Taro T

He was also guided to Zito by the league. HIS advisors helped him make the final decision on that one. The NFL guided him to McDermott and Ryan. HIS advisors helped him make the final decision on that one too. He punted HIS advisor (along with Ryan) and went with who the league had recommended in the 1st place. THAT guy recommended Beane and look at how THAT worked out. Pegula had an opportunity to go with the other guy the league suggested for the Sabres as well and AFTER he'd gotten rid of his advisors that helped him make the earlier decision. Rather than going back to the 2nd choice; he decided to listen to "Chauncey Gardiner." It worked out a lot better in the book and the movie.

Just in time for the NEXT rebuild. 😢

Won't have to, sure. Won't? Yeah, right. They've got what, 44k students at College Park. That's ~22k co-eds. The football players and frat boys ain't landing all of them. 😉

Didn't want Mittelstadt traded for Byram because Mitts was finally getting to his prime and Byram was ~21 at the time of the trade. Didn't know much about McLeod at the time, but pretty sure would've been very good with the Sabres getting a real 3C for Savoie. They've needed to have some of their prospects converted into current players since at least that trade deadline that they let pass without any moves when they ended only 1 or 2 (depending upon how you look at it) points out of the playoffs.

Yes, you would expect that to be the case. And can be cut slack for believing it. Because, it REALLY REALLY SHOULD be the case. But the NHL somehow managed in their own inimitable way to make THAT look like good TV relative to what they actually did.

DURING the draft the league was saying this was just a 1 time thing. Wonder what happened to change their minds to keep the format? Was it the Wizard of Oz-esque going behind the curtains to watch the GMs and company welcome the player into their fold? It had to be, right, that and watching the chick interviewing the players during that introduction grabbing every single one of the players she was talking to. Just when you think the NHL can't say "you'll never see us look more like a league that should be less relevant than indoor soccer than we do NOW" they find another gear and make themselves look like they should be a league less relevant than synchronized swimming is.

Personally, don't believe Ullmark lied to Adams. Pretty sure that Ullmark told him that if nobody would beat the deal that Adams offered, that he would sign with the Sabres. It also seems that Ullmark told Adams that he'd let the Sabres top an offer if somebody made a better one and either Adams misunderstood and thought he'd said that he'd let the Sabres match or Adams understood but lied after the fact when his offer to match was rebuffed. Considering that 18 game losing streak would STILL be ongoing if not for Ullmark coming back from injury (ok, slight exaggeration, but not by much 😉 ) am very frustrated that Adams didn't make sure Linus didn't pack up and walk out on the Sabres.

It ONLY makes sense if viewed from a traditional 1st line top scoring line; 2nd line 2nd scoring line; 3rd line checking line; 4th line energy/spare parts viewpoint. McLeod IS your defensive C (but so was Drury back in the day and he was considered the 1B C). Mitts is your 2nd scoring C in most situations. (He wouldn't be in Edmonton either.) Personally, liked Mittelstadt and thought he was better than folks around here would give him credit for. That said, would take McLeod for Mitts straight up every single day and twice on Sunday.

How true.

Wouldn't bet against it.

As a kid, we had a similar experience but not as completely trip ruining. On our way to DC, had a rock kicked up into the car's radiator in some nothingberg in Pennsyltucky. A local shop managed to patch the hole a few hours later but pretty sure the cost was about 3/4ths of the spending money dad had allocated for the full trip. Ended up with a lot of fast food meals and sandwiches made in hotel rooms that trip (which was fine with us kids, but pretty sure the 'Rents weren't enjoying that one bit). Sucks that your vacation was ruined. At least it was the car and not one of the kids that needed to see an emergency specialist.

Yeah, this off-season continues to provide the least hope of any of the Pegula era in which they weren't taking an intentional step backward. (Which, with leaving everything status quo is likely NEXT off-season's fun and games as at some point in time Dahlin, Thompson, and Tuch have to say enough is enough our careers are too short to keep doing this.)

Make it Östlund or Wahlberg and we can talk. Really don't want to see them lose Helenius. Is Roslovic still available as a UFA? Maybe time to switch gears.

Getting into semantics. And yes, the more interesting question is whether the team is a playoff team. BUT. If we can't even say that they are a better team than they were last year at present, then there is no way the team is a playoff team. IMHO it's a bit like asking whether the team is a SCC caliber team without being able to answer your question in the affirmative. It's the one we all want to answer to be 'yes' but it's WAAAAYYYY to early to even contemplate asking that one. Because right now that's a huge negatory to that one. And it's a negatory to your question unless a WHOLE lot of variables break their way because right now the answer to the thread's question is 'maybe.'

Well, it's true of Lyon too. 😉 (Just didn't feel like going with the Emily Lutella "nevermind" in this ONE instance. 🍺 )

Yeah, somehow he must've thought he was Steve Rogers. You could almost hear him whisper "I could do this all day" right before he got up that 4th time.

Pretty sure you have that backwards. 😉 Didn't Kassian ruin humanity? Not the other way 'round?

So was UPL Lyon. The key is to have "goalie whisperer" Mike Bales get their horrible stretches to offset and also to recognize when each is due to go to pot. 'Cause THAT'll happen. No, really, it could. AND even BETTER ... it's a PLAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!

Hadn't considered Quinn on a 4th line. But with 2 other guys that are both fast and defensively responsible, it MIGHT work. And, it has the added bonus of not ####### up one of the other 3 lines.

Didn't say "cheap," said "palatable." Believe that Adams does actually understand they need 1 more top 6 F. Pretty sure he'd mentioned something to that effect a few weeks ago. Rust will cost more than we want; but he'll be a #### of lot cheaper than Robertson will be. (And Robertson should still be the dream with Roslovic the consolation prize. Rust is the poor man's nice thing.)

They REALLY need 1 more F to make this work as they absolutely will deal with injuries and there are just so many guys that might not live up to the roles they get assigned to paly. Not a huge fan of Rust at this point, but bringing him in gives Ruff so much more flexibility than he currently has especially when the plan has to get revised in real time. And he should be available at a price Adams can find palatable.

Kind of. Apparently after playing in Europe for a few years, he came back stateside and worked out a deal to sign an AHL deal with the Amerks. He played the next year for Binghamton.

By ice time, absolutely. By role, depends on how they're being defined. is your 2C your 2nd most used and 2nd most important C? If so, no 2 ways about it, with a healthy Norris, McLeod has to be the 2C. Are you defining it as the 2nd offensive C, with the 3C being the checking C? If so, like Kulich there. Definitely like him being pencilled in there better than being pencilled in as the 1C. (Don't care how good his analytics looked next to Thompson; when the top teams were driving the net, he couldn't stop / slow them down. It isn't fair to him to force him into that role again this year unless he's REALLY ready for a true breakout year.) Don't like Kulich pencilled in as the checking C either. 2C or if we're surprised and Adams has a top 6C up his sleeve (yeah, right) even at 2LW is where hopefullly he'll be slotted in to start the year.

But none of that really matters as long as the players are effective in the roles they are placed in. That so many of these players will now be in their 2nd year with Ruff theoretically will help both him to slot them where they belong and for them to understand what is expected of them. Have no faith in this coaching staff beyond Ruff, and his willingness to roll it all back a 2nd time reduces the faith in him too. Realizing goal scoring wasn't this team's issue last year (though it was on the PP and it was an issue 2 years ago) but would really feel a lot better about this lineup if they could even land a Rust to give them 3 true top 6W's with anywhere from 1-3 additional guys that COULD be legit (or at worst reasonable) top 6W's should all stay healthy. Whether McLeod is called the 2C or the 3C, he does lock down the lock down C role. Primary goal scorer is locked down. One top 6 PF is locked down. Would say at least 1, if not 2, of the 4th liners are locked down. How well the other EIGHT slots get covered really will make or break this year (almost as importantly as has the 1G been locked down) and IMHO moreso than how well the D has been revamped because you're still going to have Dahlin on the ice 24 minutes / night which will cover a lot of issues that might remain back there.

And we should feel fine with McLeod written in as the defensive 2-way C centering the "checking" line. But expect that line will be a legit 2 way line if the coaches are even remotely creative.