Drunkard

I'm with you. I'd rather have one overpaid "star" then 2 or 3 overpaid nobodies like Leino taking up the same cap space. With all of our youth in the pipeline and top picks to come, cap space shouldn't be an issue on this team for at least 5-7 more seasons.

This doesn't make any sense to me. First, I can't think of any of our players who will be commanding big raises in the next few years, unless you think Murray is going to give Ennis a Hodgson type deal and even if that was the case we'd still have plenty of room to fit Callahan and an overpaid Ennis. Secondly, if you don't want Callahan next year, why would you want him in 3 years when he'd be 3 years older, still commanding a high cap hit, and we're 3 years closer to some of our better prospects like Girgensons, Zadarov, Ristoleinen, and our next 2 1st round tank picks heading towards bigger contracts? Even if we paid Callahan $8 million (which I hope we don't) that's still half a million less than the cap hits of Stafford and Leino combined.

That was a close call with Girgenson's skate on that hit. Too bad it didn't happen against Marchand. Old dick nose would've had a circumcison. Then Girgensons could've billed him for a rhinoplasty.

Finishing dead last next year guarantees us with McDavid or Eichel who is also rated extremely high.

Ok, but how is he on the bottom half of his team if his offensive zone starts are above 50% even slightly? The majority of Carolina's forwards can't be starting in the offensive zone more than half the time, can they? Unless Carolina is some Detroit-esque possession type team where the majority of their starts happen to be in the offensive zone. Maybe I'm just getting it confused or maybe I'm missing something like counting neutral zone starts as offensive zone starts or something like that. I'm no statistician but my educational background is in finance and economics so I've done my share of stats work and number crunching but I guess I'm just missing it. Thinking about it more I guess it's possible but that means Carolina as a team must take more faceoffs in the offensive end than the defensive end. Sorry to harp on this with all the questions it just seemed a little counter-intuitive.

I never posted on any of their boards but I remember you posting a link to one where they were whining about me and my antics. The legends of Sabres fan baby eating, mugging old ladies, etc. are still going strong in Canesland. I remember one time I missed a game in Raleigh because something came up so I wasn't even in the area and apparently I was still spotted out in the parking lots causing problems and instigating fights. Apparently the Ghost of Drunkard did my bidding and went out there to wreak havoc. Good times.

I'm definitely not one to rag on advanced stats but how can he be in the bottom half of the league with respect to other forwards if his ozone starts are over 50%? How can the majority of them (Carolina forwards or NHL forwards in general) get more than 50% of their zone starts in the offensive zone?

I doubt we land McDavid either, but it's definitely possible, especially if we move Miller or stupidly allow him to walk in July for nothing.

I don't trade Enroth unless Miller signs an extension first. If he does, I'd make the deal though.

I went with Blues, Senators, Kings on question 1 and Blues for question 2. I think we trade Ott to the Kings, Miller to the Blues, and Moulson to Ottawa. Blues make the biggest splash with Miller and I'm guessing another trade with another team. We'll see how it plays out though.

It needs more gray first.

This would likely only happen as the draft is going on if a player that a particular team really likes falls further than expected and the team wants to move up and take them. It's definitely possible though.

You mean you don't get excited thinking about how awesome this team is going to be in 2019 when our bottomless pit of 2nd round players finally develop? And you call yourself a fan!

I agree. If we lose Miller we're gonna be bottom feeders for a while. Even if the Islanders deferred and tanked right along with us to a 29th and 30th finish though, we'd only have a 43.8% chance to land McDavid. Plenty of wiggle room for the league to screw us over without anyone other than Sabres fans batting an eye to it. In that case I'd take Eichel though.

It really depends at this point for me. If we can manage to hold on to finish at the bottom and are able to draft Reinhart, I'd prefer the Islanders to give us the pick in 2014 so we can draft another forward like DalColle, Draisaitl, Nylander, or Bennett just because the sooner we start selecting players the sooner they'll be able to play for us whether it's next season or a few years from now. I don't think we'll be drafting top 5 next season unless we move out all our UFA's and don't replace them or worse yet replace them with Leino type acquisitions. If we do that, I'd hope the Islanders defer to give us twice the odds. Call it the eternal pessimism of being a Buffalo fan, but I don't see us landing McDavid even it we end up with the worst record next season. The NHL doesn't even show the damn ping pong ball coming out of the machine to give the appearance of everything being on the up and up, so I imagine one of the favored teams will perform a mini-tank next season due to injuries or something along those lines, land a top 5 pick, and beat the odds to win the "lottery" so I'll take the pick as early as possible.

You forgot to add that he's teaming up with Tedy Bruschi and Chuck Norris to overthrow Kim Jong Un, end Iran's nuclear energy and weapons programs, and bring piece to the Middle East.

Changing the draft system to allow the draft order to be randomized would destroy parity within the league. I doubt they'd be stupid enough to do it but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me.

No worries. He's due for another big season next year since it will be a contract year, ha ha! In all seriousness though, I hope he does break out next year so we can unload his expiring contract for something good at the trade deadline next season.

I don't underestimate the value of veteran leadership at all, I just haven't been impressed with Tallinder this season. He's clearly lost a step and I think we could use an upgrade. I prefer to have an even mix of puck moving, offensive type dmen like Ehrhoff and Myers to go along with hard nosed stay at home types like Robyn Regehr, Jay McKee, and Craig Rivet (back in their primes and later primes obviously). Tallinder doesn't have the grit to play that way and he's way past his shelf life to be an offensive dman at this point. Nothing against him at all. He was a great player for us the first time around. I'm over it, though.

I'll be ready to see him moved at the deadline for a 3rd round pick or something along those lines. The sad things is that's he's scored as many goals as Ehrhoff, Stafford, Myers, McBain, and Grigorenko. Tallinder is decent at best now. His best years are clearly behind him, but he would be a smart pick up by a contending team to fill in if there's an injury.

They need to drag it out so it won't be as fresh in everyone's memory that way there will be less outrage when they give him a slap on the wrist or sweep it under the rug completely.

Yep. Just sugar, water, and purple. Mmmmmm, purple.

Yeah. I left off Chara because apparently climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro once a year for African kids gives you carte blanche to be a dickless masshole on skates with permanent "no history" status. If there was a just and loving god in this world, that piece of s.h.i.t. would die a painful death of ass cancer, but that's just my opinion. As much as I hate Chris Neil seeing him punking Chara a few years ago was the funniest thing I had ever seen until dick nosed Marchand took that knee to his cranium. I mean I hate Shittsburgh as much as anyone, but I'd root for a team from Baghdad before I ever root for that region of Massholes to ever win at anything ever again.

Dirty players like Thornton and Lucic coupled with zero support from the biased joke of a disclipary system are the exact reason players like John Scott still have a place in this league. Thornton doesn't pull that bush league crap against Buffalo unless he's willing to get his face bashed in again by Scott and that's the reason we pay him to play for us.

They'll probably suspend Orpik for being in his way.