DarthEbriate

I'm at the point where I'm ready to admit that the tank's results (Reinhart, Eichel) need to be moved for the good of the franchise -- get a bunch of picks, prospects, and remake the roster entirely with NHL-capable players with souls. And, for the good of their hockey souls: liberate the players themselves from this mess. Risto, Eichel, Reino, Girgs. They're good to really good players, but they've suffered enough. Trade 'em all. Send Okposo to ROC at the start of next season, and then buy him out after next season. Remake the roster with an entirely new core and new captain and new vision. Going way off the deep end -- somehow convince Skinner to waive his clause (you know, so he doesn't have to suffer further indignation at never playing in the playoffs), and then telling Seattle -- you can pick Eichel, but you have to take Skinner, no retention. And in exchange we ask for 3 firsts (including their 2021 top 5), 2 seconds, and 4-5 players we select from other rosters in the expansion draft of which one is a starting caliber goalie -- the types of players GM Kheevyn and whoever his new AGM and consultant end up wanting to build around. Seattle gets 2/3 of a top line and an oft-injured Hart-caliber 1C in his prime to "grow the sport" and "get people on their feet" and whatnot.

Reinhart is a very good hockey player, a top-six skater on every roster in the league. Elite vision, gets deflection goals, falls down but gets up, and goes to the front of the net. He is not a checker or physical presence although he is the only guy who's consistently stepped in whenever Eichel has gotten hit. He cares. On a playoff caliber team I see him as a Patrick Sharp type (although Sharp is much stronger defensively and will be edgier), but more as that glue guy who can play on any wing and elevate the line. But now is the time. He's an RFA. This offseason, he'll re-sign for one year and then he's out. To maximize trade value, we need to move him between now and the start of next season so we get the best/most assets possible in return.

A 3-0 lead after two periods, against a team that had scratched its starting goalie (Hart wasn't even dressed!), dressed only 5 defensemen, and has been scuffling for a couple weeks.

Hall can still get us a 1st and a player/prospect. Everyone around the league knows this team is garbage and will blame that. He can look OK again. But we know Hall is garbage long-term and has been since the knee. He's still OK as a passer on the power play, but that's not enough. The only real reason to sign him in the first place is to assure you win #1 in the draft lottery. Whatever we do we must not re-sign him.

Well shoot. I had hope after they got through several minutes after Philly's 1st goal with nothing doing. Then the back-to-back PP and... still not strong enough mentally to shut it down when things go awry. I feel bad for Ullmark. He's played decently but deflections, passes to unmarked guys on his doorstep, and then a rush goal in OT. He's looked good since his return.

Now that's a good kill. And Risto was on a mission out of the box. From rush to (stormtrooper) shot to trying to annihilate the guy along the bench. I wish he'd buried the shot.

But! They're entertaining. That's the start. He's had 8 seasons of preparation for this moment.

Buckle up... we're passing through their magnetic field. Switch your deflectors on. Double front!

During the break it'd've been noisy. Now... yeah, now the nerves set in.

Ooof. Great little catch, drop, pass along the boards there.

Good kill. Fairly boring. But if we were in the building we'd be hopping.

Aaaand this is where Eakin, Rieder, Lazar, and Sheahen can make their pay.

He just needs needs needs to learn how to play the man. He's so absurdly quick-handed that he thinks he can always play the puck. And sometimes you just need to stand the guy up and let the puck drift on by.

Hey. Solid response. It's 5 minutes later... a couple chances given up, but Ullmark was there. And we haven't gone into a shell. We get the puck and we're still heading up ice and attacking and creating our own chances. They aren't going full Alamo Death Star mode.

Now we need to respond, not fold like we've done the last month. This is an important stretch of the entire post-RaKru experience.

That blast came from The Montour! That guy's operational?!

Woooooooo!

Hey... we're in the lead. Outshooting them. We've got nearly a full PP to start the 2nd that we forced by being aggressive. Jokiharju got an easy wide-open shot because he wasn't already exiting the zone, and we got multiple people involved in a board battle... This looks like a concerted team effort. It looks like the RaKru is starting to wear off. And yes -- it's the Flyers and not Boston, Pitt, Washington, or the Isles. But they still look better.

Jokerrrrrr!

This is why we can't have nice things. Also RIP Jessica Walter.

Huh... I didn't know our defencemen were allowed to stickhandle and drive down the boards in the o-zone.

Help us, Linus-Ullmark, you're our only hope! If he wants to be here, then yes re-sign Ullmark to a mid-to-low starter salary for 3-4 years. In that $3.9-4.4M range. The hits on him on the lower side are the obvious: injury history and no playoff experience. But he's a solid 1B if not elite. And he's awesome in shootouts. We can do much, much worse. Heck, we've been doing much, much worse. And half the league's teams would probably be better with him in their crease. He may not be the leader Miller was, or the superstar Hasek was, but he's capable of being a .920 guy with a good defense and definitely capable of playing hot for a couple weeks needed to steal a playoff series.

What the hell. Tonight... General, count me in.

I’m good with any hockey operations consultant/president type as long as the line of demarcation with ownership is clear. The owners can have final say on any ethical/moral standings [edit: and yes, the total budget for the team - either to the cap or "I just want to make a little extra cash on the side"], but I don’t want them involved in any day-to-day personnel operations, player salary determinations, trade valuations, or any scouting/hiring practices. Leave that to the hockey people that you hate. For example, if a player drunkenly drives his vehicle into … I dunno, a Tim Hortons or something, and flees the scene: then yes, the owner is well within their rights to say: “Unacceptable actions detrimental to the team. Move this player immediately.” What the owner cannot be allowed to say is, two years later after a moral incident, after very solid statistical campaigns as arguably far-and-away the best overall player on the team, when due a roster bonus, “Move this person immediately before payment for utter garbage that will cripple our franchise for years.” Then no. The owner is not acting with any interest to the franchise. And that’s where a hockey person and trusted team take the lead. They wait another day and then make the trade, money be damned. Or even better, they say, “Hey --- everybody go enjoy the offseason. This season ended poorly. We get it. Go rest up, and come back ready to go.” Likewise, we can call this the “Ehrhoff Principle” – an owner is welcome to say, “Did you see Player X in the recent Stanley Cup/Olympics/World Juniors? We gotta sign/trade for/draft him and that’s an order! And if we sign, it’s gotta be the biggest money so that everyone know we mean business and Buffalo has cash available. Look, a squirrel!” To which the hockey people need to be able, willing, and incentivized to say: “Thank you. We’ll take that under advisement.” And then make a fair market valuation, do scouting diligence, and make a reasonable inquiry. And be well prepared to offer Ehrhoff $4M x 6, or say “Leino, wanna play wing for $3M x 5?”, or trade Skinner at the deadline, or get a goalie with functioning eyes and stick with Kahun and a grinder… heck, even Wayne Simmonds vs. signing Taylor Hall, or any of the poor personnel/contract decisions that’ve been made that had to have been approved/pushed for by the owners. tl;dr Let people do the job you hired them to do.

Always two there are. A GM... and an apprentice. Once you start rolling in the third... folks start getting their limbs lopped off. Or just cut in half and needing spider droid leg assemblies.