Taro T

Can't see them wanting him so badly that they feel the need to sign him in the exclusive rights window. His services will be fairly cheap and they can easily beat out another offer by $100k when the regular FA window opens in another week or 2. If they really don't want/don't care whether they land a Sabre, they take Borgen and see if he can crack their top 8. If he does, good for him and them. If he doesn't, IMHO the net result is identical to your expectation when the Sabres claim him off waivers in October.

Sadly, pretty sure Thompson's hockey IQ was on full display in his 1 game stint in the COVID shortened season. He gets checked towards the boards and raises his arm to brace himself which caused him to tear up his shoulder. He's been taught how to take a hit at minimum since he was 9 years old. If something that simple isn't innate for him yet, Houston, we might have a problem. Am still hoping he grows into that frame and that stuff like that was more due to awkwardness which can be overcome than intelligence which will be much more difficult to do so. But am not particularly hopeful.

Which Sabre benefitted the most? Reinhart. Hands down. Granato gave him an extra $2MM/year on his next contract by his usage easily. Nobody else got more directly from that coaching change than Sam will have gotten. Would expect that should he get time w/ the big club that Quinn will benefit the most this coming season as he would either not have gotten the callup with Krueger still the HC or if he did, he'd find himself attached at the hip to Eakin. Either way, Granato will be a benefit to him.

And the Seals were comparable in quality to an expansion team & the Gunds did everything possible to be done wrong while on their 2 year stint in Cleveland. Remember, people don't kill hockey markets, Gunds kill hockey markets.

You sure? Worked wonders in KC & Cleveland. 😉

Yeah. Al Davis ticked all the other owners off with his LA shenanigans. That kept the Snake's induction overdue.

Goalofsson & Groot share a birthday? No Schlitz. Good for him, maybe. (Where's the :unsure: emoji when you really need it. 😉 )

Plunkett was very talented when he came into the league but playing for the Patsies beat that out of him. He had a very strong team around him and got lucky to go against a Vermeil led team. But Stabler was the real deal. Very few guys in the 70's had great #'s but that was because of the era. He led that team on the field & in the bar.

True. But Tampa had wiggle room in that they didn't need to be at 100%; they just needed to be good enough to make the playoffs. Moe-ray-all has about a gnat-sized amount of wiggle room. Especially if Seattle calls their bluff on Price, this could really bite them in the butt.

Is the correct answer to the OP's question: the key to the training room?

Yep. All the old expensive guys that they are sunk without just mysteriously have major, career threatening injuries that they played through right about the time protected lists come out. Seems a bit like Rodney Dangerfield's character in Caddy Shack. "Oh! My arm! It's broken!"

They did. The original "Snake." Stabler.

As mentioned above, he did wait the requisite 1 year mourning period before taking his buddy's wife number. It was all done very tastefully. 😉

Because 9 isn't available yet. Or, he figures 1 year is long enough to not be dissing the memory of Rodrigues.

Appropriate place for your post. But wonder what pinhead put the cover of "The Dark Side of the Moon" as the graphic for "Comfortably Numb." PS - on Sirius' Classic Rewind channel they've had the demo for CN in the regular rotation. The chorus is nearly identical, but the verses went through MAJOR revisions and Gilmour hadn't yet added the solo that makes the song.

OK, "very" is a bit of hyperbole. But so is saying Sekera wasn't a very solid D-man.

True. And things could change significantly, but right now the smart money would be on the Krakers.

And most of his past 2 seasons were spent playing for a coach that prefers vets to rookies and 1/2 of that was for a GM that stockpiled RHDs like they were TP on March 30, 2020. Plus he was injured for a good portion of the tenure of the coach that actually plays young guys. The fact he only has 14 games in at this point is more on circumstances than his play. But, yes, he absolutely isn't a sure thing. But IMHO he's been 3rd pairing quality for the past 2 years and could very likely be the stay at home 1/2 of a 2nd pairing (and might continue to have chemistry w/ Dahlin and actually play above that much like Daughty allows McNabb to be "1st pairing" though at the time he was 3rd pairing quality.)

Can't. Unless they unretire Horton's sweater. 😉

Chicago could be tough to beat out. But if Adams is dedicated, it could be done.

A 3rd or higher, yeah. A 4th or 5th, maybe but doubtful. A 6th or 7th, nope. Kind of expecting Adams to just let the chips fall where they may at this point. Botterill brought in Miller & almost positive he gave Girgensons the 3 year deal. With his input, maybe Seattle leaves Borgen alone. Expecting the injury will scare them away from McCabe and with the D available to them don't see a reason for them to take the rights to Pilut.

For $650MM they should be.

Are you "eye testing" to alter your ranks when your model's raw numbers are close? (I.e. why is Beniers ahead of Eklund and L'Heureux ahead of the next 4 guys?)

Well, in fairness to Adams, prior to the taxi squad introduction, he nearly had a deal worked out w/ IIRC 3 different teams. And that's where having a Rutherford who's in tight in the league inner circle would help. He'd know before it happened that the league was strongly leaning that way and could've persuaded Adams to up his offers and get the trigger pulled before all the deals went off the table. Of course, Adams didn't put a claim in on any of the waivedbin-season goalies either. So maybe it wouldn't have mattered.

Thought they were talking Hutton. Ullmark is the UFA the Sabres protected.