shrader

It sums up that era of Bills football perfectly. I'd say they made the perfect choice.

It happened earlier in the week, but I just saw the story now. David Quinn hired former rival BC's associate head coach, Greg Brown (former Sabres draft pick), to the Rags coaching staff. It's a nice parting shot to your top rival. Try to picture coach K agreeing to coach in the NBA and then hiring who was potentially supposed to be the next head coach of UNC, even though they've never worked together. That should make for some interesting banter between the two schools. Crap, I just used a bouncyball analogy.

This might just be the greatest example ever of a summer topic.

My guess is ECHL.

He also signed a few years after Baptiste and Bailey (too lazy to look up whether it was 2 or 3 years earlier). Even if they were maxed out, that cap only goes up over time.

Did each accept their qualifying offer? If that's the case, it shouldn't be quickly labeled as all a part of Botterill's plan. The players have to actually agree to it. So maybe Smith wants a longer contract and it isn't just about what Botterill wants.

It's hard to pin point an exact moment, but it started before McDavid. The recent draftees have been getting to the league right away for a while now. There's obviously going to be a dud draft here or there, but the younger guys making it right away is always going to add to the influx of talent.

Like if a muslim astronaut dies on the international space station. Good luck figuring out that one.

Are there many newer arenas around the league? Admittedly it's a short list, but every AHL arena I've been to falls into the outdated relic category. I'd be curious to see what the modern mid-sized arena looks like. Does it wind up being more like what Pegula built for Penn State? I haven't personally been there but I know the building it's modeled after. I feel like you still run into the restrictions from the roof height there.

I had a feeling it would. I knew it was a bad sign when I looked at theater listings a week after it opened and it wasn't at either of the theaters I go to. Any redeeming qualities at all?

No doubt. Everyone in the league was aware of his background. It was pretty much the first thing anyone said about him as he entered the league. I remember randomly turning on the AHL all star skills competition a few years before that, right as Emery had entered that league. I had no clue who he was, but even at that event, each time he was on screen the announcers were telling his story.

I'd still love to hear what was running through Marty's mind as he left his crease. Knowing him, he was probably singing along with some random song. Were they using street fighting man at that point or did it come along a few years later?

JJ, a friend is originally from that part of the state. He works in fertilizer sales and can identify just about everything even when I give the crappiest descriptions possible. If you're ever trying to figure out what something is, feel free to shoot me a private message here and I can pass it along.

I would have guessed a bit older. I was surprised when I saw 35. It feels like his career was ages ago. It goes with being a Sabre fan I guess, everything feels like it was about twice as long ago as it really was.

"I think"

Is it really a walk back? The comments pointing the finger at McCoy were from the cousin and friend, weren't they? There's some suggestion from the original lawyer statement and this most recent comment is pretty much right in line with that, suggesting it was him but not being able to outright say it.

I just got an email from the Hurricanes telling me that if I buy group tickets like I have in the past, they will let us wait in the walkway and high five the Carolina players as the enter the ice at some point. How awesome would that be, to be right up there front and center on the jumbotron, wearing my Sabres jersey and completely ignoring each of their players (except Stempniak, I can't do that)?

So how are those new politics clubs working out so far...

I challenge you to find even one incorrect thing that Zetterland has ever said. Watch, with my luck, it'll turn out that he has the world's dumbest twitter account.

Devils

I need to know who is evaluating the prospects. It's amazing to see how certain people will universally overvalue pretty much every single prospect. At best, I'd need to compare that source's number of so called worthy prospects to the number on other teams. I know the number thrown out here was a generalization, but the point still stands, the number by itself means very little.

It's tough to gauge exactly what the difference would be given that it's 5 years down the road, but how much extra would he really stand to add on for those 3-4 years, $3 million or so? Risking $30-$40 million for the chance of adding on an additional $9-$12 million, so maybe an additional 30%, I'm not so sure it's worth it. But then again, we're talking about numbers that have a few extra zeros compared to what I'm used to, so it's very tough to relate. Up to this point, can we name any top level players who have opted for the bridge contract when facing this situation? We can point to plenty who played out the one year gamble, but not many multi-year gambles come to mind. As for the markets, remember, we're talking about hockey in Toronto vs. playing for the red-headed stepchild team for the red-headed stepchild sport* in the red-headed stepchild portion of the New York market. I don't think it's crazy to suggest that Toronto would have far more money options available it this specific moment. *Are they even the second biggest hockey draw for that market?

But Matthews still has very little reason to sign that deal. Passing on 3-4 years of guaranteed money is a huge gamble. On top of that, he has a whole other world of potential money to be made in Toronto compared to what would be available on Long Island. This is one huge part of offer sheets that it feels like people tend to overlook each year, the player has to actually agree to it as well.

It actually looks like Carlton is reading the post. That's amazing.

And how much of that do they give away if they're actually able to land Karlsson?