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Wagons Moving in Buffalo as Training Camp Opens for 2026-27 - Sabres Semantics · The Armchair GM's Sports Network

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Armchair GM Sports Network.
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  Speaker 2: This is Saber Semantics. Covering all things Buffalo Sabers. Exclusively
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another live episode of Saber Semantics right
• 1:11
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  Speaker 1: video coverage here on the network. And thank you to
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  Speaker 1: those listening the next day on your favorite on-demand audio
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  Speaker 1: podcast platform. Make sure to give us a five-star rating,
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  Speaker 1: whatever one you chose to listen to us on. Brandon
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Caputo and Jonathan Howe of 97.7 Hits FM here with
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  Speaker 1: you to discuss day one of Sabres training camp. We're
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: going to hear from Sabres head coach, Lindy Ruff, as
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  Speaker 1: well as general manager, Yarmulke Kalainen, who both spoke to
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  Speaker 1: the media yesterday in preparation for day one of camp.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously a special smart start time tonight on the video
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  Speaker 1: version because of the, you know, the other Buffalo based
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  Speaker 1: team that is playing and opening their new stadium tonight.
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  Speaker 1: So appreciate everybody joining us a little bit earlier today.
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  Speaker 1: A little bit of a quick housekeeping, just so you
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  Speaker 1: guys are aware, you can see in the top left
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  Speaker 1: corner of the video version there, our merch store. So
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: we've got all of our Saber Semantics merch for you
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: this season. There's little t-shirts. You can get a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of different great stuff on there. And we've got all
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  Speaker 1: of our different logos here on the network. So if
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  Speaker 1: you guys want to check that out, great stuff on
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  Speaker 1: our merch site, as well, you can give us a
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  Speaker 1: follow on Axe at Saber Semantics, as well as on Facebook, Instagram,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and TikTok for our short reels and content as well. Jonathan,
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  Speaker 1: before we get going with the show, it's your first
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  Speaker 1: time back on this season. Your debut of the season
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  Speaker 1: as well. One, how was your summer? And two, how
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  Speaker 1: excited are you to talk Sabres once again? It was
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  Speaker 1: a good summer.
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  Speaker 3: It was honestly a bit strange to get back to
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  Speaker 3: talking about the Sabres as quickly as we have because.
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  Speaker 1: Of that playoff run.
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  Speaker 3: We're not used to talking about the Sabres as late
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  Speaker 3: into the year as we were this year, which is
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  Speaker 3: a good problem to have and hopefully one that we're
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  Speaker 3: going to have more often. So to me, it doesn't
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  Speaker 3: feel like it's kind of feels like a short off season,
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  Speaker 3: which is, is nice.
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  Speaker 1: I'm, I'm enjoying that. I'm enjoying that aspect. Summer's been good.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of time at the racetrack at Merrittville speedway,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of time dialed into racing in general with
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  Speaker 3: the NASCAR series rolling on and all that sort of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: So I looking forward to seeing the puck drop on
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  Speaker 3: the season though. I'm ready to get back for what
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  Speaker 3: is going to be maybe the most anticipated saber season
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  Speaker 3: in 15 years at least.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because going into last season, we didn't expect what
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: happened to happen.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we were expecting them to, you know, maybe
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  Speaker 1: fight for a wild card spot and break the drought,
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  Speaker 1: but they kicked down the door, won the Atlantic one
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  Speaker 1: 50 games. And, uh, you know, we're an overtime goal
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  Speaker 1: away from being in the Eastern conference final. Right. So, uh,
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  Speaker 1: they've had a lot of time to sit and marinate
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  Speaker 1: on that as well. Jonathan, like, you know, just, uh,
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  Speaker 1: the first couple of days of camp and we're going to,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to hear some, uh, some comments from Lindy and,
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  Speaker 1: and Yarmou and, and kind of go over what they
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  Speaker 1: said later in the show today. But, uh, It seems
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  Speaker 1: like the guys are back motivated. And even though, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you lost guys like Byram and Tuck, it seems like
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  Speaker 1: the guys that are still there and the guys that
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  Speaker 1: signed long term this offseason, they really want to be
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  Speaker 1: part of taking the next step here and, you know,
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  Speaker 1: getting this team over the hump.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of feels almost a little bit, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I don't want to always compare everything to like the
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  Speaker 3: 05-06 team. But, you know, when they had some of
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  Speaker 3: the youngsters, some of the rookies come on board, Vanek, Roy,
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  Speaker 3: start to break through.
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  Speaker 1: Really make a name for themselves.
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  Speaker 3: It kind of feels like we're in that same sort
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  Speaker 3: of era where we've got a Benson, a Doan, a Kulik,
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  Speaker 3: a Oslin, all these guys starting to try to move
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  Speaker 3: forward and take maybe a bit more of a step
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  Speaker 3: towards being an everyday NHL star, not just an everyday
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  Speaker 3: NHL player like they were able to do last year.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the playoffs also showed as well that
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  Speaker 3: there are more than a few candidates who are set
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  Speaker 3: from potential breakouts and to become household names if.
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  Speaker 1: They aren't already amongst Sabres fans.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about a couple of those today and,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it was great having a voice of the Sabres,
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  Speaker 1: Dan Dunleavy on our show last week and go check
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  Speaker 1: that out on our YouTube channel here or whatever on-demand
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  Speaker 1: audio podcast platform is great getting his insight as well.
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  Speaker 1: Just talking about, you know, the team's resurgence last season,
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  Speaker 1: you know, in November and sort of the way that
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  Speaker 1: they went on that, that incredible run and for them
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  Speaker 1: calling the games as well. And just some certain players,
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  Speaker 1: he's looking for Jack Quinn to take a big step
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  Speaker 1: this season. So That was a great conversation with the
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  Speaker 1: voice of the Sabres and appreciate his time right before
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  Speaker 1: the season was a good launch pad for us. And Jonathan,
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  Speaker 1: he's a big music guy. So I know you threw
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a couple of music questions in there for him. He's
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  Speaker 1: a big Van Halen guy. So talking about the goal
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  Speaker 1: song and what he could potentially want there. And he
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  Speaker 1: actually plays a little guitar himself. So I'm sure you
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  Speaker 1: love that. Yeah, no, Dan is awesome. It was a
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  Speaker 1: great interview.
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  Speaker 3: Super happy that he was able to make some time
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  Speaker 3: and join you in that one. And just to hear
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  Speaker 3: so many stories, even just about, you know, Southern Ontario
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  Speaker 3: and the role that the Buffalo Sabres have had on
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  Speaker 3: us as a fandom down here, you know, it's so
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  Speaker 3: easy to get swept up in the Leafs. Obviously there's
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  Speaker 3: a connection with the Bruins being, you know, Niagara Flyers
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  Speaker 3: and their farm system dating back to the sixties, right.
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  Speaker 3: Montreal and well in the French community, obviously there's a
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  Speaker 3: lot of Habs fans out there, but to me, I
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  Speaker 3: think to, to the extent that Buffalo is, you know,
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  Speaker 3: now that they're back, you suddenly see it. I don't
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  Speaker 3: know what your summer was like driving around. I saw
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  Speaker 3: so many Sabres stickers, suddenly flags, all the hats are
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  Speaker 3: out again. You know, again, reminiscent of what it was
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  Speaker 3: like when I was in grade school and seeing a
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  Speaker 3: fandom start to really brew up in Southern Ontario, in
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  Speaker 3: Niagara Falls, where I grew up and where I live.
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  Speaker 3: So it was cool to see Dan kind of acknowledge
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  Speaker 3: the role the Sabres have amongst Southern Ontario hockey fans,
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  Speaker 3: because it's not just a, It's not just a Leafs town,
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  Speaker 3: not just a town that can only cater to Canadian teams.
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  Speaker 3: Our Sabres stronghold is loud and proud in Niagara Falls
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  Speaker 3: and in Niagara in general once again.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. We're going to have some promotions here on the
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  Speaker 1: Canadian side for you guys this season with Global Pet Foods.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: We'll kind of announce that later in the month, as
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: well as with Carmine's Pizzeria is going to be giving
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: away some gift cards as well. So if you guys
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: want to get in on that, and as well, Cully's,
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  Speaker 1: who we're going to be working with– Sabres-based bar here
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  Speaker 1: in the Niagara region. We're going to be doing some
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  Speaker 1: fun cross-promotion stuff with colleagues and maybe some watch parties
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  Speaker 1: throughout the season. So stay tuned to our socials for
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  Speaker 1: that going forward. But let's get into a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of the meat and potatoes here, Jonathan. We'll start off
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: here with a big re-signing that came earlier this week.
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  Speaker 1: It caught some people maybe outside the Buffalo market a
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  Speaker 1: little bit off guard, but with the changes to the
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  Speaker 1: CBA and players no longer being able to sign eight-year contracts,
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  Speaker 1: One of maybe the last ones that came through was
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  Speaker 1: Noah Oslund getting an eight-year extension with the Sabres here. Jonathan,
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  Speaker 1: what was your thoughts on the extension one and two?
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  Speaker 1: Just how excited are you for what Oslund can bring
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  Speaker 1: going forward here as part of this quarter?
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  Speaker 3: So for me, I think the big thing that I
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  Speaker 3: immediately saw was that they got that eighth year in.
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  Speaker 3: That was huge for me. I was very happy about
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  Speaker 3: that because, again, I think long-term planning has done nothing
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  Speaker 3: but maybe be the biggest reason that this core has
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  Speaker 3: been able to succeed.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: You look at locking up Tage, right?
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  Speaker 3: I think it all kind of starts there, knowing that
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  Speaker 3: you've got power and you've got Darlene under the deals
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  Speaker 3: that you have.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Darlene's a little bit different.
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  Speaker 3: He's getting probably paid appropriately for what it was at
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  Speaker 3: the time. But I mean, even that contract is going
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  Speaker 3: to age really well as the cap continues to go up.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: And when you think about contracts aging, this Auslan deal,
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: it just seems like it is perfect for... a contract
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  Speaker 3: that's going to age to be one of those incredible values. Now,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: you know, what, what does a $ 6. 6 million player look
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  Speaker 3: like stat wise in three, four seasons, probably in the NHL,
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  Speaker 3: you're going to be looking at maybe a 20 to
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  Speaker 3: 25 goal guy, maybe a 40 to 50 to maybe
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  Speaker 3: 60 point guy. And I honestly think that no awesome
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  Speaker 3: ceiling is, is above that.
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  Speaker 1: So when I look at that, that, that contract, all
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  Speaker 1: I see is value.
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  Speaker 3: All I see is yes, it's a little bit bold to,
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  Speaker 3: go so far and lock him up the way they
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: have at the age you have. But I mean, look
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  Speaker 3: at all the guys coming out of RFA right now
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  Speaker 3: that are signing for massive money. You just don't want
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  Speaker 3: to take that risk. If, if a player is willing
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  Speaker 3: to sign up for eight years to be here in
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  Speaker 3: Buffalo and do it at a manageable number, you got
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  Speaker 3: to jump on it. So, uh, you know, I did
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  Speaker 3: get the text message from a buddy who was like
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: really 11 goals in the NHL gets you six and
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: a half million or 6.6 million for eight years now, really,
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: that's all you need to do. And it's like, In
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: this world, yeah, you're getting paid for what you could do,
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: not what you have done. And that, I think, is
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: the smart thing to do and the smart play for GMJK.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: And I understand the pundits, you know, around the league
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  Speaker 1: saying he's only played 68 games and three playoff games. But,
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  Speaker 1: uh you know the sample size no oslin excuse me
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  Speaker 1: has brought in and a good piece uh on our
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: website armchairgmsports.com uh one of our writers zach burda put
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: it up there with uh some statistics uh from another
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: contributor of our sean sean moran about uh you know
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  Speaker 1: just oslin's underlying statistics and sort of comparing them to
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: alex tug it's not too far off so just as
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: far as some of the analytics and when you really
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: start to dig into the meat and potatoes of that.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: So with the potential and with what, as you mentioned,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the contracts going up, the cap going up, and where
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: things are going for restricted free agents, for him to
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: get that eighth year, as you mentioned, before that it
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: sort of goes away. At 6.6, we could be looking
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: at this in three or four years as one of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the better value contracts in the National Hockey League if
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: he remains a top six forward.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't see, other than injuries, that's the
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: only thing that's kind of been a red flag with
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Noah Ostlund. through his pro career saw him get hurt
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: in the playoffs saw him get hurt in the regular
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: season last year I think he's had some injury battles
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: in in the AHL in his time there as well
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: in Sweden he's had some injury battles so that's the
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: only thing you kind of run the risk when you're
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: signing up a guy for eight years is can he
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: stay healthy but by all accounts everything that's been written
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: about been said about this guy he came back into
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: camp and in shape and not just in shape but
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: with noticeably more muscle and strength to him and to
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: his game. And that should hopefully help to keep him
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: a little bit healthier throughout the year. And if he
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: stays healthy, what is an 82, 84 game season now
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  Speaker 3: look like for Noah Oslin? I feel like it's probably
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  Speaker 3: going to be one that I think is already maybe
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: going to be living up to that contract value by
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  Speaker 3: the end of this year, which is insane to think
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  Speaker 3: and say.
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  Speaker 6: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have to wait and see, but Noah Oslin, he's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: played some center. He's played wing. Seems like a guy
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  Speaker 1: that's going to be in Buffalo's long term future here
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and a guy that was, you know, they talked about
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: him in trade, possible trades this this offseason. But it
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: looks like obviously he's going to be staying in Buffalo
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: long term now and a guy that they did not
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: want to give up in potential trades for Connor Hellebuck
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: or whatever else available out there. So nice to get
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Austin locked up there again. They're locking up those guys,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: you know, in the early to mid 20 range with
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Austin being 22, you know, perfect range for him there.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: And an eight-year deal, you know, he would be a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: UFA at that point. But we'll cross that bridge in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: eight years when we get there. But I believe he's
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: under contract for one more season. And then the eight-year
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: deal kicks in. So Noah Oslin better buy some property
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in Buffalo. You're going to be here a while, buddy.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait and see how that contract
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: plays out. But moving on, Yuri Kulich, the Sabres put
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: up a nice... piece on him in the offseason as
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: he was recovering from that blood clot was really nice
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: to see him sort of be transparent about you know
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: just how difficult that was and and going through that
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: process and you know some dark days for him you
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: know missing out on on most of the whole season
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and most of the playoff run after he started off
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the season so hot there and and looked like he
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: was going to be you know potentially the top line
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: center that he was playing so for him to be
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: able to be you know, fully healthy, you know, that's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a great thing. And obviously just adds another, you know,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: great young piece to this roster that, you know, Lindy
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Ruff can use up and down the lineup. And, you know,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: maybe at center, maybe at wing, we'll wait and see
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: what those lines look like. But just to have him
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: be healthy once again, be able to play hockey is
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: going to be big for this club. Yeah, 100%.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I mean, center depth was definitely one of the Sabres issues,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I would say, last year. I think that's a big
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: reason why you saw them go out and trade for
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: a guy like Sam Carrick, who you know, had that
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: extra year on the deal too. So he is going
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: to be back here. He's going to be able to
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: kind of be an anchor of the bottom six center
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: spot in Yuri Kulik. He's going to have time, you know,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: right off the hop, he'll have a spot on the
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: roster and on the team. But once Jason Zucker's back,
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, if Kulik's not quite ready to be in
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: the limelight, not quite ready to be a guy who
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: can be an everyday center Iceman carrying a line, then.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he can go back to Rochester.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: They can figure out what they need to do for
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: his development, his path, his recovery from that blood clot situation.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of options, and I honestly don't even
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: think that half of them, if any of them, are
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: going to be exercised other than to get this guy
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: back in the lineup. I wasn't surprised to see him
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: not skating on that top line on the first day
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: of practice, but I also.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: would not.
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  Speaker 3: Be surprised to see Yuri Kulik centering the top line
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: of the Sabres at some point this season, if not
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: even a couple weeks into the season.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: So we'll just go over that right now with the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: training camp lines, and I'll kind of discuss quick a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: couple injury updates. Jason Zucker, as per GM Yarmulke Kalainen yesterday,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: won't be ready for the start of the regular season.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Undergoing a sports hernia surgery will miss most likely the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: first couple of weeks of the regular season, but Should
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: be okay to go after that. And then Louis Crevier
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: had a procedure on his shoulder, but they expect him
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: to be ready for the start of the regular season.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: So that's good news there. As you can see, the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: lines up on the screen from friend of the show,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Heather Engel, covers the Sabres for NHL.com. Krebs, Thompson, Doan
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: on the top line. McLeod, Norris, Helenus on the second line. Benson, Oslin, Quinn,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: line three. Kulich, Carrick, Mallenstein, line four. And then Kozak
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and Danforth rotated in as the extras. but the defenseman,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Mattia Samuelsson, Rasmus Dahlin, no shocker there. Zellweger in power
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: on the second pair, and then Timmons and Crevier in
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the third with Gilbert and Metz as the extras. Jonathan,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: what do you think of that, just initial reactions of
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the day one lines at camp?
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: I was pretty surprised to see that they put Thompson
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: back to center. I fully expected that first line to
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: be completely rethought of, and from the get-go, drop that
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: down to something... more experimental, something that maybe echoes back
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: to some past chemistry. You know, to me, I wonder
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: about the, I wonder about a Benson Norris Thompson top line.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: That's kind of what I thought we'd see. I figured
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Krebs would be back down in a bottom three, bottom
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: six spot at the very least. You know, I think
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: even looking at this though, it kind of feels odd
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: to see mcleod like you've kind of loaded up your
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: second line with three centers right mcleod norris helenius uh
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: i think we're all kind of expecting those three to
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: take some face-offs to take shifts as centermen at some
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: point in the season maybe not helenist maybe they leave
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: him the most but mcleod for sure like mcleod screamed
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: to me uh third line center pencil him in pretty
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: much almost put him in pen that he was going
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: to be in that spot and So the forward lines
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: I definitely thought were a bit of a blender today.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: I would not be surprised to see them change again
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: throughout camp. I know they've talked about wanting to get
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: some consistency right out of the gate. Maybe going back
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: to some of the stuff that they saw worked in
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: the playoffs is why they're doing what they're doing forward-wise.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: But I personally am in the camp that I want
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: to see Tate Thompson on the wing. I just think
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: that he can bring so much more to the game,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: and you still have him as a supporting player. player
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: who knows how to play center on that line. He
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: can take a draw if you need to, but I
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: just kind of figured we'd see Norris up there on
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: that top line, and I'm surprised that we didn't. I'm
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: not surprised at all about what we're seeing on the defense.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: There was, I think, some chatter. I've seen some posts
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: kind of hammering the table for Power and Timmons to
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: be a partner. We've also seen Crevier-Power as a potential pairing,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: but I do.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like Power.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: And Zellweger have some experience going back to like the
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Canadian development ranks, right? And I think they may have even,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know if they were a pairing, but I
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: think they were at similar world junior camps for Canada,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: I believe. So correct me if I'm wrong on that,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: but I'm interested in that pair at the very least.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: We saw Byram in that role. So if we're penciling
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Zellweger in as Byram's replacement, putting him with Power probably
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: makes sense, especially with the defensive leap that we saw
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Owen Power take last year?
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I think the only, I guess, debate there would be
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: if you want to have the left-right, and that would
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: be Crevier and Power, and then have Zellweger and Timmons there,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: because Zellweger and Power are both lefties, right? So that's
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the only potential that we could see at camp, as
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: far as maybe something there. But if Zellweger is just,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you know, he needs to be in that top four,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: then it doesn't matter that they're both left-handed, that they
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: just need to play together and have it be figured out, right?
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I know that Crevier, you know, he's a big man
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: out there. Joe Yurden tweeted today, Crevier very big. That
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: was the analysis. So he definitely looks like a mammoth
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: out there, and that's already good for a guy that can,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you know, take that Logan Stanley role, but in a
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: little bit more of a mobility, you know, upgrade from
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Logan Stanley, who's still unsigned, by the way, which is
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: crazy to me. But regardless of that, like, I think
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Crevier is a sneaky good addition in that trade and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that Byram deal for the fourth overall pick to turn
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: to Dax Rudolph. is going to be playing at the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: University of Denver this season. So, yeah, I think, you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: we'll have to wait and see if Lindy's comfortable with
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the two lefties on the second pair. He was last
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: year with Byram and Power. So I guess, you know,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: if you're just going to replace Byram with Zellweger, then
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: it just, you know, it goes right into that once again.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: But as far as the forwards, I know Lindy touched
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: on it and we'll kind of get to his comments
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit later. But he did talk about, you know,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: about Tate Thompson. He wanted to start him on the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: on the center but could potentially see him playing some
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: wing again this season depending on injuries or or what
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: have you but he said he would like to start
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: him at center but he obviously we know that tage
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: can play wing when you're looking at those lines right
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: there you know would tage go into that alec tuck
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: spot on the right wing and then as you mentioned
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: maybe having the center depth of norris mcleod oslin and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: potentially cool each as well that you can you know
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: rotate in there does that make the lineup better in
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: your opinion if tage is you know on the wing
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: on the depth.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Chart To me, I think the biggest thing when I
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: approach and look at the center ice thing, and this
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: is something that I think Lindy touched on a little
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: bit in his conference on the first day. To me,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: you need to put the strongest face-off players as your
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: center man on every line. If Thompson is that much
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: better in the dot, which I'm pretty sure his numbers
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: were around 42% I think last year, that's fine. You
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: want to see it above 50 or close to 50, obviously.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: At least.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: To me, that's what you need to do. So whoever
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: is going to step up and prove themselves as great
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: in the face-off dot, to me, deserves the opportunity to
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: anchor the line as the center. That's the biggest thing.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: I think that's face-offs and penalty power play. Those are
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: the two main things that it seemed like the team
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: identified as weaknesses that needed to be improved in the offseason.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Maybe Thompson is one of those guys who spent a
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: lot of time studying about how to get better in
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: the face-off dot. Maybe he's already started to work with
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Eric Stahl.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: We've mentioned it.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: We've heard talk about that kind of being Eric Stahl's
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: role with this team is focusing in on center depth
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: and center skills like taking face-offs, taking draws. I think
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: personally they're stronger with Thompson on the wing, but maybe
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: this is babying Yuri Kulik a little bit and he
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: is the anointed one who is just going to move
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: from that fourth line spot up there. Because even when
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: you look at this lineup, like I don't think Jason
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Zucker is that far away based on the reports that
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: we've heard. So, I mean, where is Zucker going to
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: go in this lineup and who's coming out for, for
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: Jason Zucker? Cause I don't think you're going to keep
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Zucker at his cap hit far down your lineup. Maybe
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: there's a move still to come. You know, the Hellebuck
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: rumors are hot and heavy and obviously Winnipeg wants rostered players.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: So can you get a McLeod involved in that deal?
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: Maybe.
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know what the I don't know what's coming
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: down the pipeline. So to me, this is a good
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: starting point. But I just personally would want to see
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: that this team makes the decision to put whoever is
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: strongest in the faceoff dot as your center, regardless of
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: whatever line they.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Happen to find themselves on. And it's easier to put
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a center at the wing, right? Because it's a little
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: bit lesser responsibility. It's hard for a winger to move
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the center, but for a center to move the wing,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: you can also, you know, have them come in depending
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: on what faceoff dot it is on the left or
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the right. So having more centers than wingers is not
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: necessarily a bad thing if injuries happen or, you know,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: just for matchup purposes. So, you know, we obviously know
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that a lot of these guys have played wing as
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: well that have been natural centermen. So, you know, we
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: heard the Chris Kreider rumors. He ends up going to Montreal.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: And again, that would have as much as I think
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Crider would have been a nice fit, I just, I'm
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: kind of, you know, at the point of like this
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: forward group is loaded enough already that, you know, where
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: would he have fit in between that second and third
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: line would have been nice on the power play, but
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: then you would have had even more of a mess here.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: And then you most likely would have had to make
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: a move for somebody or, you know, as you mentioned,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: one of those young players is either scratched or down
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in Rochester. So it looks like Kozak and Danforth, you know,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: those guys are going to be potentially the extras of
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the guys going back down to Rochester and Same with Gilbert,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: most likely, and maybe Metza stays up as the extra,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: sort of like he did last year in that role.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: He seemed like he can play that really nice utility
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: step in when he needs to role. So if those
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: are your extra guys on defense as well, I really
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: like what I see so far. Again, maybe a little
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: bit tweaking on the forward group, but as you mentioned,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: if you can get Doan Thompson and Benson together, I
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: think that would be a really good line and keep
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Thompson at center if you need to. And we all
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: know with Josh Norris's injury history, At some point, maybe
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Helenus or Ausland or one of these guys, McLeod, are
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: going to have to move into that center ice role.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: it's a long 84-game season, and having more depth right
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: now than not is not necessarily a bad thing.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: And we also saw, too, where they liked to utilize
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: whoever was on the strong side. If their faceoff dot
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: was on the strength of a winger or the typical winger,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: we saw that maybe that player would step in and
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: at least take the draw. Again, to me, it's all
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: about whoever's going to be strongest in getting the puck initially,
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: especially in the offensive zone. That's who I want to
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: see anchor the middle of the lineup. But again, I
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: think this, maybe not in the first week of camp,
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: but I would not be surprised to see these lines
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: go in a blender come game 15, game 20 even.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we'll have to wait and see. Maybe
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: even by the time we get to day two or
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: three of camp, things have changed or you know, heaven
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: forbid there's an injury or something like that. As you mentioned,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: potential moves can always be made as well. So we'll
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: have to monitor that as we go through camp, but
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: definitely some, some things for us to sink our teeth
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: into for day one training camp lines. And that's the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: kind of sickos we are in this show where it's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: day one of training camp. We're already trying to figure
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: out the lines and everything like that. It's going to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: be a long, fun season here on the show. But
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: with that said, we're going to take a commercial break here.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: We're going to come back. We're going to hear from
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: head coach, Lindy rough, his comments yesterday. Yarmulke line in
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: his comments, a lot of interesting stuff there, both the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: goaltending Connor Hellebuck, uh, and a lot more. And as
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: you mentioned, Lindy rough gives us an update on Eric
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: stall and some of the guys that he's looking forward to, uh,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to have big season. So stay right here. We're right
• 25:31
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  Speaker 1: sports network. Stay with us.
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  Speaker 7: Hi, this is Dan Dunleavy, play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Sabres,
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: and you are watching and listening to Sabres Semantics.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, hey, here we go, it's hockey night in Buffalo Hey, hey,
• 29:26
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  Speaker 1: And gold Hey, hey, here we go, make some.
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• 29:34
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• 29:38
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to part two of today's live Saber
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Semantics episode right here on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
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  Speaker 1: Hits FM back with you. Continuing to discuss day one
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: of training camp for the Buffalo Sabres for the 2026-27 season.
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  Speaker 1: get to head coach Lindy Ruff and general manager Yarmulke
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Kalinan's comments from yesterday. And, you know, I know Lindy
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: talked again today, but there was a lot of stuff
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: from day one that we want to sink our teeth into.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: And we mentioned with the lineup and everything, you know,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: preseason is going to start next week, shortened preseason with
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the added two games of the regular season. Now, 84 games,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the Sabres going to play their first game, I believe
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: on October 1st, I believe is their first regular season game. So,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Not a lot of preseason games, but that might not
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: necessarily be a bad thing. I know the coaches want it,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: but as far as the fans go, we're going to
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: see NHL regular season hockey at the end of September.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Can you believe that? It's so weird.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: It almost feels like I'm like, is this like a
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: reset from like a COVID year?
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Was there a lockout? What's going on?
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: But yeah, those extra two games, that's going to make
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: such a huge difference. And make it so that there
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: is that much more importance on getting your points while
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: you can. Two more points, two more games to earn points,
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: four more points on the board potentially for any team
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: to go out there and get, and four more points
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: that you as a team could give up as well.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: So that's the biggest thing that I'm looking at is
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: that those two more games are just two more opportunities
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: where a team could lose or gain on competition, especially
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: if it's games that are going to be against division.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Rivals, right? Yeah, and with it being a regular year,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: they don't have to expedite the season with it being
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: an Olympic year, right? That was a gauntlet last season,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and especially for a team that went deep in the
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: playoffs too. I know for the media side of things,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: it was crazy as well. So for the players, I'm
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: sure it's nice to get back to a regular scheduled
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: season and not have to miss a month there for
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the Olympics as fun as that was to watch. The
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Sabres open up their preseason against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Monday,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: September 21st, and then they will begin their regular season
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: on Thursday, October 1st in Columbus. The home opener is
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: going to be Saturday, October 3rd, welcoming in the Chicago Blackhawks.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Buffalo boy Patrick Kane, who was maybe rumored to be
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: coming home to his home team, but he goes back
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: to Chicago and as well, Boehm Byram. Talk about a
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: great atmosphere for the home opener. Boehm Byram is going
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: to be, you know, maybe welcomed in Buffalo nicely, but
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: we'll have to wait and see there. But I think
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: it's a great opponent for the Sabres home opener, especially,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: you know, one from a cross-conference.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think those are both going to be good
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: games to get the Sabres up to speed in some ways.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Columbus is not going to come out of the gate slow.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: I know they've got a lot of questions with their
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: roster based on guys who still need contracts. And Rick
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Bonas isn't a slouch, though. He's going to have that
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: team prepared, ready to go. And as far as Chicago goes,
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think Byram's going to get that initial...
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: He's either going to get the cheers during the tribute,
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: if there is a video tribute, but I would assume
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: he's going to be a guy who's probably booed here
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: and there amongst Sabres fans. You had no intentions of
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: ever signing with the team because you want to be
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: a number one. All right, well, you've got your chance
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: to go out and be a number one for Chicago,
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: and it's going to be against a team that knows
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: you and your game really well. It feels like it's
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: a prime opportunity for the Sabres to expose Byram and
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: maybe give him a little bit of a remorse for
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: for choosing the other team. Now, Patrick Kane, I was
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: in the camp of, I liked the idea of having him,
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: but the number was way too high. So I'm not
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: even phased by the fact that, that he is in
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: Chicago and he's going to play out his career where he,
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: you know, came to prominence and had so much success.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel like Chicago just maybe threw him a
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: couple extra million dollars to get to the cap floor.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: We'll have to wait and see there, but Yeah, Byron
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: getting that big contract in Chicago. We'll see what kind
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: of reception he gets in the home opener for Buffalo.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: But let's get to first head coach Lindy Ruff and
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: his comments from training camp. And that'll be brought to
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: you by Wild Bills Auto Repair, helping customers stay safe
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and confident on the road in Niagara since 2012 in
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: honor of the late William Robert Hunter. Book a repair
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: today at 905-358-7868 or wildbillsauto.ca. Here's what the Sabres head
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: coach had to say from day one of training camp
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: as getting the team back here rolling. for another season.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Give me one second here and I will pull it up.
• 34:47
  Speaker 7: He's had a great offseason and obviously excited to be
• 35:01
  Speaker 7: in the position he's in now with a summer that
• 35:05
  Speaker 7: was I don't think any of us could ever compare
• 35:08
  Speaker 7: what he went through last summer to to where he's
• 35:11
  Speaker 7: at now. I mean, just the demeanor and just his
• 35:14
  Speaker 7: excitement for being here and everything being good on his front,
• 35:19
  Speaker 7: which is part of being a, you know, real good
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: family here as a team.
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: You know, I think there's players that don't do it
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: the right way.
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: We believe he did do it the right way.
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: You know, that muscle can be from this area here,
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: you know, makes you more powerful, makes you stronger. You know,
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: if you want to look at 10 pounds and you spread,
• 36:00
  Speaker 7: you know, three into your legs or four, and then
• 36:04
  Speaker 7: you get four into the upper body, it really isn't
• 36:07
  Speaker 7: a lot. I think it's part of a development. You've
• 36:10
  Speaker 7: got a certain age from 19 to 24 that you
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: can make some really big gains. But you can train wrong.
• 36:17
  Speaker 7: And I think that's where training has gotten so good
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: that our, you know, our staff has done an incredible
• 36:23
  Speaker 7: job of identifying this is how you're going to do it,
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: this is how you're going to get better. I know
• 36:29
  Speaker 7: I've been around players in the past that you push
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: to get stronger and all of a sudden they become
• 36:33
  Speaker 7: robotic or they become stiff. They're too top heavy or
• 36:38
  Speaker 7: their skating becomes a little rigid. We're trying to stay
• 36:43
  Speaker 7: away from that part. I think our training is excellent
• 36:47
  Speaker 7: when it comes to trying to stay in the right
• 36:49
  Speaker 7: lane for the players.
• 36:51
  Speaker 11: When you've spoken to Uri, have you gotten a sense
• 36:53
  Speaker 11: of his excitement?
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: After all he went through last year and he's ready
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: to go, so to speak, I guess.
• 36:59
  Speaker 7: He's really excited to, you know, try to make a difference,
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: to be the guy that, you know, we saw two
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: years ago in that, you know, probably that last third
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: of the season where he was playing as our top
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: centerman and was making a difference, you know, every night. Again,
• 37:15
  Speaker 7: a guy that, you know, you would like to, in
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: a normal preseason, would like to probably see him play four, five,
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: six games.
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: But, you know.
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: He'll get an opportunity probably to play three. We've got
• 37:27
  Speaker 7: a blue and gold game that we're factoring in for
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: another scrimmage, and it'll be interesting to see where he's at.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Audio is courtesy of MSG and the National Hockey League,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: as well as buffalosabres.com and x.com slash buffalosabres. All audio
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: rights courtesy of the Buffalo Sabres. There was Sabres head
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: coach Lindy Ruff on the Wild Bills auto repair coach thoughts. Jonathan,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: good stuff there from Lindy. And again, I picked out
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: those thoughts on purpose. Again, it was like a 25-minute
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: press conference. But I liked him talking about the training,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: about you can train wrong. Players can become robotic or top-heavy.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: He says that they really like the way that they
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: have their players training and conditioning. And he mentioned Rasmus Dahlien, obviously,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: coming back and being a leader with everything he dealt
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: with last season on and off the ice. And then
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Yuri Kulich, just how excited he is for him to
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: get back to being you know, an impact player like
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: he was early in the year.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think as far as Rasmus goes, I think
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: for him to still be a Norris caliber defenseman to
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: receive a nomination for the trophy, be one of those
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: final three, those top three in voting. I mean, there's
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: not much else that you can say about the guy
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: for what he had to deal with last year and to,
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: you know, arguably have valuable training the mental side of
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: the game alone, just the physical or lack thereof preparation
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: that he had going into last year with everything that
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: he had to deal with. I just, I feel like we're,
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: we're set to see maybe an absolute animal lead this team.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: You know, he's already a guy who's shown unique leadership
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: capabilities for him to sit and, and be a part
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: of that group to rally the troops to, you know,
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: have that players only meeting, but that leadership meeting that
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: they referenced a couple of times, you know, where it
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: starts with us and, and we have to be the
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: ones who want to change it. And, you know, it
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: kind of sounded like it was Rasmus and Tage and
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: a couple other guys looking each other in the eye
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: being like, do you want to go anywhere?
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: And All right, cool. Well, let's win here.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: And let's, that kind of seemed to be the catalyst
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: that turned everything around last year. So what can Darlene
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: do as a leader, as a, an offensive force, as
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: a physical force, as a defensive force right out of
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: the gate this year, that's something that to me, I,
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: I think is, isn't necessarily maybe being talked about enough
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: on this team is that Rasmus seems like he could
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: be another, a guy who just finds another gear this year.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: And if that happens, I mean, look out, it really
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: feels like that. I'm right there with Wendy on the training.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: It kind of felt like even last year, the training
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: side of things, the team came in a little bit
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: more prepped compared to maybe some of the Granado seasons
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: that we heard about. I think, what Auslan is going
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: to be able to do this year with that extra weight,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: with some of these other guys who have put on weight,
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: put on muscle, put on mass, started to find their
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: man strength, so to speak. It's going to be very
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: interesting to see. They're already a tenacious team on the puck,
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: like in puck battles, one seemed to be a strength
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: of this team. And it just seems like something they
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: continued to build on. And, and as far as Kulik goes,
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: he's the biggest question mark of anybody on this team
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: because they, typically we would be talking about this guy
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: being ready to assert himself as a top six threat,
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: as one of the guys who is ready to take
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: the next step to become maybe a 30 goal guy
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: or a 60 some odd point guy. And it feels
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: like those are expectations that are not fair to put
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: on a guy who played five games last year and
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: was not himself even in the games that he was
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: able to play in based on having a blood clot
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: and all the issues that he had to deal with.
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: But it feels like Kulik with that question mark I
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: have no reason to not be positive about him.
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, it looks like he's going to be a
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: hundred percent. And as Lindy mentioned there, he he's really
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: a guy that, that they're going to rely on to,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: to get back to being that, you know, player that
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: they relied on early in the season before, obviously, you know,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: he went down with the blood clot. So very encouraging
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: there from Lindy to mention Yuri Kulich like that outright.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: And he's obviously on the radar. I know he's starting
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: on the fourth line in training camp, but I mean,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: just to get him back rolling into, you know, playing
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: or getting into training camp shape, I think is important.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: And I don't think we should look too much into
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: him being the fourth line left winger right now, because
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to be a Yuri Kulich
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: role for this team going forward. But a couple other
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: quick notes I took from the press conference, Jonathan, that
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: obviously we're not going to play the full thing here,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: but he mentioned get off, get the season off to
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: a better start, not have to rely on that huge
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: run that they went on from, from December on. You
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier in the show, Eric Stahl is going to
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: help out on the power play face-offs. He'll be here regularly. Um,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: he's excited to help out there. So, uh, good for
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: obviously a guy of Eric Stahl's pedigree, uh, being a
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: long time centerman and potentially hollow fame worthy centerman in
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: the national hockey league to help the Sabres out being
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: the worst face off team in the entire NHL. So, uh,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: putting Eric Stahl back to work on the ice, I
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: think as well as a smart thing. And he was
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: brought in as more of an advisor for Kevin Adams,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: you know, with their days in Carolina together, but to
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: have Eric Stahl on the ice, helping the guys out,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I think is going to be very important. Lindy also mentioned,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: we've got some guys just starting the key parts of
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: their careers. You give these guys an extra few minutes.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: They're really, you know, welcomed by the players and you
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: hope that they find the production that's lost with Alex Tuck.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: So he's talking about the guys like Benson, Oslund, Helenus,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: those types of guys filling in that role for Alex Tuck.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: He talked about Helenus a little bit more. He's looked
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: like he's a lot stronger and he's going to make
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: a big difference for us. He also mentioned Jack Quinn
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: and Josh Doan. We'd like to start Tate Thompson at center,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: as I mentioned. He also mentioned on Jack Quinn, he's
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: an elite shooter. Getting his body to a better place
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: from the previous year to last year was a big
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: jump for him. And he expects an even bigger jump
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: potentially this season as a 30 goal scorer. And then
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: somebody asked Lindy about a personal question about having 50
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: wins would get him to a thousand career in the NHL.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: And Lindy just kind of joked it off and said,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I've been in the league too long. 50 wins would
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: be important and a great goal for us. But, you know,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Lindy's not one to talk about his own accomplishments. And
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: he talked about if he wants to win, he wants
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: to do it here. And he wants to bring, to
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: bring a Stanley cup to Buffalo and the expectations haven't changed.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: We've got a standard now, which is real. How do
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: we improve on that? So that was a little bit
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: of a, my overall synopsis of what Lindy had to say.
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: And I think when it comes to what Lindy had
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: to offer, I don't think there was anything that was
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: overly surprising, nothing that was overly shocking. I feel like
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: if anything, it's like he picked up exactly where he
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: left off and, And that's, I think, the biggest hope
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: is that if that's everybody else's attitude from the top down,
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: from Jarmo down, from Lindy down to these coaches, if
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: it permeates the locker room where they just pick up
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: right where they left off, then I think there's no
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: question the Sabres are going to be a playoff team
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: again and going to be a threat to make a
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: conference final, if not make it to the Stanley Cup finals.
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, the competition's gotten a little bit stiffer. There's
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: some teams that have, I would say, improved significantly. greatly
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: in the East that maybe were not necessarily easy wins,
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: but stuff that in matchups where you saw, once the
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: Sabres got rolling, it was easy to pick off points
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: from certain teams. I don't know if that's going to
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: be the case this year. We'll see, you know, there's
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: some question marks about even some of the teams that
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: are in their division. Some of the ads that have
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: been made in the East. It just feels like to
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: me though, that Lindy's attitude is still one of leadership.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: And now that they have proven that, the concepts that
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: they've been preaching in the room behind closed doors, and
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: it's worked, there's no reason that this can't continue to roll.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: So let's get moving forward here with Yarmulke Kalinan's comments,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: and that'll be brought to you by the Niagara Denture Clinic,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: creating natural smiles in the Niagara region for over 25 years.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Visit them at 5501 Drummond Road in Niagara Falls and
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  Speaker 1: started today. Here's GM Yarmulke Kalinan about the goaltender's and
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit about his expectations for the season.
• 45:42
  Speaker 6: One of the biggest top season over the summer questions
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: that revolve around Connor Helleboe. Every time his name is
• 45:51
  Speaker 6: mentioned in demanding a trade, the Sabres are mentioned. What
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: can you say about that, and can it serve as
• 46:00
  Speaker 6: a distraction?
• 46:02
  Speaker 5: I really don't know, to be honest with you. I don't.
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: I have never told anybody in the media about any
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: of the talks with other general managers, so I don't
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: know where it comes from, but that's the world we
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: live in. There's going to be rumors, and you can't
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: let it affect you, and there's going to be individual
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: players from our team that are going to be in
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: the rumors. Some may be where I've never even mentioned
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: their name to the other teams, and that's the world
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: we live in, so. You've just got to understand, sometimes
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: I have conversations with the players, if it's a young
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: player in particular whose name is in the trade rumors,
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: I say, listen, I've never mentioned your name to the
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: other team, but then again, Wayne Gretzky got traded, so
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: someday you might get traded, but if you start reacting
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: to all the rumors, I think that's all I could
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: do all day if that was the case. I've been
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: told about the rumors, I've seen some of the rumors,
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: I'll just say my Same boring answer where any time
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: we have an opportunity to try to make our team better,
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: we're going to look at it and make phone calls
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: and consider it and have internal meetings about it and
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: see if it goes anywhere.
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: If not, then we'll continue. And if we can make
• 47:15
  Speaker 5: a trade to make our team better, we will.
• 47:17
  Speaker 11: So that doesn't say the rumors are all bunk.
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: And not true, though. I'm commenting one way or the other.
• 47:24
  Speaker 11: How do you deal with, in this particular situation, with
• 47:27
  Speaker 11: such a prominent name being out there and your team
• 47:31
  Speaker 11: such a prominent team being mentioned how do you deal
• 47:34
  Speaker 11: with your three goalies wondering from day to day.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: You know if Connor Ellibuck's walking.
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: In the door well I just deal with them internally
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: where we've said all along whether it's in our internal
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: conversations or conversations with anybody else we thought our goaltending
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: was really good last year we thought we had three
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: really good goalies all performed career with career numbers gave
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: us a lot of wins and I thought they played great.
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: Can they be better? Absolutely. Everybody on our team can
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: be better.
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: And that should be a goal of any ambitious professional
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: hockey players, to get better every day. And the day
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: they think they can't anymore, they should just retire and
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: go enjoy life.
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: Are you cool? I honestly think so.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: But, yeah, it's part of being a professional, understanding that
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: there's always going to be rumors, and.
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: That's... It's life in the NHL.
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: Are you comfortable carrying three goalies again on the roster?
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: Lindy mentioned that in May at the end of the season.
• 48:34
  Speaker 6: Is that something you're comfortable with, using three roster spots again?
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: Right now we are, yeah.
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: It could change at some point if somebody takes off
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: and starts taking the net for a number one goalie
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: where he's playing great and getting 60 games and the
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: other two guys are not getting enough games. And it
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: does take a roster spot, so we have to think
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: of all the different things that it affects with our plans.
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: But right now, it worked great last year. We talked
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: to all of them individually without having them in the
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: same room. And they all said that it worked great.
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: They pushed each other. They loved working together. And so
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: there was no distractions, nobody fancied. like it was, it
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: was not a good situation. So right now we're going
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: to go with it. And, and at some point it
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: could change.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: There was Sabres general manager, Yarmulke Kalainen and Jonathan. I
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: picked this clip out specifically because it was obviously pretty
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: interesting with his comments there and, John Morrow of the
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: AP and Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News kind of,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to bait him a little bit there
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: into saying, have you had those trade discussions with Kevin
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Shevelday off with Connor Hellebuck, especially now that he's been
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: suspended by the team for not reporting the training camp,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't budging on that and said that he
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: was really pleased with the way that Ellis Lukanen and
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: Lyon played last season. So I don't know if you
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: have any thoughts on that, but I thought it was
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: really interesting to clip that one out.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: The big thing I took away from that is the,
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: and this is probably not anything that is a shock
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: to somebody or is controversial to say, but what I
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: take away, especially from that first answer is that it
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: is clear to Yarmulke that Hellebuck is an upgrade over
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: what they have right now, which again, I, it doesn't
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: necessarily be, it shouldn't be something that's shocking. It shouldn't
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: be something that's crazy to say that that's, that's so outlandish.
• 50:32
  Speaker 5: It's, it's obvious.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: And if you have that opportunity, you take that opportunity.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: But when he says make the team better, if Hellebuck
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: is better than the three goalies you have right now,
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: then it becomes about the price. And we've heard Winnipeg,
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: especially Kevin Sheveldayoff in the last day or so, I
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: think he spoke with the media today, kind of bolstering
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: about the fact that the offers have been not great,
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: less than stellar, disappointing. Is that Kevin Sheveldayoff? pounding the table,
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: trying to bait somebody into stepping up. We heard there
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: was a pick-swap potential. We've seen UPL's name attached to this.
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: We've seen Jack Quinn. We've seen Hellenist. We've seen Aslan.
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: We've seen so many guys coming off the Sabres roster
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: that could be a part of this particular deal, this
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: package to get Hellebuck. And if you have three guys
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: that can win you 50 games.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: Does getting a goalie who can win you 45 on
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: his own at the expense of a talented young center,
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: a defensive prospect, a roster leader, a penalty kill guy,
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: whatever area Winnipeg is going to zone in to take
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: from the Sabres, to me, as long as they're comfortable rolling.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Three, I.
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: Don't necessarily see a big change to the regular season
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: totals one way or the other.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: It's the playoffs.
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: And who says that if we don't, if we gave UPL,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: if you give line, if you give Ellis, if you
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: give any of these guys the net, you give them
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: a whole other year of experience and opportunity. Why can't
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: they perform come playoff time as good, if not even
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: better than what hella bucks track record has been with
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: the jets. That's the whole thing that I think I've,
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: I've thought about in this last couple of days is that,
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: You trade for Hellebuck. I don't think it changes your
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: win total this year from the three guys you have
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: right now. Does it increase your odds in the playoffs?
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: I would say yes still, but that's only because we
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: don't know what UPL or Lion or Ellis is on
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: day one compared.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: To the end of this regular season. And it was
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: just a sour taste the way the final goal went
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: in for Newhook where that's probably a shot that Lukanen
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: needs to have, right?
• 53:05
  Speaker 6: Maybe.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's fresh in people's brain.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: I know there's a lot of people who don't love
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: UPL's numbers and they bring it up from his whole
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: career and all that sort of stuff. But again, if
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: you're simply just going to write off progression over an
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: 84-game season, the goalie that you start the year with
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: should not be as good or worse than when you
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: get to that end of the year. ideally they're going
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: to get better. They're going to improve. They're going to
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: be stronger. They're going to be better. They're going to
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: be more prepared for a playoff run, whatever it might be.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: So why not trust that process? If it means that
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: you get to keep a Ryan McLeod in your lineup
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: to kill penalties and win face-offs in the speed that
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: he brings, if it means you get to keep a
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: Peyton Krebs, a Zach Benson, whatever I like, I just
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: think if the deal was going to happen already, it
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: would have already happened. I don't think the Sabres are
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: in the business of getting to the camp, shooting all
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: the promo shots with all their goalies and putting everybody
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: through the media press just to go out next week
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: and get Connor Hellebuck. So in my eyes, I think
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: we've reached the point where the Sabres are out on Hellebuck.
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: And I personally, as a fan, have gotten to the
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: point where I am okay rolling the dice and saying,
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: let's see what these three guys can do for us.
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, it worked, it worked last season, right. And
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: it sort of worked out that one was injured at
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: one point throughout the season. So they had to rely
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: on the three and obviously with Devin Levi getting moved
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: on to Edmonton, he was a guy that we had
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: talked about for a few seasons. Is he going to
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: be part of the mix? Lions only got one year
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: left on his contract. So realistically after this season, it
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: could be Ellison and Lukanen as the two goaltenders going forward.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: If there's a team that's interested in lion, maybe as a,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: as a low, low rental veteran, maybe gets moved on
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: at some point, but I know that they like, you know,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: what he brings to the room as well. And, and
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: to your point, like with Connor Hellebuck, yeah, you'd love
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: to have them, but is it at the cost of what,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: you know, Kevin shovel day off has asked for so far.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: And as you also mentioned, you know, if there was
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: a trade to be made at the draft, the Arma
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: would have, would have bid on it. And it seems
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: like he's not really willing to overpay or willing to,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: to give in right now. And to me, you know,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: looking at it in that way, I'm okay with that.
• 55:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: You want to see them improve. And yes, they did
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: lose some, some key players, but this off season, but
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily want them just, you know, pushing all
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: the chips in just to get a goaltender who has
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: had subpar numbers in the playoffs as well as, as
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: great as Connor Hellebuck has been.
• 55:41
  Speaker 5: It's yeah.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: Is, is the risk worth the reward with, with a
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: trade like that? And, and what Winnipeg is still asking for,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: even though they've got a suspended goaltender right now.
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: Well, and you, and you look at the situation that
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: Winnipeg finds himself in, like, again, unless they're going to
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: cave and unless there's an offer out there or like,
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know what it is. I don't know who
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: else is involved. I've heard Carolina. I've heard Boston. We've
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: heard Florida potentially is circling. Vegas seems to always find
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: themselves involved in something like this. At this point in
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: the year, you can always reevaluate because it doesn't sound
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: like hella bucks going next week. Like I'm expecting this
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: to probably not be resolved come November. So if, if
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: you get to November and it's clear across the three goalies, your,
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: your goals against and your save percentage is not where
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: you want it to be. And you feel like the
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: only way that you're going to get back in the
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: race or, you know, be a threat in the playoffs
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: or do whatever you need to do to become a
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: team that can win.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: That's when you can go and make that trade.
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: Cause again, I don't think hella bucks going anywhere in
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: the next day or so, especially the way Kevin shovel
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: day off is speaking. He's not talking about him in
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: the most, positive light even his teammates for Kyle Connor
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: to come out there and say yeah I tried to
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: convince him to stay and it's not and it's a
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: heartbreaking situation all this sort of stuff like to me
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: it just feels like Hellebuck doesn't actually have the leverage
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: he thinks and it doesn't feel like the demand is
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: there so I appreciate Yarmou not being desperate especially because
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: I still believe in all three of the guys that
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: we have you know I personally was a bit more
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: of a Levi guy than an Ellis guy maybe that
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: was just me, you know, you know, having the ability
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: to track Levi from the time he was a world
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: junior goalie all the way through. I just, I just
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: feel as though there's no sense in being desperate. And
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that Jarmo Kekulainen is not going to be
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: a desperate GM of this team.
• 57:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm basically at the point where I'm just
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: expecting us to be running with the three goaltenders that
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: we have on the roster currently. You know what I mean?
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: It's just, we're at that point now where I'm kind
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: of just over the whole hellebuck rumors and others that,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of our loyal listeners is that you guys
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: keep talking about this. Well, it's major news. So unfortunately,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: guess what? We're going to be talking about it until
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: it gets resolved. But I think at this point, you know,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: if it happens, I guess I'll be pleasantly surprised, but
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: if not, you know, rolling with the three goaltenders again,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: it seems like you're almost okay with it. Lindy's okay
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: with it. And they'll, they'll sort of evaluate it from there.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: A couple other just quick comments that he had throughout
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: his presser was we don't want to rely on a
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: streak again, sort of like what Lindy said, We can
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: never be at work. That will be unacceptable. That was
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the recipe and it paid off for us last season.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: And then he talked about Oslin, his biggest strength is
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: his hockey sense and why they wanted to get him
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: locked up long-term. We do believe in the progression of
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: our young guys. So that was basically the quick final
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: takeaways from Yarmul. But a lot of stuff that he
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: had to do in the re-signing phase this season with
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: the Jeff Skinner buyout still being on the roster as well.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Not as much to cap flexibility as they would like
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: to have, but you know, locking up Malenstein, locking up Doan, Benson, and, uh,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: and Ausland. Like those are major pieces of the team.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: And even though you lose guys like Tuck and Byram, um,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: we'll probably get to it next week, Jonathan, with your,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: your five guys that can replace those, those players. So
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: look forward to that, but it just seems like he
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: had a lot to do within his own roster to
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: get things sort of sorted out and, and make sure
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: that he's, uh, you know, doing his own laundry before
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: he starts to, to, to, to find a new clothes
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: to put in there.
• 59:15
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: And you know what, honestly, if you look at that
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: over that off season, like, yes, anytime you take away
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: a player of Alex Tuck's caliber, it's going to hurt,
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: but there was no room for him at that number.
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: Like you, again, I don't think keeping Alex Tuck meant
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: that this team stays as good, if not better. And
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: that seems to be the only mission that Jarmo's got,
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: is to make the team better and to keep the
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: team as good as it can possibly be.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, Tuck sells jerseys.
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's great to have a guy who has the
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: leadership qualities, the goal-scoring ability, the speed, the size, everything
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: that Alex Tuck has brought to this team for the
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: last couple years since coming over in that Eichel trade.
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: All of those were great things to have and they
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: will be missed in this lineup, but I don't necessarily
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: sit there and look at what the work that Yarmule
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: did and say, you know, we're significantly worse team without it.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: Everything is going to come down to internal improvement, which
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: is a Ross Atkins, Toronto blue Jays style attitude, which
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: works spectacularly last year. Hasn't worked as well this year
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: for the Jays, but you know, that internal improvement is
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: going to be something that I'm going to be examining
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: a lot in my next Friday five. Watch for that
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: to go out. Obviously next Friday, I'm taking a little vacation.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: So we'll, we'll skip the Friday five for this week,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: but I just look across this roster, Brandon, and I
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: see the ability to replace the goal scoring and replace
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: the leadership and replace all the intangibles that went out
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: the door with those two big names. And again, we
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: don't even know what Louis Karevia is going to offer
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: this team.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Olin Zellweger.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: We don't know that those guys won't offer something even
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: better and more substantial to this team that wasn't there
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: last year.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great way to end it today.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: And as you mentioned, you know, we'll have to wait
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and see how training camp progresses here, but it looks
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: like this is going to be the roster right now.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: You're almost said if they're Wayne grass, he can get traded.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Anybody can get traded. And if there's a chance for
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: them to make an upgrade, he gave the same, you know,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: boring answer. He would always give in that scenario, but the,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: You know, if there's a trade to be made, I'm
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: sure he would make it. But if it's going to
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: be an overpayment of a lot of those good core pieces,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, he's probably going to be out on
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: that because the Sabres have a long-term play here. And
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys still haven't even reached their potential
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: prime years yet. So no reason to, you know, try
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: to do a desperation retool on the fly here, like
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: some of the older teams in the Atlantic Division, Toronto,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: you know, Florida, those types of teams that maybe would
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: look to potentially make those types of bigger, bolder moves.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: But I think Buffalo is on a good trajectory here.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: And the players that want to be here in Buffalo
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: are here in Buffalo long term. And I'll have to
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: wait and see Tate Thompson playing center wing. I think
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: that's going to be the for me, the biggest thing
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: that comes out of training camp. But I guess we'll
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: find out in a in a little bit here and
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: look forward to the first preseason game. I know you
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: can only take so much from preseason, but those four
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: games will maybe give us a little bit better story.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: Hopefully they get out of it without any injuries. But
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: I guess we'll see Monday night in Pittsburgh. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to the preseason starting tomorrow. I'm looking
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: forward to seeing who has kind of that breakout camp
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: who really shows themselves as somebody who's going to be
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: a player that we're going to be talking a lot
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: about and focusing on throughout the year. This is going
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: to be the time for some of those guys to
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: shine and really make a name for themselves before we
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: even get to the regular season and that puck drop.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: But I also feel like, I don't know if you
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: get the sense, but with the training camp roster, it
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: kind of feels like whatever we're going to be seeing
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: by especially game two, maybe game three of those four
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 3: preseason games.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: It's what we're going to be seeing on opening night.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: I don't think they're going to be wasting a lot
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: of time trying to figure out who might be a
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: good call up for the team later on. I fully
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: expect that we're going to see this Sabres team hit
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: the ground running with basically their opening night roster in preseason.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, minus Jason Zucker is going to be out for
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: a first couple of weeks there. But going from six
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: to four preseason games, as you mentioned, maybe we'll see
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: the roster change. assembled quicker rather than later. But Jonathan,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: enjoy your, your little mini vacation there. Cause you're going
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: to need, it's going to be a long nine months
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: and look forward to having you on the post game
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: shows and everything else you're going to be doing with
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: us on the saber semantics side this year. Can't wait
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: for it. Happy to be a part of the team.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: And thanks for asking me to do this, buddy.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: That's going to wrap it up for today's live episode
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: of saber semantics right here in the armchair GM sports network.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you to everybody tuned in live tonight before the
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: bills game starts, make sure to hit like hit subscribe,
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  Speaker 1: smash that bell. And thank you to those listening the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: next day in your favorite on-demand audio podcast platform. You'll
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: already know what the result of tonight's opening game at
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: the new Highmark Stadium is going to be for Buffalo.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: But thank you to Global Pet Foods and their great
• 1:03:54
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• 1:03:58
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  Speaker 1: short reels and content. Until next time, for Jonathan Howe
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: of 97.7 Hits FM, my name is Brandon Caputo. Have
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: yourself a great night. And that's it for another episode
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: of Saber Semantics here on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Talk to you soon. This is the Armchair GM Sports Network.