Randall Flagg

Not sure the distribution of behavior is as uniform as you imply here, but I'll leave it at that..

My fiancé had to go to NYC for about 20 hours recently and almost got killed and/or robbed like 3 separate times, and wasn't even in that bad of an area. F*ck that hellscape

This beats out the Bylsma hiring as the happiest I've been about a Sabre coaching hire by a bit, actually

Barring a team offering something we clearly cannot beat, and combining the fact that a.) Risto and Miller are probably gone, meaning we need RHD b.) we are one of a limited pool of teams capable of helping Tampa by not just giving them stuff for Cernak, but helping their cap situation out as well (taking Tyler Johnson too?) I will be very disappointed if Erik Cernak is not anchoring a shutdown defensive pair as a Buffalo Sabres RHD this fall.

I'm good with this. Was a different story when I was under the assumption that we were keeping Eichel. I think Don knows hockey better than anyone, and his passion for the game seems up there as well. That'll rub off on players, and I think it already has - I wouldn't be surprised if he got glowing reviews from the guys that Kevyn deemed the "young core," who fired him up with their end of season meetings. Regarding "metrics" before/after Donny, part of that had to be the fact that Ralph got 20 games with Jack and his entire season with Hall - they obviously weren't playing good hockey this year, but they both put up good "metrics", and without them, Don's top six centers were Reinhart playing C for the first meaningful stretch of time in his career, and Mitts, who Don resurrected from Sabres fans' mental prospect cemetery. Don's typical day to day roster was far more inexperienced than Ralph's, and had to face teams ramping up their play for the playoffs - a stretch of the season where the Sabres would typically wilt, not compete, and go on extended losing streaks throughout the last decade. Don had this team frustrating very good playoff-bound teams during this time, and you'd be lying if you said that was something we've seen even once in recent springs. Just looking at xGF% and things like it without taking these things and more into consideration isn't really something worth worrying over IMO. If Kevyn can put a real roster together, I'm confident that from what I've seen and heard, Don at the very least won't be a problem, and could be a real asset. His knowledge and passion are clear, genuine, honest, his humility is respectable, his resume is impressive, and he got something I never expected out of at least 3 players I was very worried about

This is entirely irrelevant. Nobody would make that first point and the rare instance that second point would be explicitly mentioned is probably only on some obscure Rangers forum that is very easy to avoid

We only play the Rangers 3x per year. We play the ducks 2x per year. Take the best deal

I'm almost positive they do stuff like that because Bills fan outrage gets them loads of attention

Lol, they say MILLER and KAKKO are off-limits? I'd look at them as supplementary/throw ins in an Eichel trade lmao They're promising players, but they're not in the tier of prospects we're going to need to "settle" on instead of the Zegras/Byfield/Laf tier because of injury

We should do some legwork and try to figure out which good players are going to be exposed in the expansion draft on various stacked teams. I think I saw that Tampa won't be able to protect Cernak. No reason not to go after him if that's the case.

I cannot fathom thinking so highly of and getting so excited about the idea of having first round picks. Almost every first round pick I've ever seen the Sabres make was absent from making real impact on this team for years, if not forever. Persson, Myers, Kassian, Pysyk, Armia, Grigs, Girgs, Risto, Reinhart, Eichel, Nylander, Mitts, Dahlin, Cozens, Quinn. Three of those guys have scored more than like 30 points for this team, and we are about to trade two of those 3 after failing with them. Yay, we get six more of this spread over many years such that it'll be another 7 years before we verify that most of them failed! Exciting!!!

😳

Had a dream we traded Eichel for Ovechkin and 3 firsts, and 2 prospects I've never heard of.

Not really interested in sticking around to read that take over and over ngl

Drives me nuts that a guy like forslund can bounce around while we stick with dunleavy

Let's see that evidence pi, you didn't have any last time I asked. Empirical, not Kaku pop science

Never mind the fact that it took Joki a year and a half to get back to the form he had playing with Marco, the best pairing on a team still trying to right its ship and stay in/near the playoffs when the trade happened. I certainly wouldn't pout if Dach came back in the deal. I just feel a little better about other prospects

To be fair to adams, no nhl player should ever be assumed to be capable of what Staal did here, much less a guy with his track record.

Not some huge body of knowledge or anything. His production hasn't been compelling at any age/level yet, and the handful of games I've watched him play didn't show me very much. Could be way off, but I don't think he's in the Zegras/Byfield tier, and there are probably guys in the Turcotte/Krebs tier I prefer

Honestly not as high on Dach as most

I swear Marty said he thought Glass and Tuch was too much for Vegas to want to give up. This guy is nuts. Separately, do you think Chicago has offered something around Dach? The way you compared it to Ducks offer makes me think so? Also Jason traded the FIRST pick of the 6th round for the next years sixth, with the Leafs, a team that certainly wasn't about to finish last.

This was the most useless interview I've ever listened to. I hate this guy

I hope Chad still doesn't have his phone in a vice grip

If I performed at my job the way Staal did at his for 3 months, I'd be fired on day 2. He gets rewarded with this. If he had showed up and merely been bad, then whatever. But he was mentally checked out before he ever got here, and instead of leading kids, he helped create a festering situation that lost people their jobs. He never bothered trying here, and it was evident from period 1 of game 1

Eric Staal simply does not deserve to skate in the Stanley Cup Finals this year.