Taro T

This year it was. But IMHO the 2nd round is usually the best of the 4. You have 2 fairly closely matched teams typically and you've only begun the stocking the walking wounded brigade. Getting further out, you start having attrition and exhaustion take their tolls; and the final can be excellent (Boston Chicago) or more likely it'll be a mismatch.

Turns out there were only 7 that met the criteria. The reference had neglected to mention that the one that had been believed to have been the 8th had actually played a handful of games for the Wings prior to coming to the Sabres organization. Sorry about that. The 8th player we were looking for was Mal Davis; but he does not qualify having played 11 games for Detroit at the end of the 70's / very early 80's. So the 7 were: Gilbert Perreault - 17 seasons - 1,191 RS games with 90 more playoff games; Craig Ramsay - 14 seasons - 1,070 RS games w/ 89 Playoff games; Bill Hajt - 14 seasons - 854 RS games w/ 80 playoff games; Hannu Virta - 5 seasons - 245 RS games w/ 17 playoff games; Gates Orlando - 3 seasons - 98 RS games w/ 5 playoff games; Pat Kaleta - 9 seasons - 348 RS games w/ 12 playoff games; Casey Nelson - 4 seasons - 93 RS games w/ 0 playoff games. If somebody that got 1 or more of the answers wants to come up with the next contest; have at it. Have a good one relating to the HHoF that will be a lot easier if they don't have one. And if somebody wanted to say that there really were only 4 that fully met the criteria, it would be hard to quibble. But am sticking with there being 7 for now.

They aren't getting to a point where the NHL's playoffs end in March. Which is the only way the NHL is avoiding playing games during the baseball season. Football pulls way more viewers / attendees away from hockey than does baseball. They aren't going to go up against 4 months of football + a month of NFL playoffs when they already hate going up against 3 months of football + playoffs.

That's an oxymoron, right? Like jumbo shrimp.

Then am even more onboard with drafting a Russkie that falls.

Only 75 NHL games. Didn't meet the (arbitrary) threshold. And Rick Astley was a late 80's or 90's thing. Nobody was getting Rick Rolled in the 70's. 😉

It traditionally opened ~October 5. They like avoiding a bit more of football season and the baseball stretch/playoffs. Even when Buffalo was an actual NHL team but before the waiting list formed, weeknight October games were hard sells. Imagine how much tougher a sell they are in non-traditional markets. Am expecting mid-October starts are here to stay.

The Sabres have an actual NHL team at present and prospects out the proverial wazoo. If they can get a guy that was in the discussion for top 3 minus the politics in the 1st round or get a guy that would've been drafted a round+ earlier minus the politics; reach for the stars. The crud in Ukraine won't be going on forever (well, maybe the graft, corruption, grift, & etc. might; but the war won't) and these kids are "property" of the team that drafts them for 4 years. When everybody else is selling, if your pockets are deep, there is a great buying opportunity.

Thought that the year after the post-lockout year. And it finally could be. But will believe that wraith is finally dead when it's been burned and had its ashes scattered.

Well, after Adams adds Hannifin, pretty sure they're going to have a guy playing on his off hand about 45 minutes per game. 😉

No market for Ristolainen? (Boy is that an ugly contract.)

No biggie. Honestly wouldn't have known if you were there or not. Tend to be focused on what's going on on the ice and don't really notice who's in the stands. Probably an artifact of going to the fishbowl (too d*mn old to be getting teeth replaced); too tough to look through 2 panes of glass. 😉

If anybody gets a chance to play in the 11 Day Power Play, do it. It's a blast. And it raises a LOT of money for some very good causes.

IF Calgary is retooling, and they seem to be. What would it take to get Hannifan AND Tanev? Will assume that @Brawndo's ask of Olofsson and Jokiharju would be the start of the package. What else would be needed? That would have the Sabres top 6 very solid and they'd be able to bring in another UFA in the 6/7 mold to have pretty much 10 deep between actual NHLers and tweeners and they MIGHT be 8 deep in NHLers. Still would prefer Graves and 1 of those 2, but just curious what people think it would take to help Conroy facilitate the continuation of the mass exodus that began last year with Gaudreau and Tkachuk getting out of Dodge.

Another hint: the remaining player's name is strikingly similar to a bad 70's singer that had his own short lived variety show that decade.

Danke. Which is ROUGHLY equivalent to the Sabres calling up Amerks this year. Would expect there to be a fair amount of fluctuations in the # of callups year to year. But hopefully with the Sabres continuing to be one of the youngest teams in the league, they will continue to have good luck injury-wise which should flow to the Amerks as well, at least to a degree. (If the Sabres don't call up 10 Amerks, the Amerks don't need to call up 10 ECHLers.

Da'fuq?

Don't know if he was still hindered by the shoulder or not early on; but defintiely remember people speculating that was why Savoie had a slow start this year. And will take the word of those of you that pay far more attention to Juniors than this guy that Benson is better than Savoie (haven't seen anywhere close to enough of either to have a legit opinion on the matter). Just pointing out that there MAY be something to @Buffalonill's position regarding Savoie's shoulder.

Would still rather have Farrance (even though he'll very possibly not end up a regular NHLer and is more of what the rest of the Ra-cha-cha D bring) than either of them.

Good. At least 1 D-man in Ra-cha-cha will know what his own side of the blue line looks like and what he's supposed to do when he's there.

If the answer is 'No' then they must add a goalie. If with all the data they have that we don't they decide that the answer is 'Yes' then we very well could find them riding with the 3 headed monster. But, just don't get the gut feeling that they will be running the 3 headed goalie monster back. (Can't tell if that's just due to hoping that's true or if now that Levi is in the fold that believe that Adams is finally "unshackled" in his quest for competent (or better) goaltending.)

You do realize that the Sabres DON'T sell the player worn HFC sweaters, right? Those are GIVEN to the person who's name was on the back of the sweater when the player was warming up. (Same for the military appreciation night sweaters.)

Musical goalies? 🤨 What, now Subban is in the mix? 😉

Yes, but he was disqualified when he became Tony Tanti.

Yep. It COULD work out well enough as it is. But would really rather see an upgrade to the guy not wearing 27 that they'd be running with were the season to start today.