Sabres Interest in Hellebuyck and Jarmo's 'Positive Problem'

0:00It sounds like Buffalo is reengaged to some degree with Winnipeg. Come on, let's get back in and get in there, Maverick. It's no good. Maverick's reengaging, sir. That was the phrase used by Chris Johnston of SportsNow. The Sabers reengaged with the Winnipeg Jets. Good morning, Jeremy and Joe. Joe's out this week. I want Parker and Joe Cali both here as we take you through what is basically like opening day in the NFL. Start tonight in Seattle. I'm the Connor Hellerbuck stuff. I'll tell you, I loved the thing I read from Adam Gretz, who has a substack. He previously worked with the Yahoo most recently that I can remember or maybe a long time ago. But I loved something that Adam Gretz wrote about Hellerbuck. First off, there's also stuff from nearly every insider in the last 24 hours about Hellerbuck, Friedman, LeBron.

1:03And to get up to all of it, everyone is saying without saying that the Sabers and Jets would have had a deal with a player with a no move decided not to move. And we all know that that's UPL. We all just kind of, it's the bicycle wrapped up in wrapping paper. I'm like, what do you think it is? Looks like a bicycle to me. Right. It's pretty, it's pretty, it seems pretty clear that that is what happened. And maybe it could have been Ryan, I think Ryan McLeod also had a no move kick in. Maybe he could have been part of it's possible. But the, the, the, the insiders certainly seem to be wrapping it like a bicycle. You know, wrap it up. It's, uh, is it a shovel? Looks like it's wrapping paper on this, you know, you know the gag some going for. Oh, yeah. Anyway, what Adam Gretz wrote about the Hellerbuck thing. There seems to be a larger conversation about the Jets and their ownership and their GM and their general directionlessness franchise, which boys has ever like ring a bell.

2:03He had a line in here that I thought was really perfect. And that is this. By trying to force his way out, Hellerbuck is the only prominent person in the organization showing any urgency to win for himself. And the only one showing any urgency to create some sort of change within an otherwise stale organization. And man, that is like on my sports commandments right there. That is, that is tattooed on my arm as someone that has in the past defended players wanting to leave franchises that don't care or franchises that are run poorly. I will defend any player that says, I don't think you guys are serious here. And I'm too good for this, whether that's Miles Garrett or in this case, Connor Hellerbuck, you know, wherever he goes, if the savers make the trade fine, if they don't find, but that speaks to me. A great player saying, no one here is doing the things that you should be doing to win.

3:05And yes, I signed with you a while back, but then you stop doing your job. So I want out. He signed with them when they were a team that was, you know, winning presidents trophies and very solid. And they have let themselves decay to a point that that's no longer the case. And that he's essentially the only thing that was able to prop them or try to prop them up for the last couple of years. And, you know, you get tired of that. And I think he gave them every opportunity to do something to convince him to stay. I mean, he didn't come out publicly with this statement until what two weeks ago, when after the season, it would have been just as easy for him to go like, I got to get out of here. These guys tank. But what he did was internally said, listen, this doesn't look very good. I don't like this. This team needs to get better. Or I'm going to want to leave.

4:05And then the team did nothing. Yeah, they did very little. And again, it might be a factor that he doesn't want to live there. And there was abuse of his family online. Of course. Because of the geopolitical landscape. But at the root of it is also like this that he doesn't believe in them. So what are they going to do about it? Also, by the way, yesterday coincidentally enough that we got a quote from the Sabers and Jarmou Kekalainen on how many players they have. And Jarmou said, we have a positive problem. Right? Positive problem. We don't know where all our players are going to fit in, which let's pretend we're all in a fantasy league. I would say like, I don't know, Trader, I've got so many good players. The reality is, I know, fantasy league and really aren't the same. That's not a positive problem. Right. It's nice to have good players to have so many you can't fill them in means that you should trade some of them for a spot on your roster that maybe you don't want to play. But I don't feel as adequately filled in. Right.

5:05That is the, that's how every train gets made. I mean, we have a positive problem. We have players. We don't know where to put every player. Right? Well, you can't put them in Rochester. No. You can't put them in the press box. And with the contrary, the Frazier Minton signed yesterday in Boston. Guy was played like a half a whatever, a full year scored 17 goals, got seven million per. Like Noah Osslin and Yuri Kool-Eak are getting eight next year on New Deal. And Helen Yis is going to get 15 when he wins the call. Yeah. No, it's that we went through this exercise, I don't know, two months ago, where it was like, let's make a line up. This doesn't work. There's too many players. They got too many forwards. Too many forwards. I ended up with Ryan McLeod out of my lineup every time I made a lineup. And then if I didn't have that, I was, it was Kool-Eak in the press box. Or it was Osslin, like, and that's not happening. It's not. There's no way that you should be doing that.

6:05And so, yeah, they clearly have a surplus. And I think that's what, I think everybody that follows the team, even really kind of a little bit, went into this summer going, they've got too many guys. They're going to do something. Yeah. And they haven't done anything. They traded, I mean, they traded byroom, but that's not where they've got too many guys. That's because they had to. Yeah, too. Because they had to. And the same thing with talk, like, that was over. And they got a pick for them. Like, great. He was going to leave anyways. And I think everybody is kind of sitting here like, man, we didn't think this would be the problem we had a week before training camp starts. And we're sitting here and it's the problem they have. And as much as it's a good problem, it's, I think, still a problem that you're going to have to solve somehow, some way. Yeah. And listen, I just, there was a week where there was buzz about starting one of these guys in Rochester, like, Kool-Eak, Oslin or Consta. Like, Consta is in Rochester. I'll be in Rochester watching those games instead.

7:05Oh, yeah. I'm watching Consta this year. I mean, come on. That cannot be your plan. It makes no sense for the way you've spoken about how much faith you have in these guys. It would not add up. It would be very, very antithetical to everything you've said about your confidence in them being able to pick up what has left you in talking by them. And like, even Lindy, last week with Mike and Mike and my old man, like, reference those kids, like, those guys are going to be able to do what we're missing. So, like, those guys are not starting in Rochester. It cannot happen. And so, you're in a very interesting position where you've got to solve this issue. And I don't know what you're going to do if you're not making a trade. Well, say, it's a standoff. Yeah. It's a certified standoff. And everyone seems to say, not an easy deal. If you've re-engaged the price, the framework of any sort of deal with the sabers, and Jets has to be different now.

8:05For sure. And maybe would they trade the guy they drafted 20th overall? Maybe. I put them, I'd absolutely put them. I would like them a lot. I think he's a very interesting forward prospect, but they've got seven very interesting forward prospects. So, you know, 803 05 50. The season starts soon. Of course, Bill season starts Sunday, 1 o'clock in Houston. I've not been to Houston for a game. In the chat, they're talking about how hot the game is going to be. And I guess I hadn't thought of that because it's a dome. It's closed. They close the roof all the time. Yeah. They always say they can open it. And I haven't seen more than one game in Houston with that thing open. How many times has that dome been opened? How many Texans game roof open? I'm going to look that right now. Yeah, that's a good quote. I don't, I got to tell you, I didn't even really know that it was a dome. Or, yeah, that it could open. It could open. It could open. Yeah, I thought it was just so much. Yeah, so it's, I mean, it'll be hot at their hotel, which will those humbly have. The walk from the bus to the stadium will be a little worse.

9:05That could be hot. Josh will be sweating when he gives us the thumbs up he gives every day. The forecast for Sunday in Houston is 91 degrees, maybe thunderstorms. But again, the games inside. So yeah, I think they'll be fine. I think they'll be fine. I'm not worried about it. Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter, like a murderers row out there. Yeah, scary. No kidding. The Texans and of all the teams, the bills, the bills fans might have a fear is the wrong word. Healthy respect for how's that? No one thinks much of stride. I don't think around here. But still, we know the defense they've got is good enough to do nasty things to the bills offense. They've done it a couple years in a row now. And of all the teams they play, who has their number more than Houston? You might have said Cincinnati until last year when the bills got that win. They picked off Borough and backed the back plays. And the defense stepped up and made big plays to beat since the beginning of the season.

10:07They've made big plays to beat Cincinnati. Other than that, like, who's got their number? They beat the chiefs all the time. They beat the Ravens somewhat regularly. I can't think of any other team that I think of as having a beat on the bills more than Houston, who has beaten them in back-to-back seasons and with two different quarterbacks. They also play them on the road all the time. They do. They don't play them here. I must send the bills and Texans played here. Would have been the rain game where Davis Mills got picked off four times. Right. Forty to nothing. Yeah. It's a different Houston team. That's probably a different, you know, a couple of years before they get that nasty pass rush that they've got. 803-050. Jomerino on a season preview and a Texans preview when we return. Want to dig into some Dalton King Cade numbers with him because there's a lot of King Cade usage stuff going around online yesterday about how he's used and where he's used and where he might help the bills but also limit the bills. I want to get into that with Joe because if King Cade's breakout season is coming or

11:08it's fully healthy season or two is coming, is there more that has to happen than just him being healthy because of the way that they use him. So we'll get to that with Jomerino coming up at the top of the hour. Your phone calls as well. And 803-050 here on WGR. Audience.