3putt

How is being the most productive player on the team since his arrival being the weed?

Actually it does. Hall was the exact wrong piece to acquire if you wanted to make a positive difference. So was stall with other younger FA available. Hall on a one year deal way above market rate was the perfect poison pill with no consequence the following year.

Sounds like KA is being the dick. I think TPegs got taken by a con man. Again.

Jack always spoke glowingly of the Pegs. KA has gotten a GM fired, that GM’s coach fired, and TPegs consolation prize to tune out completely. The people I know in Chicago with league ties think he is a weasel. But that is neither here nor there. He is the architect of your new Buffalo Sabres.

Agree. And I find the logic that this is somehow good baffling. The same people who brought this situation to this level are still calling the shots. Why does everyone think it will somehow turn out differently?

If they could they would.

No he doesn’t get better. He is the same player being gifted minutes due to no alternative. He is what he is at this point. He isn’t getting any more aware on the ice. If anything he is getting worse.

Asplund is a good hockey player. Thompson has skills not often seen in a player of his size. He is mentally challenged when it comes to seeing the ice and making the right play. He is not a good hockey player. But either or both should be bait for a better player that can play a full 82 games above NHL replacement level.

But this is true of any deal. Trade Dahlin and you will get assets that may make you better in 2 or 3 years. Sam, Cozens, Mitts. It is the same calculus. Trading more certainty for less with the beta being future profit.

In a few years? Possibly. Next year. I have my doubts.

But this assumes that what we have seen the weeks without him is good enough. I do not. They were playing in a no pressure environment with nothing to lose and still would not have been good enough to make the playoffs. Upgrade the roster by all means but start with Skinner, OK Risto Eakin and the goaltender(s). If you want grit, send VO and TT somewhere for a player. I simply do not believe the return everyone assumes will transform the roster will be much different than that form the ROR deal. We made that trade for the wrong reasons and it was exploited. I think the reasons people want to use to rationalize the move are approaching that line of thinking.

Not at all. If the Oil want to send us Connor or the Leaves Matthews you listen. What I do not understand is the consternation that a pending trade clause forces anyone’s hand. You keep your best players and work on replacing worse ones. If you can upgrade do it. I simply do not see many scenarios where the team is better without JE and with more, different and almost certainly lesser players.

But I ask why are we as consumers accepting a longer timeline than start winning next year? That won’t happen with futures. I have advocated that the issue is not JE it is the black hole of 15M in the bottom 6. And we are willing to accept 3 years of waiting for it to go away. It can be fixed sooner. It will be expensive and many will not like the cost, i.e. their favorite shiny toy being moved. But it can be done. KyA has to sit down with Skinner and say look, you are not part of the solution. My options are to sit you in the press box for two years until we can buy out your deal while I open a roster spot for an elc to fill your role. In two years you can try and get TO to sign you, but that is unlikely because you haven’t played a minute in two years. Or you can work with me on finding another solution. It can be done. But it seems a vast number of people resigned to the fact that we need to wait and rebuild while the recency bias of the last 30 meaningless games is either validated or lands us in the same position 3 years down the road.

But all of this is presupposed on a very big if. He wants to win. We want the team to win. If it is apparent that this team can win, why would he want out? Trading him is simply buying an inexperienced gm 5 years to show he was the wrong choice to begin with. If there was one thing to support the idea that they, management, is still spinning its wheels and the decision tree has not been fixed it was the fact KA was not allowed to replace the coach when he was hired. If he was and did not then I could see a scenario where Jack approaches Terry and says it looks like YOU want to move in a different direction and I will play ball. I simply do not believe JE is the type of player who will not try and give it all no matter where he is. It is not in his nature. When healthy he produces. The conversation seems to be a culture war. “I like this player” or “ this kid will be a beast.” But the only known is that JE was in consideration for MVP on a shyte team. And management wants to get rid of that?

Disagree. Jack has no leverage. If he doesn’t play he doesn’t get paid. Period. He is not going to throw that kind of money out the window. He can ask but then the leverage is in the teams hands, i.e. waive your clause. This idea that he can demand anything and even wants to is in the minds of fans and pundits who most likely have not even spoken with him.

So you want additions that bring skill and toughness but Jack wanted slackers and washed up over the hill players milking the last year Of their contract? Hmmmm....maybe Jack wanted the same thing you do and the arse wipes that run the team said hold my beer and brought in hall, staal and eakin. Tage blows he is a bottom six player mentally without the bottom six grit you desire. Mitts and the others have a very small sample size to project upon.

Does that increase or decrease his trade value?😉

Same. PP specialist. I thought people would be surprised by Mittlestadt once the game slowed down for him. You don’t lose that offensive creativity Cement head. Makes the zig play when everyone on his line is counting on him to make the correct zag play. The Swedish National coach said he was the closest style wise to Zetterburg since Z. I see it. More than admirably stepped in a weird year. Still think a stint at 1 rw for a year or two would help further develop his o game. yeah Why? Never worried about a 20 yo d man Borgen is fibre to quiche we have all been forced to eat Bryson still needs to be sheltered, but acceptable again under the circumstances. Perhaps the biggest shock.

Was at that game. What an incredible devolution into chaos....thoroughly enjoyable and in the top 5 along with the Soviet Wings game.

Protect Asplund expose Bjork Thompson.

I disagree. It will be expensive and many won’t like what is needed to be given up, but you could move him. He will have to agree, but if he is destined for 4th line spot duty he may and I repeat may be amenable to alternatives. I do not see the value in trying to rehabilitate his career at the expense of a ride on Jack’s wing. Perhaps the lightbulb goes on with him, but under RK and now DG he seems to be stuck in doing things his way. I do not see a fit here. edit I was ballparking the offensive contribution.

The discussion about leadership is moronic. The captaincy is an honorific. The captain does not make trade or lineups or even decide who goes in a SO. Leadership and example starts at the very top. And I mean the very top. Not in the locker room. Everyone in the room is a professional being paid to do a job. The Blackhawks did not go down the tubes because they suddenly lost leadership, they lost talent in Hossa Sharp and others. The lightning didn’t win suddenly because of leadership, they brought in better players who executed better than their opponents. The Caps didn’t suddenly become cup champions because of leadership, they adapted their tactics. There are too many here who think that the team will suddenly morph into the 74 Flyers with the addition of a tough as they see it individual. Not how it works. The transformation only comes when an individual stands up for themselves and pushes back. Winning comes from being better than your opponent and usually is tied to being more talented across the board. Not one or two players being expected to carry everyone else, but outmatching your opponent through all 4 lines. And then executing and outscoring them. The idea that your team will be better without a guy who accounts for a third of your team’s offense is ridiculous. You keep that guy and get rid of the dregs. The post RK euphoria is a bit of a false flag. There is no pressure, the season is over. No guarantee they play like that when the season starts again next year. Except that Jack will produce like he has in every year he has been here. And I find it odd that there is no non-stop media barrage about Larkin wanting out of Detroit or pick whomever out of Ottawa, Anaheim or Az. Why? Because it isn’t as interesting as someone who may be a fan or makes their living dredging up clicks to talk about that. But Jack moving to another market like LA or NY well that can generate clicks. Eichel isn’t the problem. It is overlooked that he had that breakout year playing in Ralph’s dogshit d first system. Put him in a position where it is centered around attacking the o zone and he will continue to produce, perhaps more. I pray KA sees that the current group is a speed first outfit and compliments that with a goalie tandem that can bailout an aggressive offensive team with a Toffoli or Blake coleman type added in. Whether that can be done with Skinner on the roster is dubious at best. Until he is gone and we take the pain that it will cost to get rid of him, I think they can potentially make the post season but little more.

He is a cement head. His awareness sux. He has one attribute that others do not have yet he plays like he is the size of R2. Asplund and R2 and even Bjork have shown much better acumen and fit the style that current HC DG likes to play and expect KA wants as well. Thompson is easily replaceable. He is a bottom 6 player that lacks the grit to play in that role effectively and he does not make those around him better. If I had a say, which I do not, I want R2 and Asplund for the longer haul.

There is 16mm hole in the middle of the lineup for the next 2 years and then a 9mm hole for five years thereafter. Until KA figures out how to address that, the rest is rearranging deck chairs. KO can be used to some extent , but expecting Skinner to magically rebound and gifting him toi on the top line is one of the what ifs mentioned earlier. This can be fixed. It will hurt and it will be expensive, but until we can get something approaching breakeven production wise for the percentage of cap allocated, I don’t see things changing much.

I wouldn’t protect VO. A 3 mm pp specialist? Francis isn’t that dumb. Use it on Girgs. His absence was felt on the bottom 6 and he does have a tad bit of grit. I could see Asplund as an alternative. VO is creeping into Stafford territory in my contempt for his soft 5v5 play.