nfreeman

I did and was happy to see it! Welcome back sizzle. Don't be a stranger. It's happening. Liger is starting to come around on this one.

Beat me to it. We'll never know for sure, but I too interpret the end-of-season and post-season events, combined with ROR's previously forcing his way out of Colorado, as ROR asking for a trade.

My 2 cents: - there has been plenty of sky-is-falling hyperbole in here but also plenty of excellent hockey talk. - I think the TBPHD camp — ie those who wouldn’t have traded ROR for this package or really anything less than a socks-knocked-off offer — is well underestimating the impact of chemistry and interpersonal dynamics. It’s not just about the stats. What they’ve had for the past few years has clearly not worked. JB and PH are hockey lifers who were in a far better position than any of us to observe ROR and his impact on the rest of the team. I’m willing to accept their conclusion that they could not continue to have ROR on the team. - there’s also quite a bit of premature judging of Thompson in here, along with declarations that he wasn’t a top prospect for STL. Dobberhockey, an excellent site, had him as their #3 prospect last fall (ahead of Kyrou and Dunn), and I saw a blues fan site that named him this spring as one of their “big 4.” So he certainly could turn into a very good young winger. - Serious question for those unhappy with the trade: assuming this was in fact the best that could be obtained for ROR, and that any trade for a different Sabres core piece would have yielded a similarly disappointing return, would you have wanted to go into next season without having made a major “shakeup” trade?

Hall wasn’t auctioned off in the same way ROR was.

I’m starting to talk myself into liking this signing.

Good post.

Good stuff Derrico.

Outstanding.

Welcome back Hoss! I too do not think the Isles will be interested in a full rebuild -- but I also think, as I've posted previously, that the Sabres are going to get less for ROR than most here will be satisfied with -- so I don't think the Isles will part with their best young players in trade for ROR.

Hutton is 6'1, will turn 33 in December and is from...Thunder Bay, Ontario! So if Hutton is indeed joining, then JBott doesn't hate ALL Canadians -- especially not those who played 4 years of NCAA hockey, like Hutton.

For the record, DiPietro was really good before he got hurt.

I like it. Let her know the priorities right away so there's no misunderstanding.

Congrats Thorny!

Correct.

IMHO Richards was much better than ROR. Richards played with blood and guts, not woe-is-me. I think this is very likely. Well, it might be the acquiror of ROR that needs to clear cap space.

2 more Americans. Did JBott get arrested in the GWN at some point?

I too would rather have either Mrazek or Bernier than Hutton.

Holy mackerel I would do that in a heartbeat, although I'd rather give them a 2nd-rounder like the Caps just got for Gruby and Orpik.

I love the narrative, but it begs a serious question: why do you think this? What facts are there to support it?

I'm still trying to recover from the stomach punch of learning that 11 doesn't remember Ken Breitenbach. And Rammer was a pretty solid coach who never really got a fair shake as a HC, IMHO.

This is what I'm hoping too. That by some combination of charisma, talent, and saying just the right thing at just the right time, he makes each of Eichel, Risto and Reino (and Bogo, Beaulieu, KO, ROR and Zemgus) want intensely to be the best he can possibly be so as not to let him down. If they get that out of those guys, this team can do something,

Kjell played I think 14 years in the NHL, and his brother Ulf (Mattias' uncle), also had a long NHL career, peppered with a bunch of nasty stickwork and other dirty play that made him widely disliked by both opponents and opposing fans.

The problem though is that because of the calendar, they couldn't really pick up a new goalie in FA before deciding whether or not to give Lehner a qualifying offer -- and if they had given Lehner the QO, they would've been stuck with him for another year. (However, I think they could've traded for Grubauer before making the call on Lehner -- and I'll be interested to see whether Grubauer turns out to be the good one that got away -- since it only cost a mid-2nd plus eating Orpik's contract.)

Those meatheads are pretty funny.

I found myself wondering the same thing. There's a streak of jingoism in hockey culture generally that I hope our GM is smart enough not to be influenced by. Separately: it looks like Samuelsson, although he was named captain of the US national team for his age group, did not make the 2018 US World Junior team. Is this something to be concerned about? Or just normal for his age?