TrueBlueGED

The heart of how I feel about trading Reinhart really depends how the organization views him. Is him being a winger only a Bylsma thing, or does Murray now believe that's all he is? If Reinhart is only going to be a winger, I trade him for Hanifin without much angst at all. I don't love Hanifin, but he's got a reasonably good chance to be a top-3 D on a good team, which is more valuable than what I think Sam will get to as a winger. But if we move Sam to center, the trade becomes much harder for me to make, as I think Sam's ceiling as a center is higher than Hanifin's as a Dman. And I still think a center spine of Eichel-ROR-Reinhart would be borderline impossible to handle for the opposition.

Man, Andersen makes about 4 ridiculous saves in a row...then lets THAT in from Tom freaking Wilson? What a lovely way for the Leafs to lose!

Again I am right in my analysis!

Until proven otherwise, I'll just assume it was an arranged marriage.

Did he...did he touch it? If so, you should probably make him bathe in bleach to get rid of the life destroying virus the trophy spreads to all who come into contact with it.

And I was right! Well, until I was wrong. But up until that point, I was right!

Nah, Caps'll be fine.

I think Holtby's drunk.

I think the point he's trying to make is that the notion that the Leafs talent base was do much more mature than ours really isn't true, because we went out and added O'Reilly, Kane, and Okposo (whom I forgot to list in my post). Yea, they technically started compiling high draft picks sooner than us, but that got balanced out by subsequent moves.

Bogosian is the only dead weight he added in his attempts to accelerate things. Neither O'Reilly nor Kane fall into that category. If we compare: O'Reilly - Kadri Kane - JVR Risto - Rielly Eichel - Matthews Nylander - Nylander Reinhart - Marner Bogo - Gardiner McCabe - Zaitsev Sure, Gardiner obliterates Bogo, and their Nylander is currently more useful in the NHL than ours, but I don't see some massive talent gap on the whole for the key pieces. Certainly not to the point where the rebuilds cannot be compared to one another. If Murray doesn't whiff on Bogo/Kulikov, we're talking marginal talent differences at best between the squads.

I have way more confidence in SJ than Boston. When I saw Boston at the top of the stats I was sad :lol:

I think there's some truth here, but not to the tune of 17 points in the standings. We (Sabres fans) have long underrating Kadri and Gardiner, in particular. But when Connor freaking Brown gets 20 goals, and Marincin, Carrick, and Hunwick masquerade as passable defensemen, there's more going on than talent base.

I have a feeling Alzner is going to command almost twice as much as I'm willing to pay, in term if not dollar amount. Can I get 3 years, $12-14 million. Sign me the hell up. For some reason I expect he'll get something like 5 years $25M+, to which I sprint as quickly as possible in the opposite direction.

I the even more pertinent point is they're doing it on the back of rookies.

Right. If he has to work on all of that...why bother? And why would anyone feel confident that even if he fixes it, that it'll be a permanent fix? Maybe I'm too cynical, but I generally don't believe people fundamentally change who they are. Can chip around the edges, sure, but we're talking foundational changes here. I just don't see it a) happening, and b) being long lasting.

There's no reason to expose any of those three.

So you guys are saying lap belts are the safety equivalent of participation trophies? Responsible for countless deaths and eventually the downfall of modern civilization? And oh man, imagine putting a lap belt on, or giving a participation trophy to, a millennial?!?! The sun may as well go supernova! TO THE DOOMSDAY BUNKER!

1) Maybe. 2) I just think the value of scoring wingers is a lot lower than people tend to think. 3) Do you mean fans or the franchises? 4) None of the available defensemen moved after that trade. I think it very well may have set a trend, just that other GMs weren't willing to pay the price Chiarelli did.

And then you remember it took Hall to get Larsson and cry. I sincerely hope the market moves beyond that trade.

Before he was broken, yea. Basically I'm warming to the idea of adding a Brodin-type. It's not my ideal, but if I'm right and Murray won't be able to add two legit top-4 options, maybe it'd be better to get someone to eat the tough minutes and let Risto be our offensive catalyst? Put differently, I'm becoming more convinced that Risto just can't handle the work he's been given, and would be better off being allowed to free-wheel offensively. Ideally we can add a Brodin and a Fowler and run a balanced top-4, but realistically, I'm not sure that's possible. Edit: Put differently, if we add a puck mover and only a puck mover, that likely means Risto remains in the shutdown role that he is ill-suited for. If we add a shutdown type, Risto moves to the puck mover role and it's kind of like improving the D in multiple ways with a single move.

Yes. But an actual defensive defenseman, not a guy who is useless offensively so people just assume he has defensive value.

Agreed, hence my reply to Dudacek where he posited the #1 for Faulk. I would like to formally request you getout.gif yourself. The defense becoming less bad with better coaching isn't good enough. We need two defensemen: a puck mover, and a defensive specialist who can eat tough minutes and free up Risto to be more aggressive offensively. The latter might kill a bird and a half with one stone, and might be preferable if we have to choose just 1.

I think the pick might be able to get Hanifin. Not Faulk though.

No way does the #1/2 in this draft get us their best Dman.

Oh my. Our rational, level-headed Dudacek has been possessed by the ghost of Wookie's past. :p