DarthEbriate

So many soft and slow passes this season. They’re professionals they can accept a good hard pass.

Good drive to the net, JBD.

The Wild are not a great hockey franchise. They bought out Parise and Suter and it was...wild. They purposefully took on $14M in dead cap! That's more than the EEE-imposed (or Adams- because he says he has all the resources he needs) spending limits the Sabres have set for themselves the past couple seasons. But when the Wild bought out those two, did they say, "we give up!" and also trade away Kaprizov and Zuccarello, Brodin, Spurgeon, and Eriksson Ek, or heart-and-soul guys like Foligno? Did they jettison goaltending? No. They kept a good guy in Gustavsson and got a real backup like Fleury. (They didn't grab Anderson out of retirement and pair him with kids and AHLers. They didn't get rid of Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, Ullmark, etc.) This has forced the Wild to shave their roster in a couple spots: MoJo? Bogo? Hartman is meh. But next year they'll get all that cap space back to fill out the roster, plus the rising cap. In the 4 years they've dealt with that cap hell, they've made the playoffs three times. Again, not a contender, but they've got playoff revenue and an engaged fan base and they still have their superstar in Kaprizov. They're ready to rebuild this offseason. JJP would be an excellent offer sheet target for them (replacing UFA MoJo).

Right, but the folks you listed: Dahlin, JJP, and Tage aren't in the system. They're already on the Sabres.

There were so many other avenues available beyond going cheap (until the owner says "tear it down, EEE only"). But Adams had to say that he could do the teardown and keep it cheap, he was fully complicit. If he had gone to TPeg and said, "Keep the core, I can get this roster to the playoffs" they could have extended Reinhart and not alienated Eichel, and built around them and Dahlin. And the kicker, once the cap rose, you could pay all those players their current salaries and still fill out a roster. And you'd have made the playoffs in '22-23. You wouldn't have Power and you wouldn't have been able to extend Skinner for 8, but whatever.

By system, I think @Ogelthorpe means the planets prospects not the star NHL roster.

Someone needs to let GMKA that the absolute floor is set for Byram. Edit: LT. You could and should bridge him for less. Or trade.

I think you're thinking Norris instead of Docker... otherwise, I think you're going to be sorely disappointed when Docker scores goal number 25 in... 2031.

This is it.

Retirement game on home ice. Because... I don't know. He's been overplayed (not over the course of the season, but over the course of the last month.) There is an imbalance in the Force concept of goaltending with the Grand Ruff. What little I saw of it, Östlund and Rosén looked good on the fourth line last game. I still want Östlund to notch his first career goal this season.

Once more, unto the breach! Finish 7th, lottery jumped to pick 8th. It’s our lot in life.

Well, yes. Eventually, the current core of TNT/Dahlin/Tuch will want out or be sold as being rotten. And the only folks to remain will be ELCs. Keep this going long enough and we won’t see Benson smiling as he starts a ruckus. Because what would be the point?

It must be tough on a person to be the only one available for a job (because you listen to the boss). But to know you don’t have the skills or means to do the tasks, loathed for holding that position by your fans, being the very worst among your peers performance-wise, and not respected by said peers. That has to be exhausting.

I suppose the only question that I’d honestly want to have an answer to is “When is Pegula going to announce that EEE is over and the franchise’s purpose is back to winning a Stanley Cup?” That’s the root of everything else. Because then you can justify a POHO and a full scouting department and spending to the cap and even arena renovations in the name of increasing revenue.

It doesn't make any sense. Even if you waive him on 10/1 and he gets his higher salary while playing in Rochester, fine. But then you offer him $850k on July 1st as a quick win and everyone nods "yup, tweener, pencil him in for Rochester unless another team has a whole bunch of injuries in camp and claims him". Now, watch Adams bring back Dennis Gilbert to be the muscle on the blue line again at... 2x$1.5M or something.

On the other hand... they'll all be a year older? Pretty soon they won't be the youngest roster in the league. They'll be the third youngest.

Fun fact: Eichel and Reinhart are both essentially halfway through their playing careers.

Leenders was injured in game 1 of the semifinal series with Oshawa, and exited with the Bulldogs trailing 2-0. The Bulldogs rallied around their backup for the win and now lead the series 2 to 1. Per the Brantford Expositor https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/sports/brantford-bulldogs-take-game-1-against-oshawa-generals "Brantford coach Jay McKee was coy on the injury. “He’s day to day,” McKee answered when asked about Leenders."

In 2011... There were only 6 Star Wars films, one Holiday Special, two Ewoks films (one with Wilford Brimley), thirteen episodes of Droids and 26 episodes of Ewoks cartoon series, one animated The Clone Wars film with three seasons of the series, and one Cartoon Network Genndy Tartakovksy Clone Wars vehicle.

We can play Imagination Questions. ++ I asked GMKA why he doesn't spend to the cap or allow his mentor (Ruff) to select his own staff. ++ I got a pogo stick!

Sheevy... you've lost another submarine tank season?

Honestly, I'm guessing it wouldn't compare to the $58M he's saved in spending under the cap since Adams took over. Always two there are: a master and an apprentice.

True. But I think even Kucherov at least goes and grabs someone to prevent them from doubling up on a teammate.

The real issue wasn't that Girgs ended up in a long-delayed "do you wanna go?" fight. It's that when Chafee was hit all 4 Lightning skaters were immediately going after Panthers, whomever they could find. It wasn't just Tuch or Krebs skating to the offender, it was everyone and it was instantaneous.

But was Pegula there to give them a rousing speech? Yup. That's already scheduled for April 2026. We did a thorough interviewing process, but we really like Appert and he provides consistency for our young players. I hope he explains how his previous statements that he is the one determining how much money is spent each season, and that if this was a "playoffs or bust" year, why he didn't take on any salary throughout the season in the short term, either to end the losing streak, or to you know... save his own job seeing as how it was playoffs or bust. Orrr --- how at the deadline he could've been the accomplice to take on cap hits to acquire additional draft collateral to package and help move up into the top 4, or whatever. With all these resources available and you in full control and playoffs or bust -- why do you take no action? Why was Reimer waived? Why does Power still not have a veteran partner? The softball questions.