7+6=13

I love love love that trade pulled off with the Wild.

I'm with you that you sign him now, he'll get money now and we'll save 16-32 mil. As Drunkard said above, the worst part is if he gets an offer sheet we have to meet that's 4 years. Then you've cost yourself north of 40 mil.

no, he usually gets it right

He was the guy I wanted and he sure seems like an electric offensive player.

Winter is coming

Exactly right and how much money they make shouldn't dictate what line they play on. That's just how things workout sometimes if you have a young player that's a better fit paired higher.

He does make players around him better even though he's not a passer - he's given plenty of players an assist to post in their stat line.

Your paying $5 mil for a 4th line LW now.

We had 60 combined games missed by our top 4 offensive players. Injuries always happen but that's pretty hard to overcome. I think if that number is cut in half, the additions and the new coaching - we should be a playoff team. We look poised to be one of those teams that the rest of the league thinks comes from nowhere but we'll know it should have been closer to that all along.

I was trying to be funny and obviously failed. It will be interesting who gets the C and A this year.

I didn't say it was all on Bylsma - I said his system and agreed that his chalk board coaching style didn't work. He also managed to lose the locker room and should take the rap for that. Everyone knows player changes were going/needed to happen - that's why the moves are being made. Did you think last years lineup would stay the same? Is Bylsma who'd you rather have coaching this team?

I just don't see Sam being the Captain.

That was pretty amazing work!

I couldn't agree more and the players couldn't escape from it because he was constantly preaching to trust the system. He thought it was a player issue and my hunch is so did Murray. He's a smart hockey guy I'm sure but he couldn't wrap his mind around the concept that the system needed to evolve around the players - not that the players needed to evolve to the system. I know there has to be a system but the system should lend to individual creativity and that's what Dan was trying to shut down.

I like the idea of Brian Cambell - He's the type of vet I think Housley needs.

I went with other and was thinking Kulikov whom I think we may re-sign.

Thats about the right number to drive up the price but not so many to thwart any teams interested.

Saying Murray was a disaster is utterly ridiculous.

I am just absolutely torn about how I feel about the Kane situation. In fact, I've changed my mind back and forth several times. I've read you guys debating stats back and forth (good information), contract stuff, Kane's value, Kane's game, etc. I'm leaning towards wanting to keep and extend him. It's not easy to find a player that puts the puck into the net - he's been a consistent scorer since entering he league - I love that he's just 25 years old.

After watching his interview a few days ago he was the pick I wanted. By the time we flush some of these bad contracts out and Eichel and company enter their prime - kids like this will be ready to make us really good.

I think what Aud is trying to say is - for a little while last night the intensity picked up and it was about to get negative quick. There was a couple back to back comments starting to even question JBot and it was weird. My sense is most fair minded posters in due time realized that damn these contracts we have are really unattractive because the player is really that bad. Not even an expansion team wants Ennis or Moulson - and we didn't "protect" Ennis because we wanted him over Carrier.

As I've admitted above - I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as someone like you but I think Carrier fits the type of player that Buffalo fans just get behind. He's a relentless player that gives you his all on every shift - it's just an endearing quality and his effort especially showed up with what we had to watch last season. However I just think we need to set our standards a bit higher. I really doubt he's going to be a top 9 player on an expansion team.

I see no connection between Ullmark signing and Peterson. The length of Lehner's contract if Peterson hasn't decided first should tell us what we need to know.

You're one of my favorite posters so with all due respect - I just don't see the value there for LV or any team. I think the price to take on Mouson's contract would probably be more like offering our 2nd - they'd say no. They'd ask for our #8 and we'd say no. Obviously I have no knowledge of this and the expansion isn't something many people can be well versed on. I did hear enough conversation that to take on contracts like that LV would want very high picks. They just weren't as desperate as many people originally thought - mainly because there were teams (unlike us) that actually had to expose players that had a significant money contract but were much better player options than Moulson.

C'mon man there's a huge bright side. The Ennis contract isn't that bad in real money but with an additional $1 mil per makes it less cap friendly - I suspect Moulson will be bought out which obviously only saves us 2/3 and extends out 2 additional years but that may have more value than him playing - Gorges is only for one more year and we can use him as a 3rd pair D or the 7th - Bogosian just has to play better, period, he's shown that he can be a good player and Housley's got to get it out of him. We're not in bad shape and if we want Kane we can have him without money being an issue. Keeping Lehner at 4.5-5 million is really where we should be focusing our attention. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying we're without financial flaws in terms of contracts but we're definitely not in a situation that we can't build this team exactly how we choose to. It'll be fun to see how JBot makes his decisions and he'll have plenty of financial flexibility to do so.