thewookie1

I'd love to get Denault; he's be by 2nd target behind Cirelli due to his play style.

I highly doubt that Reinhart + #8 will be needed to get Monahan. If that's what they want for him then we'd be better off taking Bozak off the Blue's hand or something like that. I'm not going to cut off my arms to get a nose.

Vanek would of possibly played with or against Kopitar at some point seeing as they were both from smaller hockey programs, Austria and Slovenia. Why wouldn't an NHL GM ask a player about their opinions on potential draft picks? Its more information and every bit counts. A. Scouts can't see every possible player B. Players have a more personal interaction with prospects as they may be peers. C. Character References never hurt For instance, I would think that Botts would of asked Jokiharju about Kahun before trading for him as they had been roommates the year prior with the Blackhawks. Depending on Jokiharju's character and his response you can certainly gain insight on Kahun in ways a scout would be unable to get. If he says Kahun barely rolls out of bed to go to practice, plays Fortnite at 6 hours a day, and eats a straight diet of Snickers Bars and Pepsi yet somehow still can play you would garner great amounts of character information. If Vanek, having only played one year in the AHL, said he should go get Kopitar and Darcy's scouts gave similar ideas then he should of tried and got up there to get him. The fact that Vanek went out of his way to tell this to his literal boss tells you that he must have a good reason to do so.

If Pieterangelo leaves and ROR doesn't get the C I could certainly imagine him being at least grumpy.

Is he still there though?

The only way Buffalo should be taking Zucc is either in some way with Okposo going the other way or 50% retention and some kind of prospect or pick. Scratch that, he has a NMC

Their fanbase needs to suffer to earn it essentially. They can't just waltz into the playoffs year after year. Buffalo has suffered, Vancouver has suffered, Washington and St. Louis suffered through down years and terrible let downs and then finally won their respective Cups. Most fanbases have felt the sting of missing the postseason, of losing players, bad contracts, etc. Vegas was given a silver platter of an expansion draft and has had absurd amounts of success already. Let me say, I do like Vegas, they have a great looking arena from what I can see and a very solid team; however I don't feel their fans deserve a Cup.

Problem is that this doesn't help Tampa. We'd be giving them 3 more RFAs

Kinda sad as that leaves us with Tampa, Boston, the Isles and likely Philly as Eastern Conference candidates. Doesn’t leave me many teams to root for. I hate Boston, dislike Philly, and really not fond of Tampa. The Isles aren’t terrible but they have rather boring games. As for the West, we have Vegas and Colorado, already through and neither are teams I like as one has barely existed and thus doesn’t deserve a Cup and the other somehow always got lucky with any draft pick they acquired and got to have an inadvertent tank year without any residual problems. Then we have Dallas who is both boring to watch and will always be undeserving until we win a Cup. Calgary which I actually like but want more trade possibilities. St. Louis is a huge no from me as I will always despise ROR having success regardless of if he forced his way out or not. And Vancouver just angers me because Quinn Hughes doing well only makes media and people alike talk down on Dahlin. Plus they make a risky trade and it worked out versus practically any risk we take explodes in our faces. I guess Isles vs Avs would be a weirdly interesting Final to me. As at least I don’t hate Compher or Zadorov.

I think he's likely to bounce back as his career has shown.

Something doesn't quite add up, I used your salaries exactly sent Ruotsaleinen down and even at 5mil for the 2C I still have 1.3 mil in cap space. (I did include the 1.5mil penalty) It likely stems from you saying we have 31 mil in cap space to start when we actually have just under 34.5mil

My theory is either Botts was hoping he could take over RORs spot in stride or that Mitts agent threatened that without a signing that he’d just wait until he could flee.

I disagree fervently, he's a former 8th OA pick and under 22 years of age with skill, as seen in the WJC. I don't expect a team to bend over backwards to acquire him but he'd still retain value via potential and his theoretical upside versus what he has done thus far.

I wouldn't be happy as he isn't a center nor does he bring any skill set we don't already have. You need top 6 players certainly but they need to differ in specialty at very least. Hall and Skinner are far too similar in terms of streaky goal scorers only Hall is a better playmaker at least. Let's just pretend, Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart Olofsson-Cozens-Hall I see high scoring potential but simultaneously a youngster being thrown to the wolves again, and very little in terms of grit besides the youngster mentioned prior. Defensively again we'd be entirely depending on Eichel and a rookie with Reinhart and Olofsson as their primary winger defensively. We need a Cirelli(Selke) or a Tkachuk(Gritty Power Forward) type far more than another soft skilled guy no matter how great he could be. Even if it worked in the regular season we'd be massacred in the playoffs every time as our guys would just be out muscled.

Canadiens in I believe 93

I wonder if we should look into Gonchar?

It wouldn’t be approved in the planning phase by the NHL; so it would be a mute point.

Tried that before.... no thanks.

Well that would certainly put the fanbase in a tailspin. If they are that broke on liquid assets then they should sell the team to another Buffalo owner.

The big problem with using pick 8 is the loss of a major asset in acquiring a 2C which by far are most important need.

I’d disagree about Kane and Lehner. Kane had requested out and was at odds with the team’s management. So his value should of dropped some. Bogosian was a toss up who had dropped into healthy scratch with awful contract and a random goalie. We traded a former Calder trophy winning freak dman with warts but still very useful. A rental in Stafford worth a 2nd, a late 1st, the 31st pick from the year prior and a former 1st rounder in Armia. It was very one sided then and only worsened as time passed.

Yes he did but it doesn’t matter if you make $100 if you immediately use it to buy overpriced goods for $100. His biggest flaws was marrying himself to specific players versus a type of player, seemingly not understanding team chemistry, and completely destroying Rochester.

I’d say the more correct notion would be Murray overpaid in his attempt to hasten the rebuild. 2 2nds for Fasching Myers, Stafford, a 1st, Lemuiex and Armia for Kane, Bogosian, and Kasdorf A 3rd for Vesey’s rights A 1st for Lehner and Legwand (capdump that turned out good)

Cut out the actual info to conserve space lol. I doubt that Calgary would accept that trade seeing as over on capfriendly they seem to think those two are worth Eichel somehow. The lightest I could see is Monahan, Gaudreau and CGY's 1st for Reinhart, Montour, Mitts, and BUF's 1st and our 2021 2nd Effectively CGY moves up at least 9 spots in the draft in that situation.

No, maybe after 3 OTs I could accept it but the NHL playoffs are the best of all sports and part of that is the OT format.