Taro T

Ertz would be a very good add. But until a deal actually gets made & announced this is really a non-news item. They've been "close" to a deal since before the draft.

IF Eichel (& Reinhart & Ristolainen) truly is (are) a bad apple(s) then the team is better off w/out him (them). Personally, don't believe that's the case but have never interacted directly w/ him (them). And, not believing that he belongs in the Turgeon / Housley move them out basket, am not looking forward to seeing him (them) shipped out to try to reset the rebuild to target Dahlin's prime rather than Jack's. That's setting up for 2 more years of bad hockey when they can literally be 2 moves away from competing provided Granato proves himself to be a good coach. IF things go right, they could be a good / very good team 3 years from now shipping the supposedly "rotten core" out the door. But they can be a good team next year & a very good team the year after by tweaking what they have rather than blowing it up. After Adams moves that looked good (or reasonable in a worst case) blew up in his face last year, have a hard time believing he's right about the guys soon to be moved being bad apples. And if they aren't bad apples, if he's as wrong about them as Botterill was about O'Reilly, then we're about to "suffer" again for absolutely no good reason. Hating what this off-season is shaping up to be.

To echo LB, yes, wishing you both the best as you deal with this disease.

Which, again bringing up a oft repeated lament, reminds how it was so tragic that the criminals wouldn't pay Peca for the '01 season nor let Regier pull the trigger on the Iginla deal. Because they'd actually brought in some offensive talent to go with Hasek's stiffling D, that would certainly have put them over the top.

Sorry for the confusion the original post created. Was merely indending to apologize for what has become a broken record to a degree in that it's another post saying to keep the "core" 5 guys most likely to be gone & add Danault & another another good goalie. (Though what was originally intended for the preamble didn't end up close to what actually ended up written. Oooops.)

The "net" referred to was referring to goal differential relative to this past season.

Repeating the once or twice weekly post: Re-sign Ullmark & get another guy his quality or better. Keep Eichel & Reinhart and add Danault as a UFA. Danault will both reduce goals scored against & increase what they're getting from the 2nd line. Provided Eichel's neck is healthy, he alone will add about 20 goals to what the 1st line was on pace for. Keep the Mittelstadt line together. Having all 3 guys 1 year closer to their prime will necessarily cause increased production. Find a cheap C for Girgensons & Okposo, maybe Ruutsalainen, maybe Sheahan or other cheap vet. They'll be low event hockey. Bring back McCabe. Keep him paired with Ristolainen. Keep Borgen stapled to Dahlin's side. Do not let Jokiharju play with Dahlin. Samuelsson, or a cheap vet brought in to cover for McCabe's initial absence should be Henri's normal partner. The goalie upgrade is worth at least 20 goals, maybe 30 or 40. Healthy Eichel & not launching Reinhart into the sun either is worth at least 20 goals. Danault running the 2nd line nets at least 15 & likely 20-25. Mitts line being a year older nets 10 minimum & likely more. Simply keeping Dahlin & Henri separate nets at least 10. That's 75 goals to the good in a worst case. And it doesn't require all the stars aligning to get the 100 asked for in the OP.

My expectation is the answer starts off as "Jack's 1 heck of a hockey player." It's what follows and how he says it that will be interesting. (At least the 1st time he answers. After the 3rd rephrase game, the next 14 will be annoying, but par for the course.)

Very likely. Would like him to be a bit more straightforward but totally get why he wouldn't be. And he tended to be a straight shooter in his post game Zoom calls. He's had, what, 5 weeks to prepare for that Q, so he should have the answer down cold for each of the 17 times he gets asked.

AKA Gallant. 😉

Any thoughts on how he'll answer the inevitable Q's about Eichel's status on Thursday?

Levy & Buccigross are definitely hockey guys, so glad they seem to be getting lead pbp roles. Levy's the better of the 2 but Bucci truly loves the sport, so there is that. Wischusen seems a familiar name but can't place him. Hopefully he's also good. Presuming Hextall is Ron's daughter. Hopefully she doesn't try to do the ridiculous Beth Moen "deepen her voice like the male announcers do" shtick. That gets old quickly.

The Pegulas appear to have at least learned 1 thing during their ownership of the Sabres, they can not simply anoint an inexperienced guy as "the one" to direct the team without having at least seen who else was available. Along the way, maybe their GM found some assist coach candidates for his new coach to check out & at worst (Gronborg or Tochet perhaps?) he got to talk to a few HC candidates assuming that should Granato fail he can weasel his way out of the blame & get a 2nd kick at the can from ownership.

You win the internet today. But don't get cocky. Tomorrow's another day.

You're probably right on that. If he doesn't work out Adams will be pilloried. But Granato will be seen as what he'll have been shown to be: a very good AHL coach that couldn't quite make the leap. Definitely hoping that he works out & Adams ends up vindicated. But, until this does work out, it's still going to be questioned. Nolan I was questioned and worked out. Ruff was questioned and worked out. Hopefully this follows in their footsteps & not in Rolston or Housley's.

And, the answer to the 2nd question is?

So, you're expecting them not to announce a coaching hire until after Eichel is gone? Even if that means waiting until the draft?

It makes more sense that the holdup has been that Lambert was unavailable until a couple of days ago and Richardson is still unavailable. An Eichel (or Reinhart or Ristolainen or other) deal might not happen until right before the draft as Adams tries to pry the most value out of his asset (still expect the assets have more valuable where they are, but ...). Do we really anticipate the coach not to be announced prior to the draft? Plus, scouts are normally under contract through the draft. They league year this year doesn't end on July 1, so that is an irrelevant milestone in all likelihood. (Someone like Rutherford might have their personal contract signed years ago terminate on July 1, but any active scouts the Sabres have their eyes on likely aren't available yet.)

You'd think that they could make the salary cap just get weighted over what would be the full run of the playoffs & not just the regular season, but there are some logistical items they'd need to address. How does this affect teams bringing up the players from their farm teams that are eliminated from the AHL playoffs? Would they need to go to either their preseason model where the cap can now be exceeded by 10% or an NFL preseason model where only the largest say 23 salaries count against the cap? How does IR fit into this? How does this affect early season roster construction - teams oftentimes try to bank cap early to be able to add strong players at the deadline; does this effectively lower team payrolls out of the gate, and if it does will the PA sue for collusion? Seems the easiest way to avoid this problem is to keep the cap accounting system the same as it has been but to require every player on the playoff roster to have been counting against the cap (and not in a hand waving BF-LTIR way) for at least 1 day during the season or to have cleared waivers and been with the AHL affiliate on the last day of the regular season. (Which is essentially your 1st suggestion.)

Would be interested to hear (or, more accurately, read) your elaboration on this thought. Would expect this is the year you need scouts talking to as many people as possible to get an accurate handle on what these kids may become. Which ones are genuinely team 1st off the ice? Which ones are workout warriors? Which ones are you insulting the box of rocks by comparing their intelligence to said box of rocks? Which ones overcame personal adversity? Which ones had that light bulb truly go on and have an understanding of the game & not just the physical tools? Which ones have hinted that they're finally getting it and could be a steal in the 6th or 7th? Which ones come from a family where the kids all add 6" their freshman year of college? Can a skeleton crew get those answers from a large enough sample? There are just as many prospects as there always are, but very little actual game film on them. Knowing the intangibles better than the other 31 teams is how to find the gems that slide. A 1/2 sized scouting staff & essentially 1 man analytics department has a Herculean task to make the right calls on this. Where it could be better than what they had is, IF they really did prune the staff correctly (impossible to know at this point from the outside) then they at least don't have people in house touting what, will become apparent in time, wrong choices. But this crew will almost definitely miss on gems just because they never were looking in the right places. And we have no data on whether the right people were asked to leave. This has the makings of turning into Video Scouting as the primary tool rather than a supplement all over again.

Fire watcher.

Yep. Tough year to have a lean scouting staff. But these issues were all anticipated last off-season when the decision to go lean was made. Soooo, hopefully the snarky comment from 1 of the owners pans out, because otherwise they're going to #### this opportunity up.

@PASabreFan If you want to make this easy on yourself, get a copy of the Official NHL Guide & Record Book. (Presuming it still is published in print or electronic form.) It has a listing of ALL retired NHLers and what team(s) they played for with an * by the names of all the deceased ones. It'll reduce your obit search to the past few months if it still gets published.

This team needs more talent, not less. (Gee, thanks. / No Schlitz Sherlock. 😉 ) They FINALLY are at a point where guys like Eichel, & Reinhart, & yes, even Ristolainen (who isn't in the same class as the other 2 but is included here because he's another guy rumored to soon be jettisoned) have teammates ready to actually provide competent support. The problem hasn't been the core. It's been the complete dearth of talent anywhere else except on the 4th line. Bringing back the core doesn't doom this team to continued failure. Building a team with only 3 top 6 F's & 2 top 4 D & subpar goaltending & coaching is what will yield the same results. Keep the current core, bring back McCabe & Ullmark and then add Danault, another goalie at least as good as Linus, & a competent coach and you're on the right track. A couple side pieces would be nice, but not absolutely necessary. My 2 cents.

Etienne, saddened that you were assaulted. Hope you had/ have a good support network. Not entirely certain that the points you are attempting to make about the 2 former Blackhawks are clear. From at least 1 of the articles about this, 1 of the players did come forward to a coach, but not to the police. While it does make sense to go to the police instead, here in the US people are often encouraged to bring these matters to their university (if students & the alleged assault happens on campus or in situation related to campus events) or their employer (if it was a coworker or superior that allegedly committed the assault) first rather than going directly to the police.