Hoss

The Cubs aren’t a forgone conclusion by any means... but you would also trade for him for the same reason you trade for any rental: you think it puts you over the top. In his case it’d cost a lot but he also increases your chances of winning a ton.

I’ll give a ROC lineup a crack... Smith - Criscuolo - O’Regan Olofsson - Porter - Bailey/Baptiste Cornel - Malone - Nylander Ogelvie - Asplund - Pu Hunwick - Redmond Pilut - Fedun Hickey - Borgen Man, there’s a big logjam on defense. I took the conservative approach with most of the new names but expect/hope they’re higher in the lineup.

I completely forgot Legwand played here. As someone who has rooted for Nashville since I was a kid because of Paul Kariya (used to root for whichever team he played for) and, oddly, Jordin Tootoo, I grew fond of Leggy. I would never insult him as JAG. I went with Wilson, Mitchell and Schaller. I view JAG as a definite NHL player who can move in/out of the bottom six but could come and go without much notice or care. Grant isn’t good enough for that. Neither are Griffith or Tennyson.

It’s almost as if they didn’t acquire just TT2.0... also “best faceoff man in the league” is my favorite sort of compliment I’ve ever heard.

I know I fall into the trap of thinking “third line” is a slur but if he turns into damn good third liner for a long time then I’d be happy with the trade.

Liking tbing sthat someone does it not complaining about things they do doesn’t mean people want to pay him over $5 mill a year.

So basically the only thing you think will change from today to the beginning of 2019-20 is Olofsson making the team? He COULD (likely won’t) do that this season. Same for Pilut.

Schiefele had one solid year under his belt when he signed the deal. 29-32-61. He had one assist in four playoff games to that point.

Rewatched the Force Awakens... the newest Star Wars movies have all knocked it out of the park. Kylo Ren is a very great villain with flaws (people don’t like him because he’s flawed but that’s his entire idea).

I'm not willing to (nor do I think the mods should allow it).

I see him shaping into a definite NHL defenseman who figures to be “bottom four.” You’re comfortable with him on the second pair and in really good shape if he’s in your third pairing. Very small chance he becomes a top-two type.

11 (Kaprizov) was a 5th round pick in 2015. 31 (Abramov) was a 3rd round pick in 2016. 34 (Fox) was a 3rd round pick in 2016. 48 (Sorokin) was a 3rd round pick in 2014. Those are the only non-1st/2nd rounders.

Not claiming TT2.0 would be on there but I think it’s pretty clear he wouldn’t qualify based on the criteria and examples given.

Scott Wheeler of the Athletic did a top 50 drafted NHL prospects list. http://bit.ly/2NRx7DF Sabres have number one and four (surprise surprise) but don’t have another name on the list. He goes on to mention 70 “other” prospects of interest and the only name we have there is Alex Nylander. One team has zero prospects on the list (New Jersey). 16 teams have one. Nine have two. Four have three and one has four (Vancouver). In our division: Boston (1), Buffalo (2), Carolina (3), Detroit (1), Florida (2), Montreal (1), Ottawa (2), Tampa (1), Toronto (1). Dahlin (1) and Mittelstadt (4) combine for 5 spots in the ranking. Vancouver has the next lowest combination with Elias Pettersson (2) and Quinn Hughes (8) combine for 10. Carolina has 3 (Andrei Svechnikov) and 9 (Martin Necas).

Some of these “flops” are team that are already expected to compete for dead last (Montreal, Vancouver and the Rangers). Most hyped is pretty definitively Toronto. Biggest flop: Vegas or Winnipeg. Vegas will miss the playoffs. Winnipeg had a lot of guys take huge steps forward, so it’s TBD if they can duplicate that. Helly in net is on a big contract now so he’s got to live up. Best team: Nashville. I think they were the best regular season team last year and I think they’ll continue growing from there. Might be the last shot with Rinne in net. Buggest surprise: Panthers. They’ve been on the edge of the playoffs but this year they’ll finish third in the Atlantic and beat Toronto in round one.

That was two years ago. He didn’t play hockey this season.

Hopefully none of those rap lyrics he was tweeting...

$4.25 million isn’t “too-six” money anymore. Nelson is a really versatile guy who can get physical and play some D. He’s worth that.

The lineup won’t be the same without O’Reilly. It’ll be everything but whole. We won’t half suck but whole suck.

Any idea on the jersey itself? I had a feeling the rumor on the logo was false when Samson pulled it out for his special New Era Cap hat. This is never going to end, is it?

We made it this far without making any childish jokes about filling O’Reilly’s holes. A lot has changed in two years.

I don’t think they’ll wear EVERY jersey. At least not as obnoxiously specific as Taro got. The 40th anniversary royal was great but I feel like it’d be weird to wear that. And I may be wrong on this but I believe there’s some sort of ownership rights to the goatheads which has limited the team from merchandising them. Rigas maybe? Speaking of Rigas: dude got a sweet deal. Got a doctor to say he has months to live so they’d release him from jail and he’s free and still kicking.

Thompson, Eichel and Olofsson are all noted as having wicked shots. If TT 2.0 and Olofsson pan out our power play should be consistently around the top of the league. And Dahlin will be a huge part of that. Olofsson - Reinhart - Thompson Eichel - Dahlin Reinhart stands in front while everyone else throws the puck at him.

You know what I mean. ? I’d even be super down if those white home/road sweaters didn’t have nameplates.

Same. My hope is that the team gets a free will for the 50th like other teams have for their 50th/100th. This is my master plan: - Unveil new royal home and away sweaters. Not a straight rip of the classics but a clean look with a modernized feel. NO block numbers (the slug don’t was great, actually). - Unveil two throwback alternates: the black goathead and the original road whites. - Rochester plays a couple games in Buffalo and wears the bottle cap throwbacks (or Sabres could wear these for a Winter Classic game)