thewookie1

You never liked the tank anyway so I don’t put quite the same amount of emotional weight on your opinion looking back on it. I honestly don’t see a scenario where Buffalo ends up better without Eichel

@NHLRumorsDaily is surprisingly pretty good at breaking stories. He says the Hall front has become more heated as of late between Florida and NYI with Toronto sort of sitting in the 3rd slot. Lou wants Buffalo to drop the cost as he hates trading 1sts. Meanwhile Buffalo seems to be holding rather firm while still being willing to negotiate.

Ok, now that I listened to it in full I can say that she isn't at fault but I am seriously curious where this slander is coming from. Eichel means a ton to many Sabres fans because we literally tanked 2 seasons to assure at least getting the guy. Trading him is like being told the last 10 years worth of suffering were literally for nothing.

Never said they shouldn't. I just don't see any value in using 20/20 hindsight to supposedly "correct" their picks. Get better scouts

But that is what I'm getting at. If you draft the consensus pick and they bomb then you are average. You can be much better or worse than average but average in terms of who you draft and when would be based on the player's consensus thoughts not that of the future. We may actually be arguing completely different topics. I'm trying to say that their picks were average or below average at the time they drafted said player. The scouts did a bad job finding the best players yet came to similar conclusions to the public consensus. So whatever the public consensus was is the basis of their picks in the immediate time. Our scouts failed to do anything special but they did accomplish the bare minimum of their job description.

The biggest problem with anything like this is there are far too many variables not being taken into account. Was Tom Wilson seen as far better than Grigorenko or Girgensons at the time? Hindsight is 20/20 and judging their drafting based on what we know 4 years or more after the point is rather pointless. Nylander over Sergachev, McAvoy, or Chychrun is a solid criticism because even at the time it was deemed a risky/disliked pick. Reinhart was ranked higher than Draisital in most scouting lists. Grigorenko was considered by central scouting to be better than all but about 5 players overall. While this does mean their scouting failed; it isn't as if they drafted random players that a large number of other teams wouldn't of taken. We have an average to below average track record. But that's it.

Friends of friends, esc. If the team were winning, you would never hear anything about minor character concerns. I highly doubt Rachel Dorrie lives in a bubble and doesn't have a team she personally likes as well. For instance, any Rangers or Kings fan would love this because they want Eichel cheap like how we sold ROR. (Who also supposedly had character problems....) Another angle is clicks/views for the podcast. Saying Eichel might be a problem is far more interesting to a listener than Eichel is a stand up guy who's good to a fault. The only way I ever trade Eichel is out of the Conference and for immense amounts of assets. I don't care if he's a plague upon the Earth; if we trade him cheaply and he takes off again in his new home; Buffalo will only continue further into the doldrums and even greater external mockery. The ROR trade haunts us like a specter and every fanbase belittles and insults us over everything we do. Trading Eichel for anything short of that Kings offer from the Athletic would be nothing short than grounds to just give up and walk away or quite literally marching on the arena French Revolution style and bringing out a guillotine. Essentially Eichel either has to succeed/fail in Buffalo for the Sabres to save even an ounce of credibility. Also I block the number of any Eastern Conference team that dares ask about acquiring him.

I saw a Leaf proposal I'd like analytical analysis on. Hall(50%) for TOR's 1st and Kerfoot

lol, they just want him to go cheaply to a larger market.

It's a statement to the league that he won't just give up in the 11th hour. He has no real background presently to other GMs and they will all want to test his resolve. If he asks for a 1st, and ends up with a 3rd because of desperation other teams will understand that he'll fold if you wait long enough.

I would hope in that case Adams doesn't trade him and then actually tells the fans that the offers he was given were terrible. "The offers for Hall never approached above a 3rd round pick so I decided that rather than settle for peanuts; I would hold onto Hall until the end of the season. My GM counterparts need to understand that I am willing to negotiate but I am not willing to just give players away."

I honestly just don't understand how its a buyers market with so few sellers.

Nothing new there.... he deserves nothing yet gets rewarded.....

Sadly we have to get to the playoffs next year; the last thing Buffalo needs is another playoff drought record.

I love the type of player he is but he's never turned into the Dman I had hoped for.

Likely his last, I'd buy him out of his last year as buying him out this offseason really doesn't help us cap wise.

Next year I send Okposo to Rochester until about game 50 and then he becomes a potential call up. As we've seen both this year and last, once the defensive style takes hold in an NHL season he seems to suddenly start putting up points.

I also thought of Risto for Brown and a 1st. Mainly for a heavy playing vet from the region and to replace Risto’s grit. Trading Risto merely for a 2022 2nd is nothing short of a throw away with the questionable belief we’ll be noticeably better without him.

Would you trade: Risto for Dustin Brown and a 2022 2nd?

GMTM wouldn't of done that. Based on how the draft board broke down there however I would of drafted Sergachev and likely traded Risto in that case.

That would be my hope. He's certainly competent and seems like a capable practice runner as well.

Never have liked that type of system. Plus the NHL would never do it as it would reduce the points overall

Just go 3-2-1 3 Reg Win 2 Win in OT/SO 1 Loss in OT/SO SO's are literally only around to break the awful ties Another WIN!!!!

Okposo is 10x the player Hall has been this year.

Trading Risto in 2016 would of meant we had to have made judgement on his entire career after 2.5 seasons on a pair of tanking teams. Defensemen > Wingers in importance. That would of been borderline insane to trade our best young dman, with little in the system to replace him, for a great winger. They must of missed him, or perhaps he was already down low upon the save. The defenseman from the point can't go down low but one already down low doesn't have to leave.