Thoughts on the Casey Mittelstadt trade

The "What should the Buffalo Sabres do with Casey Mittelstadt" debate has been settled. Earlier today, Buffalo announced they traded Mittelstadt to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Bowen Byram. Mittelstadt led the Sabres in goals as he scored 14 goals and had 33 assists. As for Byram, he scored eight goals with 12 assists.

I have some thoughts on this trade. First of all, it stinks to see Casey go. After a rough start to his career, he started to mold into the player Buffalo hoped to get when they drafted him 8th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft.

Personally, I was a fan of Mittelstadt and he has come a long way with how he struggled when he first started playing. Even though it's tough to see him go, I'm extremely happy for Casey and wish him nothing but the best. Colorado is sitting in third place in the Central Division with a record of 38-20-5 with 81 points.

He's going to have a chance to compete for a Stanley Cup and I hope he does awesome with the Avalanche. When it comes to Byram, I'm excited to see what he does with the Sabres. Buffalo needs to improve the blue line and while there are fans who are not happy, let's just see how he does with the Sabres.

With all of that being said, I can understand why fans are upset. Everyone has their reasons, but most of those fans were probably fans of Mittelstadt because he was a good player and seemed like a good guy off of the ice.

We will see how each player does with their new team and while people are allowed to have their own opinions, I will wait and see before making a judgement. Mittelstadt is the first of a couple of moves that general manager Kevyn Adams will make with the trade deadline this Friday in my opinion.