Sabres making moves?

0:00I'm done carrying around bulky drinks. And I'm definitely done cleaning melted candy out of my pockets. So yeah, I traded them both in for fruity rainbow 5 hour energy shots. These little guys are as pocket sized as any candy. But instead of a sugar crash, you get a zero sugar caffeine boost. Candy can't even compare at this point. Fruity rainbow 5 hour energy shots treat your taste buds to an explosion of fruity flavor. To the tasty caffeine kick. That's right, caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. And it's not just one flavor. Five hour energy shots bring you tasty caffeine and 17 flavors, 17. So if you're craving that candy flavored chaos, but actually want energy that works, grab fruity rainbow 5 hour energy shots, pocket sized zero sugar, big flavor. Available now at 5hourenergy.com or on Amazon. You're a pro at running your life, at committing to your workout, at showing up every day.

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2:02I've loved playing there. Great organization, great people in the city. You know, just a lot of ton of support. I know we haven't been as good as we could be, and I know we can be. At this point, kind of earned the right to explore free agency, see what's out there. Make a decision that's best for my career and for my family. That is Alec Pierce, presumably the top free agent wide receiver, and his chances of getting to market, as they say, became almost a certainty, improved by the Colts News, transition tag for Daniel Jones, and Pierce walks, apparently. Have never been that excited about him. Not really as wide receiver hungry as we all can be. I haven't really gotten there, like having to beat the world on bidding for Alec Pierce. No thanks. Right. He's at the top of the class. I don't think he's, in my opinion, a fully, he's not a number one fully formed guy.

3:04Be perfect. If you had that guy as a compliment, I think, because he's certainly, you know, he's yards per catch were outrageous, but somebody is, I, I'm going to guess somebody is going to regret what they give him that, that, I'm done carrying around bulky drinks. And I'm definitely done cleaning melted candy out of my pockets. So yeah, I traded them both in for fruity rainbow five hour energy shots. These little guys are as pocket sized as any candy. But instead of a sugar crash, you get a zero sugar caffeine boost. Candy can't even compare at this point. Fruity rainbow five hour energy shots treat your taste buds to an explosion of fruity flavor with a tasty caffeine kick. That's right. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade and it's not just one flavor. Five hour energy shots bring you tasty caffeine and 17 flavors, 17. So if you're craving that candy flavored chaos, but actually want energy that works,

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5:16That's Vomis.com and Use Code Audio. Good. Being able to pay that, I just, chances are, the guy that gets the bag in free agency is going to a team with a lot of cap room. Those aren't all bad teams. New England's got a lot of cap room, for example, right? So maybe there is a spot where he lands where it's it's softer, but it's feeling if you're going to ask him for a lot, you could be in real trouble. 803-050 for your calls. Here is Isaiah with us. Hello. Hey, gentlemen. Hi.

6:17I wanted to talk about, I love the rams and how they do business. You know, using the eye test when you're doing drafting, I think we've got burned on some character guys, guys, you know, they come in with interviews, and they fall in love with them. And I make it to comparison on if Ed Oliver and maybe Jay and Carter was on the board, I think they will pick Ed Oliver or Jay and Carter, just because of, you know, Jay has character issues, some little trouble, but the talent is, you know, through the roof, other than Ed who's not a bum by any sense, but, you know, is he's better locker room guy, and I just think you've gotten burned by that. And I would like to maybe just trust the eye test on when you see him film, instead of, you know, trusting maybe the interview process. Yeah, thanks. Like we were talking about before, you were probably listening to, yeah,

7:18inspired on this topic. I believe that I don't want to say eye test because I think there's much more to it than just that. But the idea that teams don't benefit from sitting in a room with the player is very counterintuitive. If it can something be very counterintuitive, I mean, it just is, whether it's teams or any career, any profession, it just doesn't feel what, wait, why? It's a, it's a, it's a form, it's sort of a form of the eye test. It's not watching you play football, but it's sitting across a desk from you. Yeah. And trusting judgment that I can, that I can tell whether you're BS and me or not. Yeah. And I mean, there can be those realities. But I think your bias is, and this isn't something that I just have decided for myself, it's something I've read on, like how your bias is, influence those judgments, and often in, not in a productive way, not in a helpful way.

8:20So somebody who's very different from me. And I think, you know, culturally, if you think about 20-year-old NFL prospects versus 50-year-old general managers, this would often be the case. I might just not get you. And yeah, I think too often that can be a flaw in your process. But I don't know how, it's interesting that, now, we have two teams that are skipping, and that wouldn't be the only reason why, but it's probably part of it. I think when bringing this up, I don't know, 10 years ago, after reading about it for the first time, it's only met with division. It's only met with people saying, like, what would you? Clueless, like, why wouldn't the interview be useful? And I think probably that's still most executives and most fans would think the same thing. Everybody goes through job interviews. Nobody just hires you without meeting you first, you know? And a lot of people think that they're very good judges of character. And that's, yes, right?

9:21And I think, I feel like, when you make this point, I always want to, of course, I'm going to put my name on it. I'm going to trust my judgment that I'm the GM. And until having this conversation with Justin Neller last segment, I hadn't thought of it in a way where it could keep me from necessarily the best guy, that it could help me. It's not something to avoid a problem as it is, am I over-emphasizing? Am I falling for, I said it when we were talking about Justin. Am I falling for someone's story? And now, emotionally, I feel attached to this player. Like, I want to be, I want to help him see this through kind of thing. And like, I could see that happening to someone like myself. And I think as it pertains to the bills, I think the most, the biggest benefit of the doubt,

10:23I could give Brandon Bean on his draft choices is this. I think culture was, and it has been. I don't know, I don't know if that little change now that McDermott's not there, but I know it was heavily emphasized. I don't know that I've heard a lot about bills, DNA, the soft season, so far, right? Good. We used to hear a lot about it before. And maybe that's packed away because that was a McDermott thing. And what you could end up doing is leaving, I think the Oliver, who is the player from Jalen Carter? Is a very good example. You could look at these two guys and feel like you trust the guy that doesn't have the bad resume, the guy that came across better in the interview is going to be better in my room. So he's going to be safer, but in the end, did I draft the better player? Like, who is going to help me more on the field? Now, the fear is that Carter had some, had some red flags.

11:26Like, am I drafting someone who's going to be a problem for me? Is he not going to be available because he's going to get, you know, he's going to get in trouble here or there or wherever league suspensions team discipline, whatever it is, I would say the bills may be, it's possible anyway with their focus on that part of it, that they, they overdrafted some of the guys they picked because of their impressions of the interview. It certainly is possible anyone could do it, but the bills we know flew that flag highly and proudly. And their results have been excellent, even with that, but you do, I wonder have they, have they missed because is there a reason they have so many pretty good players and not enough, oh my God, this guy's a game record players. It might be true in a couple of cases as interesting as Oliver and Jalen Carter is as a comparison

12:31from the caller. They are six years apart. It's not apples to apples, right? But it's, it's possible that there are some. They've also drafted guys with a little bit of a history too. They haven't completely avoided that. It's thirdly and you might have just said this, something that might be different now because McDermott at least outwardly and everything about his reputation was connected to this that he was so big on that. He wanted players that he could, he thought he could trust. And maybe Joe Brady has a different, I mean, he's much younger than McDermott. Maybe he has a different attitude about this. And you know, it's not just being's call in all cases as we know. When it's somebody who doesn't work out, it's blamed on other people. It looks like we have a saber trade. Okay. It's not the, it is the blues, but it's just the defenseman. And it's not the defenseman. I would have chosen Colton Paraco, according to

13:32Darren Drager. Here's the tweet from Drager. Sounds like it's going to happen. Redeem Murtka last year's first round pick and a first round pick will be a part of it. Things are being finalized, player needs to approve, et cetera. Okay. I'm not sure I know what to say. It's, I mean, it's obviously a buyer move. Yeah. Olympian with a six and a half million dollar cap hit for four more seasons. I have room. I do. Sure. One me. They got six and a half million dollar third pair defenseman. Hang on. If salar, if salar is keeping half of this. And I've got Paraco for three point two five million on the cap for four more years. That's a little bit more palatable. I don't, I don't, I don't love this player at all. I like Justin Faulk as an idea much more

14:37myself. He's older. I just Paraco's meaner. You know, might fit the third pair mean guy they were looking for. Sandloos better be kept keeping half of that money with that price. That's two first from picks. And that's a lot to pay for a third pair defenseman to me. Travis doesn't like it. I'm not, I'm not in love with this at all. If, if there isn't salary retention, my head might explode. Even with it, I don't love it. That just seems like a really steep price. Show me the charts. He's, he's a name. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the contract reflects that. Show me the charts, baby. Let me make sure on that. I have his, you know, this was being talked about. So I opened his spot track page because I just said it. I looked, I'm not kidding you. I've looked like four times today. He is under that contract runs four more seasons in addition

15:44to this one. I said it. I knew it. And I still wanted to check because it just blows my mind that there's that much money left on that deal. Wow. They better be keeping half of that money. Here's a good chart. Don LaSition. One of the league's best defensive defenseman with a strong ability to eat tough minutes should be a perfect fit. This is analytics talking here. Should be a perfect fit next to one of Buffalo's terrific group of lefty defenseman. I can't, I can't imagine anybody's going out. No, from this team. No, no. I don't think he's replacing a stud. But next to one of their lefty defenseman, not he's not in the top four. Like, that's the idea here, right? I think in this, you know, obviously they didn't give up one of those guys in this. So that doesn't change. He is not a player that comes in here on seats, buy room, or power and certainly dolleen or even

16:45Samuelson. That's why I'm saying it's a third pair guy. That's a, that's a big price. I know from talking to Paul all these times about this deadline. What should they covet? Number one. And this is the player he's talking about, isn't it? Somebody to, you know, ease the burden on their top defenseman. And even though it's a lot of money, this looks like somebody who should be, he should do that for them. Any injury can really disrupt the whole thing to that group. The Sabers reportedly trading for Colton Paraco, Olympian, Canadian Olympian from St. Louis. Mertka, last year's first round pick, the big defenseman and a first round pick according to Drager, a part of the return. Big Mike's open the bulldog here. We'll reach out to Paul and get his perspective on it. Lines are open for your calls. This is WGR.

17:45I'm done carrying around bulky drinks. And I'm definitely done cleaning melted candy out of my pockets. So yeah, I traded them both in for fruity rainbow five hour energy shots. These little guys are as pocket sized as any candy. But instead of a sugar crash, you get a zero sugar caffeine boost. Candy can't even compare at this point. Fruity rainbow five hour energy shots treat your taste buds to an explosion of fruity flavor with a tasty caffeine kick. That's right. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. And it's not just one flavor. Five hour energy shots bring you tasty caffeine and 17 flavors. Seventeen. So if you're craving that candy flavored chaos, but actually want energy that works, grab fruity rainbow five hour energy shots, pocket sized zero sugar, big flavor available now at fivehourenergy.com or on Amazon. I'm Spencer and I work at United

18:46Healthcare. So Spencer, why do you care? I care because my daughter Adeline has special needs. I am motivated by Adeline who inspires me every day. I am driven to help families like mine navigate the healthcare system. I'm so blessed to lead an amazing team at United Healthcare focusing on the member experience and making that better. I'm Spencer and I'm committed to care. Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right. And the best part? They accept discover. Accept discover. In a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh. Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby. Get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants? These are making a comeback. I think. Discover is accepted at 99 percent of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report. Get more out of every mile when you share the ride to work. With carpooling, you'll have time to

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