Randall Flagg

I know this is years down the line but as much as I want the Baltimore ravens coming to town for a horrendous weather playoff game year in and year out....

I'd add a bit to get this package

Why is 3rd through 10th place in the east worse than what we've done the last ten years, and why is it that other teams don't tank and can do better than this? Why is it our destiny if we don't enter "Tank 2"?

Actually ovechkin was a terrible teammate and not a leader for years which is why they never got past 2nd round. But they won the cup in 18, so he had finally grown and matured and now is capable of doing that. But they've lost since then, so he actually changed again. Also toews

He has exactly as much value as anyone reasonable would claim. He is a selke caliber PPG 1C that is capable of being a key piece to a cup run. That is nearly as high a place as is possible to reach in this sport, it's in the top ~5% of all players, and far higher than many would have smugly proclaimed as his ceiling not 5 months before he proved it

I don't really get the point you're bringing up here. No NHL players drive success on their own, save for the occasional goalie that gets hot for a couple weeks. Novody ever argued that Eichel or ROR can do this. They argued against the bad faith character claims made against them, by people who asserted that they would never win because of them and spent that brief time with the blues in the basement gloating about how right they were. They argued against moving on from that player for bad return and the idea that our 3 weeks of success was proof that ROR was a cancer. Those making those initial claims had them blow up in their face when the Blues won the cup just months later, which directly destroyed fundamental pillars of the bad-faith arguments. Now we get weak sauce after the fact as if the whole point in this all along was that ROR can't pull an entire team by himself. That was never the argument being had and parallels to Eichel's case are that the same types of stories, which exist for players on every nhl team including superstars, exist and only get scrutinized when it's time for a big move like this. That they crop up to this extent now is an example of this natural tendency and we are trying to get ahead of it or at least what will be the nastier and more baseless aspects of it

I can guarantee you there are horrendous Olli Maata stories that will never see the light of day. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Kris Letang and Tyler Johnson too. Who the ***** cares? Do we not live in the real world

When Jack Eichel is not playing for the Buffalo Sabres, they are 24-42-12 since drafting him. this is 60 points in 80 games, a 61.5 point pace over a full season. When he does play they are 147-180-48, for a 74.8 point pace. This is an improvement of 21.6%. When McDavid is out the oilers have 45 points in 48 games, or a 76.9 point pace. When he's in, they have 440 points in 407 games, or an 88.6 point pace. This is a 15.2% improvement. When Sidney Crosby is out in Pittsburgh, they have 256 points in 200 games, or a 105.0 point pace. When he plays they have 1280 points in 1039 games, or a 101.0 point pace. This is a decrease of 3.8%. When Matthews is out in Toronto, they have 48 points in 38 games. This is a 103.6 point pace. When he's in, they have 410 in 334, or a 100.7 point pace, a decrease of 2.8%. The season Eichel was given the captain's C, when he started coming into his own offensively, All of Jordan Nolan, Jacob Josefson, Seth Griffith, Benoit Pouliot, Matt Moulson, Evan Rodrigues, Nick Baptiste, Justin Baily and Scott Wilson played nontrivial minutes in the Buffalo Sabres forward group. The season after that, they traded ROR for garbage, and gave the 4th most ES minutes of any forward and 2C role to a guy with the worst metrics in the league, who in that time span went over 40 games without a single goal aside from a dribbler in garbage time of a 4-1 loss, with less than 20 seconds remaining, when it wasn't being played by a 3LW. The season after that, the Sabres couldn't ice more than 2 NHL quality lines in any game all year long. That season and the one before they showed promising signs early, but wore out as the flaws in the roster, pointed out casually here long before the frays began to show, made themselves evident. Every year Eichel is in the top tier of "percentage of team's points scored by one player" if not leading that list. "Doing it when it counts, when the game matters." I made a long post before we traded ROR about this. I argued that the absence of games that mattered had nothing to do with ROR, that in the confines of the situation he was put in, he always showed signs that he would be there when it counted. When we needed a goal late against Detroit, he buried his man in the corner and walked out in front by himself to tie the game. When we needed a spark down 0-2 to the Kings in Buffalo, he gave us that spark with a very similar display of intensity and skill. Late tying goals in Nashville and OT goals in Boston, it was all there. Just because the Sabres weren't good enough to get to games that mattered doesn't mean that he was intrinsically less capable of performing should he get there. Instead, that lack of games that matter was his fault, and there was a rather vicious months-long character crusade against this guy for no reason other than flaws in us as humans. Well, we all know what happened. I can only conclude similar sentiments r.e. Eichel. I'm not claiming he will be Steve Yzerman or Mark Messier, or even that he should be a captain or is a good leader. But there's no question that only one man was more prominent in these moments on these bad Sabres teams than ROR - it was Jack Eichel. Crazy OT goals and passes. Clutch GWG at home vs. Vegas. Always shutting up the Leafs fans that invaded our building. Walking out in front on ROR's Blues for a late GWG, tying it up on long Island with a minute left. The moments are all there, but every time he stepped on the ice he was with a team that was only capable of last place without him. There are many reasons why those teams are bad, why his development may have been hindered, and there are reasons internal to Jack Eichel why he wasn't a better version of himself, and there are flaws in his availability, maybe his leadership and personality. But the worst bits of trade fallout that are surely going to come, and we may know which posters will be dishing it out already, are going to be tiresome, and are probably not going to be true. I don't really have the energy to go through that again, but I can't get it up for hockey these days and so I likely won't feel compelled to combat it. I wish you well Jack, and don't listen to the people that ***** talk just to ***** talk. Go win some games, and Kevyn, you better get a return commensurate with trading Jack ***** Eichel.

Since some have speculated that this move may follow the Eichel trade, does that mean we see that happen in the next week as well? Brawndo, please draw plot showing normalized probability of Jack's trade by date

I don't think this is true

Tiny sample size, but the amount and sophistication level of cheating I saw myself and tangentially heard about being uncovered from two separate (by thousands of miles) UG biology departments compared to all other departments combined was jaw dropping

Zegras and Comtois can be described as futures. So can a 2022 first and a prospect 2 years away. I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach about this

I wanna keep Sam but if someone likes him as much as Washington liked Mantha we might be a better team for it.

I take it she isn't one of the bio majors who would rather spend 10x the effort needed to actually learn material on trying to concoct elaborate cheating methods

It's a very common phrase. Given that jack was lifting such that he could put up the numbers he did at the age he did, he is almost certainly religious about form and doing things properly. That doesn't mean that he didn't or can't get injured training but I think that comment won't give us much insight

Was gonna say, I taught physics to dozens of bio majors and this lowers my confidence in vacksene lol Just messing around, bio major reading this

"Injuries will ensure that Ruotsalainen will play plenty of games" And he's welcome to beat put any of the players above him. I just want to see more of him before I assume he could do that

Lol what a walk back. I could do lots of things without phone today

Omggggg I gotta work in the scif today

I wish the Sabres would be this thorough with a position group

I would absolutely swap rakell for comtois. The problem is Anaheim would want to swap him for Derek Grant. That was the best case realistic trade I could think of. Rakell will be 28, not 34. You can't just build a team of all u25s lol I tried this on cap friendly and came in around 79 but I also was making huge ignorant guesses on every contract I handed out. 7 to Sam, 5 to dahlin, 2,3,4.5 to everyone else

I don't need to win it. Just don't come limping away from an Eichel trade. In no universe is that necessary. He is the most valuable teade asset this franchise has had in 20 years

No clue if they're interested, but I like the idea of a potential Carolina deal. Necas Jarvis Teuvo?

Just remember who you're trading Kevyn This was not a player with some mystical losing force, or with crippling flaws that will keep his team from winning This is an NHL star that developed into this player despite his franchise's incompetence You have the leverage, you don't need to trade him. Make sure you get everything you possibly can if you do, and don't expect him to lose the same way if you send him to a competent team

Eichel for Zegras, Rakell, prospect, 2nd Risto, Olofsson for Copp Tage, player from defensive logjam for Miles Wood, 4th Sign Blake Coleman Sign McCabe Sign Kevan Miller Sign Ullmark, backup G (Mrazek?) Coleman - Reinhart - Cozens Asplund - Mittelstadt - Rakell Skinner - Zegras - Copp Wood - Girgensons - Bjork Ruots, KO Dahlin - Jokiharju McCabe - Miller Bryson/Samuelsson - Borgen/Laaksonen Ullmark Mrazek Line 1: Mix of steadiness, jam, brains and hands. Line 2: Giving Mitts and Asplund an upgrade at RW with a fresh-start skilled forward who finally has a center that can pass again. Line 3: Easy minutes to break in the rookie passing wizard center, try to get Skinner to be useful again, and giving them Copp for help in the faceoff dot along with gritty play and recent breakout in offensive ability. Line 4: All 3 can fly, and give a decent amount of offense for a 4th line. Injuries will ensure that Ruotsalainen will play plenty of games, and so will KO. 6 guys who can play, or are prospects projected to play the center position. Mixing vets with kids. Defense is a bit weak, but there isn't a lot available out there. Goalies and improved forward play will help with this, I maintain that our defense has not been a problem since ~16-17 anyway, it's been at least typical/average since then.