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At least he gets to call championship wins unlike the other Buffalo teams...

But the player would have to sign it, right? I doubt that happens.

His asking price won't reflect potential. He's going to want established defenseman money, and IMO it won't be worth it... especially given hasn't shown himself to be capable of playing good hockey without Dahlin.

His tenure in NJ was one of the longest and most successful of any GM in his time. 27 seasons, 5 Cup appearances and 3 Cup wins. Given the past 14 seasons, if he advises Adams I just can’t see it hurting. Not sure this is real though.

Ha... Hellybuck

There you go. My memory is fuzzy.

While technically true, the same GM from the past 5 years is still on the job. So ...

Nope. He was fulltime TV PbP guy. Rick took over occassionally while Ted was still employed but when he was too sick to call the game. When Ted finally retired, Gurtler was his fulltime replacement. And if you dialed 1-800-333-PUCK to hear how the Sabres did the night before you'd get a canned recap of some of his calls. But if you clicked through to a human to ask which Satellite Feed the Sabres game would be on, he would often be the person answering. Talked to him quite a few times when that 800 # was a thing.

There’s some good options this year. Bouchard, Dobson Knies, Rossi, McTavish and a couple other good players.

We could offer sheet other players, and I could also become an Olympic gold medalist 😂 Adams is an Ameoba, just kinda exists, has no backbone and is slimy.

We could, but it is nearly impossible to imagine Adams doing so. Also, we don’t have our 2nd in 2026 (included in the Norris trade), which limits the options.

I feel like we are the team that other teams would JUMP on our pick and let us have the player. We could be the McKenna lottery ticket.

I barely remember him doing Sabres games. He must have split games with RJ at first because I seem to recall Rick taking over for Ted Darling early on.

You guys ... I dig @Taro T, till the day I die - just like The Wolfman - he gets me. The rest of you guys ?? Not so much.

We could also offer sheet other players.

He has such crazy good chemistry with Quinn that he is probably worth more to us than to another team.

All depends what team it is and where we think their 1st is going to be. But still, let’s say we get a lower tier team to offer sheet Peterka. And let’s say that pick becomes the 10th overall selection. Not only are we basically hoping that pick becomes a player close to as good as Peterka, but also waiting 3 plus years for him to get to Petrekas level.

Clearly the solution is to bring in a guy who recently handed Pierre Engvall a 7 year contract...

To the bolded: you a veddy funny man Mr. Dudacek!

Basically, it’s only the 3rd tier you’re worried about. You match the 4th and you take the picks with the 2nd. And that goes for both Byram and JJ. The danger spot is anything that translates to over $8M AAV from a team in the upper half of the league. That’s where you’re paying more than you want in contract, but getting less in compensation than you probably could have in trade. Remember, it’s not just the draft picks you’re getting in compensation, there is also the cap space you get to backfill.

The annual Star Wars names entry. Looking at players that could theoretically still be on the board at 9: Highly unlikely unless 2+ reaches are made: Martone - Rebel guerilla leader; hunted by the Empire. Per Wookieepedia, Martonn was a male Zabrak inciter residing on Dromund Kaas. Desnoyers - "Star Desnoyers! Two of 'em coming right at us." I could do so much with this. My preferred SW choice. So much potential. One of them will be there: Frondell - Heavily industrialized planet known for its shipyards; currently loyal to the Empire. O'Brien - boring Earth name. Move along, move along. Mrtka - The MRT-K Assassin droid. It's a prototype. Martin - He's a hard-working dad just trying to make his way in the galaxy. Per Wookiepedia, Marten was a male miner living in the town of Vexen on the planet Kallistas. His twelve-year daughter received a cybernetic arm replacement thanks to Jondrell Inx. McQueen - "Queen Amidala has escaped again -- find her!" "Roger, roger!" A Trade Federation battle droid -- with bad back -- easily dismantled and injured. Roger, roger! Others to consider, but are outside the top 9 in most mock drafts: Eklund - Rebel X-wing pilot Jackson Smith - boring Earth name. Move along, move along. Nesbitt - a stodgy Imperial officer Aitcheson - H-S1 is a plucky astromech droid currently working in the Barrie system. Carter Bear - An Ewok. Some folks think that Ewoks are little teddy bears Carbonneau - "They've encased him in carbonneaunite. He should be quite the scorer, if he gets on the frozen ice sheet, that is." Past Star Wars players and their outcomes for your reference: 2019 Byram - Rebel pilot 2019 Cozens - Imperial officer 2019 Krebs - An Ewok  2020 Quinn - sounds like a smuggler 2021 Power – Unnnnnlimmited Owen Power! 2022 Savoie - Force-sensitive human who is seduced by the dark side of the Concept. 2022 Kulich - An asteroid belt in the Inner Rim 2022 Östlund - Imperial officer. 2 Osteds are Imperial navy officers! Amazing. Alater and Wermis! 2023 Benson - "I don't know anyone named Ben Son, but Old Ben…is kind of a strange old hermit." 2024 Konsta Helenius - Denizen of the local cantina

The 2025-26 thresholds are as follows: ≥ $11,700,193 4x 1st Round Picks $9,360,154 - $11,700,192 2x 1st Round Picks, 1x 2nd Round Pick, 1x 3rd Round Pick $7,020,114 - $9,360,153 1x 1st Round Pick, 1x 2nd Round Pick, 1x 3rd Round Pick $4,680,077 - $7,020,113 1x 1st Round Pick, 1x 3rd Round Pick $2,340,038 - $4,680,076 1x 2nd Round Pick $1,544,425 - $2,340,037 1x 3rd Round Pick ≤ $1,544,424 No Compensation BUT HERE’S THE THING. You must keep in mind that if the length of the offer sheet is longer than 5 years, they divide the total contract value by 5 for AAV tier & not the actual length. If the term is less than 5, they divide by actual length for AAV. I think this rule probably keeps Peterka here. Say he goes for an 8MM offer sheet for 6 years , that is 48MM in total value. 48MM / 5 years =9.6MM/year AAV. The compensation for not matching would then be 2x 1st Round Picks, 1x 2nd Round Pick, 1x 3rd Round Pick. And that’s a ton of compensation for a team to give up for a guy like JJ Peterka. I think he’s here on a bridge deal next year. Related, it also makes the Leafs Matthew Knies very expensive to acquire via offer sheet.

Biron also does TSN so if he's on the road that probably wouldn't be possible anymore.

Matt Barnaby

It’d be a step down for Biron wouldn’t it? He does a lot of media for national Canada and he’d not have time for that anymore