late edition the lightning entering The Fray by signing zus you know seeing seeing how it helped uh I think skinners it’s going to be really interesting I mean I I understood the line of thinking and getting rid of him but if you’re sitting there with eight or9 million on your cat on opening night and skinners skating next to McDavid or Dr idle you’re going to have a hard time convincing people that you couldn’t find a spot for them in your top six when a team that was a win away from winning the Stanley Cup basically came out and said right away you know that he’s going to fit in good in our top six so different makeup different team you know when you have McDavid and D title you know you got to do do some different things but that is uh that’s going to be an interesting one to follow frankly because Skinner was such a lightning rod for debate here for so many years and obviously his contract was such a problem but if you don’t use the money you’re going to open yourself up to a lot of criticism I think on that one and my impression of the move was that you’re going to do it for a purpose and maybe they still will but right now if you don’t the only purpose it served was saving the owner money as things stand at the moment I brought that up a couple weeks ago or you know maybe last week just thinking that’s I was little cautious about saying it but it’s kind of what it feels like like the real dollars the real dollars is only what two-thirds right yeah so you save you save the owner money but you don’t if you don’t spend the money the major C benefit was this season it’s still a small benefit next season and a smaller benefit after that and then it’s actively a penalty if they don’t spend the money yeah you know what this move on Skinner was about right your actions you’re you’re never going to hear Kevin Adams stand up there and say something like that never of course not yeah of course not your actions tell you what this is so to stand up there and say you don’t feel like you need to spend to the cap but to then say the Skinner buyout was about cap stuff doesn’t add up unless you spend the money and there’s not much to spend it on anymore by the way no so I’m saying like that’s where you start thinking about is it uh zis is it one of these guys is that the way that you’re going to spend money all right on that note let’s hit the chat I’m sure it’s I’m sure everyone’s very excited actually I think there is some excitement uh in the chat you know we’re seeing a little bit of this I started a couple I don’t know if you threw any in there but Hans says great additions to the bottom six today now let’s package Picks and Prospects for a top six center Krebs doesn’t belong on the third line and cousins and zoker could ignite some offense maybe with seavoy I’m so curious to see the line combinations you know deeper into the preseason schedule that Lindy puts together you always have the goofy line combinations that don’t make any sense in the first couple of preseason games but as I start to pair things down um you’ll start to get an idea of of some of these you know centers and Wing pairs that that Lindy wants to use I don’t know I mean I agree on the Krebs thought um that’s why I sit there and say laferty could be the guy that may pushes KBS a little bit left he can play man I think he can play cousins and zooker yeah I mean let’s see I I’m curious to see what zooker has in the tank you know um the other thing is Beck marenstein played a little bit of Center last year I think he took like 50s something face offs so yeah if you if things got dire and Krebs wasn’t working out as a third line Center you could move laugh up and maybe try to push morenstein over Kevin also brought up uh the possibility of Krebs playing Wing down the line so they haven’t closed the door on that either so maybe the trade that they could make is for another Center that makes Krebs have to earn his keep elsewhere just should have some guys earning it a little bit more and nobody in the top six at the moment is going to have to earn anything ex except maybe Benson has to hold off zooker for his job yeah that’s kind of Eric Lamar’s chat here Kevin Adams said he was happy with the current roster who’s in the top six Zer or Benson how confident you with Krebs is 3C there’s a lot of Krebs 3C talk in the chat tonight we’re not going to solve it tonight I think we’re all kind of questioning that I mean hey who knows maybe Krebs you know he he said the right things on his way out at the end of the season maybe comes back we’ve seen young guys add 10 11 pounds of mass and it makes a difference on the ice maybe Krebs is the next guy that does that I mean we it’s almost like we could talk about it till we’re blue in the face for the next couple of months but we just need to see what happens in September October see what KBS looks like and maybe a light bulb goes on um to answer the question about the top six so I’m keeping Benson there on that line man that’s what I’m doing yeah I think he’s got the most pop right right I mean yeah I think you could put Zucker with cousins I think that could work I think you could put him I think the goal is to put PKA on the first line I I don’t think they’re going to move off of that Lindy Ruff has been pumping his tires pretty good and he had a good year last year and seemed like it worked out okay so I don’t know I like pushing Skinner out and pushing Skinner out pretty much tells you that right right so because that’s the spot that they say wasn’t open right because if Skinner’s not on your top line he can’t be on your team basically was how they were looking at it not totally unfair by the way but again got to spend the money there’s a lot that’s going to come down to exactly what you just talked about with Krebs like let’s see how Krebs shows up in September let’s see how seavoy and Kik show up in September let’s see how Rosanne shows up in September I don’t think there’s a spot for Rosanne anymore necessarily but let’s see how the other two show up and but it’s just a a big role of the dice for some some key questions right that will help create more offense for your team that isn’t necessarily there right now on July 1st but I guess we’ll see I think we’ll see these types of comments the next couple of days until we see a trade from Kevin Adams so Jeff Lo says I would offer green Greenway and rosane for connect me if it’s a sign in trade probably takes a little more um I would think but uh I think it’s gonna take a decent amount more to get connect me yeah on on the rosane thought though you’re I think we’re going to see him be a pop pop sweetener in a lot of trade proposal some Savers fans the next couple of days um well at the same one Yi har you are right but you got to remember that’s not what teams want if they’re looking at pool right yeah they want the top guys yeah and I’m not saying Jeff loose was doing that but you see that all the time right it’s like three bites of cheeseburger for a nice ribeye you know what I mean or whatever it’s like doesn’t always work out that way but so yeah but it’s always yeah I mean we saw what was it it was Weber and every like Mike Weber was in every trade proposal for like three years in Buffalo about a decade ago um I don’t know if you see anything else we’re 45 minutes in Matthew and I don’t want to keep you very long you had a very long day if you see anything else in the chat feel free to to roll with it anything that uh get you excited other than that we can start to wh this bad boy down down and do our first I don’t think we’ve ever done an episode under an hour or just keep going through the chat and keep the streak alive baby I feel like we did because we did a lot of these before games where we would have to squeeze it in and the game you know would would kind of dictate one other thing I want to touch on that I’m curious about is Kevin Adams again taking a couple of not so veiled shots at Don Granado and today it was about they’re going to be faster and more direct the play style is going to it’s not just that these guys are going to bounce back they’re going to bounce back because of coaching he mentioned something about predictability he mentioned accountability again all these things where like Lindy Ruff was the big offseason acquisition almost in his mind and I think Lindy Ruff had a big hand in pushing for some of these moves and and making some of these additions but it just seems like a lot being heaped on that particular change as if that was the problem with the team last year it was one of them but I’m fairly certain Don Granado was telling Kevin a year ago what he needed to add the pieces that he needed to have to better Coach the team and better manage the team I think but Lind has that much more credibility with Kevin than Don did then why the why was Don your coach yeah I I just it’s a drastic turn right because these moves should have been made a year ago and you can bet man you can bet that Don Granado was sitting there when Jack Quin called him to tell him about his Achilles injury thinking boy my forward group needs a little bit more here because if another inevitable injury happens we’re in trouble and they added nobody not even on you know try out deals or anything no veterans no effort was made right like Eric Johnson Connor Clifton call it a day like so that it it sits a little weird with me and I think everybody who listens to this show knows where we stood on the coaching situation right but part of what we were talking about was that the team needed to be woken up the team needed you know kind of a some sort of spark and it came late and these moves come late and so the ability to recognize and think ahead and and do things like that seems to be lacking So the plan is Shifting right for a while Kevin Adams was questioning do they need to be tougher to play against do they need more grit do they need more toughness he was asking Kyle looso about it a couple years ago go at the trade deadline it’s why they went out and they got Jordan Greenway yeah and so now he makes this big push for this while it seems like almost every time he speaks now there’s these little subtle shots at the coaching from last year and a great Point here by by Jim Campbell like why did he give the two-year extension then with two full years to go on his original contract this was the guy in retrospect he hired him right and and it took him all this time to recognize all these things he told me at the trade deadline he loved how the team was preparing he loved how the coaching staff was preparing also the only new coach is Lindy Ruff the rest of the coaching staff is intact so now it’s it’s like you know Seth apert’s up but he’s within the organization so I just uh I don’t know it’s weird to me that every time almost unprompted every time he speaks it seems like there’s something that you can decode as a little disrespectful towards Don Granado when yeah it’s okay to fire him I understand why he got fired that’s the business I I don’t and as we said many times on this show it was you know a move that was that was necessary but I said when they fired him and when they hired Lindy Ruff and the way the players were talking if they think it’s a magic wand that’s going to be a problem that they can just press the coach button they can just press the accountability button and everything will be fixed that’s not really how this works and and it feels like Kevin Adams thinks that move was the biggest most important move of the off season we’ll see maybe there’s a bigger one coming but uh the way he speaks he brings that up almost every time trying to say this the right way and I don’t know if I trying to I’m baking the S on the but that’s a lot to put on Lindy because it’s like he is the Marquee acquisition as it presently stands right and he didn’t bring any of his own guys in with them it blows my mind like for him to be the Marquee acquisition don’t you think that he would have a little more backup and a little more help to run his system and and there’s not one guy that Lindy brought in unless I’m missing something it’s a that part is really surprising to me it blows my mind and it’s nothing against Seth aert at all maybe a little bit against the other guys but again it’s it’s like isolating Don Granado as the sole problem despite the fact that a year earlier he coached the team to 91 points despite having every year that they had Don Granado as their coach they were in the bottom five in the league in payroll they were the youngest team in the league I I think every year that he coached them and so to isolate that as the variable when Kevin Adams is the one who built the team right Kevin Adams is the one who via trade or free agency really hasn’t until today and even maybe including today if you ask some people hasn’t made like substantial addition to the roster so to think the coach it it feels almost like I don’t know the right word that I’m looking for but it feels like that is trying to hide all the other problems right like you’re almost placing blame on Don Granado for what went wrong last year and not looking in the mirror to say where did I go wrong building this team where have I forecasted wrong where have you know which contracts maybe were premature or that’s just saying because to your point the way the coaching staff is built suggests that the problem was Don Granado and the video coach apparently um Matt Ellis is moving upstairs so you know but did keev did Lindy Ruff you know why didn’t he get to bring in any of his own guys I don’t know it’s really peculiar if he is the Marquee like I said I’m not going to repeat that but that was kind of where I was going with that and you know on the Granado thing too I mean we we I’m not going to beat the dead horse Don’s been you know unemployed for a couple months now it seems but it was pretty clear to us in like January like why did he wait so long if there were all these problems you know well that too now P That season away like because it tells me that you know what Kevin feels really good about his job security when reality he should feel very like like urgent like act with a little more urgency including fire in the coach when things were going off the rails in the winter and even now like when he speaks I’ll just ask you this because we’re 53 minutes in and I’m at the point now where it’s I want to keep you for the full hour just keep the streak alive does do you get the sense when Kevin’s talking to the media that he’s comfortable I I we talked about it like like we talked about stress right we talked about like annoy and stress from draft week and and free agency week coming up but he said a couple things today that made me feel like maybe he’s comfortable like he’s yeah the I’m not there the stress to me and the always felt more like frustration like he couldn’t get done what he wanted to get done because other GMS weren’t meeting his asking prices or or whatever else I have wondered that a lot you know because you get the outside view of this team from talking to other people and people say man is he gonna get you know five full years with no playoffs and I can’t rule that out I can’t and maybe there there is a level of comfort there you know between Terry pagl and Kevin Adams so I I don’t know but to me the way he has acted the last few years speaks to somebody who feels pretty comfortable in his job security because he even today didn’t really take the big swing and maybe he tried I don’t know but part of the job is not spending money just to spend money at the same time okay I’m not gonna make excuses for Kevin Adams and I’m not going to say that I’m not saying that he should be fired by the way I’m just asking the question if he appears comfortable because to me being outside of the building and just watching things and listening to things I kind of noticed maybe there’s some comfortability there and you got to remember too this was a multi-year plan building it up from scratch when he took the job but the regression that the team had last year and he didn’t do anything about it is the problem and maybe the corrective action that he took today with re you know taking uh um kind of reshaping that bottom six and I’m putting zuker in the bottom six okay is maybe it’ll be enough maybe it will be enough it might you’re going to need Tage Thompson and Alex tuck and Dylan cousins to be who they were you’re going to need JJ petka to not have any sort of regression and probably take another step forward you’re going to need Jack Quinn to stay healthy you’re going to need a much better year out of Owen power you’re going to need Bo Byrum to take the next step and be better than he was to finish the year Dalene is Dalene I think he’s fine he’s outstanding you’re going to need samelson probably to stay healthy right or some version of it he’s not going to play 82 games but there’s a lot but those are all the bets that Kevin Adams already made so I can almost understand him sitting there and saying this is my core this is you know the guys I have placed my bets on you know these some of these guys already have the long-term contracts and you know I think that’s a fair point by Jim Campbell here Zucker feels like spending money to spend money a little bit like I didn’t mean to put this one up about Stan Bowman but actually Stan Bowman is probably going Jonathan how I’ll just read it now since it’s on the screen if Terry had any care for this team Stan Bowman will be named president Tomorrow there’s obviously problems that come with Stan Bowman but Stan Bowman’s being talked about in League circles but he’s gonna resurface he’s gonna get a job again probably well pretty soon all those guys are um are now eligible you saw that today they not that in there in in the middle of free agency slimy little move by the NHL to you know there’s chat with like Edmonton’s job right and things like that you’re GNA yeah you’re gonna hear it comes back to the same question of you know how comfortable is Kevin Adams and where is Terry pagul at you know is he because let’s not forget Lindy Ruff is getting paid by the Devils still for a couple years so we don’t actually know exactly what he’s getting paid by the Sabers but it’s not the full Freight so you know Don Granado is also getting paid by the Sabers so there there is that but you know is he going to pay another GM or a president hockey Ops rebuild the front office in a different Vision if you don’t spend to the cat this year after buying out Jeff Skinner after being in the bottom five in spending every year since Terry Pula said said that they wanted to be economic efficient and effective then you deserve whatever criticism gets lobbed at them about spending frankly because you are in win Now situation you in a competitive window they think they are so you know I think that’s where I agree with you you don’t spend money just to spend money and some of the contracts that were handed out today undoubtedly will be teams will regret them but there’s a reason that very few teams who make the playoffs spend at the level that the Sabres have over the last few years teams in the division got better today I can’t remember if I’ve made this comment before but I would be curious to do the math on on Granado’s points per dollar spent over the last three years while he was the head coach probably ranks okay frankly like it’s probably not terrible yeah let’s do that math nextx Baker Fairburn hockey show I’d have to do it around the league I’d be curious to see where it stands but point being this is a league where everybody’s been up against the C everybody’s like celebrating a $4 million increase like they just won the lottery and the Sabers have been sitting there with just sitting on piles of cash they’ve had their own cap they’ve had their own cap so are they sitting on piles of cash that’s the thing ticket Revenue hasn’t been there I don’t know if they’re sitting on cash yeah yeah that’s a good that’s a good point but and that’s the other thing too he needs to make a move by the way Lindy’s not going to be enough to sell tickets that’s my prediction fans are happy I think there’s a different vibe in the chat tonight they like I think the energy that got injected into the lineup with laferty manstein ob kubel I think zooker I think I think the vibe that I’m feeling from the fans I could be wrong is that H price tag was a little was a lot but at the same time they’ll take him if he helps you know that’s what’s weird about this like the you know the guys that they paid what so lafy got two years 2 million OB kuel was one for 1.5 M say we don’t know yet right not going to break the bank though these are exciting Acquisitions for this team right now right now look at what Nashville did today you know like man dude yeah I mean the good news I guess is that Montreal kind of struck out they didn’t really get better Detroit didn’t have a great no you Detroit didn’t Detroit had kind of a tough day but Boston added a couple big pieces Tampa aggressively tried to you know reshape what they look like Florida should be fine right I mean they’ve got their big pieces Al the L the lamorghini yeah he went back yeah yeah two million a year good for him he got the baker Fairburn hockey show bump I think you know yeah his agent was probably he can buy some shoes wasn’t he walking around the cup the cup and just justce briefs yeah imagine some of these phone calls this morning by the way like Brandon Montour gets seven by seven yeah lomber gets two by two like were these guys even awake yet they had their parade yesterday yeahman Larson yeah stole ours they lost guys right yeah and uh they get the call this morning I get that that solves your hangover pretty quick if you’re bringing them on to $50 million contract I would have just kept going I would have just kept going that’s not a bad yeah Jo bu needs a refill that’s not a bad situation but yeah so we’ll see dude yeah over the hour kept we’ll see what happens kept you if they have another move up their sleeve that would probably be for the best but otherwise they’ve got a grittier lineup is it a drastically better lineup than the one they had 12 months ago we’ll see and we’ll see how it Stacks up in one of the toughest maybe the toughest division in hockey so that’s uh that’s sort of where I’m at with this right now is I guess I guess we’ll see and look each move is Kevin Adams resume right so uh if he is content leaving the office with this roster I don’t Envision he would be content with it going into training camp but I guess we’ll see all right Matthew one final uh opportunity do you got any plugs before we head out for the evening I think we’ve still got the dollar a month sale happening at the athletic.com so you can head over there and get that and as always like the video comment on the video comment on the video the one player you would like to see added to the Sabers lineup actually no h yeah let’s do that that’s a what are they missing if you could add one more player um and as always find us on Apple and and rate US subscribe five stars whatever it is you can do to to help the algorithm we always appreciate it all right I’ll see you down at the rink one of these days this week maybe tomorrow and for everyone else we’ll see you again uh very soon here on the next episode of The Baker airburn hockey show thanks everyone for hopping in tonight for Matthew furn for the athletic for the production crew who is helping me move furniture out of my house today I’m Chris Baker we’ll see you again next time