etiennep99

When St. Louis made the trade, they assumed that their 1st rounder would be low. Now, it's a mid 1st rounder. They're not going to let Buffalo have that. Only Garth Snow would make that kind of faux pas.

Off topic, but this just shows that Buffalo's tanking plan is the way to go. You gotta have those Kanes and Toews kind of guys. St. Louis didn't have those elite game breakers.

You gotta figure that the best Buffalo gets is that 2016 3rd round pick. St. Louis would be crazy to pay big money for Miller after that huge melt-down.

2015 is supposed to be a deep draft. We also have the Islanders 2nd round pick in 2015. They don't want to totally miss out on a good draft. So, unless they win the 2014 draft lottery, they give us their 2014 #1 (at 5 or 6). The consensus is that there is a top 3 (Reinhart, Ekblad, Bennet), then Draisaitl, then Dal Colle lower down. That's why I'm glad that the Islanders won yesterday. At 4, they hold onto the pick, but at 5 or 6, they pass it to us. Now if only we could trade up to get Reinhart *and* Ekblad. I don't want Bennet because when I hear about him, I can't help but think Sam Gagner at best and Gilbert Brule, at worst. Reinhart sounds more like Monahan or even MacKinnon.

I think that it's crazy that Rochester is in the Western Conference. They're not even in the same *conference* as Syracuse and the other NY teams. That's nuts. Maybe there should be a New England Division, a New York & Ontario Division, a PA & Midwest Division, and then the Outlier Outcasts division of TX, OK, NC, NF, &BC. Perhaps the Outliers should be put into another IHL like leagure of their own. This makes more sense to me.

Ullmark, Nelson, & Austin remain from 2012 to be signed. Must Ullmark be signed this year? Should the Sabres sign Nelson and Austin, or should they try to get them on AHL contracts?

I believe that Kea was already with the Amerks on a try-out contract.

What's a kid like Grigorenko to think about this whole Pat Lafountaine affair? Wasn't it Pat who said that Grigo had to learn to be patient and EARN his place on teams. I think that Pat should look himself in the mirror. Twice now, Pat has been rushed into influential positions and then left at the first sign of trouble. That's not a good example Pat. My take on things is that Lafountaine was being forced into a figurehead role and that he didn't care for it. That's not what he signed up for. But, come on. He should have at least stayed to the end of the year. You gotta practice what you preach. I take this all back if it was something more insideous that people are keeping private. Well, except the Grigorenko part because this kid has to really have his head spinning right now.

Two quick items: 1. William Carrier should be AHL eligible this coming Fall. He's played 4 seasons in CHL and will be 20 by then end of 2014. 2. Larry Carriere should, in fact, be pronounced carry-air because of that pesky little 'e' at the end. 'er' = ay, "ere" = air.

Roy is Patrick Roy's son. He's also a Grigo's buddy. QED. Szydlowski is a just a contract dump. Buffalo could sweeten the pot a little, but Statsny is a pending UFA. Pickard is still just a prospect. So Grigo for Stastny is good value. Stafford + junk for a prospect is good value.

Trade Proposal: Grigorenko + Roy + Stafford + Szydlowski = Stastny + Pickard

Thanks. I just got off my distracted butt, and did some of my own research. I found out that it's 10 *NHL* games. I thought that it was *pro* games because we normally see prospects burning contracts at the AHL level. But I guess that most prospects are from the CHL and are already 20 years old; so their contracts aren't eligible to slide. Also, when young CHL'ers finish their Jr. season early, they normally sign ATO contracts to wet their feet at the AHL level; so again, they end up sliding. Girgensons is, I suppose, a rare case, the exception which proves the rule.

Why did Girgensons' contract "slide"? People (capgeek, etc.) have him listed as still having three years left on his entry-level contract. Did he sign an AHL only contract last year? Is there some arcane rule that I'm missing? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? SpndnChz?

Vanek and Leino can both play RW. Didn't they try Foligno at centre and like the thought of eventually keeping him there? Isn't Damien Brunner-RW still unsigned?

Too many d-men. And what really annoys me is that no one in the mainstream press seems to know that we have McNabb and Ruhwedel on our team; one or both of them are usually missing from people's lists. I'd rather see these guys playing than Sulzer. McNabb is a left defence guy. Why not pair him with Myers? They are both big, and McNabb actually hits once in a while....Oh well. I guess that Sulzer is more of Darcy's plan to finish last in the league this year.

Posting again in this thread.... Eric Locke will be 20 by the Fall and is AHL eligible. What's the odds on Locke, Logan Nelson, & Brady Austin playing in Rochester this year? The Amerks defence depth chart looks thin, even if Ristolainen players there this year. Could/would Brady Austin sign an Amerks only contract a la Fred Roy last year? McNabb?, Ristolainen?? Jerome Gauthier-LeDuc, MacKenzie, Crawford That's only 5 players, 6 if you add Brady Austin. Will the Amerks resign Roy? Luke Adam if resigned is an over-ager, if I'm not mistaken. MacCormick would make 2 over-agers with more depth needed for the Amerks.

To each his own. I'm just a huge KISS fan (not the band). I find the James Joyces and Camille Paglias of this world to be an annoying waste of time and energy. I'm a follower of William James; he was pragmatic but had excellent diction. And I'm a follower of Jesus. Jesus used word-play and poetry, but with simple words and pictures drawn from everyman's daily life.

James Joyce had a warped mind, and he used meaningless word-smything to try to corrupt other people's minds. I hated reading Ulysses, and took great offence with our "distinguished" professor who forced it upon us as a follow up (not) to Homer's Odyssey. OK, well perhaps there is a motif in Ulysses concerning the "search for a father figure". And that does make for a timely social commentary because so many of today's families are broken and/or led by highly dysfunctional people akin to Stephen. But, as the poster stated, no solutions are offered. Or was eating Plumtrees Potted Meat a current topic of the 1920's? On that front, I just finished reading "Singularity Sky" by Charles Stross. At least this book was a current social commentary as a commentary on the collapse of Soviet Union disguised as a space opera. It even tries to make a case for a laissez-faire anarchism using the Internet as a vague analogy....another product of a creative but somewhat warped mind.</p></p>

Why all the hate on Terry Pegula? Just two years ago he was the Sabres saviour. We might not have a team right now if not for him. I'm getting sick of all of these negative stories....Yeah, I, myself, made fun of him a little in a post above, but I wasn't trying to be mean spirited. I was making the point that he didn't sound that awake during the interview. I'm getting the impression that Terry is a bit of an idea man, but he relies very heavily on his subordinates to pull them together with panache. It's only natural for him to rely heavily on Darcy Regier. I'd still like to know how he made his billions in natural gas. Maybe it was dumb luck. But, I'm willing to give TP more time. What choice do we have? I know that most of you want him to fire Darcy Regier, and you're showering your hate on Pegula because of it. But, he's the owner; it's HIS party. The fans can vote with their wallets. [As I've said elsewhere, I'm too poor to follow the Sabres except for free on the radio. I feel the pain because tickets and TV service are way too expensive, and the NHL doesn't allow Internet broadcasts in the home market; I'd consider buying NHL Centre Ice if I could watch the Sabres.]

If I were judge, I'd issue Terry a charge of contempt of court for his dreadfully slow and boring diction. How did this man become a billionaire?!? Can you imagine his first "speed" dating event with Kim? I feel sorry for Darcy for having to "talk" to Terry so much. Until the day I die, I'll never understand how some people strike it rich while the rest of us blokes don't. Well, OK, maybe wasting my time on this board doesn't help my prospects. Later.

I don't get all of the people saying that we should trade away the young farm hands (Ennis, etc.) to land some of these guys. IMHO, judging by video highlights, Tyler Ennis is a much more dynamic player than Shinkaruk, although he is certainly much smaller. I thought that the Sabres needed to get bigger and more talented. I know that video isn't the best way to scout, but I watch some of the highlight films and I really wonder why people are raving so much about some of these guys. For example, Lindholme looks like he has little scoring ability. Some of the videos shows the guys scoring a lot of garbage goals. Some of the videos show the smaller guys driving to the net and making fancy dekes which will only cause them to lose their heads in today's NHL. [i'm the one who questioned Grigo's skating ability based on YouTube videos, and I don't think that I was that far off on that one. Just saying.] Yeah, they're talented. Yeah, we have a good opportunity to restock the cupboards with quality prospects. But, outside of the top 5 or so (esp. MacKinnon, Barkov, Monahan), I just don't see a reason to do anything crazy to try to land them.

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LOL!

<p>Darcy Regier is just unbelievable! He lets Stafford and his $4M salary sit on the benches, but he passes on Jussi Jokinen with his $3M. Why didn't he claim Jokinen and then trade Stafford (sending Flynn back to the AHL if necessary to make roster space until the deals go down)?!? Why not pick up Daugavins either? He's another Latvian; perhaps he could help Girgensons? No. Instead we have a do nothing GM who's in the process off letting his free agents walk for nothing just as I predicted at the beginning of the season. Let's face it, if the Sabres are losing to Tampa Bay, how can they consider themselves up to facing Pittsburgh and Chicago in the play-offs? It's plain to see that the Sabres core want it easy. They slack off until the trade deadline approaches,then they put it all together to convince Darcy that he should keep them. How many cycles of this musthappen before Darcy gets a clue? The answer is simple, trade away the dead weight and "Stop Winnin' for MacKinnon".

Ehrhoff Ennis Foligno Hodgson Sekera