Mustache of God

Yeah, a lot of these picks are not what I would have chosen but then again I don't know anything about other players in the league and there's a damn good reason I'm not an NHL GM.

"Best team in the league has a better roster than the worst team in the league." Searing take right there.

I hate when that happens and you log in here and have to wade through 15 pages of reactions to get caught up with the thread.

The only thing attractive the Sabres have to offer for FA goalies is that if they sign the #1 spot is theirs to lose. I won't pretend to know the goaltending situation of other teams in the league but I can't imagine there's many more teams with ZERO NHL currently signed (I am operating under the assumption Ullmark is going elsewhere).

At the very least Risto will have value at the deadline, I'd rather get something for him than nothing. Or maybe he gets packaged with Sam for a better deal?

No, he has too many years remaining and we'd be paying the price for that through 2033.

Vegas paid $500 for the expansion fee that that was part of the agreement, I think the current thinking was that they'd still be developing a team and it'd be unfair to disrupt that so early on. Instead they content for the cup every year.

Is the absence of a response treated as a "no"?

There's a deadline to send the request to the agent and then the agent has to track down the player and discuss their options and get back to the team. What happens if a request is sent and the player never replies? Is the NMC waived in that scenario?

If I'm reading this correctly, it looks like they drafted Lucas Rousek in the 6th round of the 2019 draft. He recently signed a two-year entry level deal for the 21-22 season. Will we see him in Rochester this year? Meanwhile the Leafs drafted Pontus Holmberg with the 6th round pick they got from us and also just signed him to a 2-year deal starting this upcoming year.

This conversation really harkens back to the Vegas expansion draft when every fanbase was convinced they could dupe Vegas into taking a bad cap hit for a little extra something-something. Vegas did not do any of that and instead went on to get to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season. That is a model Seattle will likely follow. They will not ne taking on an underproducing, overpaid player on the worst team in the league, even though he's a great "locker-room guy". Okposo had a stretch of 12-15 games where we was almost at a PPG production level. Hoping we can see more of that next season.

GMKA: Hey, do you want Okposo? GMRF: What? No. GMKA: Ok, bye.

Let's trade them Tage Thompson for Taresenko.

The prophecy won't be complete until Matt Ellis lifts the cup as the Sabres head coach.

"If I answer honestly I'll get my pee-pee slapped by Uncle Terry."

"No comment" , "That's between Jack and Kevyn", "I'll be ready to coach the players on the roster at the start of training camp."

For me, this is textbook definition of feeling whelmed. Lets see what he can do.

Dreger is 100% paid for his radio appearances. He doesn't show up at the same time every week out of the kindness of his heart. He shows up because they've contracted him for his time for the segment.

I know nothing about Tocchet, what's wrong with him?

To me this is just another indictment of just how bad Kruger was as a coach. Clearly Staal was going through the motions because there was no buy-in and no leadership in the locker room.

I don't disagree with this but looking at the roster with the available players, who would you pick (assuming Jack is traded)? I've always read the Eichel situation is that Jack wants to be on a winning team and this organization has been so mismanaged to the point where there's no plan forward (3 coaches and 3 GMs so far). That compounded with the differing opinions on the neck injury have made things worse. I lost a lot of respect for Eichel as captain of the team during his presser where he came out and said something along the lines of, "my number one priority right now is Jack Eichel". That's not the language that should be coming out of your captains mouth.

He had a stretch of 10 points in 11 or 12 games or something like that before he got shut down for the year. This was after like zero points in his first 15-20 games, so , maybe he still has it? Looking over the current roster he's the only player I'd give a letter to at this point. I think having the C would make him push himself as well. The biggest factor for this would be that C will expire in 2 years when his contract is up and you can hand it off to whoever has earned it.

I'd give Okposo the "C" in his last two years and let new leaders develop in that time. By then we'll have a new coach/GM combo and they can give the C to whoever is still around.

If the Sabres have taught me anything about life it is that the concept or "Rock Bottom" is a farce. It can always get worse and they've proven this to me many times throughout this draught. I vote, "Yes", for now... At least with the tank there was a light at the end of a distant tunnel. Each failed season is another twist of the knife in the twilight of RJs career. I'm sure he just wants one more run before he retires. There's always next year. I for one am looking forward to a healthy Girgensons taking up a roster spot, maybe he can play 1C again in Eichels void and rediscover how the Locomotive works. There's a part of me thinks that with Eichel / Reino / Risto / the 1OA pick, a saavy GM can completely rebuild a team with a new identity and making the playoffs next year shouldn't be a stretch. There's a bigger part of me that realizes we have a GM with zero experience whose greatest hiring point was that he's a company "yes" man and I start to see new cracks appear on the rocky ground.

I have zero feelings towards this draft. My desired outcome is to win the first pick and then trade down.