Draft time yet again. (both players are ***1/2) I drafted:

(18)Preston Fitzpatrick C : A Swiss forward sniper who can kill you with his speed. Going to take a few years of development but I hope he can become a good bottom six forward.

(48) Ruslan Klementyev D : A Huge 6'7 223 pound DFD. I have brought quite a few good D prospects to the orginization recently and I believe he can be another. I hope he can pair with Cedric Christiansen in the future and possible play on my third pairing Defensive line.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So as I said I planned on retooling this off-season. I felt my team needed new blood through it and that meant saying goodbye to some long time Sabres sadly enough. I made two pretty massive trades so here they are.

TO TBL
(83) Nathan Gerbe
(79) Kyle Brodziak

TO BUF
(84 **** 1/2) Sam Reinhart

So I looked at this deal as a win for us. Are centre depth is probably the best in the entire NHL atm and we bring in another. Obviously that means we will have to move one of our other centre's to make room for Reinhart but we think Reinhart is worth it.

So second deal. This may look bad on paper atm but hopefully it comes back and turns out great for us (like the Huberdeau trade)...I acquire a player who is game generated and a former first overall pick. Cap was a big part of this trade because Hodgson wanted 4.5 million and their was no way I was going to give that to him.

TO STL
(82)Cody Hodgson
(80)Mike Weber
BUF 2019 2nd

TO BUF
(77****1/2) LW Georges Bouillon

Georges is a player I scouted quite a bit in his 2015 draft year, U thought he had a great chance at becoming an awesome PWF...He is also amazingly responsible defensively and with a year of grooming in the AHL will be ready for minutes in the NHL hopefully by next season.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Agency!

Most are depth signings in case of injuries. I signed

(76) Travis Moen: Good defensive forward, can play PK if I need him.

(76) Chris Neil: Obviously an amazing checker. Great player to get under the skin of opponents!

(76) Erik Christensen: A good depth guy. Has 87 faceoffs in case I need a 4th line centre at any point. His offensive stats aren't bad either.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Erik Gudbranson was off-sheeted. I decided to let him go. Obviously that Brown trade ended up being horrible for us but whatever. I got a 2nd and lets call that a day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Player Development

Pascal Lemieux 74-83 (Holy fuck, His offensive stats are very high. NHL ready)
Mark Pysyk 78-84
Marty Frk 65-69 (Fuck, he went from four and a half stars to just four)
Aaron Ekblad 76-79
Teuvo Teravainen 63-66
Linden Springer 58-63

Horvat really hasn't developed so far. Hopefully he will this season.