There’s been a lot of noise recently about a Timo Meier trade and some of that noise involves the Sabres, and I know there are some comments and posts that touch on the issue but I figured I’d try to wrangle some of the thoughts into one place.

For me, I live in the San Jose area, so I have the opportunity to watch pretty much all of the Sharks games (although I don’t much recently and I’m not much of a talent evaluator anyway) but Timo Meier has always been a player that I liked the looks of and wished he were a Sabre. He scores goals, he plays a good all around game, he’s young, he’s physical — he would lead the Sabres in hits right now by about 40 (and 2x more than Gus) and he’s had a couple fights for the "we need to be more physical" crowd (which includes me, up to a point!). What’s not to like? The only question I guess is if he’s worth the price, both in cost of acquisition and salary.

A recent article from a San Jose based source suggests Jiri Kulich and the Philadelphia Flyers’ 2023 second-round pick (acquired by Buffalo in the Rasmus Ristolainen trade) and a 2024 third-round pick, which doesn’t sound too painful (though I am growing fond of Kulich).

I think the Sabres finally have a good young core so I’d be willing to part with some prospects and/or draft picks. I’d personally be willing to give them a couple/few of our players from the 2022 and 2021 draft (minus Power) since I haven’t become too attached to them yet (except for Kulich), and maybe trade Olofsson since Meier can match Ollie’s goal scoring ++ and just take his place in the lineup, and then move the juvenile delinquent line down to 3rd in minutes (which it usually is anyway except for Cuz).

Skinner - Tage - Tuch
Mitts - Jost - Meier
JJP - Cuz - Quinn
Gus - Krebs - Ox

That leaves the question of salary cost, which I guess will have to be in the area of $9M, which raises other questions about signing players like Dahlin and Cuz, and should Meier be the highest paid player on the team, and how it would all affect team chemistry.

Not real sure about the answer to those questions. In the past I’d just throw a poll in here, but since that’s not an option, I’ll ask for your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!