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Jason Botterill's first trade as GM of the Buffalo Sabres is a smart one.
The Sabres have acquired veteran puck moving defenseman Nathan Beaulieu from Montreal in exchange for a 3rd-round pick (68th overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft.
A third round pick is a small price to pay for Beaulieu, 24, who appeared in 74 games with Montreal last season , scoring four goals and 24 assists.
Beaulieu now gives Buffalo the puck mover with size and strength that has been lacking from their back end. Beaulieu is 6'2" and 205 lbs. and is good in all three zones. I like his vision, wheels and hockey sense. He will throw hands if he has to.
I like that Beaulieu is cut from same cloth as Sabres pending UFA Dmitry Kulikov, who had a disappointing one and done season in Buffalo due to a chronic back injury.
This trade may alter Botterill's draft board. The Sabres own the eighth overall pick in next week's draft and were thought to be looking for a D-man in either Miro Heiskanen, Tim Liljegren or Cale Makar. Might the arrival of Beaulieu signify Botterill's desire to trade the 8th overall pick and Evander Kane to jump into the top three to five positions at next week's draft. Keep and eye on Buffalo as it relates to trading with New Jersey, Philly, Dallas, Colorado, and Vancouver.
Jason Botterill Could end up protecting Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe and Nathan Beaulieu in the expansion draft protection process.
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Will Columbus Blue Jackets trade their first round draft choice to the Vegas Golden Knights to prevent George McPhee from nabbing a star player from the Jax roster?
Aaron Portine of the Columbus Disptach reports the Blue Jackets have agreed to trade the 24th overall selection in the 2017 entry draft and a hot prospect (not named Pierre-Luc Dubois or Sonny Milano) to Sin City to insure McPhee selects either Matt Calvert, William Karlsson, or Ryan Murray in the expansion draft.
This pre-emotive, aggressive move will prevent Pit Boss McPhee from absconding with a quartet of players who will likely be exposed in Josh Anderson, Joonas Korpisalo, Jack Johnson, or David Savard.
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Buffalo Sabres goalie prospect Linus Ullmark has had himself quite the week.
On Wednesday, Sabres GM Jason Botterill signed the big Swede tendy to a two-year, #$1.5 million contract extension.
Today, Ullmark posted this beauty on his Instagram account.
The goal was married to his hockey-fanatical wife earlier Saturday afternoon in Sweden.
NHL goalies, NFL kickers and professional rock drummers are the same cats down deep. They are all uniquely awesome (some would say insane) and left of center.
Simms down, Sabres fans.
Ullmark and his wife didn't geek out and exchange wedding vows with goalie buckets on.
Ullmark later tweeted a clarification that he and his bride didn't wear the Minion masks during their ceremony. "We used them afterwards for our wedding pictures".