dudacek

Moulson 29 Hodgson 44 Ennis 43 Ott 20 Girgensons 22 Stafford 34 Foligno 19 Leino 15 Flynn 13 D’Agostini 11 Ellis 6 Scott 1 Are you in middle school? 😜 And Moulson got traded and only played 44 games. I think we’ve kinda flushed those teams from our memories.

Crazy thin, Chad was pointing out it’s a growing issue, and may not be a quick fix given Kevyn’s propensity for missing or burning 2nd rounders. We need a few of the pro guys to start hitting so it won’t matter as much.

The pod also had some interesting tidbits on Danforth and Doan. I’d have to re-listen for the particulars, but the gist was that they are at the high-end of NHL forecheckers; I think they said Doan’s retrievals per 60 were at a stand-alone level, almost literally off the charts.

I’ve heard this from a few informed sources. There’s a minority opinion out there that the great unwashed may have an inflated view of Peterka and don’t know how good Kesselring is. Even most of these people still think JJ is the best player in the deal, so it was interesting to hear Fairburn - the most credible of the Sabres beat guys - say it may end up being Kessel. Wishful thinking I’m sure, and I’ve had a lower opinion of Peterka than most.

Is this edit also true?

Yes, things seem to be going rather well on the contract front. The Sabres had potentially one of the bumpiest contract situations in the league and I’m starting to see Adams has actually done a pretty good job of negotiating it so far. Better cap minds than me did a good job of showing last year during the Skinner buyout talks how the Sabres would actually be in a rather precarious position under the cap this year given all their pending RFAs. Priority one was getting a framework in place with Byram, Peterka, Quinn, and McLeod in order to get the starting point needed to chart his course of action, which clearly he was able to do. Then he needed some certainty before July 1 with at least one of his 2 difficult negotiations, which he got with the Peterka trade. He then neatly knocked off Quinn and McLeod early, and to reasonable deals to avoid distractions while shuffling the fringes of the roster to free up the cap space to ensure he kept his leverage with Byram. He added the big right-handed shutdown D, 3rd goalie option and forechecking badgers he wanted, and dumped a couple of role-playing too-pricey roster failures. Now he can deal with Tuch and Levi at his leisure while still being able to complete any further tweaking after the Byram situation settles. On some level it’s actually been a solid bit of business. He may have actually had a plan and has mostly executed it. Too bad on the hockey level it doesn’t appear to have included any appreciable roster improvement.

it does put them over the cap by $2.5M. They waived Nick Leddy, who makes approximately the same amount, in order to create space.

I think JBD was let go with Adams believing he could get an equal or better player at the same price with no risk of arbitration. Jones ended up being that guy. We'll see if he's right.

As far as the saving/creating cap space in order to deal with the Byram situation I'm not going to let my skepticism about Adams blind me to the fact that keeping enough flexibility in order to deal with whatever may come is actually a prudent course of action. The more I parse through the variables there in terms of offer sheets and trade packages, it's pretty easy to see the wisdom. Where the BS meter kicks in to overdrive is the fact that chances are good they won't trade Bo for a $12M cap hit return. And what if the return only carries a $6M hit? Does anyone think they will use the rest of their space to further improve the roster? Adams has set himself up smartly under the cap, but it's not the first time he's done that. And every time before this he has failed to use the space his manoeuvring has created to its full advantage. I'll believe this time will be different when I actually see it.

I really think you guys are missing the crux of the JBD discussion. Adams called him an 8 and treated him like he's an 8. If JBD is just that — another in a long collection of Adams blueline tweeners — he made the right call. If he is a clear step above Bryson, Johnson and Jones and a serviceable #6D, then the board is right and Adams ***** up. It's not really about anything other than player evaluation.

They're fully able to match a $7-9M sheet and should be willing. If a team is stupid enough to go higher, they should take the picks because Byram isn't worth 2 1sts, a 2nd and a 3rd, and those are assets they can flip for what he wants. If Adams doesn't stand firm it's because he's weak or Terry won't spend. Stubbornness, poor evaluation and hubris are three demonstrable Adams traits, but this is the guy who rode out the Eichel storm for months. I don't perceive him to be weak. And I suspect ego will override EEE for Terry if someone drops an offer sheet.

You and me both. I think the issue is not value right now, its fit. Adams believes he has both leverage and interested suitors but he's not holding an auction; if he was, he would have already flipped him for the best pick/player/prospect combo But I think he has a specific kind of return in mind and is trying to get it; it's what he did for Eichel and what he did for Peterka. That's harder, because it involves cap and rosters instead of liquid assets. And he may lose value in the process.

Oh, I would be shocked if they didn't get more than Mittelstadt at the time we traded him, and considerably more than Mittelstadt right now, at least in terms of value.

Not disagreeing with the concept. But right now, Matty Beniers and Ryan McLeod might roughly be the same player. Last year McLeod was better.

Matty played 3 more games than Power last year and had 3 more points. Still a lot of seasons to be played but right now Power seems like the better choice to me.