Hoss

Dreger: No locks, but early expectations: Lucic goes to Oilers. Nielsen goes to Red Wings. Ladd goes to Isles and Eriksson goes to Canucks. #hunch McKenzie seconded these and added Brouwer to Calgary as a guess. Uh oh... McKenzie: "We've heard a lot of rumors about how hard Buffalo's going to go after Kyle Okpooso. Crazy money, supposedly." We'll see. #Sabres

Not quoting your longer post for space reasons, but I'm not worried if the term is five years. Six worries me slightly because I think there's a decent-to-solid chance the last two years we'll end up with a flimsy winger in the bottom six. However, I do think Okposo can contribute significantly immediately and provide us with a chance to be a playoff team right now. I think that'd be huge for development and, by the time he declines, we'll have prospects fulfilling his role. I will be disappointed if there's a 7 in the term or money, though.

Okposo is easily better than the second two and slightly better than Kane.

Not counting yet.

Reinhart, Eichel, Risto, O'Reilly. Those are my five better than him. That's a fair point but not a very convincing argument overall. My two biggest questions before giving a free agent a fat contract are: are you expecting a significantly changed role and does the team the player is coming from play a completely different style?

Free agency doesn't kickoff until noon.

Blue and dudacek - what's the case against giving Okposo that deal? I know there is one and am still not quite on board with giving it to him, but there seem to be plenty of reasons for giving it to him.

If you're talking about when we hired GMTM is was Nashville assistant Paul Fenton. Fenton was actually my number one choice throughout the process. Still like him as an eventual GM somewhere.

Jimmy Murphy @MurphysLaw74 Per source: #Panthers sign Aaron Ekblad to 8-yr deal w/$7.5 AAV Woah.

As somebody who loves superthreads - it's been great seeing bigger conversations like MAJOR NHL deals and serious Sabres rumors split off into their own threads. I hope it keeps up.

Darren Dreger @DarrenDreger I believe the Dallas Stars want Brian Campbell. I believe the Stars were his 2nd choice. I also believe he rejoins the Hawks tomorrow.

Sabres make it official: https://sabresdigitalpressbox.com/2016/06/30/sabres-re-sign-defenseman-mccabe/

I haven't seen anybody condoning him and I've seen few defending him. Regardless of what actually happened that night it's annoying how he has seen his name come up multiple times in these types of ordeals, but the argument that can easily be made isn't the argument you're making. There's no need to compare him to players whose personal lives we knew so little about compared to today's players. I'm fine with shipping out Kane. I'm fine with those upset with him and sick of it... But it has nothing to do with Gilbert Perrault.

I don't think what you're saying has anything to do with my point. My post was a response to etienne99 saying "you never heard this about xxxx"

It absolutely impacted the reporting of it.

It's pretty naive to compare what we hear about today's athletes with athletes from the past. There's no doubt in my mind there are hundreds of athletes who have committed more heinous crimes that we never heard about because social media and pre-fact reporting were either non-existent or not as prevalent.

PSA: HERO Charts aren't the end-all be-all that they are often inferred to be, but here are the two compared in their contract years:

If there wasn't a bridge how would you ever get over it?

General Fanager‏@generalfanager Jake McCabe (#Sabres) 3 yrs @ $1.6M cap hit 2016: $1.25M 2017: $1.775M 2018: $1.775M http://www.generalfanager.com/players/318

SPOILERS INSIDE - great video

Wookie, never change. The entire package you offered from Buffalo might be close for Landeskog alone.

Chris Nichols @NicholsOnHockey LeBrun on #Sabres: "I think they'll be hot and heavy at Kyle Okposo, again, because of his age" on the UFA market.

https://sabresdigitalpressbox.com/2016/06/30/sabres-announce-2016-development-camp-schedule/ Roster for Dev Camp announced. Vesey not listed.

Matthew Sekeres @mattsekeres The #Canucks were told this morning by Milan Lucic's camp that they are no longer being considered. He's not coming home #NHLFreeagency

Arthur Staples of Newsday mentions Buffalo and Detroit as teams who could outbid the Isles for Frans Nielsen: http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/islanders-move-on-to-plan-b-as-steven-stamkos-re-signs-with-lightning-1.11986678 Pierre LeBrun @Real_ESPNLeBrun Hearing that Milan Lucic has narrowed his choices to two teams. Decision time Friday when market opens. Pierre LeBrun @Real_ESPNLeBrun Don't know which are the 2 teams but we know that Edmonton, Vancouver, Montreal, Dallas among teams very interested...