Taro T

This. And this. 😉

Had the Sabres not wanted to trade him away, not convinced they wouldn't have let him get the surgery he wanted. (Not convinced they would've either, but the rationales change tremendously minus that caveat so they might have.) So, were he still a Sabre, it's probably better than 50/50 he'd be playing already. Water under the bridge. Still painful as the ice chunks bounce off those of us standing under that bridge, but still, water under the bridge.

Are there no players the Sabres medicall & training staff can't mess up? 😛

It's not like Cozens went out of his way to go after Nelson. After getting speared, an opportunity presented itself. He availed himself of the opportunity. Could he done so in a better way? Yeah probably. But overall, big picture is, Nelson shouldn't have speared him. Pretty sure he now won't do it again. And if he'd've waited for a different opportunity to address Nelson's actions, we don't know that anybody would even remember why he did whatever that happens to be. Presuming he even gets the opportunity for retribution. Nelson knows why he got crosschecked. Maybe it's the start of Briere Ovie 2.0. Always nice to have a reason to hate the Aisles that's actually current and not 40 or so years old. 😉

That's the one. 🍻

Doubt Mittelstadt playing on the 4th line lasts more than a game or 2, but makes sense considering in ~50% of the games he's been in he's left 1/2 way through the game. Let him get 12 minutes 5v5 plus 2nd PP duty & if the healing injury feels good through & after that consider giving him a bigger role vs the Avs. Expecting that when Casey is ready to move up he centers Cozens' line, Dylan centers Eakin's line and Eakin centers the 4th line w/ Jankowski taking Bjork's spot (we can hope, right?) but would rather have Jankowski as that 4th line C.

Actually am hoping that monster DT from GA is the pick.

A looooong time ago (prior to the salary cap), recall a couple of 4th/5th rounders going back into the draft because they'd really taken off & ended up becoming 1st rounders. (Names escaping at present.) That's rare enough, but to have a 6th rounder not sign to reenter the draft & then go undrafted and THEN actually become a useful player is rather unique.

Well, if Gaustad can bring a 1st ...

Don't disagree about Cozens getting a bit of a pass here. But claiming he was "completely unaware" on the Palmiere goal seems a bit harsh as Thompson was not expected to be coming off the ice early due to needing oral repairs.

You sure you're not trying to watch the Aisles' feed? 😛

And come the deadline, maybe that's the best Adams can get for him. But right now w/ about a month to go, no point to giving him away because some GM might get dumb. (If they wait for a legit offer that is.)

Key is he needs it to be "lab administered."

If anybody wants to give up a 5th, ship Eakin out on the next Uber. Hagg & Miller both could bring back reasonable returns. Definitely a 4th each, maybe as high as a 2nd each if Adams brings his A salesmanship game.

Samuelsson very well could find himself in McCabe's role of being the go-to defensive defenseman when big moments need quality D-zone play. Expecting (hopefully not unreasonably) that he'll be more effective than Jake was in that role.

Well, in Olofsson's defense, whatever the injury he has, Granato stated back in mid-November that the injury affects his shooting but he can do everything else. Or words to that effect. No idea what injury would affect that specific component of his game but not particularly affect the rest of his game. As he was back for nearly a month before even attempting a slap shot & still not having that extremely quick release 1 timer still another month further out, expecting that injury is still bothering him even though he's had a weeks+ of rest on 2 or 3 occasions with no end in sight for the issue. Also wonder if surgery will eventually be needed or if a full off-season of rest should fix it? Do they think it will eventually heal itself & are having him play through it because Mittelstadt & Quinn (along w/ Hinestroza, Caggiula, & Girgensons) are out & they don't think bringing one of the other JAGs will be as effective as a clearly less than 100% Vic. Are they having him play through it until past the trade deadline to see if he can bring something back in return? Lot's of Q's about his curious case, not many answers. Would really appreciate having g one of the beat "reporters" actually look into it. Not sure if Asplund is hurt, if he's run into a wall, or if he simply isn't actually as good as he looked the 1st few weeks. He's another one that should be playing better than he has IMHO.

Semantics, but would call the month before the Trade Deadline, Trade Season. The Trade Deadline is the last 24 hours (or even less) of Trade Season.

Funny, how people can see the same thing and disagree quite significantly. It doesn't seem like very much for him at all. The 1st will be late. The 5th is nothing. Pitlick is nothing (is he related to the other Pitlick the Habs already have?). And the prospect doesn't seem to be highly touted. So the value is a late round 1st. Seems they should've gotten something else that's useful for him.

True. But that was 2 CBA iterations ago. (If the MOU extension counts as an iteration, & IMHO it should.)

At least 2 reasons, likely more. In no particular order: 1. As teams are allowed to bank cap & then use that banked cap space to legitimately exceed the cap later in the year in order to do something the players are in favor of - get all the teams closer to the cap the players don't want the practice reined in too far.. (Though, counterintuitively, when other teams approach the cap which effectively raises nominal player salaries it reduces the ACTUAL take home pay of individual players as the players cut of revenue sharing is fixed (prior to & post COVID Recapture at exactly 50% of HRR. Don't recall exactly what the %age is during recapture) and every extra $ on paper that the players get paid increases ever so slightly the denominator bywhich everybody's post escrow salary gets adjusted.) It would be extremely cumbersome to design a system that could completely account for some BF-LTIR injuries being more BF than others AND leave the players getting exactly 50% of the pie. 2. The big spenders don't like the cap nor revenue sharing & items such as these are some of the bones thrown to those dogs to get their buy-in on a system that actually works pretty well for everyone. If the (ab)use of BF-LTIR really does become excessive, the league will make tweaks to it. Be glad that 1. it doesn't effect the Sabres in ANY material fashion (it's good to be out of the playoffs by Thanksgiving, just wish the Sabres could stay relevant past the US version rather than just the Canadian one. 😕 ) and 2. the Sabres have owners w/ deep enough pockets that the Sabres can pull the same shenanigans should it ever matter for them to do so. 😉

One thing about Skinner since being paired w/ Tuch is he is doing something he's never demonstrated any adeptness at previously. He is actually making GOOD passes to Alex. No idea why that is, but as long as it continues, keep the 2 together. It's not surprising that Tuch can pass to Jeff. The inverse is quite surprising and hopefully can become habit.

To the bolded, that's the fear.

Maybe the guy losing all the money in the desert doesn't want to sell? The whole thing is a hypothetical though, as really don't see the Pegulas selling outright nor selling a controlling majority ownership share. BUT IF they do, AND the new owner wants to move, after the dispute works through the courts, they're very likely gone. This hopefully is yours truly's last post on this because it isn't likely the Pegulas are selling & the thought of the team possibly moving is very disheartening (among other things). As much as we & Mr. Bettman don't want the Sabres to leave, court precedence says if an owner wants to move his team he can do so even if the league opposes it. And that covenant put in the last purchase agreement very likely wouldn't survive a bankruptcy which would be very easy to successfully file for at present & likely in the future as well.

He really might end up being as good at running the PP from the 1/2 wall as Eichel was. They both can 1 time that pass w/ such precision.

Nor the Bandits apparently.