nfreeman

That kind of observation goes in the politics club.

I don't think @Wyldnwoody44's point had anything to do with this either.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but @Wyldnwoody44's point doesn't seem political to me -- he's urging people to be generally healthier, at least 90% of which consists of diet and exercise. Those are not partisan items.

This is entirely fair, but it's also fair to say that I'd rather keep Joker (and Risto and Montour for that matter) than trade him for a meh return. I also think that it's fairly likely that other GMs may overrate Joker due to youth, low cost, solid play, pedigree and upside, and underrate Risto and Montour, such that the Sabres could end up with a pretty solid return for Joker but a disappointing return for Risto or Montour. As a related point, I find myself increasingly annoyed at JB for accumulating defensemen while neglecting goalies and forwards, based on the premise that the defensemen could be parlayed into good forwards, then getting zero for Bogo, Pilut and Scandy (other than Frolik and yet another league embarrassment in the case of Scandy), 2 of whom are LHDs, and then finding the team in need of a good LHD. What a freaking waste of time (and years of Jack's career) the past 3 seasons were.

This sounds right, and I'm fine with trading Joker and keeping Risto and Montour, but there had better be a no-BS top-6 C or RW in his mid-20s or younger coming back.

From Vogl in the Athletic today: https://theathletic.com/1956578/2020/07/28/sabres-mailbag-part-two-cozens-readiness-montours-future-and-more/ Great job, JB! Also this, which I found interesting.

Kahun's situation is an interesting under-the-radar item for KA, IMHO. He just turned 25 and is an RFA, but has played less than 2 full NHL seasons, which followed 4 pretty productive years in the German league and 2 fairly productive years in Canadian juniors. Kahun has 68 pts in 138 NHL games, which is very good for an unheralded forward in his 1st 2 NHL seasons -- especially since he only averages about 13 min per game. He also would've been 4th in scoring among Sabres forwards this past season had he been here the entire year. Hockeydb and Hockeyreference both list him as a center, shooting left, but he's only taken 70 faceoffs in 138 NHL games, so he probably has played most of his time at LW. A 3rd scoring line with him, Cozens and TT, against lower-tier opposing lines, sounds like it could be pretty interesting. Kahun showed some nice skills during his 6 games with the Sabres. I'm assuming most here want to keep him. The interesting question is what kind of contract should the Sabres give him? If it's a 2-year bridge deal, he'll be UFA at the end of it (not sure if he'd also be UFA after a 1-year deal). But has he shown enough for the Sabres to give him, say, a 4-year deal?

Boy, both sides really doused the bridge in gasoline and blowtorched it. Yeeeeeesssh.

Yes — very good article. His interesting suggestions IMHO included: RW Phil Kessel — 2 years left @ $6.8MM per year RW Jake Virtanen — RFA after this season RW Kasperi Kapanen RW/LW (shoots right) Rickard Rakell — 2 years left @$3.8MM per year C Derek Stepan — 1 year left @$6.5MM C Nick Bjugstad — 1 year left @$4.1MM C Alex Kerfoot G Jake Allen LD Nick Leddy — 2 years left @$5.5MM per year

Chip off the old block — that’s exactly he kind of dirty BS play his pop delivered regularly. And I don’t see how @Ducky can be crowing over the Kane-Myers trade. Kane was the best player in the deal and it ultimately ended up being mostly sound and fury. I will say that I’m curious as to whether most Jets fans think the playoff run that @Ducky alluded to was primarily due to the trade. It sure didn’t seem that way from here — the guys the Sabres gave up didn’t seem to play huge roles for the Jets.

@PASabreFan has rightly pointed out that I have said that this thread is not for discussion of government responses to the virus. While that was not the intent or the gist of my post, I don't think we should go down this road here. In any case I agree with @SwampD that it's unfair to assign blame for all of the decisions that in retrospect turned out to be bad calls (probably more true in some cases than others but again that's a conversation for a different time and place). Separately, my wife and I went out to dinner tonight with some friends in a small town in upstate NY, at a now-outside-only nice restaurant, with well-spaced tables in the shade and a nice breeze. It was our first restaurant meal with friends, and only our 3rd restaurant meal, since early March. Now that was a F'n Fantastic Friday event.

I had let my subscription expire but just renewed. Looking forward to having it with NHL and NBA just around the corner and hopefully the NFL to follow soon.

I think it's worth noting that I've heard a number of agents over the years say that players will often agree to waive NTCs because they don't want to stay with a team that wants to trade them. Now, I think those waivers are granted for specific situations that appeal to the particular players -- which often would not include waiving to be traded to the Sabres.

The other possibility is the one @dudacek mentioned upthread -- i.e. TB unloads 2 of its big salaries in exchange for Risto (probably plus cheap sweeteners), thereby gaining a net improvement against the cap of $4MM or more. Not super-likely, but not crazy either.

Will there be fans at the games?

This jibes with a number of articles I've read recently -- i.e. the theory is that the spread of the virus can be slowed via masks, social distancing, etc., but not prevented from reaching its "natural" level, so pretty much all regions will end up with a similar infection rate. NYC, the theory goes, due to population density and several mistakes early in the process, suffered both a higher infection rate and a higher fatality rate than anywhere else in the US, but the other regions will get to the same infection rate (but probably not the same fatality rate) eventually.

@biodork -- yes -- Schitt's Creek was a really enjoyable comedy. Separately, I just finished "Zerozerozero" on Amazon Prime. Pretty good international crime/drug war show. It's a lot like the movie "Sicario" and in fact some of the episodes were directed by the director of the 2nd Sicario movie. Solid B-plus.

I dropped my phone in the water about a week ago and it's lost about 50% of its functionality. Then, I found a great deal online (at best buy) for a new phone, but in order to get a $62 trade-in for my old phone, I had to take my old phone to a best buy store. I was too busy on Monday to take it in -- and then on Tuesday, best buy increased the price of the new phone by $240. So I'm reconsidering my options.

I agree with most of this, but as to the bolded, I've read/heard from a number of sources that the top 10 or so in this draft is loaded, so #8 has a better-than-average chance at being a very good player. I would trade it for the right #2C, and Cirelli might very well be that guy, but it's a plum asset to part with.

@JohnC -- while I agree that JB largely avoided crippling huge contracts (assuming of course that Skinner's deal doesn't turn out to be exactly that, which is a huge assumption), I can't give him much credit for cap management -- especially after the crappy players he brought in this past year resulted in a cap overage that will cost the team space against next year's cap, and especially when doing so yielded zero improvement on the ice.

I think TB will work out a way to trade a couple of expensive vets and keep Cirelli. However, if they do trade him, the Sabres aren't getting him without including #8 this year. If they are lucky, TB might take #8, Mittlestadt and one of Borgen, Samuelsson or Johnson.

The government isn't developing vaccines. And criticism, or praise, of any state or federal government official on this should go in the politics club. But thanks for your contribution to board comity.

Yes please.

Moved a few posts into the politics club. Again: discussion of government responses to the virus goes in the politics club.