Taro T

Well, it depends on whether others in the room defer to those with the letter on their shirt. And, with not being in the room so take it for what it's worth, it sure does seem like this team tends to historically take on the personality of their captain. Did not want Okposo as the captain this past season. Felt the team needed to become Dahlin & Tuch's team. Definitely don't want Girgensons as the captain or even wearing an A next year.

IF he is not given a leadership role within the team wouldn't HATE having him back again. But personally expect it's time for both parties to move on. And expect that it's very likely he's going to move on.

Serious Q: has Lance broken ANY Sabres related news since he became the BN's main Sabres reporter? If not, wouldn't get too worked up over the report.

Well, that's kind of where the handing out no full NMC/NTC's come in along with having a full plan of who will LIKELY will be ready in '25, '26, '27, etc. with an expectation of who will be moved out to make room for kids that have higher ceilings than the players that are here AND of which kids will get moved because they have lower ceilings than the players that are already here. They've done a good job of building up the prospect pool and have good young talent on the big club. And now they're entering into that next phase where the cap actually becomes constraining and they really do need to have a true plan to make it happen. Personally, expect that Adams has a plan for this. Will it work? That's the $88MM Question. 😉

So, both teams are well past their primes? Not seeing it.

The bolded can't be emphasized enough. Teams need to lock up their good players early and those deals will turn into deals when the guys are actually in their primes. And yes, they'll miss on some of those. Predicting the future is never an exact science. But if the scouting and analytics teams are quality, those misses will be few and far between. It's also important to not be giving out full NTC/NMC contracts as those are what get you at least 6 years of Skinner on a deal that's overpriced by anywhere from $2-$8MM over what he's giving you (depending upon year). And paying guys when they show that they have a strong possibility of living up to their potential goes a long way towards "walking the talk" that they want to build from within and to the greatest extent reasonably possible keep their own guys in house and will reward guys when they demonstrate they deserve it. Which, should they ever actually get back into the playoffs again, would help alter the reputation as being a place players don't want to go. If you win and treat people right, guys will want to be a part of it.

Botterill (who played college hockey at Michigan and IIRC won 3 gold medals with the Canadian WJC team (he defilnitely played for Canada 3 times, not positive about the 3 golds, but pretty sure)) had a huge aversion to selecting CHL players from any of the 3 junior leagues unless it was an absolute no brainer in the 1st round. He loved him some Euros and NCAAers. He's the guy that let Hagel get away.

IF he's practicing "servant leadership" it could be a good thing. I.e., if being the leader is making sure the people doing the work have what they need to do their jobs, it could be good. But if he's the one deciding the direction of the scouting (which really should be coming from Adams, not him), then yes, that is troubling.

Personally am extremely disappointed in the league for not giving Draisatl a 1 game suspension. He left his feet, his elbow into Barkov's mug was the initial point of contact, and the hit was pretty much unnecessary. They CLAIM to make removing head shots a priority. But then they don't make it one.

In the plus column, he did want McAvoy way back when the Sabres drafted Nylander. (Of course, he couldn't talk anybody above him to pull the trigger on that kid.) In the minus column, don't know that he was the driving force of any of the picks that were good. He gets blamed for the Finnish goalie in the 2nd a couple of years back. If that was his call, yeah, that's one more in the minus column.

Take a look at his path to the point of playing with Eichel. What at all stands out in it indicating that an NHL team would be wanting to take a flyer on an undersized kid? He didn't have a strong pedigree and in his Junior year he took a huge step back. Without being associated with Eichel he likely ends up having a path to the NHL at best similar to that of Brian Rafalski (who played a different position but was also undersized and also was a much better hockey player than E-Rod) who still took 4 years playing abroad (after even having gotten to play for Team USA at the World Championships at the end of his college career) and being elite in the leagues he was playing in to get a shot at the NHL. Am extremely happy for Rodrigues; love it when the little guys actually make it. But if Eichel isn't his center his senior year, the Sabres aren't likely interested in him and absolutely NOBODY was interested in him prior to that. You seem to be viewing his making it from the perspective of hindsight. But when you look at where he was at, at that time, without Eichel there he has much poorer numbers his senior year and either has to work his way up from the ECHL for an opportunity or has to play in Europe for a while and hope to get noticed. Was the dream of playing in the NHL big enough for him to have put in the necessary work at that point AND get the break of having a pro scout actually notice him and give him an opportunity before he decided to walk away from it? There's a reason very few Tim Thomases or Brian Rafalskis actually make it to the NHL. Every year you go outside the NHL is one more year an NHL club will be willing to take a chance on a potentially more talented kid because you've already "shown" you're not good enough. How did you show you aren't? By not being there. Chicken and egg. And without having played that 1 year with Eichel, THAT is the path he almost definitely would have had to follow to make it. Rodrigues got lucky. But he was prepared to actually capitalize on that break he got. Good for him. But there are a LOT of players that are good enough to be NHLers that don't ever get that opportunity. Because there are way more tweeners out there than there are jobs for them. There likely aren't 32 true 1C's in the NHL. There definitely aren't 32 1G's out there. But there are waaaaaaay more than just 256 guys that are good enough to be 4th line W's in the NHL out there. Even counting for injuries and callups, only about 500 guys get that shot any given year, but there's probably at least 1,000 that could be some team's JAG. (And a handful of those guys could be a lot more than JAG, but they never get the opportunity to show that.) A lot of guys never get that opportunity to capitalize upon; or if they get the opportunity it came at the wrong time (for whatever reason) for them to put their best foot forward and force the team that gave them the chance to keep them on the roster.

???

Without playing on Eichel's line his senior year, his numbers don't end up standing out to the point he gets an NHL contract offer. At his size and pedigree, he wasn't getting an NHL deal from anybody without that season. He wasn't drafted and through 3 years of NCAA hockey, he hadn't done anything that screamed future NHLer. And at his size and skill level, would he have had the determination to work his way up from the ECHL onto an AHL deal and eventually force a team to take a chance on him at the NHL level or would he have decided that a better use of his time at BU would be to put his degree to use before potential employers decided he was too long past it to give him a break in another field as well; had Eichel chosen BC rather than BU to call home while waiting to get drafted? There are a LOT of guys with Rodrigues metrics that could be able to play at the NHL level that never get the opportunity. There's way more tweeners than there are jobs available for them in the NHL. But with Eichel showing up, he got an opportunity to showcase himself, and he took full advantage of it. Playing on a bad Sabres team, he got an opportunity to get a shot at a position he hadn't played in college and made the best of it. Good for him. And truly am happy he's getting a moment in the sun, so to speak. But without the luck of being Eichel's linemate that 1 season, he very likely never does get the opportunity he has now.

The league USED to publish that data. Not sure when that started, but it was still getting published daily by the NHL through the '05-'06 season. Not sure exactly when that stopped; pretty sure it was during that next year. (But personally wasn't saving that data daily anymore, which is why the uncertainty about when that practice stopped.) But always suspected they stopped doing that because sites like NHLNumbers (since bought by PuckPedia) and CapFriendly (now soon to be CapsFriendly and private) paid for that information (or they got it from other organizations that paid for it) and the league would rather make money off it than not. And a big part of those other groups paying for that data was the semi-exclusivity of receiving it. Was tracking the Sabres daily cap hit back in '05-'06 on an Excel spreadsheet, but life got too busy to keep it up. And pretty soon after that, the data wasn't available from the NHL directly anymore.

He was another of the players that did not react well to Krueger's coaching. By the end of Housley's last year, he was (by default pretty much) their #2 C. That did not carry over into Ralph's 1st year.

Yeah, they don't worry as much about giving Kane an incentive laden contract that pushes a lot of his earnings into next season. 😉

It's not like that was the only source of that information in the past. And Puckpedia likely won't have a monopoly on that data either in the future. (Not sure what else is out there. Primarily used Puckpedia but went to CapFriendly if the answer to a Q wasn't readily obvious at PP.)

No data. Thus the "(d)idn't watch it or even know about it before it happened, but THAT is innovative" part of the post. 😉 Also, though am just outside Ra-cha-cha, which is still kind of a hub for the deaf community, had not known what the differences are between ASL and say the "Rochester Method" or other sign languages. (Knew Ra-cha-cha had its own thing going for a time. Never really learned much about it (still haven't). (Add one more item to the seemingly endless "to-do someday" list.))

They both have their place.

But the Manningcast is VERY unique in that though it isn't giving the pbp, it also isn't telling those carefully crafted stories about the players. They're telling stories, but they're watching the game and actually ENJOYING it. (Doesn't hurt that they're up against the insufferable Joe Buck and Troy Aikman either. If the networks never hire another legendary announcer's kid again, it'll still be too soon.) And though they are bantering throughout the game, the game is actually the centerpiece of the banter. It isn't about what Pat Mahomes HS Shop Teacher's favorite lunch item happens to be or some other equally unrelated item. It might be about something the guest fan of the quarter they brought in did but it still ends up in relation to THEIR fanhood. Would actually probably be pretty entertaining to have a couple of former player brothers banter completely for the full game. (Think the Hunter brothers could take a couple hours per week out of their schedule of running an OHL team to do so? That could be fun as heck.) Go full on Manningcast or go to Danny Gallivan Dick Irvin, Ted Darling Pat Hannigan, RJ Lorentz. But enough of this mushy middle that comes across as not caring about the game itself and is purely pandering to somehow get people that don't follow hockey to like it by not paying attention to it NOR enjoying it. And one more item that helps the Manningcast's popularity. There is ONE football game each week that gets that treatment. If they ALL did, it'd likely get old quickly. (So that suggestion to have the Huntercast was strictly to do ONE game per week (or even 1 every 2 - 3 weeks), not to make that the regular primary broadcast of YOUR Buffalo Sabres.)

Craig Patrick. From the Patrick family (essentially NHL royalty, his grand dad was Lester Patrick (yes, THAT Lester Patrick) and his father was Lynn Patrick). Played in the NHL for a long time, was one of the few GOOD (not great, but good) California Golden Seals that didn't get immediately poached like some of the others such as Reggie Leach. Had a long career but always seemed to end up on bad teams. (Even though he was a Patrick, he also was an American, might've had something to do with the good teams staying away.) Was the Assistant Coach to Herb Brooks on THAT Olympic Team. GM of the Pens when they won back to back Stanley Cups. Was an advisor to the Sabres soon after Pegula bought them.

It's possible. In that regard, there's a lot of parallels between Terry Pegula and Ralph Wilson. Ralph was instrumental in starting the AFL (not Bud Adams or Lamar Hunt level of instrumental in starting it, but he was part of that original Fool's Club and really helped it stay alive and successful early on) and in keeping the Raiders afloat. He also helped keep the Cheatriots in the Boston area when Billy Sullivan was having money issues. He saw the big picture league-wise. But he also was instrumental in causing the football men that really understood the game and were hugely instrumental in the Bills early glory years (Saban, Knox, Pollian) to all leave the organization. Ralph lucked into great football minds, but ended up driving them away. So far Pegula has built up the Penn State hockey program from scratch completely altering the college hockey landscape (and not for the better IMHO), he built Harbor Center and Canal Side. He also lucked into McDermott & Beane (the latter who is truly one of the absolute best in the game) and Chugger and Tavares, but there has been absolutely no indication at all that he'll chase any of them away. He'll eventually luck into the GM & Coach for the Sabres (hoping he already has, we'll see if he did), but unlike Ralph really doubt that he'll chase them out of town. If the Sabres get back to relevant and Terry lives a long time, could see his other accomplishments in the hockey world being enough to get him into the HHoF. But he came to the game so late, expect he needs to have a very long life to get to the point of being part of the "old guard" that the builders always get chosen from.

Was saying this back when the league came out of the lockout and still expect they should do this: pay Syracuse U (or any other school with a truly top notch Communications Department) to develop the optimal way to broadcast the game. Getting 4K & 8K HDTVs out there means not being able to see the puck should NEVER be a reason for people to not watch games. Be innovative, but intelligent about the way they do so. (This isn't directed at the Sabres but the league as a whole.) Heck, they actually DID do something innovative on Saturday. They broadcast the game with an ASL interpreter doing the play by play on one of the alternate ESPN channels. Didn't watch it or even know about it before it happened, but THAT is innovative. No idea if they did anything to highlight where the puck was as watching the announcer would necessarily distract from following the play on ice (tough to watch 2 things closely at once). But for once, the league was thinking outside the box. (It was likely ESPN's idea and not the league's so they could test it out on a sport that gets lower ratings and work out the bugs there before implementing it in NFL coverage.)

To the bolded, pretty sure we all are. But take it up with people that have some say in the matter. 😉

And oddly enough, for box lax, the sport is still niche enough that the broadcasts are more pbp than just banter, and John Gurtler has become a pretty good annoucer. He seemed very bad following in the footsteps of the legendary Ted Darling, but he's found his footing calling the Bandits. Would really like ALL NHL coverage to get back to more of that style pbp. Doubt it happens. And might try to catch more Preds games. Pete Weber is still oldschool enough to call the game the right way. But he's a dying breed.