dudacek

Smith re-signs in Edmonton. Musical chairs nearly over and it's starting to look like the Sabres might be the only chair left for Fleury.

Judging by the Zemgus deal, Larry took less to play elsewhere. I always expected that would be the case.

Oh god, poor Larry. He ran to one of the few teams whose future looks as dark as his past. At least he'll be warm.

Well, yes. (And me, to be fair)

Maybe Adams was in on some of these players who have signed. Maybe he's still in on those who haven't. Maybe he's taking the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend off to to enjoy a cozy fire up at the lakehouse.

I don't have strong feelings about this, but Skinner has a history of playing well with Eichel and not with Staal. And I'd like to Sam start to do more driving. He would with Staal and VO.

Fleury, Martinez and a pick for Hutton gives Vegas the space they need. Then we do the long-discussed Montour for Copp and a pick. Leaves us with about $17 million to sign Olofsson, Ullmark and Reinhart, and add another forward if Terry is feeling like spending to the cap. Skinner Eichel (Fast/Cozens) Olofsson Staal Reinhart Girgensons Copp Okposo Reider (Cozens/Asplund/Lazar) Thompson Dahlin Jokiharju Martinez Ristolainen McCabe Millier Fleury Ullmark That's a playoff team

Apparently Martinez and Nate Schmidt are being shopped to clear room, with one of the them being deemed unnecessary due to Pie. Either would be a great fit here, we have space and we can use Fleury. Sabres have talked to Vegas about other things apparently, but I haven't heard a whiff of the Sabres interest in Fleury though.

By sending Buffalo Fleury and Marchesseault for Carter Hutton of course

The Greiss deal means it’s trade or bust on the goalie front for the Sabres. The other UFAs don’t move the needle enough for me to eat Hutton’s contract. It also leaves the Sabres as one of the few buyers left in the goalie market. The Smith deal is a great one for the Bruins, IMO. Hopefully knocks them out as competition for some of the other good wingers.

Pretty sure it does.

No, a NTC only prevents trades. You need a no movement clause to avoid waivers.

Best ones appear gone from the UFA market; Griess, Anderson and Mike Smith the best of what's left? Griess isn't bad, I guess. Still the Arizona pair and the Columbus pair on the trade market, although neither has to go anywhere. And of, course, Fleury. I'm still all over taking him for Hutton and a sweetener. I wonder who would be in that market? Detroit is the obvious one. Maybe Carolina as a dark horse? Chicago? Colorado? Edmonton? Pretty limited market.

Canuck fans will be pissed at that one. Benning didn't even start talks until this morning, told the fans Tanev would be sleeping on things tonight. And it didn't sound like they were going to talk to Toffoli until they knew what Tanev was doing. Three key free agents who were all interested in coming back and they are in danger of going 0-for-3 because they made everybody wait while they chased OEL. *** In another observation, it seems like Boston has to be in on someone; they have more space than many and they lost Krug. Wonder if they are chasing to the two big fish: Hall and Pietrangelo.

You should look around the league and find out what most teams actually did on day one of free agency. Markstrom out, Holtby in. Markstrom in, Brodie out. Krug in Pietrangelo out Or they signed a few bottom end players Id be surprised if you found a half-dozen teams that made big improvements today.

Yes. And almost all those teams get those players. At least they do if Jason Botterill is not their GM.

I gotta give Webster some support here. We aren’t good, but we are only a few players from being competitive. And some of those players - Staal, Joki, Cozens, Thompson, and especially Dahlin - May already be here. An above-average goalie would have meant 5-10 more points on his own.

The brief reactions I've seen elsewhere to this guy is that he's a well-respected, character tweener. Basically, it seems like we signed 3 Curtis Lazars today.

Yes. I would rather trade a 4th rounder for Alex Killorn, or 1st rounder for Anthony Cirelli than take Tyler Johnson for free.

What I mean is if he clears waivers the Lightning will likely put him back on the trade market with a sweetener, like the Rangers did with Marc Staal. Or, even better, they shop a better player.

We know St. Louis, Anaheim and Toronto are over the cap and that Tampa, Vegas, Arizona and Washington are squeezed to it so tight they can't breathe. Half the rest of the league doesn't have the flexibility to do anything significant without shedding salary. There have already been opportunities. Hopefully Adams hasn't moved on them because he knows there are more.

And didn't think Tyler was very good (relatively speaking) in the playoffs and I don't really like his contract considering his age. But he would be an upgrade on Kahun and Johansson (people seem to forget about him) in a similar role, at the cost of no assets. I also wonder if a waiver claim is squandering an opportunity to get a sweetener. And I'd honestly like to see someone squeeze Tampa more, even if it's not us. I guess I'm not against the move, but I really hope Adams has better cards to play first.

And I'm sticking to my let's revisit this Monday morning (or maybe later). Lots of dominoes still to fall. None of the three deals signed today have any impact whatsoever on the cap. They are minimum wage contracts to depth veterans. They are no more of a waste than Curtis Lazar, JS Dea and John Gilmour last year, or similar players most years. They still have to add two forwards minimum, and should upgrade the goaltending and rebalance the defence. Plenty of time to get those things done.

So if Toronto is out on Pietrangelo and St. Louis is out on Pietrangelo, and Vegas is hard up against the cap...? And if Pegula is willing to get stupid for Pietrangelo and wants to stick it to St. Louis for the ROR deal...? And Pietrangelo is a family man who's from southern Ontario and wants to stick it to St. Louis...? Are the Sabres suddenly in the picture?

7 NHL teams in 6 seasons, only 170 games. So, yeah😜