obstructedorangeseats

From a personal standpoint, it would be cool, especially if it became affiliated with the Sabres/ended up with some Sabres prospects on the team. But like others have said, I'm concerned about the ability of the area to support it.

Definitely the kind of trade deadline deal I could get behind.

I really hope the two G's prove me wrong, but after years of getting stoked over "MLB ready" prospects and having them fizzle out before they even reached AAA, I've learned to temper my expectations. I will defer to those here more familiar with NHL prospects though, because admittedly I follow them much more closely in baseball than in hockey. I'd agree with you if I didn't feel we were so thin at center. Yeah, G+G could turn out to be NHL ready this year, which would be fantastic, and help solve the problem. But odds are one, or more likely, neither, will be. That leaves Hodgson, Ennis, Ott (who won't even really be playing C other than faceoffs) and McCormick. I don't know about you, but that doesn't make me terribly confident. This is a team that tried to pass off Ville Leino as a center last year. Without decent centers, our team struggles with puck possession and getting into the offensive zone. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Ennis fan and glad he seemed to turn it on last year when mixed with Foligno and Stafford. But adding one more very good-to-elite center to that mix, to me, could help boost our offense more than adding Nash/Ryan on the wing. Sure, it will cost considerably, but if we're paying a king's ransom for Nash/Ryan, why not use that to fill a more pressing need than wing? It would help take the pressure off Ennis and Hodgson, let Ott man the 4th line, and allow G+G development time they likely need. Adam, who I'd like to see get another shot at cracking the NHL lineup, could also hold the line on a 3rd or 4th line until the trade deadline, if Ennis and Hodgson are as capable as some here believe. Regardless, if we're considering that the price for Nash/Ryan as wingers will be high (and Ryan, IIRC, has indicated he wants to play on a team with an established #1 center, making Buffalo an even more unlikely destination), I'm in favor of passing that by and saving those pieces for the trade deadline, when we could have more opportunities available and by that point we know whether any or both of G+G are NHL-level players.

I'd rather see us use the trade pieces for acquiring a center instead of wingers like Nash or Ryan. That's all.

That would be great if he could, but considering his age, I'm skeptical. I'd love for him to prove me wrong though. Substitute "minors" for whatever developmental league he'd end up in then.

I really hope it's Stastny over Nash or Ryan, if we're talking a megadeal. Not saying all three aren't great talents, but Stastny would finally give us a true #1 center, allow Griggsy (can we still do that now that Roy is gone? :P) time to mature in the minors/developmental league rather than forcing him onto the club. I'd still really like to see them give Adam another shot at the big club too. Not necessarily on the 1st line, but it be nice to try and rekindle that Vanek/Adam/Pommers chemistry.

Don't care to wade through months old Twitter archives. Still got them correct, FWIW. And early.

Incarcerated Bob reporting that Parise to the Pens is done and will be announced soon: FWIW, he had Manning to the Broncos, Tebow to Jets, Williams to the Bills, etc. all well before mainstream media did. Has a history of breaking accurate stories. So I'd consider him a very reliable source.

Hysterical to read on Twitter how Boyes' was misused in Buffalo and never got the chance to be a top 6 forward. If nothing else, this has been one of the more entertaining days to keep checking my phone. :P

Seems odd though, no? I'd think he'd want to declare now and weigh offers right away, rather than waiting until teams have already (over)paid for FAs and trades and shortening the list of possible fits. IDK. I'd love to see him in blue and gold though.

It's been the talk of Twitter since late last night. I know ESPN's John Buccigross mentioned about an hour or two ago there will be some Rangers news shortly and tagged it with both #nash and #schultz but I'm assuming he's simply hedging his bets like most of the tweeps. Edit: FWIW, Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Distpatch:

FWIW, Brodeur's agent is also Sidney Crosby's agent...clearly this means Brodeur to PIT. Fleury on the block. /eklund Jinx!

Brodeur has just hired an agent and is going to test the FA market unless a deal isn't in place by Sunday (various reputable outlets but first reported by Darren Dreger).

Yeah, @SabreNoise is pretty good about Sabres news, although I'm unsure as to their reliability for trade stuff. But as others have said, believe at your own risk when it comes to these tweets (twits? :P). Some of the quasi-reliable sources on Twitter say something to the effect that ANA now wants to build a Ryan deal around Ennis and Grigorenko rather than Roy/Stafford/Adam.

Since it is painfully slow news-wise leading up to July 1st, the top Sabres-related Twitter whispers which may or may not be true include: Sabres and Stars talking (possible swap involving Roy and Ott?), Sabres would like to send Roy, Sekera, and picks for Ryan but ANA wants Adam, Stafford, and Grigorenko (really...?), despite blocking the trade to TOR, Luongo is still in play for Burke, and just about everyone thinks they will get Nash. Then again, looking at Columbus' front office, it isn't surprising. @HockeyInsiderr and @NHLGossip are pretty decent follows, but I'm taking everything with an extremely large grain of salt. Like, pretzel size. Or something.

I honestly wondered if the PHI-COL trade wasn't going to develop into a larger move (ala MLB) where we'd see another team jump into the ring with Nash ultimately ending up in Flipadelphia.

Damn. Regier better get on the horn if that is the kind of return a player like Bobrovsky is netting...

Well, Twitter is experiencing a service outage right now. Make of that what you will. :P

Thanks! :) The only other hiccup I'm noticing on Blackberry is that thread pages now load so that the scroll is already at the bottom of the page. I'll keep trying to reproduce this after a battery pull and a cache clear, but so far, no matter what thread I click on, it loads the bottom of the page by default. So I have to then scroll up to the beginning of the page (or at least the last post I read) and then go back down from there. Weird.

Same, when I'm on mobile it's Blackberry, and that's my only complaint. I'd love to be able to jump to a specific page.

Not according to the lines (see the GDT). Leino is centering Gerbe and Kaleta. I tend to agree with this assessment. On the wing, Ennis seems to disappear in a Staffordian sort of way. Since he's been at center (and granted, it may be because I'm paying more attention to him in this new role), I have noticed his presence much more in this new role.

I realize that. My point was rhetorical.

Not necessarily. Vancouver fans, and the NHL media in general, has been labeling Kassian as the Lucic-killer, the piece that was missing from the Canucks' run to the Stanley Cup when they got pushed around by Boston. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch then to wonder why Buffalo, an infamously soft team, would give up that kind of player when it seems like that would be the kind of player they need ('concept' or otherwise).

Maybe he doesn't heed them, but I highly doubt he hasn't been paying attention to the fact that the media has, post-Lucic/Miller, labeled his team as the softest in the NHL. Let alone the talk on hockey message boards. :D