nfreeman

I've been thinking a bit about this, as it's certainly a possibility that naturally comes to mind when things are going badly. I don't think though that this is what is going on. Eichel would look really bad if he were to force a trade on the grounds that he wants the surgery and then didn't get the surgery. There would be nowhere for him to hide on this. Also, if he wants to force a trade, he can do so without relying on the surgery as a pretext. Now, he may be determined to force a trade anyway -- I just don't think it makes sense for him to do so while dishonestly hiding behind the surgery as the reason. This is probably wishful thinking, but I think Friedman's meaning here is "if the parties don't agree on the next steps for treating Eichel's injury, the likely outcome is a trade" -- not "at this point, the parties are sick of each other and the likely outcome is a trade."

Holy mackerel getting Julio Jones for the next 2 years would be awesome.

Well, you’re probably right that no ultimatums have been delivered, but I’m sure everyone involved knows that the contract is the ultimate issue. In that sense it is being held over Jack’s head even if the Sabres didn’t say it directly.

Again: as others have noted repeatedly, he wasn't wealthy when they married. So the "younger women marrying older men for the their money" thing isn't supported by the facts here, regardless of how often you repeat it. I don't see the relevance of him being her boss. You are right that the age difference supports the notion of TP marrying a trophy wife. It does not support the use of "grasping", which implies that she was a conniving and greedy person who targeted him for his money and who continues to take as much as possible. I still haven't seen you or the OP introduce anything about KP that demonstrates her being that kind of person. That's the problem here -- the blithe, unsupported leap to fairly serious accusations about her character that are based entirely on her demographics.

Interesting.

The objectionable term was "grasping trophy wife." That phrase implies a set of serious character flaws. People objecting to it, when the person introducing it, and the person defending the person introducing it, are unable to provide a single act or statement supporting it, are not being PC snowflakes. They are just put off by it because of its hostility and borderline misogyny.

So neither of you have any action or statement by her whatsoever to support "grasping trophy wife?" Just the fact that she married her boss, who was not, as others have pointed out upthread, wealthy when they got married? So you're just assuming that she is a bad person because the Sabres have stunk while she and her husband have owned the team, and used a deeply pejorative term to describe her? That is just terrible, and reflects badly on you.

Well, I think they targeted Allen and did what they had to do to get him (although I would be curious as to whether they would've taken Darnold if he'd been available). I also think they've done an excellent job at building a high-quality NFL franchise. You are of course right that they look great because of how well Allen has developed. What exactly has she done or said, other than marrying a wealthy man, to be characterized like this?

I agree that most fans who move keep their hometown allegiances. I’ve additionally done what I think a good number do, which is adopt some or all of the new city’s teams as secondary allegiances.

I think there is a very good possibility of this happening. Something about Hall inspires overpayment. He is certainly playing much better there than in Buffalo, but if they pay him like a top line winger it will be a waste of cap space. However, if they can keep him for, say, $5MM per year for 3 years, and can keep a good top line to play ahead of him and the rest of a good 2nd line for him to play with, that would be a good situation for both of them. It would also continue to rub it in our faces for the length of that contract.

Well, @Curt can certainly speak for himself, but I think he’s saying we should react to facts, not free association. If Hall says there are other teams he would’ve accepted a trade to, the immediate question is whether any of those teams offered more than Boston did. Since we don’t know the answer to that question, it’s impossible to evaluate whether Hall is being honest.

The scars run deep. But let’s keep it friendly here please.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Rutherford tests the waters around the league for a GM job, doesn’t get one and then joins the Sabres as senior adviser. That would be a good outcome IMHO. Also, regardless of whether one would like them to replace KA with Rutherford, I think there is zero chance of that happening.

Jeez. When a guy like Friedman, who’s got a fair amount of credibility, puts something like that out there, it really shows IMHO that a high percentage of all of this theorizing by hockey writers is just hot air.

Wow. You seem like a good guy — I never would’ve guessed you did all those things!

To me the question of trading Eichel and Reino comes down to whether it’s possible to win with 2 very important guys who don’t want to be here (which I believe to be the case at this point in time). KA needs to factor in the likelihood of Eichel and Reino changing their minds and buying in and weigh it against the likelihood of the lack of buy-in torpedoing yet another season and further setting the franchise back. In a sense Reino will make KA’s decision easier in that if Reino isn’t interested in a long-term deal, KA can safely assume that Reino isn’t going to buy in and KA will know that he needs to trade him. Of course, KA needs to actually offer a long-term deal to Reino to learn whether Reino is interested, but I’m sure KA knows that. Eichel is a trickier matter, as he is a more precious asset and under team control AND has the huge uncertainty of his injury complicating matters. So while Reino will kinda make KA’s decision for him, it’s quite possible that even if Eichel pushes to be traded, no one makes an acceptable offer for him because of the injury. Best case scenario is that Reino signs a long term deal, the Sabres bring in a credible coach and goalie and make a few other credible moves, Jack recovers, likes the Sabres’ moves and returns determined to lift the team, and the youngsters continue to improve. That’s a lot of fairly unlikely dominoes falling the Sabres’ way.

Holy mackerel the atmosphere in Nashville looks incredible.

I remain skeptical that another team will part with premium assets before seeing Eichel back 100% from his injury.

A tunnel is an interesting idea, but I can't imagine it happening, mostly because the overland route is only another hour's drive. The chunnel had no driving alternative at all, let alone a short-drive alternative.

The drive from NYC to Toronto is freaking awful. 7-8 hrs to the border, then the border wait, then the traffic between the border and Toronto -- I'm never doing it again. But 6 hrs to the ferry terminal, then getting out of the car and having a beer on a high-speed ferry with fresh air on the lake, maybe some duty-free shopping and expedited customs/immigration -- that sounded like a huge improvement.

Did you ever take that fast ferry? As someone who travels periodically from NYC to Toronto, it would’ve been perfect for my family and me.

There is no way that NYS is going to contribute $750MM to a new football stadium.

My recollection is that Darcy said the extent of the rebuild would be up to the owner — ie that the owner ultimately had to sign off on the plan — not that the owner would develop a plan and instruct Darcy to implement it. The actual words matter. You can’t just change a few of them and take the changed quote as evidence in your trial. And I do like you. You’ve got flaws, just like me and everyone else here, but you have a good sense of humor and more importantly you seem like a good, charitable person. I’ll see what I can come up with on the other owners. It won’t be as comprehensive as dudacek’s work, of course.

If something is "painstakingly put together" out of hot air, conjecture, fear and loathing, does that make it real? My recollection is that the Ehrhoff "evidence" was your interpretation of one of TP's daughter's tweets. As for the Leino, Ehrhoff and tank "decisions" -- as I and others have said many times, there's a world of difference between authorizing a GM to take the GM's recommended course of action, and instructing the GM to pursue a certain course of action. I don't think you've introduced, painstakingly or otherwise, a shred of evidence to support your heartfelt position that TP instructed DR to implement those courses of action. And of course, pretty much every owner speaks regularly with his GM, sits in the war room, etc.

Has McD made noises about wanting out? I haven't heard anything along those lines. Even if Edmonton felt like they had to trade him, I think there is no way they would take Eichel as the main piece coming back until they saw Jack fully recovered and playing NHL games at his 2019-2020 MVP candidate level.