Buffalo’s draft will be interesting to the hardest of hardcore fans, but maybe lacking pizazz from the outside.
NASHVILLE — It’s become cliché that you shouldn’t believe anything anyone involved with a team says around draft time. But the thing about clichés is that they’re born from reality and when it comes to the NHL Draft it applies as well.
Everyone is selling something or angling in a different direction to try and make things work the way they want them to. Hey, we’d all try to do the same thing and if you said you wouldn’t you’re a liar.
That’s what makes the discussions with GMs ahead of the draft so interesting. It’s a card game and everyone is bluffing, but for what reasons? What’s the end game?
Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams chatted with us this afternoon to get us caught up one more time ahead of tomorrow’s draft and trying to read between the lines of what he’s saying and what the end goal may be is part of the fun.
Adams is a straight-forward guy and he’s savvy enough to say enough but to also leave it open to interpretation. Not having a tell, obvious or otherwise, is the best way to work with the media when you’re a GM and Adams is very good at it.
He spoke about where things are at with their pick in the first round, how hot the phones are getting with trade discussions around the league and discussed a bit about some of the possible trade options from within. With a day to go, let’s examine things a bit.
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When it comes to Buffalo sitting at 13, Adams has said more than a couple times now that he’s comfortable with picking there and loves the array of talent that will be there when they pick. He went as far today to say that he really likes the quality and depth of talent in this year’s draft.
The Sabres have four picks in the first three rounds which means having four top-100 quality players to add to their prospect base. That’s a really good thing.
“I think if you pay attention to what is being talked about and written about, it’s a deep draft. It’s a very good draft,” Adams said. “You can say that standing here today because you’re excited about the players. You don’t know for some time until it plays itself out.”
Adams said that in reference to how difficult it is to move up in the draft, specifically into the top-10. Doing that this year could possibly be more difficult because of the talent level believed to be at the absolute top of the board. When you get to that area of the draft from 8-15 of the first round, it’s a bit like a drop zone. It’s where you get an idea of where team draft boards are at depending on movement and if they hold steady to make a pick. Those that stay and take someone that perhaps was taken further down in mock drafts, it can make the phones for teams to follow ring off the hook.
Adams described what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone when the calls are coming for your pick from behind your team in the draft.
“The way I personally handle these situations are we’ve had all the initial conversations leading up to where we are today in front of us and behind us,” Adams said. “You essentially look at your formula for what you believe is the right price to get, whether you’re moving back, whatever number of picks you’re talking about. And conversely, if you’re moving up, this is what we believe would be fair to move up.
“So you’re having those discussions. You’re essentially agreeing upon a price if that was to happen, because there’s not enough time on the floor to be doing that. You have to almost have it saying this is what we would be willing to do. Okay, that makes sense. And now you’re waiting until where exactly the pick goes and then you have your couple of minutes to make a deal like that.”
When a deal happens keep in mind that kind of homework and legwork being done to make it happen and having a couple minutes to agree to it or hang up the phone. It’s a wonder more GMs don’t lose their cool 100 times a day.
Trading picks and moving all around the draft is one thing but making deals when there’s a player on the roster that’s starting to look more obvious they’re not long for the organization…that’s something else.
Yes, this is about Victor Olofsson.
Adams talked about what’s going on with him and it was curious if not obvious what’s going on and what is on the horizon.
“We’re open to kind of looking at everything,” Adams said. “And that’s what I told him, I promised him I would do and see what’s out there. But I also think that we really liked Victor Olofsson and if we get back, we’re starting at training camp, we need to make sure that we’re putting him in a position to succeed.”
Translation: They’re going to trade him and if he doesn’t have a new address in the near future, training camp could get a little weird.
Olofsson is a good player, and he has elite skills that make him valuable no matter what team we’re talking about. His shot is top-five in the NHL, hands down, and that shot allows him to be a nightmare for opposing penalty killing units across the league. The shot is hard, fast, and accurate. That skill set also makes him a luxury for some teams and someone who could thrive with more ice time elsewhere. With the number of players who can score in Buffalo, he’s almost a luxury at this point and the lack of top-six minutes as the season went on it showed true even more.
With Buffalo having Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosén inching closer to having a shot at the NHL roster and claiming a similar role (at least on the power play), the clock on Olofsson’s time with Buffalo is winding down. How to properly process that kind of trade is tricky and given how Adams has made many of the trades during his time as Sabres GM, it fits the profile we’ve seen from him where he’ll do what he can to make sure a guy who might work out better elsewhere can find a new opportunity and not wind up “suffering” in a situation to a point where his value is well below board.
Making an Olofsson trade is also wildly different than trying to make a deal for a possible No. 1 goalie or a partner for Owen Power for the years to come. Those are much trickier to do and much more difficult to even play coy about. Those kinds of deals come out of the blue when it’s time to announce them. They’re also the kinds of trades that happen during the draft because it’s the right time. It’s before free agency opens and even more importantly it’s before everyone in the front office heads off to the cottage or wherever else for summer vacation.
It won’t be a frantic day for the Sabres but if you’re reading this and refreshing Twitter repeatedly for new rumors or info, it’s the kind of draft that will scratch all your itches.