DarthEbriate

If Geertsen really is a Ruff beloved and automatically has a roster spot and playing time, Krebs had better have a good showing with the top line today.

No. Metsa wouldn't be happy in a press box. UPL initially had no timetable on his injury. But if it wasn't substantial (because about 2 days later it was only day-to-day), why offer Georgiev a 1-year deal? Just give him a PTO for camp. If he doesn't take it, big deal. You had 5 goalies on the ice, even with Ratzlaff out with illness and Lukkonen on the mend for the couple weeks of camp. Give Houser a call.

Novikov needs to make his NHL debut this season, even if only a 2-game stint at the end (and the only reason for just 2 games would be if they're in a playoff spot and all the defenders are healthy and playing consistently). Otherwise, you bring him up for 5-10 games when Samuelsson is out to see if he can handle that role. Re: rushing players. Their biggest issue is the age and makeup of the roster. A playoff veteran team can easily break in one rookie F every 40 games and one rookie D every season. But this is not a veteran team -- it's already a bunch of young guys still learning the grind/consistency and now you throw in another rookie with folks who aren't even 24 yet, all expected to play prominent roles. They may finally be starting to exit that phase simply because enough guys are under contract for long enough term to hold it together.

The floor is there for McDavid (and likely Eichel, as a Cup-winning near Conn Smythe center) to surpass. And the ceiling is set for the rest of next summer's class. What should Tuch's agent be asking for now? $12M? Kaprizov doesn't score shorthanded. If initial ballpark speculation was 8x$9 for 72, and Tuch's agent was thinking 7x$10.33. for 72.3... maybe a new sweet spot is 6x$12M for 72.

This is where the Parise/Suter buyouts come into effect. They were both bought out months before the 5x$9 was signed. Move one + a protected 1st + some retention. Move the other a year or two later. Guerin was dealing with a flat cap at the time, so it needed to be done with care. But certainly they could have avoided a couple of the monster ($12M+ on the cap for neither player in the lineup) cap hits seasons which they could have maybe gotten Kaprizov for another season or two and another helpful 4D or 3W or something. Like 6x$9.5M or 7x$10M and jettison Suter (even if not great in the room) in the summer of 2024 for a smaller cap hit. Edit: And I forgot to add, but Kaprizov may have been dead set on being UFA at 29 all along so he could land one more massive payday before his wheels started to slow. But in sum: Yay for the players.

HC Ruff says you will get Geertsen and you will like it. Such a versatile Geertsen. VersatGeertsen! Stop trying to make VersatGeertsen happen!

But it makes a good story when they do. Chicago, Colorado, Edmonton, Florida as examples.

This is Bryson and his 254 career GP erasure! If Bryson is the 7-8, Mrtka eventually gets sent down, and Muel continues to miss time... eventually Bryson will get in the lineup for the Sabres this season. And if he does, here are some folks who are within range for him to pass on the all-time Sabres regular season games played list: Darryl Shannon (255), Rhett Warrener (266), Pat LaFontaine (268), Rick Dudley (279), Matt Ellis (286)

Muel-PO: I must have taken a bad step. ... You go on, Master Tuch. I'm done for! Tuch: No, you're not... <R2-D2 whistles. Tuch Icewalker and Son of Ben pause in lifting Muel-PO off the sand> Son of Ben: There's an MRT-K Assassin droid available... For nine games? Tuch: Well... umm... Hey, we'll come back for you. We promise. <Tuch and Son of Ben set Muel-PO back down and hop onto the speeder with R2.>

Pegula pride.

Caught some highlights of Detroit on MSG. That is a honkin' big and opaque bug. It covers a bunch of the ice. Given how the top of the hockey screen is often audience/benches (penalty boxes in Edmonton), shouldn't the bug be at the top of the screen?

They could split some time with the Amerks, but it's called the Pegula Ice Arena (and though smaller, it's much newer). Pegula would love to do games there, especially games against Pitt/Wash/Philly where they could get an upscaled price and a full barn of visiting fans.

I'll allow it, as long as his partner is Bryson. It wouldn't be the worst thing to cut those extra brews and hot dogs.

Five years should be sufficient to finish the stadium, win a Super Bowl, and use the afterglow to ask for $600M of public funding in a massive arena renovation in the KBC structure. The Sabres can play at.... Penn St., an outdoor home game in Boston, etc., for the season while KBC in its biggest construction throes.

Should be a good revenge game if Detroit sends their expected B squad. Yay! Radio-only. But, aside, it's OK it's radio-only for me because today's the big day! I have a little pet project to make a comic book/graphic novel out of a Lego car race at a Lego version of Road America. Today is knee-killing principal photography day. How is this relevant for 'Space? The Buffalo Sabres Black sweater car won the pole position in qualifying. You can imagine how that will turn out.

Keyword there being failed. But in reality, did the GM really go after any big-dollar free agents, or did the GM say that they went after them. Because those are two very different things. The more important point is that the team needed a veteran #1 goalie, a position easily filled throughout the past 6 seasons for just $5M. And they also needed an in-their-prime defensive top-4 defenseman who would push Samuelsson down the lineup and push Bryson out entirely. Even better if he were right-handed to pair with Power, but he could've been a lefty 5 seasons ago. That player type runs $4-5.5M as well. And they needed someone to replace Quinn while he was out and then while he was returned-but-still-recovering from serious injury. Adams didn't do anything of things and had plenty of cash to do so.

If they waive Bryson... Jones is still there as the 7. Muel can be counted on to miss a minimum of 15-20 games and some of that could be easily be a looksee for Novikov.

Need to get at least 5 points head-to-head with the Panthers this regular season. They'll probably come out of the gates in full "FU, we don't need Barkov or Tkachuk" mode. But you need to be able to beat them when they lose of their best forwards.

The owner of the team announced EEE, and proceeded to have the following in cap space by season $8.8M, $15.5M, $17.2M, $10.6M, and $8.5M and are going into the season with $5.19 after a massive cap bump and trading an extendable player (JJP) for two economic and cost-controlled assets. The owner has not made a public statement since. The ownership believes it exists until they prove otherwise.

Muel-PO already in midseason form?

It was nice of Detroit to put the WGR ice mic inside the goal horn.

We can't rewrite it. But it's not how you build a roster. You support your top picks with veterans. That team was $17.2M EEE under the cap. And they wouldn't have had to mortgage the future with 8-year contracts to do it. They should've had a veteran defenseman to support Power (and push Bryson out of the top 6) and a veteran 2C-type guy instead of Cody Eakin. They had money to get another NHL goalie to spell Anderson. Powers' numbers should have been better.

Or, you know, don't play Power 23:48 per game in his rookie season. And get him a stalwart, experienced, defensive D-man who can cover up his mistakes, clear the crease, and protect him. These guys are out there every offseason -- get one who is between 28-32 years old and tell them you can ship them to a contender if you're not in playoff contention -- because that's how Adams wins. In Powers' rookie season: Luke Schenn was 33, Brenden Dillon 32, etc., etc., etc. Then, play them as a third pair for 14:00/night EV, and give Power some PP time. Invest in your #1OA investment! Erik Johnson was a year or two too late, and no longer capable of being that guy. Heck, Kesselring still hasn't proven he can be that guy. Certainly not yet in the playoffs. Jokiharju, who is underrated by this board, is a good defensive player. He plays the system, he does what the coach asks, but he is not big/strong, crease-clearing force. In Powers' rookie season, he was only 23 years old. He wasn't the fit.

It doesn't squeeze the bottom roster guys if it's the same percentage of the cap that it is now (or was when the cap froze at about 82.5). If Tuch's camp feels he's worth 1W money, say Mark Stone's 9.9% of cap. Why should he sign for $9M next year (on $113 cap that % would be $11.18M)? Or worse, why sign for 7 years if the cap is going to reaches 125 within just a couple more seasons? Every player who is UFA next summer should be waiting until next summer. San Jose has $70M in cap space next summer. They need to 2/3 of their roster -- but if you get McDavid and Tuch, and still have Celebrini and Smith on ELCs that could be bridged -- you can attract a bunch of established Cup-hunting vets like Edmonton did, and still fortify with a handful of standard $5M guys.

Gah! The Red Wings got Borgen. And Fox! And ... Zibanejad? The Yzerplan was to assimilate the Rangers roster! 😇