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Trade 11, Rosen and Jokijarju for the best top line winger we can get in here. IMO neither Skinner or Tuch should be 1st line players.

I'm not invested in keeping him or not. But based on his play and projecting his upside, I just don't see any decision being made about him will turn out to be consequential. As others ( @LGR4GM and @GASabresIUFAN) have said, what he currently provides as a player or even projecting some upside, there are a sufficient supply of players in this league that can easily replace him. I have no problem bringing him into camp. But it would be a mistake to count on him for even a 4C role without bringing in a better option. As it stands, I don't see him as a 3C, at best he is a replaceable 4C.

I’m going to be rusty. Sooooo - indirectly we’re kinda like champs.

Catton is going to plummet.

By "rumours" you mean "some stuff a clickbait site just made up" right?

I looked that up as well. Sadly he hasn't built on that promise.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Ray. We hardly knew ya. How's everything going?

I’m holding onto hope (great strategy 🤷🏻‍♂️)re: Byram. Better coaching should improve his play. Mitts to me is JAG.

Fwiw, Krebs’ last season in the WHL had an NHLE of 44 points.

Exactly. There are at least a dozen UFAs that can give us what Krebs does but are more suited for a depth role. Guys like Amadio, Carrier, Blueger, Trenin etc… We don’t have the patience anymore to continue to wait for guys to develop. Mitts and TNT were lucky that they were here when we started from scratch and we had the time and inclination to let them develop slowly. We don’t have that luxury anymore. How long are we supposed to wait on Krebs to make the meaningful contribution when the playoffs are the objective now? Krebs reminds me of another 17th overall pick and that is Curtis Lazar. Not only can we find UFAs to replace Krebs more suited for a depth role. We also have a stockpile of prospects like Savoie, Rosen and Kulich who can come in and give us more than we got from Krebs. Savoie’s NHLe on his WHL season was 41 points. Kulich’s was 31 points and Rosen’s 30.

My Bruin….errr…..”dislike” aside, a TT pancaking of one of the Sedative bros soothes my soul.

When you put this way, I suppose we would. Either way each has a bright future. Gimme Tkachuk.

NHL does a truly awful job of covering this event. I think physical testing starts today so we should get height and weights.

He's definitely being overtaken as a 23yr old guy with 26pts as his best season. He's about to do his 3rd full season and technically has 3 nhl seasons under his belt. He might be good eventually but what if we aren't the ones to take the chance? Why can't half a dozen ufas or draftees do what he does?

Sometimes when getting too fixated on asset management one can loses sight of the bigger issue: putting the best team together you can (including reserves. There comes a point where the actual performance is disregarded because of the so-called cost/benefit ratio. In this type of situation, the analytical tool becomes the end all and be all at the expense of the overall quality of the roster. On all teams, there is never a perfect calibration between salary and performance. There are simply too many variables that preclude being precise in that balancing act. For me, I'm not overly concerned with Joki's price tag. If his contract demands get too outsized, he will be dealt. If his contract demands fall within the standard range for someone of his experience and talent level, then he should be kept. Compare what our blueline group is today to what it was a few years ago. Maybe it could be a little better balanced on the muscular side compared to the finesse side, but overall, it appears to be an emerging unit. I'm more than satisfied with this group. The center of attention for the GM needs to be on reconstituting the lower lines and adding a 3C. I'm confident that I'm taking a minority view stating that we should keep Joki. He has an ability to be the B partner in all of the pairings (if need be) and will be a contributing player in the unit. That's not to say that I will preclude better options if they arise.

Man... saying Liiga and SHL is run and gun is something you could do... i don't think it would be correct, those leagues are very much structured and cycle based. Idk about the German pros. That might be more rush based. Czech league is well known for its hard nosed players. Russian Jr's certainly have a run and gun element. I think in the Swedish and Finnish leagues, there's more room so they learn to play with more time but that's nothing to concerning. But Quinn, JJP, Samuelsson are and that's about the only players I can think of who spent significant time in Rochester.

This is not surprising in the slightest. The Canes have a roster that is near the top of the league for the last 4 years (3 points from the Presidents trophy last year, 2nd in the league the year before, 6 points away the year before that, 2 points away the year before that). Their roster is near completion, and if they are trading a high end established NHL player, it would be for established NHL players. They aren’t going to downgrade their roster for futures, as they are highly competitive now. They likely want a starting goalie (Ullmark?) or blue line help depending on how their free agent situation goes. Prospects or picks may be brought in, not as the main piece of the trade, but as supplemental value to even things out.

His bad back would scare me away from that. Part of the issue with Torts as Philly fans tell me was his ability or inability to play through pain and a disagreement there. I suspect it's a D man as @dudacek suggested. Likely a shot blocker to replace Pesce if they have decided they can't afford him. I think their desire to trade or not trade Necas might be related to their attempt to sign Guentzel. If Guentzel doesn't sign there I would expect Necas to come off the market. That is unless they really are interested in Ullmark (a Boston rumor) because Boston is interested in Necas to play with Pasternak. I've heard Seattle has asked about Necas as well. I think he's a pretty popular target/asset.

It's worse if, as I fear, he has him penciled in as 3C.

Style-wise. We aren't teaching them to check and play hard defensively. We are set on the idea of wide open run and gun hockey which you see a lot of in the league these guys come from. I'd rather we had a guy like Peca in Rochester teaching these speedy Euros how to grind. In a way I guess you could say it's a one sided development model that I had hoped would end with Granato but alas, no.

Why? Right now Krebs has been passed on the depth chart by Benson, JJP, Quinn and probably Savoie with Kulich hot on his heals. Had he developed as hoped he'd be in line to replace Mitts when Mitts was traded. Instead, he stunk in that role after the trade and now pretty much everyone agrees we need to bring in outside talent to replace Mitts. Where does that leave Krebs? Either on the 4th line or in the pressbox. If he still has value, trade him and give him a fresh start elsewhere before he becomes Asplund 2.0.

Interesting. Parting with Krebs would be further evidence of desperation on KA’s part IMHO.

By the way John, this is where asset management comes in. You don't trade Johnson and then keep Jokiharju. Joki is going to cost about $4 mill per season for the next 3 to 4 years to keep. Why would you trade away Johnson to keep another big contract, especially when I'm not sure Joki is really that much better than Johnson? Joki is certainly not $3 mill better than Johnson.

I like it. It's not a sabres alum. I'm guessing, the Sabres aren't good.

Not sure what you mean The Rochester model hasn’t done its job of developing future Sabres?