The Peterka for Doan and Kesselring trade looks like a win-win for the Sabres and Mammoth

The Peterka for Doan and Kesselring trade looks like a win-win for the Sabres and Mammoth

Sabres host the Mammoth tonight. We get to take a look at the JJ Purka trade a couple of months later and how it’s going. It’s going pretty well for the Sabres. We’ll get into it coming back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. [Music] You’re Locked on Sabres, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up everybody and welcome in to this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can watch the show on YouTube. Be sure to like and subscribe. If you do watch it there and if you would like to become a part of our locked sabers text club, that’s also available to you if you’re not already a subscriber. You could do that by heading over to joins subtext.com/lockedon sabers. Game day sabers hosting the Utah Mammoth. First time that they are the Mammoth in town. Of course, Utah’s been here before, but it’s Mammoth and it’s Sabres tonight as uh the JJ Purka revenge game, the Josh Don revenge game, the Michael Kessler revenge game all comes together just a couple of months after these two teams made the biggest trade of the offseason for each team. Uh Purka going to Utah, he’s back. Josh Done, Michael Castleing, both healthy and available to play against their former team today. Today on the show, we’re going to revisit that deal. It’s pretty good returns early on. We’ll really get into Purka versus Josh Don in this game, the forwards in this deal. We’ll also take a look at how good Utah has been so far this year and where the Sabres currently place in the standings. Obviously, it’s a big game as teams are going to start separating from the pack. The sooner the better on that, the Sabres forward group is kind of all all over the place right now with injuries and Yuri Koulik and Jason Zucker are now dealing with stuff. So, we’ll get to what the lineup is going to look like tonight because uh that is a little tricky I think going into tonight’s game which should be uh should be a fun one. So, before we get into anything, Purking a tribute video tonight, I think probably you know tribute video might be a little bit strong. I think there is a difference sometimes between a thank you video and a welcome back. think when you are Thomas Vanic or Ryan Miller or you are somebody that has been in the organization for a long long time and you come back then well like a thank you video you know highlights and players talking about you and it’s this big big thing that’s different than you put a couple of highlights up welcome back JJ that’s more what I would expect for Purka will he get booed is a question for tonight because I kind of think that he will. I kind of think that Purka, it’s pretty much out there that he wanted to be traded and typically Buffalo sports fans do not take kindly to that no matter how good you are. I mean, fans carry grudges. I was on Twitter today and was reminded of just because again some fans are carrying this around that Cal Riley wanted to leave Buffalo when he was like a fourthliner. uh that uh Emerson Edom in the World Juniors in 2011 said mean things about B like Buffalo fans remember this stuff and not that Purka it was that ugly on the way out but just the simple fact that he did want out. I think you probably get some mild booze tonight and I’m never going to be one to criticize a fan for booing. You want to boo a guy, fine. Uh I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. You paid your ticket. It’s what sports fans do. And um he’s on the opposition opposing team. He used to play for you. He wanted out. You boo him. That’s how it works. So, we’ll see how that all goes. The trade so far between the Sabres and the Utah Mammoth. And by the way, today’s episode of Lockdown Sabres is presented by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code lockdown NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Maybe you want that $20 off to go tonight for Sabres and Mammoth. We’re only a couple hours away from puck drop and there’s still plenty of good seats available and pretty good prices. So game time after that purka trade dome castle ring. Let’s really put it all together. It is so early though to do this. I definitely recognize that. But if we were to evaluate the trade right now, it really couldn’t be going better from the Sabres perspective other than you didn’t have Michael Kessler available to you in the first few games of the regular season. But I think the thing that is going to be needed for the Sabres to consider this trade a win is the thing that is happening which is can Josh Don be somewhat close to the player offensively especially but all around of course as well but you know he’s going to give you more on that front. Can Josh Don be the type of player that played the minutes, played the power play time that JJ Purka did? And so far, again, it’s happening. I don’t know how long we should expect this to happen. Maybe it just will in perpetuity. We are 12 games in and Josh Stone has been a top six winger for basically the entirety of that time and he has looked good doing it and I don’t see any reason to pull him off of that. The question will be is this just what Josh Stone is from now on? It’s a role he really never got a crack at when he was um in Buffalo when he was in Utah, excuse me. Now he’s getting that chance. He’s playing on a line with Ryan Mloud and Alex Talk. He’s getting do good minutes, 15 plus minutes a night, some power play time, which is obviously helping his offensive game as well because so far on the power play, uh, three of his nine points are on the man advantage. In Utah, he wouldn’t have had those three points because he wouldn’t have been on the power play. So, that helps. Um, the way the Sabres win this trade is if Don is close to Purka adds a roll, he’s going to give you more defensively because Kessle Ring is the meat of the trade at the original deal for the Savers. He’s what they really, really wanted. Don was kind of a throwin. I mean, as we saw from Beyond Blue and Gold, Utah was really unwilling to trade him at the beginning. So, as a throwin, they didn’t really want him to be a throwin. They thought he should be more of a critical piece, but eventually the Sabres did get them to put him in the deal. Karing though, that’s a it almost feels like a bonus at this point and he was the number one thing you got back. If you evaluate Purka versus Don right now, again, as I said, all I need is that to be close to a wash and you win that deal. And to be fair, 12 games in, Don’s actually giving you more than Purka is. Although it’s so close that it’s really not even worth saying more. You could just say they’re both playing great. The both teams are getting exactly what they wanted. Some of the very, very early returns um on some of the advance numbers, goals above replacement so far. show that Don is one of the elite forwards so far in the National Hockey League that he’s giving you a lot offensively, especially at even strength, but also on the power play. He’s giving you a lot defensively. We know the type of player he is on that end. Um, to be fair to Peturka though, who in the past has been a guy that’s given you all offense and no defense, he’s giving Utah a lot of offense and he’s actually holding his own defensively. Now, I’m watching now watching every game. These are some of the numbers that are being shown that Utah’s not giving up a lot of chances or a lot of goals when he is on the ice. I would imagine that is more to do with his line has the puck all the time and he’s not having to play in his own end a lot. But Purka is doing everything Utah wants and he’s not getting them killed at because he’s a one-way player. This is kind of where I would say though, you probably should expect at some point that Don will slow down a little bit offensively and that Purka will slow down or will start to become a little bit more of a liability defensively. It’s not to say Utah isn’t expecting that. It’s not to say that the Sabres aren’t even expecting that. What’s more likely between those two things though in my mind is that Don’s offense continues. I do not think Purka is going to go the rest of his career without being one of those guys that you see complaints about his play in his own end and turnovers and you know causing goals to go in his own net. Don I I don’t know what he is going to be offensively for the long term. I am definitely not willing to say that Josh Don is a 60 to 70 point player in perpetuity now because he’s done it for 12 games at that pace. I’m not willing to say that. Is it possible? I think it is. I think it is possible that he is a 60 plus point guy. Unlikely. You know, you could debate how much you think that it’s unlikely. I would say it’s definitely lower than 50% that he’s that level of player. But even if he’s a 45 to 55 point guy that scores 20 goals and then Kessle Ring gives you what you want as a second pair level defenseman, that’s how the Sabres win that trade. So, at the moment, this is a win-win. Utah is getting what they want. They’re scoring a lot of goals. Purka is playing at the top of their lineup. He’s giving them a lot of offense and they’re winning hockey games. That’s the other part of this is the idea that while Utah lost the trade because Don is giving them exactly what Purka is and you don’t have Kessle Ring anymore. Like I understand why fans would want to connect those dots. I am just never willing to say that a team lost a trade when they’re getting exactly what they want from the guy they traded for and they’re winning hockey games, right? They’re eight and four. You can’t What would a Utah fan say to we lost the trade? Like, okay, sure. What What do I care? You want to take the the mythical W on the deal? I don’t care. We’re winning hockey games and the guy we got is giving us exactly what we wanted for. Hand clap. I’m glad for Josh Don and Michael Kessering. If I were a Utah fan, that’s how I would treat it. So, I I I’m not willing to say that the Sabres will win this deal if it continues at the pace that it’s going. And part of that is because Utah is winning hockey games um more than even the Sabres are right now. So, that’s where the trade currently sits. It’s definitely a good start though for Buffalo. backtoback years of that too because they got criticized for that deal that it wasn’t enough that they got you know lowballed which is exactly what was said last year about the Ryan Mloud trade which I also agreed with at the time and how did that trade end up looking it looked like okay yeah maybe we did get lowalled but it worked out for us and that might be how this trade is looking it’s okay yeah we got lowballed but it worked out for us it’s part of why GMs shouldn’t be so afraid to make deals these are trades that Kevin Adams got criticized for publicly because he didn’t get enough. And both of them look good. Don’t be afraid to make deals. Even ones where the perception is you gave too much. Again, I like this trade right now. I would not hit the redo button. If I could have a magical redo button right now, I would not hit it. I like Purka as a player. Fine. Um even really well. But how could you not want Josh Don right now? And then obviously Kessle Ring has been good, smooth, solid. Um he’s playing a little bit of a r lesser role than I think we all had envisioned for him. 17 minutes a night, third pair. It’s kind of what he did in Utah, but he’s getting his feet wet. He’s only three games back from injury. I think eventually he’s going to play with Owen Power. And um I guess the jury will really be out once we get a look at that because Kessle Ring is not giving you all that you wanted until he’s playing 20 minutes a night with Owen Power and gives him that stable partner. When we come back, we’ll look more at this matchup. What is Buffalo going to be putting on the ice? Because they got some injuries, sicknesses. We’ll get to that when we come back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. 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That’s monarch.com code locked on NHL for half off your first year. back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Sabres and Mammoth tonight and we are staring at a lineup for the Buffalo Sabres that is going to be missing some pieces. So, the guys that are going to be out, no Yuri Koulique, no Jason Zucker. In fact, Jason Zucker retroactively has been placed on injured reserve where he will have to be for seven days. Retroactively means they could put him on there as of Sunday. So, he’s eligible to come back next Sunday. Um, it’s a it’s an illness, I guess, that is with Zucker. I don’t really know specifically, you know, what he has or how sick he is. I mean, it’s obviously keeping him out for a week, which isn’t good. And he’ll be missed because he is a good middle six winger for them on a on a consistent basis. He’s on the number one power play unit, and we’ll have to see who really takes that spot. I would imagine it’s Alex Tuck. Um, but again, we will see. the other missing piece in Koulique. What that means now is one forward’s got to come up and the Sabres have recalled Noah Oelen for that. So we don’t have line rushes from Tuesday morning. But based on yesterday’s practice and then looking at who’s now available, Tyson Kak also back on the ice. My guess would be for tonight’s lineup and some of these lines were together. Thompson, Quinn, Greenway, that line was together. I think Jack Quinn earned that promotion. that line is going to hold. Ryan Mloud, Jason, um, or Josh Don, and Alex Tuck. That’s going to stay together. I think you’re going to get Krebs, Roseanne, and Osland. Think that is absolutely the line you’re going to see. Osen going to probably play on the wing. Um, I would imagine Krebs is probably going to be the center. I think Mason Gearson comes out of the of the line rushes, which he was in yesterday, and Tyson Kak plays fourth line center. Josh Dunn goes back to the wing and Beck Menstein plays on the wing as well. Defense grouping should be the same as well. So, kind of a thin forward group. I mean, Greenway and Quinn on the top line at the beginning of the year, you probably would have been laughing at. Uh, Quinn’s looked good, though. Don’t love Greenway up there. Thompson loves playing with him though, and he said that. So, okay. The kid line on line three, Roseanne and Osland on the same line. Fine. Goalender is big tonight. Alex Lion between the pipes. Not the guy I would have anticipated. I actually thought they were probably going to go with Lucan in. That is not the case and is going to be lying for tonight’s game. And he’s had a solid he’s had a solid season. He’s had a solid season and he’s only really had one bad game. He did didn’t love the game before that either, but getting a chance to get right back in there. Carell, excuse me, Veg Melka will be between the pipes for Utah or is expected to be. And he has been the worst of the two Utah goalenders this year. Um, VTEC Venichek in three games has a 913 save percentage while Vegela has a 890 save percentage. Um, so far he had one really bad start. So they get Veg Melka not afraid of him in that when you look at the Utah lines and this is where you know you might be wondering like all right who does Purka play with uh in the Utah lineup? L he is kind of on their second line, but they really have two top lines. Um, that’s split time that really either one you could call a top line. Barrett Hayden centers Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. I think right now it’s fair to say that’s the top line in part because Nick Schmaltz is one of the leading scorers in the National Hockey League this year. Uh, kind of out of nowhere. Nick Schmaltz, who has a career-high points of 63, which he actually had last year in Utah, has 17 points in 12 games. like he’s on pace to smash his careerhigh in points at 29 years old. Very odd um burst onto the scene this season for Nick Schmaltz given it’s this late in his career. The the number two line or the 1B line, whatever you want to label it as, Logan Culie, Dylan Gunther, JJ Purka. I love that line. the little bit I’ve seen of it. They are young, they are fast, they are skilled, they have the puck all the time. They are dangerous. So the top line, Schmaltz, Hatton, little bit more physical. Um, little bigger, Hatton more so than Schmaltz. Um, Keller is obviously a skilled guy, smaller skilled guy, but that Gunther Purka line, watch out for it. So, we’ll see how the Sabres want to match up their defense pairings tonight. I kind of like the idea of the Dalene pairing uh going up against the line and then putting power out there against the Hayaten Schmaltz Keller line. Um but we’ll see what the Sabres want to do if they even do match it up to that extent. So that’s what Utah’s looking at. Again, they’ve got a lot of guys that are scoring a lot of goals so far this year, putting up at least the points. Um right now, Purka ranks fifth on the team in scoring because Schmaltz has 17 points in 12 games. who leads the team in goals with eight, has 12 points in 12 games. Gunther is 12 points in 12 games. Keller is 12 points in 12 games. They have four guys that are a point per game so far this year. Now, looking at Utah recently after a hot start, they introduced their mascot, Tusky, and then they like didn’t lose for three weeks after that. So, they had a streak going with that. They have lost back-to-back games. They lost in Edmonton on uh the final of a uh little road trip that they had. Then they came home for one game against Tampa. Now this is the first game of their East Eastern, you know, road trip. They just played two nights ago. That is maybe the best optimism I have for the Sabres tonight because I do think Utah is the better team in general. But you’re catching them coming all the way from Utah who played two nights ago, first game with the time adjustments and going to the East Coast. Uh it’d be different if they played back the night before, but only playing two nights ago or two days ago. Um I feel decent about the Sabres chances in this one. So that’s what you’re looking at for uh tonight. Utah and Buffalo, the Mammoth losing two in a row. When we come back, my bet of the night, we’ll go through some of the odds. Lost two games in a row tonight. I got a little bit of a long shot, but I think there’s a good chance at it. I’ll tell you why. When we come back here on the Locked On Sabers podcast, today’s episode of Locked On Sabres is presented by FanDuel. We go to our best bets. We’ll be looking at FanDuel Sportsbook. Of course, the NHL is back. The NFL’s rolling. The NBA is back. There’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel is live bets on everything from who will score next to third period comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It will keep every game more exciting, especially when your team is making that late push in a game. Right now, FanDuel’s giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanuel.com, sign up, play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Today’s episode of Locked Sabers is also presented by Game Time. Mentioned I’m going down to Miami for the next football game. Nice little Bills road game, which should be fun. A lot of fans in attendance, Buffalo fans, and they you should be using the Game Time app. You got all your best ways to look at which seats are best and what your view is going to look like, get the best deals, zone deals. Hockey season, of course, being here, you got a game tonight that you could go to. Nothing beats being in the arena for these opening games. Plus, let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. Waiting and cues, surprise fees, prices that jump right before checkout. It’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. That’s where Game Time comes in. The app that gives fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NHL tickets fast, easy, and stressfree. Take the guesswork out of buying NHL tickets with Game Time. Find NHL tickets for under $25. Zone deals, game changer. You pick the section, Game Time picks your seats, and you save big. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s code locked on NHL for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. All right. Bat of the night. Bets of the night. Even locked on Sabres podcast. I’ll have one bet that I like more than the rest. The Sabres in this game are a home underdog to Utah. The records would speak to that. The Mammoth have lost two in a row, but they so far this year, I meant to go through this a little bit when we were previewing the Mammoth. This year, they are out shooting teams at five on five, 264 to 221. That is third best in the National Hockey League. They are outscoring teams at five on five, 28-22. that is fifth best in the National Hockey League. They are a good team, no doubt about it. They at least have started well in this game. As I mentioned, the travel I understand why the Sabres are underdogs. I kind of don’t want to touch it because I don’t love the Sabres being close to a pick them at plus 116. I also don’t want to give go in on Utah at minus 140. If they had been a little bit lower, that would have been to me the smartest bet of the night. I’m not touching the money line in this one. If I was going to go anywhere on the result of the game, I probably would go mammoth minus one and a half to get an empty net goal, win by two, whatever. However you do it, plus 172 if I were going to make a bet. Um, if you’re into emotional hedges, maybe that’s the bet for you. Otherwise, I’m not going near it. Over under in this game is 6 and a half, plus 104 on the over, minus 128 on the under at FanDuel. my bet of the night. And if you are wondering where we stand on the season, we are still in the plus and we still are in the plus by a lot despite the fact that we lost the last two. 74 and one um which is plus 10.4 units. If you began the season with 10, you’d be at 104 as we currently stand today. I am going to go I just think revenge goals happen and some of the time it can be to help put a game away and sometimes to get that cheap empty net goal where teammates will work for it. Remember last year when Vegas tried to work to get Eel a game-winning goal or an empty net goal and actually blew up in their face and they allowed a game tire. Um that happens a lot. So, where I’m going to look right now is actually going to be for JJ Purka. And part of it is I do like the odds here. If it were closer, I might go if if he were well above Josh Don, I think I’d go Josh Don. Um, you also, by the way, if you want to go double up on this, you could go Josh Don plus 230 and JJ Purka plus 240. How about that? Going into this game, could you have ever imagined that Josh Dome would have a better would have better odds to score tonight than JJ Purka does? Well, he does. Plus 230 versus plus 240. If you wanted to go both of them and parlay it, you could get Purka and Don to score at plus 822. Really, really strong odds there. I’m not going to do that though for tonight. I am just going to go with Purka at plus 240. Tie and I like both. The tie goes to the team I think is going to win tonight. And I would lean towards Utah. And if I get that empty net situation, my backdoor cheap empty netter cover would be for Purka because I think it’s more likely he’s going to be in that situation tonight than Don will be. Um, so I’m going to go Purka plus 240 to score a goal tonight. That’s my uh that’s your that’s your emotional hedge bet of the night, if you will. So that’s what you’re looking at. By the way, you want to get really wild here? Let’s parlay Josh. Let’s do all trio revenge goal bet. Josh Don plus 230 to score. JJ Purka plus 240 to score. And Michael Kessle Ringit plus 2,000 to score. Plus $14,684. How about that? That would be 10 to win $1,468. Um Cering at plus 2,000. you know, he could be that empty net guy uh out there late in the game trying to close it out if the Sabres were to be ahead. Um I am not going to go for those three all to score, but um I’m going to stick with my Purka bet as bet of the night. All right, Sabres and Mammoth. We’ll see what happens. And if you want more hockey talk, be sure to check out Locked on NHL game night. That’s available wherever you get your podcast. Locked on fantasy hockey also has you covered for all your lineup decisions that you might have to make going forward if you’re on a daily fantasy schedule uh like I am for fantasy hockey. Check it out wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. Talk to you after sabers and mammoth here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day.

As the Utah Mammoth are in Buffalo, it’s an opportunity to take a look at the big offseason trade between the Sabres and Mammoth that included JJ Peterka, Josh Doan, and Michael Kesselring. At the moment, both teams are getting exactly what they wanted out of that deal, making it the rare ‘win-win’.

How good has Peterka been for Utah so far? Will Josh Doan continue to perform at a top-six level? When will Kesselring’s role expand? Plus, the Sabres are dealing with limited forward options without Jason Zucker and Jiri Kulich.

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