nfreeman

No. Like Nick Foligno or Milan Lucic or Brad Marchand, all of whom were drafted in 2006 after Darcy picked Dennis Persson, or Martin Hanzal or TJ Oshie or James Neal or Marc-Eduard Vlasic or Paul Stastny or Adam McQuaid or Kris Letang, all of whom were drafted in 2005 after Darcy picked Marek Zagrapan.

Yes indeedly. I expect JBott knows this too. I don't think the plan will rely on Ullmark.

I think you are overstating matters here. The 2010 and 2011 teams were flawed and lacked heart in the top 6, but they were solid, playoff-caliber teams (and a division winner in 2010) with excellent goaltending and coaching, and pretty good scoring (9th in goals in 2009-10). Those teams were a couple of pieces away. They did not need a panic teardown, which is what they embarked on after missing the playoffs in 2012 and starting poorly in 2013 -- and here we are, DFL again.

Voluntarily? That would be career suicide, so I'm skeptical. This. Holy mackerel would I be psyched for Quenneville. Pretty unlikely as I mentioned above but he is a family man so who knows?

very nice.

Most improved -- Casey Nelson (a sad commentary on the team overall) Most disappointing -- Lehner and McCabe

I agree with both of the bolded. However, both could be addressed by a Reino trade in lieu of an ROR trade. Maybe it will just come down to the trade offers that are made.

Logically speaking, ROR is the most likely trade candidate. - Reino is young, relatively cheap and, despite being slow and inconsistent, he's still got 2 20+ goal seasons in his 3 years. - Risto is a good player in a position in need who's under contract for a while. - No one is trading for KO - Eichel is untouchable. - No one else on the roster would comprise a major move, which appears to be what JBott is interested in. BUT I keep coming back to (i) ROR is a pretty good player at a high-value position who is only 27, albeit a disappointment as a leader and a bit overpaid, (ii) trading him would leave the Sabres pretty young and pretty thin at center and (iii) JBott has said a number of times that he's not going to trade ROR. So that brings me back to trading Reino, Risto or both -- especially because it would seem that Reino has rescued his trade value with his strong 2nd half. We'll see.

Well, that really sounds like a major move is in the offing.

Serious question: do you not feel welcome here? You seem to post regularly, at least recently. I haven't noticed any issues with your conversations, but I could've missed something.

Please post quotes showing people attacking you for being LQ’s/RB’s mouthpiece. If there are none other than AudSmell’s recent speculation, is it possible you’ve overreacted? As for your comments about the mods — are you saying that we should be monitoring twitter and making sure that posters here aren’t heckling you on twitter? If you’re referring to the recent twitter dustup regarding an alleged trade demand that you and Mike Harrington got into — I don’t think that blogger was anyone here, but I could be wrong. I will also note that I’ve been accused of having quite a few undesirable qualities (as a mod and otherwise), but you’re the first one to say that I’m too “anything goes” as a mod. Anyway, you’re far from banned. I think I and most here would prefer that you participate in the conversation, understanding that hockey talk is greatly preferable to pointless bickering.

Well, Drane has been gone for almost 2.5 years. And JW, before appearing in this thread, hadn't posted here in almost 2 years. As for the board -- I agree that when there is too much nastiness, it drives people away. Some posters, like XB, DeLuca, Verret, Sizzle and others have left and the board is worse for it. I will say though that I think the average # of members online at any given time has stayed pretty constant, and that we generally try to keep things civil.

If you're referring to Hoppe, that is not my recollection of events. I do not recall any abuse -- just that he was asked a few questions about possible team FA/trade targets that triggered a weird late-night meltdown.

FWIW, my mailbox was indeed full. I've now deleted some stuff and made room in case anyone needs to PM me. 11, like always, was much more of a gentleman than I was, but I too wish JW good luck in his personal and professional endeavors. I will also agree with 11 that JW could've gotten much more out of the board and given much more to the board than he did. There is a ton of knowledgeable hockey talk here. JW could've used some of the observations made and questions raised here in his work, which would've improved its quality. For our part, I think most here would've appreciated the opportunity to have an ongoing dialogue with a guy who is around the team a lot and presumably has knowledge to share. Instead, JW chose to repeatedly engage in weird, over-sensitive late-night beefing with various members. Not sure why, but there we are.

Well, I can't speak for duda, but I'd guess that by "top 4" he means someone around Scandy's level. As a related point: we should all remember that taking Pommer's contract was part of the price for getting Scandella -- so don't be surprised if we end up with another expensive white elephant as part of getting another good defenseman.

Did he really throw a temper tantrum about a couple of people here speculating as to his sources and announce his departure without ever contributing anything useful or interesting? Is it any wonder that local WNY media literally never have good inside information about either the Bills or the Sabres? It's a bunch of incompetents jealously and spitefully defending their rapidly shrinking turf.

This describes my mindset on RPO pretty well.

Chicken, yes. Potatoes, definitely. But not beef, fish or vegetables. Or desserts.

...and the MSM continues to not cover itself in glory on this board.

My son and I thought it was decent; my daughter (who loved the book) and my wife didn't like it.

LTS beat me to it. I will also note that guys like Kadri (and Marchand and Chris Neil) usually have self-preservation radar that is pretty effective -- so even though they are targeted by many guys seeking payback, it's pretty rare for them to take a big hit.

Congrats on the home-cooked PT. However: did I understand you correctly? Did you say that you got a hot tub installed at home and your employer paid for it? Nice benefit!

This. What? Not acceptable. It is part of the canon.

Since he has 26 pts in 48 games, this means he had 9 pts in his 1st 28 games -- so that is certainly an encouraging trend. Nylander-as-Eichel's-triggerman is certainly a SabreSpace thing. Very nice. It's probably not quite that bad though.

I certainly take no pleasure from being a Reino skeptic. And he is very creative and a pleasure to watch when he's dialed in. But we shouldn't pretend that his career hasn't been marked by lengthy ineffective stretches -- including a nice little 6-gamer right before the Nashville game. Or that his good play this year didn't come until well after the team suckitude/no playoffs horse had left the barn. It would be much easier to enjoy his overall greatly improved play since New Year's IF the Sabres didn't have a big decision to make on his contract staring them in the face. Can anyone say that he or she is totally confident we won't see another Stafford situation?