Randall Flagg

The statistician in me is melting down at that eichel/Gibson mapping

Hes better than replacement level. But I'm okay with the likely outcome of this as long as we get two real goalies (which is scary considering that he is one of the only real goalies we've had since Miller) It's also worth noting that sabres fans have a knack for being flippant about losing useful players and then having the lack of ability to replace them be a driving force of their mediocrity the next season

Pretty sure it's a fairly common occurrence for backup goalies to have better stats in fewer games than starters

Good. You start your ask like this and get one of the lesser prospects and 24yos negotiated away, and come away with what you originally wanted

There are only 2 other openings yeah? The list of interviewees of one of those teams wasn't impressive, I cant remember which

Hard not to see this as the most obvious trade market pairing

Our goalie coach right now is a good one

You are arguing that John Gibson maps to Vlad Sobotka. Again, I have the receipts. This guy isn't done being a top 10 goalie Thank you. He'd be the necessary salary balance. I'd rather have him do that than Henrique

Getting Gibson would be our best shot at making next year matter because of uncertainty in UFA goalie pool. I get that it's a bit of a risk but goalies go on roller coasters and that decline doesn't scare me

I'm keeping these receipts r.e. Gibson

Lol, no. Wanna do a charity bet on John Gibson's impact on an NHL team in the next 2 years over the worst offensive forward in the NHL, sobotka, and guy who quits on his team, Berglund? You state the terms. Tage Thompson was someone nobody had ever heard of and was left off of most Blues fans top 5 prospects lists months prior to trade. The first was guaranteed to not be a top 10 pick by trade stipulations. This trade was, the second it happened, obviously one of the biggest losing trades in franchise history and I would take every single piece in the potential Anaheim deal over the best piece in the ROR trade. It's not ideal and I'd push for more, but you cannot say with a straight face that these trades are interchangeable in their ability to impact buffalo sabres success over the following 5 years.

I absolutely would push for a better trade than this and add to it. I just won't melt down like I did for ror if we get this. If it's worse than this then I sure will. Part of it is watching some Perreault and seeing something there. I think his tools are very nice and I think he has a shot at being the best piece of those 4

The implication here is the always present and always failed expectation of making sure this is a good team next year haha.

I don't view a trade of 3, Comtois, Perreault (who I think can be a stud) nd Gibson as centered on Gibson. He honestly looks more like funneling the salary we have to take back into a position of need instead of to Henrique than the centerpiece of that deal.

Ullmark is good yes. Is he staying ? Because he's a UFA and we have no NHL goalies besides him. Gibson was too good and his "decline" is too correlated with the exact same kind of abominable fancy stat hockey that would make you reflexively defend a goalie when the context suited you

No, because every single piece listed is more valuable than the most valuable thing st Louis gave us. They only gave us 3 things with net positive value anyway

He was never on a team that came within like 30 points of how bad Anaheim is either. Gibson will have plenty of seasons left in which he is a stud In the suggested trade he's one of 4 pieces all better better anything we got in the ROR trade, it's not like it was eichel for Gibson and a 2nd.

In 2017 there were fans here suggesting we try to acquire Fleury. The backlash was identical in nature to what we see here, and fleury was like 3 years older than Gibson is now. If the Sabres had gone against that backlash, they would not be trading eichel right now

Goalies are weird. Everyone thought Fleury was toast before he ripped off 4 straight awesome seasons in his 30s. Anaheim has been a truly dreadful team for a while now

I watched some video of Perreault, and he looks like a better hockey player than I was assuming. I'd be incredibly disappointed to not come away with Zegras or Drysdale, but I wouldn't throw a fit with this return. I tend to believe that Gibson has plenty of good years yet, and maybe even a couple great ones

I'd do quite a bit to make sure Zegras is the main piece coming back. I wonder if the fact that Risto seems like a guy Bob Murray would like can help us in that scenario. Zegras, 3OA, Perrault, Henrique for Eichel, Risto? I'm open to using Olofsson to help our return get better too.

Lmao. You saying what I think you're saying?

Lets goooooooiiiiiiio

which he stole from a little kid no doubt

Fleury, you can't do that lol