Taro T

LaFontaine SHOULD've been the Hart winner on the Island the year that Bourque and Messier nearly tied for that honor. The games he was out, the Aisles lost and they won most of the games he played. There probably was never a more glaring instance of how "valuable" to a team a guy was. And the Sabres got him for Turgeon (yes, there were other pieces out the door and coming back to make the whole thing balance) but it really was as far as pieces that truly mattered Pete for Patty. That, bringing in Hasek, bringing in Hawerchuk, bringing in Zhitnik (the best hockey name ever and he was a Sabre), and bringing in Briere were my 5 favorite trades in their entire history. (MHO. Clearly YMV. 😉) Hillier was nothing. But Wood was good. And McLlwain was a bigger loss than Hogue. Hogue was a whiny primadonna that had the audacity to actually accuse the Sabres of having an anti-French Canadian bias. Yes, the team that has drafted 2 forwards 1st overall in their entire history and coincidentally both of them were French Canadians, the team whose most famous line ever was the FRENCH Connection, the team that traded away their captain to obtain Joclyn Guevremont, the team that overpaid for Real (Buddy) Cloutier, yes THAT team was run by people who hated French Canadians and played in a city full of anti-French Canadian bigots. Go #### yourself Benoit.

Was going to give the post the "thumbs up" but as a respectable (former) Buffalonian cannot give the "thumbs up" if it might be misconstrued as advocating for pineapple on pizza. 😉

Fair enough. But do Belgians do weird things to their pizza like the French do? By weird things mean stuff like putting a sunny side up egg on top of a pizza. If the answer is 'yes,' will likely take the recommendation for vending machine pizza with a grain of salt. 😉 🍻

Presuming Adams doesn't upgrade the goaltending from what it is currently the question becomes which do you want for the backup role; do you want the guy with the higher floor but lower (and likely significantly lower) ceiling or do you want the younger guy that still MAY be improving who has the significantly lower floor but higher ceiling. Personally, am with you and would rather have the guy with the higher floor. The idea being that he should be primarily getting the easier starts so him not giving up the horrible 5 hole goal that starts a rally against is more important than him not giving up the blocker side goal that is considered a "good" goal even though he'll give up more of those than an actual good goalie would. Want the backup that doesn't give up the killer goal. And weak stuff going in along the ice (whether post or 5 hole) seems more frequently to be a killer than a misplayed glove save (which the other guy has happen too often also). Comrie almost never gives up that goal along the ice.

Not sure why, but your post reminded of this gem.

That's good. But Starseed is better. MHO. YMMV. And the title track from that album is probably this kid's favorite:

Might actually try to see that one in the theatre.

LaPaloma's in Alden IMHO was the best. The crust was absolutely perfect. Light, airy, with a crsipness at the bottom and slightly sweet. Complemented the sauce and cheese so well. If they used cup and char pepperoni the whole thing would've been perfect. Santino's in Elma is excellent too.

Can a slow goalie be good? Sure. Ben Bishop comes to mind. Does an athletic goalie have an advantage? Absolutely. 😉

Dayum, guess everything really IS bigger in Texas.

It really IS ok to say that Adams has done a very good job at F, appears to be putting D on a similar footing (helps having 50 minutes/game of #1 OA picks still on an upward trajectory), and needs to have had a rookie hit big to say that he hasn't yutzed up the G for a 4th year (barring additional moves that might happen later this summer) out of 4.

Murray will make $250k in the AHL. Won't be the highest paid Amerk, but nothing to sneeze at.

Do his parents count?

And the length of the ELC is determined by the age of the player when he signs the ELC. Younger guys sign 3 year ELCs and the term shortens to 2 year and then 1 based upon his age at signing.

If an 18 or 19 year old signs an ELC but doesn't play in at least 10 NHL games, his contract will "slide" out another year. Meaning the team still has the player on an ELC for 3 more years. (So basically, unless the kid was a VERY high end prospect, should an 18 yo sign a contract the team has him on that deal for 5 years, and the team has a 19 yo on that deal for 4 years.) (And that 9 games is the total # of games the player can play in the NHL while still having his contract slide. Once he plays in a 10th game it no longer slides that year.) Puckpedia and CapFriendly both typically have the details of the ELC contracts including potential bonus payments. Though IIRC they don't typically have the conditions to be met to earn the bonuses. (The conditions that can be used to earn bonuses are laid out in the CBA and the max that can be earned is also spelled out but except for $'s for leaguewide awards which don't count against a team's cap the exact amounts earned for meeting those conditions are determined by the team and the player.) There isn't really a "standard rookie contract." There is the ELC contract that is from 1 - 3 years in length that most all players sign to enter the NHL. But after that expires except for some limitations on eligibility for a 1 way or a 2 way contract and arbitration/RFA/UFA rights ALL players sign the same "standard player contract." The length of term is anywhere from 1 - 8 years and the pay scale runs anywhere from the league min to the league max with limitations on how much the salary can vary from year to year (with the cap hit being a constant which is the total value of the contract divided by the length of the contract). Except in rare occassions there are no performance bonuses allowed but there can be signing bonuses which simply adjust when exactly the player gets his money in a particular year.

Adams also gets along with a LOT of people around the league. Being known (or at minimum believed) to be both good at your job AND a good person who's easy to get along with tend to make it pretty easy to find another job when the time comes to look for another one. And if the Sabres make the playoffs under Granato would be very surprised if he doesn't land another HCing job when it's time for him to look for another one too.

Elevation too. Changes in air pressure from sea level to mile high effect how stuff rises/bakes & boils too.

They were real good live back in the day. Hopefully they still are.

Bond or Mission Impossible. Hmm. Tough choice. Will go with Bourne. Those movies are all great.

Durn shame for him that the Yotes hadn't moved to New Mexico yet. Walt White never seemed to get into any trouble for any of those things. 😉

Thought you were one of the posters that was fine with Jokiharju as Power's partner. (If not, apologies.) If so, how do you reconcile not considering Clifton enough of an upgrade at D with believing Jokiharju was/is good enough?

Personally would do that deal. IMHO, it's Hannifan for Olofsson and about 60% of that 1st (a trade of pending UFA for pending UFA+) and then Vladar for Jokiharju and the rest of that 1st. Would have a lot of flexibility with the top 6 D they'd roll out and would personally use Hannifan with either Johnson or Lyubushkin with Dahlin - Samuelsson and Power - Clifton the other normal pairings. Would allow Granato to reduce both Dahlin's and Power's usage and he could always ramp their deployments up when necessary. Plus then UPL becomes expendable for something. Maybe just a 2nd, but he becomes trade bait himself.

And remember, the Sabres wouldn't even let Derek friggin' Plante go to play in the Olympics back in the day. Would be surprised should Chicago release Bedard for the WJC's. (Figure it has as much of a chance of happening as did that Eichel/McDavid matchup in the WJC back in '16.)

That was a pretty ugly draft class at F.

You really expect Chicago to let him leave for 2 weeks to play for Canada? Doubt anybody else expects that.