dudacek

You're talking about the return on Eric Staal, the career resume. The return on Eric Staal, the Buffalo Sabre would have been a flat zero. Who trades anything for someone that slow, soft and unproductive? Montreal paid what they did hoping he gets "re-motivated by the chance at winning and playing in the playoffs and be fine." I'd be really curious to see how many times a 35-year-old, -20, 3-goal scorer garnered a 2nd-rounder at the deadline. Regardless of what you and I think, Adams shopped him around and took the best offer. Isn't that what he should have done?

What is the deal with Tage Thompson? i know he was supposedly sick this week, but he's played seven times in this 17-game streak, 10 or 11 minutes each time. They've got this guy signed for two more years, the season is lost. Shouldn't they be doing with him what they are doing with Mittelstadt, playing him a lot and seeing what he can do? it's bad enough that guys like Eakin and Okposo are/were playing over him, but Fogarty, Dea, CJ Smith? *** I have all the same questions about Artuu Ruotsalainen as well. Guess I need to be patient, deadline is coming.

It's interesting Casey is getting a more prominent role between the two. I suspect it might be a development thing, where they are protecting Dylan a bit, but have decided to see what Casey can do. Casey is definitely a better hockey player than he was a year ago. He's showing some effort and burst; he's in the play more, instead of always being behind it. Still a big question as to what kind of role he can carve for himself. He has looked better, but he hasn't produced. Thing about Dylan for me is not so much that he's making things happen, it's just that he does the right things so often. He's actually performing like a real good bottom six player right now: speed, effort, discipline and he doesn't hurt you. I'm not sure the skill level is there to be a top-line player, but, as we have seen many times development is hardly linear.

So Staal goes out and Ullmark goes in; two of the things I cringe at most disappear. And we get one of the most watchable games of the past month or so. Baby steps. *** What do people think of Mittelstadt recently? Career high 17:40 played yesterday. He's been well over 15 minutes in five of the past 6.

What do you mean, I'm as handsome as ever, no matter how Ralph treated me. 😜

I Iook at it like this: there might be a few outliers but let's say 25 teams have every one of those players ranked between 70-75 on a 100 scale. Quinn averaged a 71 and Rossi a 74, meaning Rossi was a "consensus" #5 pick and Quinn was a consensus #10 in this particular draft. But Quinn was the only 75 on the Sabres list, so they pick him. Scouts: "real good player, we liked him a lot, we just liked a couple guys a bit better." Internet: "Why did they pick the #10 guy when the #5 guy was still on the board."

To revisit my bad analogies, it can be like every teen rom-com ever made. Although I suspect a majority of teams, at least the ones with strong leadership, are sticking to their guns.

If they called for Jack, Dahlin, and Dylan, I'd say "be prepared to pay more than you want to, or there's no point in talking." I'd add Sam, Linus and Jake to that list if I knew they were going to re-sign. There are others I'm fine with keeping, but I would trade any player on this team for the right return.

You want to talk any of Raymond, Sanderson, Drysdale, Holtz, Quinn, Rossi, Perfetti and Lundell, that was probably the case for 75 per cent of the teams as well. Sabrespace has been watching Sam Reinhart for six years and has a consensus that he's a good player, but there is a huge variation on how good.

Not disagreeing with your point, just saying that history has shown it's not that important. Patrick/Hischier might have been a toss-up for consensus #1, but the real money picks were Heiskanen at 3, Makar at 4 and Petersson at 5, who weren't in the conversation going by consensus, but were for real NHL teams. Hockey Twitter would have burned if Petersson went #1, but I doubt NHL scouting would have. NHL reaction probably would have been "real good player, we liked him a lot, we just liked a couple guys a bit better." The internet seems to think there is a much firmer pecking order than I think really exists.

I'm real curious to see how real "consensus #1" is. I think it's like the president being an "overwhelming choice" because 48% of the population voted for him and only 34% voted for his opponent. Or so-and-so being "the hottest guy/girl in school" because a lot of people are repeating it. I mean the label exists, and it's real, but it's also purely subjective, rarely unanimous and exists because a name gets repeated a lot from a lot of different sources. We know for a fact that "consensus top 5" pick Marco Rossi went at nine and that a credible source reported he was outside at least one team's top 15. Except in rare cases like McDavid, it's a perception honed as a talking point more than anything else — not meaningless, but not particularly meaningful either. If nobody else has your guy there, or even that close, then you better be doing a lot of double-checking. If a few more people have another guy slightly ahead, then (to me, at least) meh.

So, besides Victor, which other Sabres should not be traded?

Thank you.

Not sure what you are referring to here? Other than O'Reilly, what core players have we traded since the tank? Myers?

Guys, there is no ***** way we are taking Matt Beniers. That would be too much of a perfect fit.

I don't know about Victor fitting here, but I think you have to be seriously looking at trading some of our key players who have experienced too much losing. Give your new coach a canvas with a little less baggage.

I'm fully on board with more passion and edge, but be careful about the butthole factor and how it can detract from the team. Brendan Lemieux is an outright turd I want no part of. Give me the calculated malice of Mike Peca or the bull talent of Mike Foligno please. Of course, obvious miss. And Zadorov fits as well.

Same reason you trade most players: you think the players coming back might make your team better. He's one of the few players we have that might net a good return. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not pushing to trade Victor.)

Mostly true, especially here, but he has blown a fuse several times over his career. I think he fits the profile Ink was looking for.

He makes a terrific pass in the clip above, and I've seen him make numerous plays like that. I like his approach, he works hard and is very responsible. There was a sick shootout move with the Amerks, but other than that, he hasn't shown any signs of being a goal scorer at all.

Seriously, there are some I think are just plain bad, but is there anyone who wouldn't be better elsewhere right now?

So, three edgy players since 2009?

Let's take a closer look at Crowe as well. Previously under Adams he was the director of both pro and amateur scouting. Prior to that, he was a pro scout for three years under Botterill, and he worked for the USNDTP before that. He had to have had some voice in this off-season's acquisitions of Hall, Staal, Eakin, Rieder, Irwin and Davidson. He may have had some voice in the acquisition of these Sabres: Skinner, Johansson, Berglund, Sobotka, Sheary, Vesey, Frolik, Lazar, Simmonds, Kahun, Elie, Montour, Miller, Hutton, Jokiharju and Thompson. Honest question: I wonder how he has demonstrated the keen eye for talent that earned him this important post?

Why in the world would the Flyers make dat trade?

It seems to me they have only drafted two players like dis in any round since the Dark Days arrived: Pekar and Lemieux. Did I miss anyone?