nfreeman

Florida isn’t going to trade either Hubie or Trochek.

Regarding Nylander’s allegedly good transition game — here’s Pronman: “Overall his speed isn’t amazing. There were so many rushes this season, like this one, where he hits the line with average speed, tries to make a move and loses the puck.“ As for TT, his shot is a freaking weapon of mass destruction and, more importantly and more broadly, he is explosive. He can score in multiple ways — not just the one-timer (and I don’t know why TF Howie didn’t figure out how to get TT a few of those per game). He can gain the zone with speed, make a move to beat a defender and score or pass. He needs experience, coaching and a non-dysfunctional environment. Even with all that it might not work, but he was and is better than Nylander.

@Randall Flagg, @WildCard: Flagg wildly overstates TT’s struggles with his usual mix of a few small-sample fancystats and brazen certainty. TT was in over his head on a crappy team and made mistakes, while still hustling and displaying a number of very nice tools. Nylander was mediocre in the AHL, evinced zero urgency in his game and made a handful of non-terrible plays during garbage time. Charity bet on who has a better season next year as between TT and Nylander?

I beg to differ. I wish Alex the best, and I agree that TT's game performance didn't merit him staying up here all year, but Nylander didn't outplay a house plant, let alone TT.

Demand met by JB! He knows what time it is.

This is fair, but I think his last season here was a debacle. All good on paper, but like any GM, he's responsible for delivering a winning team. So far he's not even close.

So now the Blackhawks have brought in 2 prime GMTM Sabres debacles in Lehner and Nylander. Hopefully Nylander will get it together like Lehner has done so far.

This is obnoxious.

I too think that "stay with Sabres" and "other destination" should be poll options. But it's up to @WildCard of course.

Also: his nickname has to be "Joker," right?

Well, I think Risto represents a real asset with real value, and I think JB is savvy enough not to trade him for a pupu platter of 2nd-tier prospects and picks.

I agree with all of this, although I still think Risto will only be traded if there is a really good forward coming back. I also think JB wants RK to be well resourced and doesn't want to assume that Bogo or Pilut will be fully healthy to start the season, or that Borgen or Joki will be NHL-ready to start the season. Most likely outcome IMHO is, later this summer, a Risto trade for a good forward and a Scandy trade for a mid- to low-round draft pick.

Here's a bit more from the Athletic on Joki: Not impossible but pretty doubtful IMHO. McCabe is an asset, albeit with a somewhat depressed value due to injury and team suckitude. JB might want to move him to make room for one of the FNGs, but not without getting a decent draft pick or prospect in return. Totally agree. By the end of this coming season I think almost all of the pre-JB guys will be gone. I think the bolded and @woods-racerare the right call here -- JB decided to move on from Nylander before his value declined any further -- which JB figured would occur this year.

I beg to differ. Since JB continues to arrogantly blow off @Randall Flagg's demand for early-summer trades, leaving us with little to discuss, here's what happened in the great feigning hoax of 2019: I posted the following quote from Tim Graham in the Athletic regarding TP: To which you responded: ...to which I responded in a totally non-feigning way that I wasn't sure what your point was. Recriminations, accusations, betrayals and tears soon followed. Lives were shattered. If your point in the post in question was that since he is de facto president, he is therefore an obvious meddler -- well, I submit to you, sir, that that point is far from clear from your post, and moreover that it doesn't hold logical water. I'll await your defense with bated breath..

It's your tone. Whenever anyone disagrees with you -- or posts something you disagree with -- you exude an air of ticked-off exasperation. We're just trying to have a friendly conversation here about something we all care about. Your hockey talk is great. Just try to make it sound a little friendlier and with less of a "how can you be so stupid? this is driving me crazy!" underlying vibe.

Not a big deal, of course, but there was no feigning. Dimwitted I may be, but not dishonest.

Leaving aside the general touchiness of this post, as to the bolded -- holy assuming facts not in evidence, Batman! I would submit that the "track record" to which you refer is wholly theoretical and not in the slightest "demonstrated" or "admitted." (Citations to prior Sabrespace threads are not admissible as evidence here.) Also, I was joking about bitter clingers.

Good stuff, as always, but... - 1st par -- This is an oversimplification. Yes, those of us inclined to defend JB for the trade think there was probably a good reason -- with the most likely factors being some combination of ROR demanding a trade, ROR contributing to a toxic locker room environment and TP instructing JB to get rid of him. Your underlying assumption continues to be that they could've kept ROR without adverse consequences. This simply can't be known. As for the 2nd bolded, @darksabrehas posted multiple times about ROR's issues -- so there is stuff to be gleaned, and, depending on how you feel about Wawrow, Harrington, Vogl, etc., it's about as credible as what there has been to be gleaned about Lehner et al. - 2nd par -- You are choosing your window to start at the tank, which is of course going to skew the results. I'm fine with blaming TP for the tank, as it was a stupid and terrible decision (which I suspect he signed off on after it was recommended by Darcy) that has kept the Sabres in the basement as many of us knew it would, but it would be more fair IMHO to have the window coincide either with the day they bought the team or the beginning of Eichel's 1st season. - 3rd par -- I don't think there is much of a spread between 5th-worst and 9th-worst, or between the quality of the Bills' season last year and the quality of the Sabres' season (although there is IMHO an unjustifiably large spread right now between fans' perceptions of the state of the Bills and the state of the Sabres). -4th par -- What does the last bolded mean? That the Sabres have the fewest wins of any franchise since 1970? And this swung from 4th-best to DFL since TP has been the owner? Really? - 5th par -- I sure hope so. 1st & 2nd bolded -- well said. 3rd bolded -- what is it specifically (other than wins and losses and Kim's continued playing of hard-to-get with message board types) that makes you doubt them?

OK -- I'll let JB know. Certainly he needs to consider the summer dog day hockey talk preferences of our board in making his decisions.

One other tidbit from the interview with Beninati: MaJo (better, @shrader?) excels at gaining the zone on the power play.

I'd encourage anyone interested to listen to Howard and Sal's interview today with Joe Beninati, longtime Capitals play-by-play guy. It's in the WGR vault. Joe B spoke very highly of MJ, including: - Joe B. loved MJ as both a player and a good guy. - MJ was great in the playoffs. One season he was on a line with Kuznetsov and Justin Williams that was highly effective for the Caps in the playoffs. - For a while it looked like MJ was going to be their long-term 2C behind Backstrom, but MJ ended up getting caught in a cap numbers game in DC. - MJ is a good scorer from the dirty areas as well as being a good playmaker. - MJ is an excellent, smooth skater. - His nickname is "Jo-jo."

I'm not sure what your point is here. TP is the owner. He has all the power over every single decision, large and small, that he cares to exercise. It doesn't matter whether he also has the "team president" title. More broadly, it seems like you and PA are bitterly clinging (heh) to the "TP likes to meddle in hockey decisions" narrative. Is Graham's description, which runs counter to this narrative, "weak sauce" for any particular reason?

All owners have final say. And just to cut through the spin -- here is what he said exactly:

Yes please.

I took the family to see the Rolling Stones last night in Foxborough. They are getting a bit long in the tooth but they sounded terrific and it was a great night.