dudacek

The Sabres have not. Thompson has. At least as much as any 3rd year player has. Tage earned everything he got last year - persevering through Botterill’s stupidity, Krueger’s idiocy, a serious injury, the ROR backlash, the minors, and his fiancé’s cancer scare - with class and effort. He just fell victim to a mistaken narrative that was tacked to him early on. It’s weird how much people’s opinions are shaped by first impressions as opposed to what they actually see. In his third season Jack Eichel had 25 goals and 65 points and was given $10 million, handed the captain’s C. In his third season Tage Thompson had 38 goals and 68 points. I’m just saying.

Maybe that’s what you’ll end up with, but you still get 12 chances in the range that matters. Over the next 3 years, Florida gets 1.

There’s more than one way to win a cup. Why can’t Dahlin/Power be Neidermeyer/Pronger and Cozens/Quinn Kesler/Perry? Maybe Tage can’t be a Getzlaf, maybe he can. Maybe Devon Levi can be an elite goalie, unlike Giguere. Who was the Ducks Samuelsson, their Tuch, their Peterka? Their William van Barnekow-Lofgren? People know how these guys are going to turn out about as well as they knew a team could never win with Nazem Kadri as their 2C.

WGR morning guys talking about how the Sabres need top talent to emerge to be a contender. Saying maybe it will Dahlin, maybe it will be Power, but they’re really going to have to have someone else come out of nowhere to be really good. Paraphrasing: Eichel was expected and it didn’t work out. Vanek was sort of expected, he was a top 10 pick. Myers teased as a rookie then disappointed. But the last time they really had someone come out of nowhere to be really good was probably Briere, maybe Pominville? Tage Thompson was not mentioned. Like we’ve seen from a lot of people in this thread, what he did last year and the player he has turned into is not getting the respect he deserves. He finally got mentioned as an afterthought and then with skepticism.

The demand is not where the rubber hits the road though. They can demand all they want, but ultimately Kane controls the situation the same way Taylor Hall did. If Kane only wants to go to Boston, then it’s Bjork and a second, or nothing. If Kane will accept multiple destinations, that $10 million cap hit is also going to inhibit the market.

It really has the power to set us up for a 10-year run if properly used. It's an injection of 12 players with a good chance of contributing, during a period when most will be adding half that, or less.

Not sure if management has come out and said it, but they are allegedly shopping everyone of value. They fired their coach and their GM and finished the season playing under .400 hockey. Hawks have traded 8 of their past 10 first-rounders and don’t have one this year either. Alex Debrincat is the only non-1st of note to come out of their system in that period and their prospect list is among the worst in the league. I think their entire list of good players in their prime is Debrincat and Seth Jones, and their interesting pieces might start and end with McCabe, Murphy and the disappointing Kirby Dach. They do have some money under the cap, but even the very best free agents on sweet deals arent going to turn this around. And that’s ignoring the stinking dung heap that the franchise is off-ice between the Beach disgrace and the owner’s embarrassing reaction. I think the Hawks are the league’s biggest mess and are in desperate need of a saviour in the best season to be bad since 2015. Going for it one more time would be the epitome of foolishness.

Beck’s a guy I like a lot at 28 if there’s no high-ceiling guys available. Seems like a true centre pretty safe to be a useful NHLer. He’s also someone who might be there at 41.

No NTC, according to capfriendly. https://www.capfriendly.com/players/jonathan-quick

So in his reader mailbag, veteran Athletic columnist Eric Duhatschek responded to a reader who wanted to know who was furthest ahead in their rebuild: Ottawa, Detroit or Buffalo. He said its tight and he would bet on the team that best addressed its goaltending. If you ask me to rank them in terms of the order that I’d choose their rosters (and based on the contracts that have been signed), I would go Buffalo, Ottawa, then Detroit. And then he dropped this little nugget: And I’m waiting anxiously to see who lands between the pipes in Buffalo because they are actively looking for help. If they could ever pry loose a veteran such as a Jonathan Quick to stabilize the back end, they’ll be getting closer. That seems to be oddly specific and makes me wonder if he’s heard something. The Kings just re-signed Petersen to a $5x3 year deal and he is the #1 moving forward. Quick is in the last year of a contract the Kings might like to move and the Sabres can easily absorb. He has no trade protection. LA also seems like a team that could be interested in Ryan Johnson and/or Erik Portillo. Duhatschek has buckets of credibility and connections, particularly out west, and doesn’t make his living with a constant stream of insider babble. To me, this bears watching.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I can see the Sabres taking Korchinski. Go back to Adams marching orders to the scouting staff: don’t look for where a player has come from, look to where he is going look for self-motivated guys wired for self-improvement We want fearless players who play fast Read Wheeler’s fresh profile in the Athletic: Korchinski really ticks all those boxes, and possibly better than anyone in the draft who reasonably projects to 9 or 16. He’s had a very Jack Quinn-like trajectory and draft year. If they really don’t care about position, this pick wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.

Not pretending to be any kind of draft expert and this isn't a ranking of who’s best. But after informing myself as best as I can, this is my list of the players I’d be most excited for at 9 and 16 - players I like and think would be good fits, in rough order of preference: Nemec Jiricek Gauthier Yurov Savoie Kasper Nazar Miroshnechenko Ohgren Kemmel McGroarty Mintyukov Chesley I would think we would have to trade up for the first 3 and I’m OK with doing that at the right price. I’m assuming Cooley, Slavkovsky and Wright are out of reach. Mintyukov and Kemmel aren’t about the fit - they are the opposite of filling a need. With them it’s more about there comes a point where the talent is too much to ignore. Edit: upon further review, Kulich and Snuggerud somewhere in the final 3. There are definitely scenarios in this draft where I’d be happy to. I’ve down.

By killer season, I meant a career year.

If Jack is healthy he’s going to have a killer season.

I think this is spot on. Competitiveness is only a virtue when channeled appropriately.

It’s not might, it’s will. He’s going to have arbitration rights and be one year away from UFA.

Renegotiations arent allowed under the CBA

I just read something on the NHL draft about how NHL execs value size, skating and the ability to play centre, and it made me think of this thread. Forget Tage Thompson and everything you know about him. Imagine it is the 1st day of free agency and the agent for a 24-year-old, 6’7” 225-pound centre calls and says his client really, really wants to live and play and raise a family in your less-than-glamorous city? Imagine that this kid can skate, shoot and dangle and has already scored 38 goals in a single NHL season. Is there a universe where you can imagine an NHL GM not being willing to give such a kid $6x6? Let’s quit acting like we’re talking about Ville Leino here.

Good Wheeler Q&A with Brad Lambert in the Athletic this morning. Not revelatory, but the kid comes across well - actually like someone Adams would like. He talks about his hatred for losing and his love for hockey.

Firkus has a Tyler Ennis ceiling. There was talk in the combine about how small and skinny he was, like a 12-year-old.

We’re not quite there yet, but we’re beginning to see signs that the Sabres are no longer atop the list of the NHL’s red-headed step-children. Montreal just had one of the worst seasons in recent memory and has hit the reset button. Seattle is an expansion team in the traditional sense of the word. Philadelphia is broken and looks poised to go on a wildly bad overspending spree. San Jose has no prospects, no GM and the worst collection of bad contracts in the league. Chicago has a shameful scandal, a dinosaur owner and is poised to tank Arizona is a salary cap dumping bank for the rest of the league and poised to play in university gym And now nobody wants to be in Winnipeg. We’re in a group now with Ottawa, Detroit, New Jersey, Anaheim and Columbus with some kids, cap space and signs of hope.

You said it yourself: Tage only played 145 games prior to this year. After 145 games, Eichel established his baseline, he didn’t regress to it. He improved for following 3 consecutive seasons. Breakout Hall came five years after he played 145 games. Tage can’t regress to a baseline when he hasn’t yet established it.

LOL. "I think the Sabres with no goalies and multiple UFAs up front and on D are shopping to improve their 23rd-place team in all positions." I'm not usually an Insder-basher, but sometimes just say "I haven't really heard any news"

When I watched Tage Thompson play last year he showed a lot more skill than I have ever seen from William Karlsson. And for me, I think that's the kicker: I believe in the player I watched this year, not his stat line.

Would you take 5X5 if you were Thompson? I wouldn't. I should still get that next summer even if I only put up 50 points this year.