In The Buff

I wanted Zegras but i'm relieved its not Caufield so i'm not too upset with the pick. Fulfills a need & makes us stronger up the middle. Excited to see what he can do & watch his development

Donskoi is a player lots of teams will covet. Especially IF the Sharks decide to move on from him. Although he's come out publicly stating his desire to stay on with them, so its really up to San Jose on this one. But yeah IF he's available & the bidding war amongst teams doesnt push the cost up too high, he's definitely 1 player we should target. Yes he had a 35 game scoreless drought last season, but you can see the value of his game.

Dahlin has said in past interviews that the one timer was something he wasn't used to doing in the past & that given how much it was used & how important it was, that it'd be 1 part of his game that he was really gonna work on. So i imagine he's doing just that & going forward it'll be much improved from last year.

Since this is a Skinner thread this isn't the right place to address this but for lack of another way to respond i'll add a name i didnt see on ur list that i'd like. Jake Gardiner from Toronto. With the other priorities the Leafs have, maybe we could get him. I'd love to see him in the blue & gold. But with Zaitsev asking to be moved, idk how the Leafs don't make sure Gardiner is signed. But he'd be great imo. As for Skinner. Sure i'd like to have signed him for $500k less per year but you cant split hairs at this point. We had the money, needed him bad & its a win for both. For those naysayers bringing up the bad contracts we've had before, i don't see him going the KO or Moulson route. None of those players in terms of even strength scoring were ever in a list with McDavid, P.Kane, Draisaitl or Ovechkin. Yet alone the other stats one could point to. Skinner is a much better player & trying to compare him & his contract to those guys is just absurd. Our watch has ended, now we can go for the throne!

Yeah while i do think Lee is a better player than Okposo there's no way he is worth that term & money for our team. Plus i don't think theres any way the NYI lets Lee walk. He's too important to their team right now & is their Captain.

That'd be great but according to this article, Lee's camp is looking for a 7 year deal at $7mil AAV. From all accounts, Lee is about to get paid wherever he signs. https://eyesonisles.com/2019/05/30/new-york-islanders-impact-of-jeff-skinner-rumor-on-ufa-anders-lee/

I don't have any sympathy for Berglund for quitting on the team. You don't like not getting playing time? You give the coaches a reason to play you more. You play so good that fans & critics alike get on Housleys case to give you more playing time. Sulking, complaining, giving up, quitting are absolutely the wrong way to go about it. Dudes supposed to be a professional. A 10-11 year vet. Guy plays the 1st 25% of a season & quits? Gtfo here with that. If he had personal issues going on, I'd be more inclined to give him a break, even tho you're still a man & you have a job to do & you're supposed to do it. These cry me a river Berglund articles tick me off a bit. Boohoo you were making millions of dollars & didnt like how you were being used. He probably was pissed at being traded in the 1st place, never got over it & it carried over to his play. If he couldnt man up then walking away was the best thing for him & our team. But nobody should feel sorry for him. If anything people should feel sorry for us investing in him. If Jbots didnt think he was getting a viable player back from St Louis as part of that package, he probably wouldn't have made that trade. So we're the ones that got screwed. Writers should write about that.

I keep refreshing this page looking for an update on the contract situation. Lots of people saying today is the day. You've guys all made lots of good points on the pros & cons of the deal. While the back half of the contract does scare me a bit, I still don't think it'll turn into an Okposo or Moulson kinda thing. That bar is pretty low lol. Skinners shot is/was better than both of theirs, as is his skating. So if he falls off maybe 15-18 goals per year would be his floor. All conjecture of course. I personally think Skinner is worth $7mil x 8 but no way in hell does JBots let him walk. So around $70 mil over 8 it is i'm guessing

Not to play devils advocate, but "only putting up points when playing with Eichel & disappearing from the scoresheet for stretches" could also be applied to Skinner for this past season. For Reinhart its a ding on him for scoring primarily from the inside, but when people talk about Skinner scoring from the inside, they talk about it as 1 of his strengths. We need that inside presence imo, & Reinhart is 1 of the guys we have who's not afraid to be around the net & is pretty productive there. And at what, 23 years old, has lots of room to grow. This is Skinners Goals area chart, unless i'm mistaken it's not that drastically different from Reinharts. What is he, 2% points better from the top circle & 6% on the bottom? Skinner no doubt is a better sniper, but i think Reinhart is the more complete player. Give him another few years of growth where he's the same age as Skinner is now & crosses that threshold from young man to man & he'll be stronger on his skates. I bet at 23 Skinner wasnt as strong on his skates as he is now.

Hey after the slug aka the urine soaked mullet aka the bee that got smeared across your windshield, in all honesty this logo could've been a lot worse. This logo doesn't excite me like i wish it would've, but I'm not embarrassed by it either. It serves its purpose i guess, even if it is a bit uninspiring.

I didnt hear the interview but the context with that question even being asked would require one to know who Yakupov even is, which i assumed you had. Yakupov was the 1st overall draft pick of the Oilers back in 2012 i think. And as i said in my previous post, Yakupov had his greatest success with Krueger. So with that as a baseline, given the youth of our roster & having similar situations with other players as he had with Yakupov, given that context one could infer what the question was. Such was my attempt to answer it for you ?

I wasnt referring to the thread tho, I was referring to the post on Mike Bove's twitter about how someone asked krueger a Yakupov question. You asked what the question was & thats what my reply was about. The stuff after that post in the thread had nothing to do with the Yakupov part of the thread. Shouldnt that be obvious?

Given the context & who Nail Yakupov is, i imagine it had to do with how Krueger was able to help Yakupov improve as a player & get the most out of him. I believe Yakupov was a .6 ppg player under RK & around .3ppg everywhere else.

yep just announced on CBC during the intermission of the game, Ralphie it is Stanley Cup here we come boys!

So far this offseason is looking great lol

Yeah going off his bio after hearing the news that he's on the short list to be our next coach, it kinda makes you wanna Ralph right? Haha sorry, I just thought someone had to make that joke. Tbh im surprised no one else has thrown out a few of those by now. Must be a slow day with Mothers Day & all. ? From what i've seen, he's a smart guy, widely respected as a great mind in hockey, but hasn't coached in a couple years & its been some 6 or 7 years since he coached a handful of games for the Oilers. Not too inspiring if you ask me. It's rumored that Tippett is slotted to go to Edmonton so perhaps Ralph is gonna be our future. (Puke reference either way with that one) Cuz it could go either way

I'm sure that would be the preferred plan. Especially with Seattles entrance into the league where they'd like to protect him, so that'd be another case to consider for him staying in Roch longer. But i think a lot of what happens in his development timeline will depend on what is happening here in Buffalo with our goaltending situation. If it takes a step back next year & we don't bring in any other free agent goalies, that time table may change & we might see him here a year sooner. I have a couple friends who live in Finland & they say we got a great one in him so I'm excited about his future. He seems to be right where he should be in his development which is great news for sure!

Just read this article over at espn. Pretty cool hearing how much better our Beauts were run than other teams in the league. But its a shame womens hockey appears in limbo atm. Would be nice if the NHL can come up with a way to better support it. http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/26701696/sabres-owners-give-women-team

Yep that would be my take on it too. In the pros you're dealing with players who have played the same game for most of their lives. Learning & picking up things as years go by. When they play the game, the core concepts that got them to that place generally remain the same. A new coach can come in & perhaps motivate them more than the last guy, but can also put them in a better position to succeed, with a new system or with their role or linemates, but they're still gonna be doing pretty much what they've always done. However a coach who does that poorly can adversely affect a team (obviously). I read this once in an interview with Scotty Bowman, he was asked: 'whats your secret to having success in the NHL?' And his response was simply: 'Good players'. I think that goes in line with all the above. A good coach isnt gonna change the fortunes of a team much unless you have a quality group of players or the right mix to begin with. But a bad coach can make a good team worse. This game is so fast & instinctual, a good coach imo would create a system that allows the players to rely on those instincts that got them to this level in the 1st place. Once they get inside their heads too much or play a system counter to their instincts, they play a step behind or are prone to making unnatural mistakes. A few of the names mentioned the most lately in this thread, from what i've heard/read believe in letting your players play instinctively within a systems framework, which is a breath of fresh air imo. Just hope we hire one of em, & soon because I can't wait any longer!

I'm of the mindset that if we get any one of those 3 i'll be happy, even throw in Todd Richards. But fans gotta realize & i'm sure they do, that theres only so many "good" coaches available to hire. Most currently have jobs, so if you can get one of these guys that has something going for him, whether it be experience or being an up & comer, that's pretty much all you can hope for imo. I'm in the camp of pretty much anyone but Taylor. But for as much as i'd like to know already who the next coach will be, i'd rather Botts take his time & do his due diligence & get the right guy. I still refresh this thread everyday hoping for an update tho ?

for those that are subscribed to The Athletic & can read it ?

and without Skinner too. Kinda funny how things turn out

yep there it is

Yeah he's been looking shaky all game imo. Even now watching him, he doesn't look like he's playing with much confidence. Just the opinion of a layman observer