darksabre

I would really like to see UPL take the jump from a lateral movement/control standpoint. That's always the hardest part of moving up to the NHL. They are some of the worst in the league. I remember one year driving to Ohio listening to a Wings game on the radio and we literally had no idea what was happening in the game. They were talking about food or something.

Oof this stream quality is garbage

I have the same thing as you. Looks like they're running late.

I'd be interested in knowing what constitutes "medical records".

You don't have to be in market. It's just right on the front page.

We're all just heavily utilizing Occam's Razor.

I dunno man, until he starts using his size like an NHL player I have no time for him.

Very interested to see if Tage still sucks

I dunno but he's got a black eye in his Twitter profile pic so that rules lol

It absolutely does. I don't know why I'm arguing this with you anyway. Jack is not going to do it so the point is moot.

Except that his doing so violates the CBA. What part of this do you not understand?

They should have, perhaps, tried to sign him to an extension last year instead of letting it get all the way to free agency. If Linus was unwilling to sign an extension, then perhaps they should have seen the writing on the wall and traded him at the deadline. If they really, truly, underrated him so badly that they didn't think he was as good as gone as a UFA, then they were fools.

Yup. The Sabres botched it. I don't blame Ullmark at all. They should have known better than to think he wanted to be here.

I think we can safely infer. Some here have posted that the fusion might require additional surgeries since he's so young, whereas if the disc replacement is successful it could last a lot longer. I could see that being a real good reason to have the cost/benefit analysis come down in favor of the ADR in Jack's mind. He's well within his rights to believe that a certain course of treatment, as outlined by the medical professionals whose advice he has sought, is the correct one for him, without suffering much criticism over it. It just doesn't matter as long as the pro sports team that he is contracted to play for gets to override him.

Ullmark never gave them a chance though. He used the Sabres to get the deal he wanted. They miscalculated his desire to actually re-sign here.

I mean, ultimately Jack should be allowed to assume the risks of getting the ADR if he wants to. The problem is that they have to figure out how to actually put that risk on Jack instead of on the team.

He certainly won't be getting in the way if UPL plays even reasonably well... I wouldn't be mad about an Anderson - UPL tandem this year. They won't win a lot but I'd take it over watching Tokarski or Dell.

I mean, listen, I could be wrong. But given the language of the CBA and how things have played out so far between Jack and the team, I believe that there is no way Jack goes rogue and gets the ADR. I just don't see him doing it unless he accepts that he won't be in the NHL for quite some time. I think if he wanted to do it, he would have done so by now. That's why I believe this whole situation is in the hands of a great number of lawyers. I believe they are trying to find a way to make the ADR surgery acceptable to everyone involved or, failing that, make if very clear to Jack that he has no choice but the fusion.

I see Jack's side of it, for sure. I understand fully why he feels like he should be able to get the surgery he wants. But the tradeoff for big sports money tends to be handing over control of your body to the machinery of the league. That's why the NHLPA and the league negotiate the CBA: to try to balance the players interests vs the leagues interests. It's not always perfect though. This is one of those times.

You say that, but you need to go read the CBA. The CBA expressly states what happens when a contract is terminated via the waiver process. The player becomes a UFA. It is very clearly laid out. When a team voids a players contract for a "material breach" it doesn't not expressly state that the player becomes a UFA, which by default means the team still possesses his signing rights until what would have been the end of that contract. Unless some kind of internal clarification has been issued that we are not privy to as fans, the CBA maintains that voiding a player's contract due to "material breach" does not make them a UFA.

I don't know how many more times I have to explain this. Jack's health in the immediate aftermath of the surgery is not the only deciding factor. Jack's health over the length of the contract is the concern. If Jack gets the ADR surgery against the terms of the CBA, and then the Sabres doctors decide to accept the surgery and clear him to play, other teams could then turn around and say "well, let's just see how this goes". And then the Sabres could be stuck with Jack not just for a few games but for as much as the length of his contract. And if the ADR suddenly fails after, let's say, a year, the Sabres can no longer void his contract or suspend him or take ANY recourse. They become fully liable because they allowed him to be cleared by their doctors. They will NEVER do this. It's insane to me that anyone could conceive of the Sabres doing anything other than voiding Jack's contract if he violates the CBA. Because not only would the Sabres want to not be seen making a mockery of it, the league AND the NHLPA won't want it. They will support the Sabres voiding his contract and the "nothing" the Sabres get is, in fact, that Jack will not be playing ANYWHERE in the NHL for the remainder of his contract and they don't have to pay him or deal with his cap hit. Sure, it's not picks and prospects, but denying other teams the opportunity to have him if he's healthy will be good enough. There's politics involved here that are not insignificant, not to mention all the liability issues.

The sticking point is not an unreasonable one, in my opinion anyway. I think Jack believes the ADR is the surgery that is the best for him. Even if it would have been the quickest recovery, I don't think that was the only factor. I think he's convinced that it's the one that offers him the best quality of life. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's just that the team is not necessarily obligated to care about Jack's long term health. They only care about his viability as a hockey player. It is what it is.

I had similar thoughts about Cozens...

Each team had to use one of their trash goalies and it just sorta evened out