Eleven

Who cares? Fact is, he was a part timer. Not a regular. You're the one introducing extraneous factors, not me. And as your sidebar is distracting from the main point, as well, how many levels of irrelevance do we have to explore? Point is and was: Trading Joker for a 20th overall pick is stupid.

And if Q wasn't the coach, he may never have seen the NHL. Did he spend the whole season in the NHL? No. So no, it doesn't count. Come on, man.

No, it took him three--and that's because he was traded here, where we had no defensemen. Look at the numbers again. His season split between Rockford and Chicago does not count as a "regular NHL player." That's the point. I'm not trading my telescope for Professor Copperfield's Miracle Legumes, thank you.

I named two upthread. Back to the point--wasn't NASCAR more popular than NHL at one point about 20 years ago? Did it matter? (And I wonder how those people feel about their "Rainbow Warrior" now...)

Yep. He made a bad choice for winning but probably a good choice for the Dumbass family bank. Either way, welcome to the conference, Dubas.

Hey, for those with only broadcast options, WNLO, which I *think* is channel 23 UHF in the area, will have Game 3 (the final).

He's a 2/3 C on a good team. He currently is a 1/2 on a 6th place team in the Central. Do you think he'd he a 1/2 C on the current Sabres? (The correct answer begins with the letter 'n'.) And no, he is NOT more valuable than Jokiharju on this team as currently constructed. The team needs NHL defensemen NOW, not centers three years from now. Even if Adams were to trade Joker for Thomas straight up, right now, he'd be castigated, and rightly so, unless he immediately flipped another C for a D. Geez. Shortstops don't pitch. Running backs don't catch. Goalkeepers don't dribble the ball upfield. And 20th overall picks, whatever position, typically don't play. The team needs defensemen NOW, it has one, and people want to trade him for a freaking chance at catching lightning in a bottle. And all of this assumes Seattle wants Joker, which is a heck of a premise to begin with.

So let's be more concrete about it. Considering that the Sabres have no depth at D, who is the "franchise-altering star," worth trading a defenseman for, who will be available around pick 20? You know who you get in the 20s in the NHL draft? JOKIHARJU HIMSELF. Pick 29, 2017. And then he took three-four years to make the NHL as a regular player. NEW MATERIAL ON EDIT Let's say that I'm pushing too hard by turning a completely hypothetical and fantasy-minded trade of Joker for 20 into 29 instead. Let's just say that. I'll indulge. Here are the last 5 20th overalls. 2022: Ivan Miroshnichenko, RW. I'm almost mad that I had to type that. Not yet in the NHL. 2021: Jesper Wallstedt, G. Not yet in the NHL. 2020: Shakir Mukhamadullin, D. Not yet in the NHL. 2019: Ville Heinola, D. In the AHL, but has played a grand total of 27 NHL games over THREE YEARS. 2018: Rasmus Kupari, C. Bounces between the NHL and AHL STILL, FIVE YEARS LATER. Just for fun, let's go back one more year--Joker's year. 2017: Robert Thomas, C. He is finally regularly in the NHL, but I don't think you could even name his team without looking it up. Not a "franchise-altering player." In other words, Joker IS THE DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH at the end of the first round. He's as good as it gets there. It is incredibly unlikely that the Sabres will find a "franchise-altering player" at pick 13 (which they already have), much less at pick 20 or below. It is completely over-valuing a lottery ticket, as @Weave aptly puts it, to think so. Would you bet your $800K house on a 1/1000 chance of winning only $1M? No. But that's the equivalent of this proposal. High risk and low reward. OLD MATERIAL RESUMES If this type of thinking were to prevail, I'd be dead before the Sabres were in the playoffs again.

You think there's a potential franchise-altering star at around pick 20 in the draft? How confident are you? And why couldn't the Sabres take that guy at 13?

One of the coolest things about the movie *The Princess Bride* is that Andre the Giant drank two entire cases of beer on the way to the set once. And, of course, he wasn't able to perform very well. So they had to delay the scenes he was supposed to be in. The most popular condiment in the US is salsa, apparently. I would have thought it a children's condiment like ketchup. But it's salsa? Wow.

As I said, I don't vouch for the accuracy of the blog. I also don't put a lot into "metro area," because I live in a city where that is artificially limited. The "metro area" of Buffalo, if you were to measure it by the same standards as Miami (look on the map on Wikipedia, it seems to be everything within a 90 minute drive), is almost as populous. There just happens to be a notable river in the way. My impression is considerably different than yours--Miami seems more "homegrown," and much, MUCH less into pro sports; Tampa Bay seems more transplanted and more into pro sports. I see Lightning signs on lawns and bumpers from Tampa down to Ft. Myers; I don't see any Panthers stuff...anywhere except on TV during a Panthers game.

That is new if trew.

So the pizza at their arena just got worse?

Leaves named Treliving as new GM.

Treliving is the new Leaves GM, which is good for the rest of the division.

The NBA starts a series as soon as both teams are known. Always has. Tonight's Game 1 wasn't scheduled in advance; it is two days after both teams were known.

80k difference per this: https://2collegebrothers.com/blog/tampa-vs-miami-pros-cons/ I didn't write it and don't vouch for its accuracy. If you've ever been to those two areas, you would find it probable that Tampa Bay has a larger percentage of northerners. Tampa Bay has a ton of Canadians, too. Miami has a ton of Cubans and Puerto Ricans, which, while very nice people, do not tend to be hockey fans. And don't poke Ybor City my way; I'm aware of it and I also know that it's a neighborhood and not all of Tampa Bay. Shouldn't this be in the Ryan Johnson thread?

If the nugget fits...

It's bigger, but not by an order of magnitude. It's bigger by only 80k. And I don't think it's more of a hockey market than Tampa. Nor will it be. I also think that Tampa has more (or a higher percentage of) transplants from the north, but I can't prove it.

If so, that's even more stupid than usual from the NHL. Part I: How can anyone not love Samson? Part II: ***** Miami and it isn't a hockey town and never will be. And the state it's in is governed by someone whom even you must appreciate is a complete dictator. Yeah I'm rooting for Samson, not for Florida.

Dominik Hasek cleaned out his exhibits at the Czech HHOF. Yes, this is the proper thread, apparently. We are discussing Nathan Gerbe, Zdeno Chara, and Linus Ullmark, so why not the best goalie in the history of the NHL?

Do you have ANY idea how much ***** I took last year (or the year before, whatever) for calling it "Finals" instead of "Final"?

The Sabres need them both right now.

In case the tweet in the first post confuses people, the game is tonight, May 31, and not tomorrow.

He's more valuable at 6D, maybe even at 7D, than a late first-round pick. The Sabres are *not* deep at the position. And defensemen *will* be injured.