This is the first time we’ve put together a subscriber-only mailbag on this site and I couldn’t have timed this better. I originally put out the call for questions before the end-of-season press conferences. After those wild three days, I figured it would be a good idea to put the call out again and delay this a little.

Now, we have all of our questions in and there were a lot of good ones. I appreciate all of the people that threw in questions for this. Let’s get to the fun.

How much higher is the likelihood of Donny Meatballs being hired as HC now compared to when he took over as interim? – Joshua McMillan

When Don Granato took over as interim head coach I would have put the likelihood of him getting the full-time job at less than 5%. Now, I believe that he’s the favorite to land the gig. Kevyn Adams and Jason Karmanos have already spoken to a few candidates. They’ll likely have conversations with more people, but my understanding is Granato is still the frontrunner.

Granato got his club to play hard and some young players to perform while he was behind the bench. They didn’t always pick up the victories, but they were competitive almost every night against playoff teams. The underlying numbers weren’t impressive, but part of that was due to the limited talent on the roster. Granato got them to be a more offensive team and more dangerous on the rush.

He’s the perfect coach if they’re heading down the road of a rebuild.

If you can only protect 2 of the 3 in expansion, who do you let go out of Bjork, Asplund, and Thompson? – Paul Foresto

This is one that is pretty easy for me. I would protect Rasmus Asplund and Anders Bjork. Those two players offer a two-way game that Tage Thompson does not. Thompson did have some good nights down the stretch but was still inconsistent. He’s a one-dimensional offensive player that isn’t even that good at that one dimension. I see him as replaceable if he is selected in expansion by the Seattle Kraken.

Bjork fit in well when he came over from the Boston Bruins in the Taylor Hall trade. He was effective at both ends of the ice and was good on the penalty kill as well. He’s the type of player you can play up and down your lineup.

Asplund may have been one of the most impressive “young” guys under Granato. He’s a player I’ll be analyzing soon.

I’m sure this has already been asked but do you actually see Risto getting moved off this team? – Adam Hepp

I do. It’s not even so much about his on-ice performance, which was poor once again after Jake McCabe went down with an injury. He only has one more year remaining on his contract and he is not going to re-sign with the Sabres. Combine that with Kevyn Adams’ “we are going to get this right with the people who want to be here” comment, the writing is on the wall.

The shame of it all is they’re finally going to move him when the organization is about to hit reset. In reality, moving him at any point in the last three years may have helped them win more games.

Let’s assume, for the sake of our collective sanity that Risto is actually traded this summer, and also assuming they don’t get a dman in return, could you put together a list of the top eight dmen we could realistically (no wish-fulfillment) see in a Sabres sweater for next season? – Robert Leposa

The Sabres blue line is going to need an overhaul. I feel they need to do more work with the defense group than they do at forward. As of now, they’re looking at a young blue line going into next season. Henri Jokiharju, Rasmus Dahlin, and Will Borgen are all restricted free agents. The only other defensemen under contract are Colin Miller, Mattias Samuelsson, and Jacob Bryson.

Miller could be the odds-on favorite right now as the player that the Kraken select in the expansions draft, so he could be gone as well. It’ll be interesting to see if Jake McCabe returns. He was their best defenseman this season, but he’s an unrestricted free agent. It’s possible he could agree to stay with the Sabres if the knee injury waters down his market.

Having said all of that, I’ll answer the question now. Here is my defense group on opening night next season:

Rasmus Dahlin – Henri Jokiharju

Mike Reilly – Will Borgen

Mattias Samuelsson – Calen Addison

Jacob Bryson

Outside of the big 3 (Eichel, Reinhart, and Risto) who is the most likely Sabres player under contract to be moved this summer? – Matthew Doak

This is a good question and one that I had to think about for a while. The easy answer here is Colin Miller if he’s not selected by Seattle in the expansion draft. I feel Miller has played his last game for the Sabres.

I’ll go with a little bit of a spicier pick in Thompson. I could see them using him as a piece to boost a trade return as a sweetener for a team that is acquiring Eichel or Reinhart in a potential trade. He could also be paired in a deal with Ristolainen.

This season was a letdown year for me with Thompson and I feel he has shown to be replaceable.

Beniers, Eklund, and Guenther. Please rank in order of preference. – Paul Foresto

I’m just starting to get ramped up with my 2021 NHL Draft work. I’m in the process of watching back every Michigan University game for Owen Power and Matty Beniers. It’ll also be interesting to see both of them line up against the pro competition at the World Championships in Latvia.

Currently, I have Beniers and William Eklund as my top two prospects in this draft. Canadian-born defender Brandt Clarke may be my third-rated prospect. The good news for the Sabres is they’ll get another good player in the top three of the draft.

Who do you think is the captain of the Sabres next year? – Matt Cannon

There are three possible outcomes here:

1. Jack Eichel is back and the captain.

2. Jack Eichel is gone and Sam Reinhart remains. In this scenario, Reinhart would be named the new captain.

3. Both of the aforementioned players are traded. In this case, the Sabres would not have a captain next season.

I believe option three is what we’ll most likely see occur. Followed by option two and then option one the least likely.

What non-hockey things are you looking forward to consuming/watching in the offseason?  – John Kozera

Let’s end it on a fun note.

This is hard for me because my answer is hockey things. This is the time of the year where I watch back games on draft prospects and Sabres prospects to get a final evaluation on their seasons. However, outside of hockey I plan to continue to watch Bad Batch and the Loki series will be coming out on Diseny+ soon.

Also, my wife and I are big crime documentary people. Netflix’s Son of Sam documentary is on my list of things to watch. Lastly, we’ll complete our viewing of Letterkenny.

Anthony and Eddy also shared some thoughts on this.

Anthony