nfreeman

Well, I think YMMV on the last sentence, but the bolded is absolutely right. No more jiggly GIFs please.

...or maybe it's just that those who say he's a lousy skater believe, based on their watching of hockey over the years, that relative to most other NHL forwards, Reino is in fact a lousy skater. Not average or above average, but well below average. That isn't to say that he's a lousy player, but just that this facet of his game is lousy. YMMV on the underlying issue, and I'm not aware of any hard data that's available on this, but denigrating others who disagree with you isn't good or interesting hockey talk.

For the record: - No one is taking KO unless the Sabres either give up a #1 pick or take back a contract that is worse than KO's. - Therefore, the Sabres are stuck with KO until his contract expires -- which is 3 more seasons after this one.

This is great IMHO: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/dion-dawkins-buffalo-bills-mafia

^^^^ I like it, but I don't think Pitt, NJ or Nashville would agree to the proposed deals. I think Pitt will want more for Galchie, NJ would rather trade Simmonds for picks/prospects, and Nashville will require more than Larsson and McCabe for Bonino (Turris and KO are pretty close to a wash).

For fans of the TV show "Fargo" -- it looks like season 4 comes out in April, and one of the stars is... Chris Rock!

Nowhere. That's why I said it was a guess.

I would guess that Pittsburgh wants a bottom-6 forward who is not a FA after this season -- so that rules out most of the Sabres' bottom 6.

If you are saying that 1 point per game is "average," I don't think that is correct. Last year, 17 teams had 90 or more pts and the remaining 15 had 86 or fewer. The prior year, 19 teams had 92 pts or more and the remaining 13 had 84 or fewer. Now, I'm not going to bother calculating "average" point totals, but the median (which is more relevant here IMHO) is well above 88 (last year -- 93; prior year -- 95). (This is a somewhat interesting facet of the DeLuca .500 issue discussion IMHO.) Bottom line: even with Ullmark, the Sabres are below the median.

It's about time Zemgus got a shot. Unleash the Kraken!

Even if someone points out that he's ... y'know ... slow?

Merged! Regarding the bolded: I would do this in a heartbeat and would gladly include ERod, but I highly doubt Pittsburgh would accept that offer.

IMHO, Reino is flawed but still a good player. He's streaky (2 stretches this season of 1 goal in 11 games, which coincided with team losing streaks) and a lousy skater, and there's a fair amount of "empty calories" in his point totals, but he's still quite skilled, he can shoot it and pass it, and he plays a respectable 2-way game. If he's your 4th- or 5th-best forward, you've probably got a really good offense. If he's your 2nd- or 3rd- best forward, then you've probably got a crappy offense. I would only trade him as part of a package to bring in a no-BS star forward if and when one becomes available. The contract is the tricky part. He turns 25 at the beginning of next season. If the Sabres could sign Reino to $5.5MM x 6 years I would do it tomorrow. But I think the cost will be closer to $7MM x 8 years -- and giving him that contract means that the Sabres are married to Eichel, Skinner, Reino and Dahlin as their top 4 guys, with room for maybe one more big contract. Given how poorly this team has performed over the last few years, it's hard to be excited about locking in that group to the exclusion of other difference-makers. There is also a reasonable argument to be made that Olofsson, who is also an RFA after this season, is at least as valuable as Reino is -- and I have a hard time seeing them giving huge contracts to both Reino and VO. I expect JB to sign Reino to a fat extension this summer, but we'll see.

Not a bad idea in the abstract, and I would be in favor of a hockey czar, but it can't be another Penguins alumnus.

Well, the Sabres are disappointing, but the Red Wings are awful. Eeeeeeeessshhhh.

Pitt and Colorado about to start OT in a very good game so far.

Me too. Another little piece of childhood gone. Godspeed.

Yes, but again, you are avoiding the central question: we have no idea whether “up to the owner” means TP had to sign off on DR’s recommendation (which is the case for all owners with all major franchise moves) or TP decided on the course of action without a recommendation from DR (highly unlikely IMHO).

Well, if you assume that the only alternative to tanking would've been complete status quo -- i.e. zero good draft picks, trades, FA pickups or other moves -- plus bad drafting, you've assumed away the entire discussion. Here's something else that's getting old: people pretending that "the tank was a success because we have Eichel."

If you understand that having Jack isn't the same as having a good team, why did you say this?

Well, as has been discussed ad nauseum, there's a huge difference between "the owner ordered his GM to tank" and "the owner signed off on his GM's recommendation to tank." Darcy's quote does not indicate which way this decision was made. Yet another credibility-destroying wild overstatement. I think it's fair to hold TP accountable for hiring the wrong guys to run the team. I don't think this makes him a bad owner in the same category with guys like Dan Snyder or Haslam. He's trying to do the right thing -- it just hasn't worked out, and it takes a while make that determination with a GM. His ownership has worked out reasonably well with the Bills -- IMHO because he was fortunate enough to find the right guy in McD to run the franchise.

I still don't understand the "liar and douchebag" comment (not to mention the vitriol). What was he "lying" about? And did naming his dog after Crosby make him a douchebag? If so, why?

That would be an unusually skilled and versatile prospect!

What does this mean?

I would trade Bogo and Hutton for Crawford in a heartbeat.