Drunkard

Then you hold onto the player until you get a better offer. The Avalanche did that with Duchene and ended up with a top 5 pick. I do think there's a good chance that the Pegulas were still pissed at him for his alleged drunk driving dust up right after signing his big contract and it's certainly possible that his Eeyore attitude in the end of season interviews may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but it's on Botterill to explain to them how setting an arbitrary deadline to get him out would hurt the team.

O'Reilly wasn't a quitter by any stretch. Berglund (the guy Botterill saw enough value in to trade for him) was the quitter. Even if O'Reilly did ask for a trade it was done privately. Whether it happened or not though is almost irrelevant. The guy was under contract. He's doesn't get moved just because he asked and he certainly doesn't get moved on some arbitrary deadline when the value coming back is garbage. It was public knowledge for almost 2 seasons that Duchene wanted out of Colorado but the Avs GM didn't let that force his hand into accepting a garbage return. That's on Botterill, even if the Pegulas told him they wanted him traded (which we don't even know for sure) because as the newly hired subject matter expert on running the team, he should have better explained to his bosses that trading our cow for magic beans would set the team back. I also find it difficult to see any cap space saved as some positive when the guy in charge of using that cap space thought it was wise to spend cap space on guys like Berglund and Sobotka. There wasn't even any cap space saved for last season when the trade happened and the only reason we saved any space at all last season or this upcoming season is because Berglund ran home with his tail between his legs.

My next take will be even more rational when he trades Ristolainen away for another handful of magic beans. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to watch Ristolainen play for the Cup next season for Tampa Bay while we get to discuss how great it was that we got JT Miller, Ryan Callahan, and some other garbage camp dump plus a late round first for a prime aged right handed defenseman under a solid contract who can be counted on to stay healthy and put up 40 points of offense. I can't wait.

No, you just proposed that we trade Risto, Sheary, Asplund, Thompson and a 2020 2nd for him even though he only has one year left on his contract. Then you said you'd offer a guy who won league MVP just 2 seasons ago an under market value contract, as if there would be any chance in hell that he'd even entertain the offer.

Those people must not have noticed Botterill's track record of not drafting a single player from the CHL in the last 2 years. Especially given how many talented players there are coming from the US National Team in this draft, I'd practically bet my house that he won't be drafting Dach.

Hall doesn't want to stay in Jersey because they aren't good and you think he's going to sign a 8 year deal to play in Buffalo? Let alone sign here for a discount.

You miss a lot of important stuff when you're busy killing rats in the basement.

Who's butt hurt by O'Reilly? I'm rooting for him and the Blues to beat Boston. I'm angry that we have a General Manager that made a moronic trade that destroyed our center depth for some magic beans. The only reason it still bothers me is because he hasn't been fired so he's still around to make more stupid decisions.

I could say the same about Berglund, Sobotka, and Thompson and that collection of bums can't even measure up to a bad day for O'Reilly. That late first rounder better turn into a clone of Mark Messier.

Good thing we got that loser off the team.

I wish the Democrats could unite the way the GOP does. Republicans seems to be able to huddle up together and all agree on 2 or 3 talking points that they all hammer into the ground whether its on taxes, terrorism, war, guns, abortion, private school vouchers, or whatever. The Democrats have an opportunity to re-brand/spin these tariffs by calling it a Trump tax increase on consumer spending or something along those lines but they seem intent on trying out liberal or out "woke" each other, rather than uniting under a common banner. Messages (correct or not) gain traction through repetition. If the two dozen Democratic Presidential candidates could all regurgitate the same talking point about the Trump tariffs/trade taxes it would get repeated through all the various networks of the media and start to sink in with the American public.

I think it will be highly unlikely because I think Trump will be the first sitting President to pardon himself on his last day in office. That won't stop states like NY or FL from possibly charging him with whatever, but it should put an end to any federal charges.

I honestly haven't followed the draft enough to make an informed choice. I'd prefer a center over a winger or defenseman (we need more depth there) and I prefer a good skater and based on what little I've read a ton of players are relatively equal around the spot we're picking so BPA will be more about preference/style more than an actual talent gap between one guy and the next. Given Botterills track record I don't think he'll be picking a CHL guy but I guess we'll see soon enough.

Do you think he and Montour can hold down the top pair this season? Based on the current roster that's how I'd slot them at this point, but I prefer not to rush him into top pairing duties. I just don't see who else we can put there.

I agree on Dahlin. I'd rather not treat him like Ristolainen and throw him in the deep end before he's ready. Ristolainen would be amazing on the 3rd pair, especially if he still got power play time to produce offensively. I obviously value him more than you do and that's fine. I also hope we keep him because I'm curious to see how Krueger would slot him and whether he'd follow the same path of every other bozo who has coached this team since Lindy Ruff or if he's find a way to use him to his strengths. I guess we'll all find out what happens over the next few months.

I hope I'm just crazy/paranoid but that's my fear, mainly because I want to keep Ristolainen. He's not strong defensively but I think his metrics would look a lot better if they didn't keep him in over his head in the deep end of the pool for 20+ minutes every night. 40 point defenseman in their primes who manage to stay healthy don't grow on trees and it always seems harder to find guys for the right side. He's also on a solid contract. If they could just get to the point where Dahlin and Montour carry more of the load defensively I think Ristolainen could thrive as more of an offensive specialist. They've basically been treating him like Shea Weber in his prime since he was a rookie though (through multiple GMs and even more coaches) and his track record has proven that he's simply outmatched for that type of role.

My bad. I considered the 2nd to be one of the middling pieces. I have no problems with the Skinner trade and I actually liked the Sheary trade as well even though he didn't produce as well as I had hoped (I thought he'd play in top 6 consistently and score 40+ points but it was still a good move). Kane had zero trade protections though (same with O'Reilly) while Skinner had a full no trade clause so the situations are different. Botterill could have traded Kane at any time including before the season started but he chose to play the long game in order to try to squeeze his 4 pieces price out of someone before time ran out on him. Skinner had full control over if/when he would get moved and due to geography he basically said trade me to Toronto or Buffalo or I will stay in Carolina for the duration of my contract. Toronto had zero cap space after backing up the Brinks truck for Tavares and knowing that Matthews and Marner needed new deals so the Carolina GM only had 2 choices. Trade him to Buffalo for something or keep him and watch him walk at the end of the season for nothing. I think that makes Botterill more fortunate than shrewd but he definitely won the trade. The whole Botterill special is probably over the top because (so far) I think only the Kane and O'Reilly deals fit this mold (with the O'Reilly being admittedly much worse in severity) while most of his other trades including the Skinner, Sheary, and Pominville have been completely different but I have a bad feeling that he's going to revert back and try to do the same thing with Ristolainen. Instead of building a defense that can put Ristolainen into an offensive oriented role, he's going to trade him for a basket of lesser pieces and cap dumps. I could totally see the Botterill special resulting in us trading Ristolainen to Tampa for: Miller (mediocre center to try to fix his O'Reilly mistake) Callahan (really a cap dump that many will try to spin as a valuable depth player like Berglund and Sobotka ) Late 1st (because it wouldn't be the Botterill special without a late first) Some mediocre prospect who is their 5th or 6th best guy similar to Tage Thompson

The O'Reilly trade was definitely worse but both trades are cut from the same cloth because in both trades we gave up the best player for a bunch of middling or bad pieces (The Botterill Special). The fact that Botterill held his ground because he let it leak out earlier that he wanted 4 pieces including a first in the deal and he was hell bent on holding to that price while the clock was ticking ultimately resulted in having to take the best deal he could get before the deadline hit, but that doesn't mean it had to go that way. Without requiring a first maybe we would have gotten a better prospect than Danny O'Regan. Or maybe once he determined that either he didn't want Kane or that Kane had no interest in staying here he could have traded him before the season started. It's logical to assume a full season of Kane would have been worth more than 17 games of Kane.

New underestimate the appeal of the mystery box. Botterill can't resist the appeal of a late first round pick and his preferred approach of trading quarters for nickels and slugs (Kane and O'Reilly trades). Someone will dangle a mediocre center with 2 cap dumps and a 1st in front of him and we can watch as Zach Bogosian plays in the top 4 (if he's healthy).

I never watched a single minute of this show until the girlfriend and I started watching it about 3 weeks ago. We binged it and finished the finale earlier this week. Overall the quality did seem to decline towards the end and I wasn't a fan that they shortened the final 2 seasons by a few episodes each, but I enjoyed it overall. I was more disappointed in the battle against the Night King than I was about the actual ending but given that I've never read the books and I basically binge watched it over a few weeks I wasn't nearly as invested in it as I would be if I had been watching one episode a week and waiting for years, so I'll chalk a personal win up to procrastination.

I'd prefer Rodriguez over Olofsson just because Mittelstadt is green enough on his own. I'd probably put Olofsson with Eichel and Skinner (if he gets re-signed) and Olofsson earns a spot on the big club to start the season. Then as LGR recommended put Reinhart with Mittelstadt and than have either Rodriguez or some veteran who is better than Rodriguez on the other side.

Good man. I'll make sure to send you an evacuation notice before the locusts, plague, and zombies are released upon your town as long as you don't tell your neighbors why you're leaving.

I'm already at maximum hate for Boston and have been for years. I'd root for ISIS over Boston as well as Hitler, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and the Devil himself.

Fair enough. Thanks for explaining. We'll never agree but I understand the mindset. I think my hate for Boston trumps everything else because I can see no situation where I'd root for them.

Thanks. I guess it somewhat makes sense then in a SEC, ACC, BigTen type pride sort of sense to some people but I still don't get it. I met a guy once who was from Buffalo and was a Bills fan who also claimed to hate the Patriots* but then would root for them in the Super Bowl because they were an AFC-East team. It boggles my mind. I told him if he roots for the Patriots* to win against random teams (Rams, Eagles, or whomever) then he can't really honestly claim that he hates the Patriots*. If anything, he likes them, just not as much as he likes the Bills.