apuszczalowski
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Posts posted by apuszczalowski
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I believe thats still all on Quinn from what I have been told............Most of it. I know that Regier did not fight to keep Briere despite the fact that Ruff wanted him to.
I'm not going to argue with you on that, the biggest issue has never been that they were let go, but that they were never replaced. Quinn and Golisano just filled their spot with guys already in thier systemThat's the thing, though. Their trade value was sky high. If you don't want them on the team or if you don't know if you do, you sign them anyway then trade them. The Rangers would have traded for CD. You don't just let them walk and get nothing.
Did we let Lydman and Tallinder walk, as well, or did we trade them? I don't remember.
Both were signed as FAs by their current teams (Ducks and Devils)
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You also can't say that Drury and Briere would have had the same careers since leaving Buffalo that they had if they stayed. Drury might still be playing, and maybe Briere would have worked as a #1 centre here. The Flyers have had plenty of other options that he wasn't needed in that role there, and drury is out because of injuries.Can't really blame him for the Hasek situation, like you imply. He definitely gets some blame on Drury and a ton on Briere, as far as I'm concerned. And he could have gotten a deal done with Michael Peca, too, if we want to get into ancient history.
And as i was corrected before here, Black Sunday wasn't Regiers fault, that was Quinn and Golisano who take the blame.
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C'mon, you can cherry pick 11 forwrads off of any other team in the league to make 5 goals to compare them to Kassian also, right?Kassian: 9 games 5 goals
Foligno, Ennis, Stafford, Hecht, Ott, Grigorenko, Kaleta, Gerbe, Scott, McCormick, Ellis 82 games....5 goals
Vancouver: Leading their division
Buffalo: Last in their division
20% of the way through the season.......
You can have the prettiest face, and hottest rack in the sorrority......but if you have a heart defect, you end up dead. We traded away our mitral valve for a tummy tuck and botox........
Probably about 70-80% of the people hereMost likely. It really comes down to Roy and Kassian or Hodgson and Ott. Foligno was going to be here either way, and I have no idea why Drane listed all those other players, other than to make the loss of Kassian look more dramatic (seriously, who the F expects Ellis, McCormick, or Scott to produce any discernible offense?)
While I agree that the team has suffered since Quinn made those horrible moves to let Drury and Briere leave, I disagree about the full rebuild part. They pretty much replaced the guys they lost with young players in their system, which is what usually happens when teams rebuild. Had they went out and tried to fill those spots with veteran FAs, then I would say its not a rebuild. I would say teh issue with this team is that whomever is the scape goat GM has been in permanent rebuild mode that when they let a veteran player go, they just replace inhouse, and up until probably Regher, Ehrhoff and Ott, they very rarely traded for veterans that were more then a rental at the deadline, most of the players they pickup were guys they hoped were diamonds in the rough that have yet to developWe're still suffering from Black Sunday because we never addressed it with a full rebuild. It's been nothing but band-aids ever since. We create new problems by addressing the current ones.
All of Regier's half-measures have resulted in a team that is never contending and never rebuilding. Are we trying to get younger? Are we trying to win now? Are we trying to just win enough that you can't justify firing anyone?
I've said it before, you can't rebuild with the same GM you've had since 1997 because that would require him to admit that he failed and that it's time to start over. So we never have a plan. We're just hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a little bit of roster turnover every year.
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Exactly, you had to give up something good to get something good, I think the basis of most people arguements here is that Regier (or is it Ruff who is taking all the Regier blame now that Quinns gone?) shouldn't have this team in a position where it has to give up Kassian to try and get this team a Centre. The Sabres were desperate for a Centre and because of it, the only choice was to deal away something of top quality to get something of top quality.You were not going to get Hodgson for unless you traded a quality player for him. We needed a center, the Canucks needed a winger with size, it was going to be Kassian or Foglino. I would love to have Kassian, Foligno and Ott as well, but having a quality center for Vanek and Pommer has really paid off this year so far.
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I never said Hodgson isn't good, or that Luke was better, but for those that want to argue that Vanek and Pomminstein aren't possibly making Hodgson look much better, Up until around this many games last season, Luke was looking really impressive and when taken away from Vanek and Pomminstein, he can't get out of the AHL.........
I think its stupid how fans constantly have to argue every trade to try and prove their team "won" it. This is one of those trades were both teams "won". The Sabres had to give up something good in order to get something good back. I hated the idea that they had to give up Kassian, but theres no way they get anything good for their garbage. The Canucks had a surplus of Centres, and Cody was stuck being a 3rd liner because of the great players ahead of him at that position. The Canucks needed toughness as they were being considered even softer then the Sabres. The Sabres get a young kid with the potential to be a solid #1 Centre who would have never achieved this in Vancouver due to the logjam they had ahead of him. The Canucks get a young "gritty" forward who had the potential to be tough with offensive upside. Both look to be beginning to live up to their potential and its looking like a great move for both teams.
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Luke Adams did it for a while and he isn't good enough to get out of the AHL............
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I hear that while on the Canucks, Hodgson was considered "oversized" but when he got to Buffalo, Ruff made him "undersized":censored: :wallbash: :doh:
My original response gave me the following error: "You have posted a message with more emoticons than this community allows. Please reduce the number of emoticons you've added to the message." There aren't enough emoticons in the world to properly describe the absurdity of those two statements.
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He has been doing ok for them, but hardly anything worth kicking and screaming over losing. I think he was given the A because they still think he can be the guy who started out last season hot, and he is one of the remaining veterans on the team now......He must be doing OK still. The Leafs stripped an "A" off of someone (can't remember who) and gave it to him this year.
As for the others mentioned Bernier and Torres? Is Bernier still in the league? Torres name is only familiar because of the suspensions.
Pailles has been as inconsistent (when Healthy) for Boston as he was here, Pyatt has been bouncing around the league since leaving.
I don't know of anyone (MacArthur is the only really debatable one) that it can be said that they have flourished or reached their expected potential for a long period of time since leaving Buffalo.......
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Yeah, because all of those players who never developped and were ruined by Ruff have gone on to long and propserous NHL careers...........IMO ..Ruff's record in Buffalo speaks for itself......His willingness to throw players under the bus and embarass them publically when they make mistakes is part of the historical record . His system has not and will not work with personnel on the roster (this fact has been true for the past five years)
We were talking about Kassian I believe. Not Ruff. He is prospering now partly because of the differences in system and most importantly coaching .. Cudos to the assistant coaches in Vancover too. IMO
He was never going to prosper in Buffalo regardless of the amount of time he was given to develop/mature in the AHL...
Aside for MacArthurs great start last season, and Kassians 5 games so far this season, who else has gone on to be better with a different coach on a different team?
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Never get the flu shots either and same thing, aside from the occasional cold, in the last few years I missed one day of work because I spend a few hours one night vomitting.I have never gotten a flu shot. I have co-workers who are militant about getting them. Guess who misses the least amount of work each year. It's hype.
I'm sure the flu shots work and are good for certain people and for those who work in certain situations, but I don't think its necessary for the average person working in an average job
I really believe the problem today is that people are becoming too clean. We are covering our kids in antibacterial everything. Virusses are getting stronger because they are adapting to this and working around these sanitizers and antibacterial stuff.
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Congrats, but about a week to early to get one the Sabres baby blanket and Certificate from TP (assuming you had it in Buffalo)New baby boys!
8lbs 2oz, 20.5", healthy and happy (both mom and baby pommer fan #3)
I saw the article about it yesterday and told my wife, she now refuses to go anywhere near the Border with me around her due date. She still thinks the baby is going to be a Leafs fan like her........
(We did have discussions about having to come to a compromise that the Baby will be neither a Sabres nor Leafs, and may have to be a Red Wings fan)
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I thought I had seen/heard before of players sharing rooms sometimes for away games. Either way, at the most, thats what, 30-40 rooms 41 nights out of the year?Here's what I know about teams and hotel rooms and retail space:
1. Everyone at the NHL level gets his/her (in the case of employees) own room; they may or may not want to stay directly across the street from the FNC. (They would still likely bus it around the FNC because the entrance to the team areas is at the rear (they are not going to walk through hostile fans en route to either the game-day skate or the game itself), and they may want more quiet than what a hotel right across from FNC can provide.) They usually leave town as soon as the game is over and do not generally stay overnight after a game. They come in the day before.
2. AAA baseball teams: players do share rooms, and they do not stay in hotels of the same caliber; I think the Best Western on Delaware is a popular destination for many of them.
3. The hotel at Donovan may not have enough rooms for NHL teams, but the Webster hotel will.
4. The Adam's Mark is toast. Good thing the buyer didn't pay much for it. The Embassy Suites, Hampton, and the less expensive hotel at Washington and Chippewa (brand name escapes me) will be just fine, and the Hyatt had better pull its ###### together.
5. If retail space at the Main Place Mall isn't in the right location, I fail to see how retail space five blocks away is, especially in winter. The Main Place Mall is close to so many workers and should be full of shoppers from roughly 11-2 on weekdays, but is not. That may be because it's nothing but dollar stores now; does anyone who lived here in the 90s/early 00s remember what types of stores were in that building then?
The development here in the last eight years has been nothing short of amazing.
As for the Mall, the other issue is that development and retail is getting away from the "Mall" format and more into 'Strip Malls' where each business is located in a strip of stores with all of their access coming from the outside, instead of inside a main corridor. I think one of the issues is that people don't want to park, get out of their car and walk around inside a building to get to only one store, they want to be able to get in and get out of the store quickly and be on there way (of course this is only my opinion on the matter).
And yes, Rinks can be expensive to maintain if they aren't booked up. I know alot of local multi-pad rinks that are struggling to break even or keep ice on all the pads because they don't have the demand to keep them filled. There really has to be a demand for Ice time to keep it profitable, if there is a shortage of rinks in Buffalo, then there shouldn't be a problem filling ice time outside of prime hours.
The problem with hotels is that the are something thats needed when there is a demand due to an attraction to bring people to the area. You don't build a hotel because you have the occasional hockey tournament once in a while or a one time event. To keep it from struggling, you need something to bring people to the area year round, and thats the one thing Buffalo is lacking right now. Addining more restaurants and Bars to the area isn't going to bring many more people in to the area, there are plenty of dining and drinking establishments in the area for visitors. This could be the start of some good development, but its not going to be something to bring people to the area, thats still whats needed there
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At the most, less then 1/4 of the proposed 200 rooms would be for the visiting NHL team for 41 nights a year (If all teams that come in to play stay atleast one night in town and don't leave right away, and if each player, coach, and employee of that team is given their own room and don't have to share rooms). I highly doubt that any of the traveling teams coming in to play the Bisons are going to stay at somewhere expensive, triple A teams don't have huge budgets and spend alot on accomodations on the road, so if this hotel is more of an "upper scale" place, like one an NHL franchise would use for its players, I doubt a Triple A baseball team will be spending the same.Let's be honest about the new hotel at the Donovan and the proposed new hotel on the Webster block. The visiting team is going to take a big chunk of one of them every game day/night. In the summer I'd wager that the visiting team at Coca Cola Field will take a chunk of rooms there as well. They will both be extremely expensive on any event nights. That's not a bad thing but it is setting more of a new niche in the market, not necessarily replacing one for the other.
As for retail space, you have to put the retail where the people are and where they are going. Main Place Mall was a terrible idea in 1965 and it's not a better idea now as malls around the country are going belly up. IMO, the idea of the Canalside project is to reestablish a commercial district downtown that has basically been killed off over the last 25 years. As the commercial/retail core is restablished, pieces of the old retail core on Main St. can be converted to other purposes such as residential and/or just flat out removed. Albatrosses such as Main Place Mall and the Convention Ctr will probably have to be razed but that's ok because they were mistakes that shouldnt have been built in the first place. If we want a small convention/event center it would make sense down the line to attach it to the FnC - especially with the new commercial district that will have been established (however convention centers are losers and we should really just get rid of it)
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I know Pegula doesn't own teh webster block, but he also isn't currently leasing it from the City either. So in negotiations the Bills are asking that part of the lease agreement includes renovations, they still don't own the stadium themselves, so your saying that Ralph should have to pay to upgrade something he isn't the owner of? Would you pay your own money for repairs and upgrades to an apartment or condo you are renting/leasing or would you tell the owner that they should be paying to upgrade things?And Pegula doesn't own the Webster block, the city does. The upgrades that were part of the Bills lease agreement were already finished. They want another ~$200 million for more upgrades to go along with a new lease agreement.
Yes, I would still be for it. Quinn sucked at running the Sabres, but he was very effective at getting other things done. Another part of my support for the Sabres' proposal is I have faith it will actually be done, whereas I have less faith that Paladino's will be completed--he has other properties he doesn't do a whole lot with.
Yes paldino has some properties that he hasn't done anything with, but he also has stuff that he got done, it all depends, like almost all developpers, on the roadblocks in place holding them back. If his proposal is approved, I would have just as much faith in him getting it done as I do TP doing it because when developpers get approvals to do what they want that helps them make money, they do it. This is a high profile, big reward investment, without any roadblocks, it will get done.
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Ralph doesn't own his stadium, the county/government owns it and its part of their lease agreement.The bolded statement really sums it up for me. You're fundamentally against giving money to Pegula.
Serious question: are you OK with the taxpayers fronting $200 million to billionaire Ralph Wilson for stadium upgrades?
If TP had nothing to do with the project and say for example, it was Quinns proposal to build the TP Proposal against Paladino, would everyone here still be in favour of it?
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You could call it art because of the way it piled up as it fell and it becomes an attraction/landmarkWell, there's still the cleanup in the aftermath...unless you think a pile of rubble is more attractive than the skyway...which may be a reasonable position :lol:
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I actually agree with you on this, although I'm not surprised that the majority would side with TPs idea, no matter what it would be. Either option is really subsidising rich investors.That's the thing....the links don't work so I can't see projected tax income or ROI on any projects.....but by the sounds of it, Paladino's is much better for the city. You want people in those spaces 24/7 who will eat and shop in the city. You want the tax rolls of people spending 300K-1MM on condos. You want to put the retail space on the hook by having residential units.....because the untits get killed in value if the retail fails and vice-versa.
I don't want to pay tens of millions to subsidize a billionaire so some kids can enjoy their hobby and open skate. Plenty of other places to put a rink, but not many landmarks where you can fetch that kind of money on condos in the area. I wouldn't pay to rent a loft downtown....and I wouldn't pay a 50% premium to be on a waterfront, freezing my ass off 8 months a year, but if I already worked there, I would think about buying a condo with food and shops below me and 41 Sabres games a 100 foot walk away from me while a few blocks from the theatre district...instead of driving in from Amherst/etc. like many do.
The city/county/state is already caput. I can get you bonds for 5 cents on the dollar of other ice rinks that have failed.
Either way.....it's the blind leading the "I didn't see nuthin'" leading the Hockey Heaven brigade. It would be nice if some outside forces could see value here.
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That cost is basically free if you just stop maintaining it for a few years.......And also the cost of teardown/construction.
At some point maintaining the skyway becomes a sinkhole of taxpayer money. A study published some time ago laid out some pretty staggering numbers. It will have to be decommissioned in the next 50 years. The question is if the city will be ready with a plan and execute before it's too late.
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So thats the story you go with? Sure they are for a 7 year old daughter and not you........Apparently no one else has a 7 year old daughter....
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Will donice! my first two hip shows were back-to-back nights in vegas and phoenix. two completely disparate, polar opposite shows. in vegas, gord downie looked and acted like he was on an acid trip. in phoenix, he was as mellow as a summer breeze off a still ocean. it was amazing. let us know which version of gord you get!
Should be an interesting show, its at the Barracks, part of the old fort for the war of 1812 BiCentenial celebrations. NOTL is putting it on and they are not exactly a young party town so they have strict rules for shutting down at 10, and parking is supposed to be outside the city in farmers fields with buses from what i have heard. The Hip are one of the few bands left that I haven't seen but want to (along with Zeppelin and the original lineup of the Smashing Pumpkins)
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I have been attending less big venue shows recently, probably because I did that alot when I was a bit younger but heres my list
Just saw The Trews (great Canadian band who are from out east but made it big in Niagara) last week in a bar in St. Catharines, also going to catch them in August at a free show in Port Colborne.
I have heard that the next day in Port Colborne its supposed to be the Canadian band The Tea Party, which is a show I haven't seen in Years, but saw MANY times in small bars here in Niagara.
Also about a month or so ago I saw Matt Good at the Rapids theatre (great venue in NF NY, first time there was for the STP show which was amazing)
My Fiance wants me to come with her to see Jim Cuddy (of Blue Rodeo) playing 2 weeks from now about 5 minutes from our house. (I might miss it cause I have a hockey game that night, I bought her tickets to see him in Hamilton earlier this year for Christmas and had her go with her friend cause I also had hockey that night). If they play this summer again in Toronto, i will probably get tickets for us to see Blue Rodeo again too.
I am taking my mom to Toronto so she can see her first big concert, and one that she can die happy after seeing. My Brother and Sister and I bought her floor tickets to see Neil Diamond at the ACC in June, that will probably be my big ticket concert this year.
I have tickets to see The Tragically hip (it will be my first hip show) in Niagara-On-The-Lake the day before Canada Day (Can't be truly Canadian if you haven't seen the Hip on our around Canada Day)
Thats all I can think of at the moment. Still waiting to hear about a lineup for the Friendship festival, might attend that show if its a good lineup
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So now because Gary Roberts disagrees, Hodgson being an issue for the Canucks GM isn't true? And even if it is true, whats the big deal? He had issues in Vancouver where they misdiagnosed his injury, and he was stuck behind a couple of superstars for playing time. I wouldn't be surprised if the Canucks GM had to spend alot of time dealing with him and what to do with him. Its also possible that he is now in a place where he will be happier and won't be an issue the GM has to spend alot of time on. I don't think Roberts was there in Vancouver at all to see what was going on and is only going off of his dealing with him in the offseason, away from the team. no one ever said he wasn't a hard worker, or that he wasn't trying, Gillis just said that he spent alot of time dealing with Cody the last few years. The fact that Cody doesn't want to talk about or look back on his time in Vancouver and dispute the comments from Gillis lead me to believe that theres probably alot of truth to Gillis comments, he wasn't happy there and may have had issues with the Canucks management and now he has moved on and is putting it behind him to start fresh.
But of course, on this board, everything seems to have to be Black or White, with either Cody being a malcontent who (with a demanding father) will constantly be agrevating and complaining to management, or he is a sweet and innocent kid who some evil GM is trying to defame to cover his own behind in a mistake of a deal
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I think it was, as usual, more of the media that determined this was a move for right now then the future. The Canucks GM said yesterday that Kassians type of play and what he can become is something that you don't always find easy, yet Darcy (and many here) believe the same thing about what Hodgson can bring to the team. The Canucks are a team that its beleived have more then enough talent to win it all, but are lacking that grit/toughness, something that kassian was expected to provide when he reaches his potential, along with the skill to score some goals (basically be more then just an enforcer/goon). The Sabres lacked some of this too, but are no where near the same elvel as the Canucks when it comes to skill players, and desperatly lacked skilled Centres, something Hodgson is expected to bring to the table.Add onto that, their trading for Pahlsson earlier that day, and now that they have a more prototypical 3rd line center, the case could be made that he wouldn't be expected to crack the top 3 lines this season, at least at center.
Whether it turns out to have been a good trade LT for Van-City remains to be seen, and in hindsight it is a bit of a head scratcher as to why Gillis wanted a rookie to be the additional toughness on the wing for THIS playoff run, but people here thought Zach would be the 2nd coming of Bertuzzi at a minimum; looks like Gillis got caught up in the 'killer' Kassian hype as well IF this move was made for this season's run.
People seem to be thinking this deal was for this year, but after Pahlsson got picked up and Cody didn't have an obvious fit in the lineup for this season, I'm not certain that this wasn't simply a case of Gillis not seeing a place for Hodgson on the top 2 lines for several years and seeing a chance to pick up a guy that might end up a power forward on a top 2 line in the near future (though obviously not at present). Zach wasn't playing on the top 2 lines in Buffalo, which has a glaring need for that power forward up there, not sure why people assumed he should have been fit into that role right off the bat on a team much deeper at forward.
And, as the 'Nucks don't have a glaring need for a top 2 center for another 2-4 years, and they've clearly managed to draft several good ones, they probably feel confident that they can bring another one into the system by the time he's needed. If Kassian turns out as good as his hype, LT the deal will work out for them. As many stated back on deadline day, this trade could work out for both teams.
Gillis is now pointing out random reasons to get rid of Hodgson, but had he kept Hodgson and Daniel didn't get concussed AND the 'Nucks still went out in the 1st round (quite possible, they were 1-1 with Daniel in the lineup) then he's trying to explain why his team had ~7 centers on it and why Hodgson was playing C on the 4th line or out of position at W on the 3rd line.
Kassian and hodgson both may have been able to bring something now to their teams, but the real deal was for the future potential in each. Or maybe Gillis is a fan of this board and has read how its all Lindys fault and that he ruins players of their potential and thought just the change of scenery with a new coach would change things for Kassian and bring back the "killer" in him. (from what it sounds like in earlier interviews with kassian, I don't know if he wants to be that kind of player everyone else expected he would be, he wanted to be more of a player known for his skill and goal scoring, not for throwing around checks and hits
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This debate all depends on what side of the fence your sitting on with management and this move. If you loved this move, your gonna brush off the comments by teh GM and say that they are just a guy trying to save face and fabricate something for the media to cling to. If your against the move, or not completly sold on it yet, your gonna believe that he is an immature problem child/lockerroom cancer who the Canucks couldn't wait to deal.
I really doubt that Gillis is making this stuff up and just trying to save face. You hear about it all the time that some players can be a hand full (and with some of the younger ones, its their parents that are a handful) and it gets to the point where they become too much of a distraction and its better to let them go. I don't get what this issue with hodgsons dad had to do with any of this, except that maybe he might be the type of person who is controling. But I think it was widely known that Hodgson saw the writing on the wall that he was a 3rd liner for the next few seasons (barring injury) due to the guys playing ahead of him and he wanted out. The Canucks had a valuable assett at the deadline and saw Buffalo was in need of this assett, and Buffalo had something that the Canucks wanted and might be willing to move. You can't always trade away your garbage and get a superstar in return, usually it takes something of value to get something of value in return. The Sabres felt they could give up what kassian could bring to the table cause they felt they needed what Hodgson could bring to the table more.
I also doubt that Regier would have any idea if Hodgson was a handful to deal with when he made the deal, i doubt private meetings/dealings between players and NHL GM's are spread over the league. Its possible that the Canucks dumped a possible cancer/headache on the Sabres. its also possible that his issues won't be issues here like they were in Vancouver and he could thrive here.
Having a father making moves for you isn't a first in sports, look at the NFL where Peyton & Eli Mannings dad Archie was dictating where Eli was gonna play and where he wasn't. Haven't heard that Archie has been a problem for the Giants GM since that issue
Kassian to Vancouver for Hodgson
in The Aud Club
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