Mustache of God

I am conflicted on bringing back VO and waver between wanting to resign him and trading him. When healthy hes got an elite shot and can be lethal on the power play, however, when playing through an injury he completely fell off the radar. He seems like a player who would disappear in the playoffs once the whistles get out away and wouldn't take well to the elevated physical play. I've been watching this year's series trying to think about how certain Sabres would stack up and i don't see him doing that. My inclination is to trade him in a package to bring in a proven playoff performer who plays with some edge. We also have a cap floor to reach, which makes me think we pass on hinostroza and try to bring in a better forward for a higher, short-term contract. I'd also trade R2 to a club where he'd have a shot at cracking a roster on a bad team. The sabres need to bring in talent, not guys who are good in the AHL.

I have no opinion on the future of R2 and the Sabres. Sure, he had success in the AHL playoffs, but I'd rather GMKA fill that roster spot with a player who has shown success in the NHL playoffs. If we keep bringing back the same players we are not going to jump up in the standings. My preference would be to trade him to a team where he has a shot at cracking the roster for more draft capital, or as a sweetener in a trade.

Meh, I don't care what we'll do with pick 32 next year.

We got this.

I'm more interested in Mule coming into the lineup.

My wife gave birth to our first child this morning, so that's one more Sabres fan. My only wish is that he never suffers thought a playoff drought of more than two seasons.

Glad to see they won. Hopefully Quinn can learn from this series and put up some offense next series.

It's good to see R2 stepping up in the playoffs while Quinn is working through being shadowed. I see a lot of suggestions here about hanging onto him, but I just don't see how Rusto can ever make it into the Sabres lineup. With Quinn and JJ it's almost completely full and I don't see R2 being an upgrade over anyone on the team. This leads me to believe he'd be a prime add-on to an off-season deal. Maybe trade him + floridas first to bring in a goalie from somewhere, or an RFA from a team against the cap. Anyways, go Amerks.

45 stanley cups.

Honest question, how many Calder's can a player win in a single season? Cause peterka is tracking for at least 69 of them next year.

Which is a good thing. As much as it seems we all enjoyed this team as it was, we still finished 25 points out of the playoffs. Recently I was looking over our losses and saw that we had 19 games we lost by 1 goal or 2 w/an empty netter at the end. Goaltending will help make up for some of those losses but it won't solve everything. Last season it felt like we were always icing 1.5 lines of spare parts, this year it looking like we can have 3 actual NHL lines with a really good shutdown line of Asplund, Girgs & Okposo.

It's interesting because we have all of those forwards under contract for next year and there's not much room to bring in outsiders to improve the lineup. For starters, I'd be surprised if Hinestroza comes back as the 13th forward. If I were GMKA I'd be looking to fill that role with a UFA center who is good at faceoffs and can actually contribute offensively (think Cody Eakin with worse hair, but more talent). If Quinn & JJ make the jump that boots out Bjork & Hayden from the lineup which I hope would already be a major upgrade. I've bolded the forwards who I think are "unmovable" for GMKA this coming season (for talent or contractual reasons) and the only three players I can see being moved are VO, Mitts or Asplund and I wouldn't expect more than one of them to be moved. Like others have said I'm expecting a breakout year from Mitts so I'd be hesitant to trade him, I'm also looking forward to seeing a breakout year from Cozens. We also have to keep in mind that on top of 3 first round picks and 1 second round pick this year, we have Rosen, Polpatov, Kisakov, and 7 other lower picks (6F and 1D) from the previous draft (hopefully 1 or 2 of those guys can develop into NHL regulars) in the pipeline. I'd forgotten we made 11 picks last year. Wow. This all leads me to think GMKA will be focusing / spending money on goaltending and defense. I'm expecting to see Byrson and Fitzgerald replaced on the 3rd pair and maybe one of them can fill in as the 7th D, but I wouldn't be sad if we upgraded those three slots. We have 7.6M on injured reserve coming off the books (Boychuk, Subban, Calligula) + another ~7mill between Miller , Butcher and Psysk. Byrson and VO are the only RFAs we need to sign so there's a lot of $$$ to be spent just to reach the cap floor. GMKA has options and I hope he gets this off-season right, because I'll be putting a lot of money on this team making the playoffs next year if the odds look good. In summation, I expect to see money thrown at goaltending and defense and wouldn't be surprised if we executed a trade for a forward + assets to bring in an established, high-money forward. Exciting stuff, hope we're not disappointed.

Oh man, I was 100% incorrect on that.

For anyone curious, the draft is this Tuesday and is 99.5% happening as scheduled.

Writing letters and scoring goals. What can't this guy do? It's been apparent since the season began that he'd become the next captain. He's done the work and he's earned it. It's too early to talk about his next contract, we have to see if he can keep up the level of play.

*Last season of his current contract

Okposos is 100% getting the C for his last season.

Skinner got it somehow, I guarantee it.

Thanks RJ. One hell of a ride indeed.

Granato needs to roll the top two lines for the rest of the game.

Please God don't get shutout on RJs last game.

So a Rochester wins tonight and Toronto loses tomorrow means Rochester is in?

I am trying to ignore the impending sense of dread that the sabres won't score in RJs last game. Get it together boys!

Home whites? Yes please!

Fan duel has that score at +10000