Taro T

The bigger problem IMHO is they seem to be planning on riding a 4 line rotation of relatively even ice time (regardless of how the bottom 3 lines might get assembled) & at his current stage of his career, not sure Toews is still up for 12-14 minutes over 80 games. And it would have to be handled quite delicately if they decide to give him maintenance days. It could be done, and Adams and Granato could probably make it palatable; but it's a long way from team captain (of a multiple SC winner, btw) to healthy scratch overnight. Can see Kane here. Can't see Toews.

He needs to wait 2 more years to jump ship. So, he'll sign in the spring. Expecting he gets a game or 2 (though if the Sabres are right on the cusp, they might ride Comrie) to burn that 1st year of the ELC. Most likely he starts next year in Ra-cha-cha, but am really hoping he'll be up before that season ends. Realistically, he'll be in Buffalo that following year unless injuries or other derail him. Likely as the backup, but who knows, he's been making saves on NHLers in pickup hockey since he was a Midget. He might be special.

Right now, they're sitting ~$19MM below the cap. Whether it be through players that help now or stuff that will help in the future want to see at least 1/2 that used. Anymore than that left in April & it's a total waste of an asset.

Hockey Related Revenue. Owners get 50% & the players get the other 50%.

HRR will start to spike back, but the cap won't in the ST because players are still paying back their overpayment from the lockdown period.

Most entertaining, definitely. Not sure that we can say necessarily that it was better than Goober's 1st year. Better W% and just as much hope coming out of it. When Eichel's ankle sprained at the last practice of the next year, that next season was toast. Would say it was essentially tied for best. And the hope that this next year is better still exists. Should that hope be well founded, & next year is another improvement, could see swinging last season into the 2nd best & next season the best.

Most of October was pretty fun too.

Well, the Quinny cap space moves were shot to #### when HRR revenues in '05-'06 were far ahead of the early $1.8B projections upon which the '06-'07 cap would be based upon thus rendering officially just how stupid not signing any contracts over 1 season (except for ELCs which were required to be longer) in the previous summer was removing any uncertainty that may have existed regarding the stupidity of that strategy. Because nobody was being forced to buy out/ trade players cheaply which was the basis of Larry's strategy.

Welcome back! Since you haven't followed much, the Sabres should be a treat this year. They will at least be mediocre with an outside chance of competitively good. (Eat it Avs. 😉 )

Still curious just how happy McCabe is w/ the turn of events there. Totally get the "happy wife, happy life" mantra; but at some point he has to be wondering what playoff hockey might be like, right?

So much for him being a late summer signing. Oooops. (Where's the d'oh smiley when you really need it?)

We never really did see many 1st round goalies (or those drafted in other rounds, for that matter) make the NHL as 18 year olds. Ottomh, can think of 2 (Barasso & DiPietro). How many others are we missing over 40 years? Maybe a couple? Peeters didn't make it his draft year, nor did Luongo nor Lindbergh. Those were the 3 that had thought might've been in the mix. And even DiPietro took 1/2 the year to get there. Don't honestly believe anything changed.

Well, if Grier wants a Shark Tank, that'd be a good start.

Will agree to disagree.

Fair enough. Doubt we will agree, which is fine. But the other thing I'd meant to mention was by making the pick when they did, they were still getting THEIR choice of all the goalies. Whether they were right or wrong will be seen in the next 1/2 decade or so, but they got THEIR guy. And at this point, until they prove otherwise will trust their talent evaluation. They effectively used a 1st or 2nd on Levi as well & that one looks like at a minimum the ball is in the field of play and they'll end up on base and it still could be a home run. Them appearing to get that right buys them more faith that they might've gotten this one right, too. And though they really do need RHD's in the system, goalie was a bigger need system-wide. And don't want them in the position where they then have to trade for somebody else's prospect goalie. Would rather they follow the old SJ model and use prospect goalies to fill other holes after the big squad is set at 1 & 2. Combine that greater need w/ having 3 2nd rounders next year in what should be a deep draft, expect they can get the RHD pipeline restocked next year. And then moving forward, they should have the full gamut stocked & can finally truly get back to BPA when drafting. And back to the thread topic, the reason it would've been more reassuring to see them land anybody, including Comrie, earlier is then we'd know they got THEIR guy. He's apparently at best their 2nd choice; would've been nice for them to figure out earlier that Murray was NFW to coming either to Buffalo, working w/ Bales, or both. Maybe they end up w/ somebody higher on their list if they'd've been able to do that extra bit of homework.

Sabres website said the 3v3 would be live streamed.

Would've been fine w/ that as well. But knowing how management wants to give the kids as much of a chance as possible, could see him thinking he's got a better shot to stay in the NHL as the 12/13 in Pittsburgh who is tight against the cap. As Kahun, to all our chagrins, likely has the edge on 13 if Peterka doesn't flat out earn a spot in the top 12 & Hinostroza has the edge on that if JJP does lock down a spot; the Pens could be a better opportunity.

No. Watching a successful team would be way more fun; you probably already knew that, but stated it anyway just so there is no confusion.

To the bolded, nor do you. Again, at the point this deal happened, it's probably the best case scenario. But the other have nots of the East all got theirs done sooner. Could Buffalo been in on any of them? WE don't know & it's real easy to say from the sidelines that they couldn't have been. Which is speculating just as much. Look, overall, have liked many of the moves Adams has made and this one could work out. REALLLLY hoping it does. He seems like a really good kid & we're all due getting a chance to have something nice for a change. But, until a Sabres goalie starts playing above average, Adams grade is incomplete at best. [Edit: PS - And, have said that grabbing the goalie in the 2nd was a good thing though manynhere didn't like it. The naysayers reasoning being it was too early & there were too many good players still available to justify it. Mine being, it was a position of need, the team had him rated as worth that pick, and they'd already gotten 3 skaters. You can only eventually get so many prospects into a lineup; possibly missing out on one to finally actually have a semblance of a pipeline was worth it IMHO. And that same rationale is why my grade on the pickup would be higher had it occurred earlier. Coming after "everybody else" was partnered off leaves this as feeling like they grabbed the last girl not on the dance floor even though she wasn't a top choice. It's reminding a bit of the Hutton signing which did not work out. And, again, not saying this pick won't work out; actually really want it to, but the track record the past 2 years still leaves a lot of concerns. We'll know soon enough if it was a good pick. Would be really friggin' nice to finally land an honest to goodness NHL goalie. They haven't had a full time healthy one since trading Miller.]

Not too surprising. They weren't GOOD NHLers, but they ARE (for the most part, Dell & Johansson being notable exceptions) NHLers. Mildly surprised Hagg hasn't caught on anywhere. Hayden is one of those 'camp is opening & we could still use some more muscle, he'll be cheap' signings, so kind of expected he wasn't a 1st couple of days signing. Good for the ones that did land jobs.

Because there were more & seemingly better options available. Look, Comrie MAY be the answer. He wouldn't be the 1st backup given an opportunity to seize it and he won't be the last either. But there is still a lot of question marks there. IMHO, why he couldn't take the reins in any of his other 3 stops besides Winnipeg being a major one but one that the Sabres feel they know well enough and are OK w/ the answer. And if the Sabres had Comrie, Murray, and Anderson or Husso instead would be much more confident that GTing WILL improve, not just should improve.

They do seem to. But they're paying this guy $150k more than they're paying Henri, so until Jokiharju is actually lining up next to Power on a regular basis, will hope he doesn't.

Am hoping that he's Power's primary partner w/ Jokiharju flipping w/ him when the Sabres need offense. And, at his salary, am kind of expecting it. If he can't handle it, then Joker slides back up; no harm, no foul. But expect he can and that he'll be the Scandella to Power's Jokiharju. That calming influence that can cover for the defensive lapses a rookie, even a very talented rookie, makes.

Would really like to understand better why he couldn't / didn't stick in his other stops outside of Winnipeg. By the time Adams got him, he looks like the best remaining option out there (presuming Quick doesn't move) but still would like to have seen Adams get something done sooner. Though if Adams wasn't going to get anybody else had he landed Murray, prefer Comrie to just him & Anderson. Hope the analytics guys are right. If they are & he stays healthy, can see the floor as 90 points. Not great, but nearly 10 points better than anything else in the last 10 years.

You're contradicting @That Aud Smell because he asked whether it was true Golisano gave a mandate not to lose money and used the phrase "operate in the black" when asking about it and you are using the quote above to do so. Newsflash, "not losing money," "operating in the black," & "breaking even" are all ways of saying the exact same thing. It's sophistry to claim otherwise.