shrader

I've never seen as much pollen as we have this year. Certain portions of my drive this morning looked like cartoon nuclear fallout. Less tree sperm please.

You should take over the portion of the draft coverage where they list a player's comparable. I get so sick of every single draftee being compared to a hall of famer. They set the bar impossibly high and then it leads to the constant over evaluation of prospects that dominates most fan board's thoughts of their farm system. Just once, I want to see a player's comparable listed as Marek Zagrapan.

The old limit on how far you could jump up always seemed a bit pointless to me. If you're going to do a lottery, you might as well do it without that limit. That said, I'm with you on not having it at all. Sometimes teams just suck. Ottawa had no reason to tank this year, but they still finished dead last. For every one year where that's happening, we've probably had 5 or 6 where the worst team got their solely on their own incompetence. I'd say that the current lottery has had more of an impact on the trade market than it has on the so called tanking.

But we have to combat tanking, the practice that has existed in all of these leagues since drafts were first held. Honestly, I’d just eliminate them all together, but the two leagues like it for the drama.

The year after Hall was drafted, New Jersey won the lottery, moving up from 8th to 4th. Who did they draft with that pick? Adam Larsson.

Retroactively McDavid

Remind me again who got the most hyped D prospect since the Nixon administration.

Both teams have actually won it three times. Their firsts were both back before anyone could win the first overall pick. I watched the lottery? You learn something new everyday.

This disaster was the second most likely outcome for Buffalo. People need to lay off the hyperbole.

And that was because he was too busy leading BU to a national championship as the Hobey runner up (he should have won it, was much better than Gileoy). So you’re saying they should take Zegras?

Every single team has a greater chance of staying the same or falling back as opposed to moving up. But by all means, think it’s a stupid system designed to screw Buffalo.

3 Ks isn't a great amount though...

There aren't many tall buildings here in downtown Durham, NC. My office window looks right out at pretty much the only one. There's always a bird perched up on the top, randomly circling around. I'm assuming turkey vulture due to the size, but I'm not 100% sure since they don't tend to be alone like this one. Maybe there are a few on the other side of the building that is blocked from my view.

Ahhh, ok. That wording made me think there was an injury or something.

Is there something specific about your designation there of "less than 5 games"?

Here's to hoping that this draft would be as successful as the last one where Buffalo picked first and Vancouver second.

Not many are.

I'd say it's even more crazy that they willingly traded for that contract, but once he retires this offseason, the majority of the cap recapture hits Vancouver instead. It gets a bit more ugly for them if he does decide to come back next year. And he's now at the point where he'll be paid right around $1 million each season (1.6 this year, 1.0 the next two), so he doesn't have all that much incentive* left to stick around. *I hate the fact that I'm saying a million bucks isn't incentive to do anything. I'll take over his contract and accept assignment to the ECHL in his place for three years. I've never worn goalie pads, but I'm willing to try.

I'm just hoping inkman can have a field day with the name Mark Alnutt.

The draft is cancelled. This is why you should always trade away those picks for 2nd or 3rd line centers.

Tyler Randell. I can't tell if he has two first names or two last names.

More per year than everyone on the team except Ekblad and Yandle.

That has to be a Tsujimoto draft pick

My wife teaches second grade down here in NC. Yesterday she told me a story about how she was having the kids talk about something that makes them laugh. One boy said RJ (by his full name, not just he initials). My wife knows nothing about the Sabres, but even she got a good laugh out of it, knowing exactly who he is. She wanted to break out a "Lalalalalafontaine", but she figured the kid would have no idea. The whole thing just made me thing about how this kid likes RJ so much, but all he's ever seen is this super old version. The kid's really missing out.

Give him time. He can't hope to live up to your status this quickly. And no, I'm completely ok with my other point. It really is great that new Nova Scotia guy (NS2?) and his son had a great time. I do enjoy reading about it. But if our big payoff for this entire season (and several more before it) is an out of town fan and his son getting to see a victory in their first game, well, we better find more families like this one that we can ship in for every single game. Hell, I'll start up the collection myself if it was guaranteed to work.