3putt

McCabe may be on his way too. North Dakota up 3 2 1:44 to go

Would you rather have Kane or MacKinnon? If Reinhardt projects to Mac you don't trade him for kane, regardless of what he says. I would suspect this is posturing to see what multiple 2s or a two and the Blues one would garner.

I wouldn't count on GMTM moving a top 5 pick for a top 6 forward. The risk is too high on the partners end. A top 5 pick has the potential, but the player has the numbers. It is always a matter of potential for potential when it comes to picks and prospects. The potential of a top 5 pick is also alluring in that the perceived potential or ceiling is higher than that of the player offered.

The 900 pound gorilla that colleges wish to avoid is tax exemption. Unrelated business income from athletics that is deemed not part of the charitable or non profit mission endangers that exemption. The real estate exemption alone allows things like the carrier dome to exist. Without exemption colleges could not maintain there infrastructure and still offer "affordable" tuition. For profit colleges, often distance learning based, reap the benefit of knowing that the brick and mortar brethren have a fixed operating cost that determines their pricing and therefore they do not need to discount their tuition much if at all. The municipalities that host non profit schools incur a huge burden to offer services, mainly public safety, to large populations that add little to the general tax base. It is a very slippery slope.

I would welcome a Hossa Forsberg or Datsyuk....and a Toews or Getzlaf or Giroux. BPA.

C'mon don't hold back tell us how you really feel...

That's right he refused to sign with the Nordiques if i remember correctly. Thanks for the refresh.

Not to further fan the flames of neurosis, but has any NHL #1pick ever pulled an Elway or Eli and said that won't play for the team that drafted them? The kid drafted by Anaheim choreographed a move but he wasn't a #1 and there were other factors.

You should have saved this pic for 2014 Xmas post.

5 years is the outer limit. The Avs did it more quickly, but still followed the same recipe.

Not necessarily. Take Detroit for example. With all their injuries they could have thrown in the towel early, ir'ed a bunch of players and wrote the season off and gotten a good pick. They wouldn't have turnover the roster or move assets. To me that's a tank. Looking at your roster and saying these guys aren't cutting it and unloading. them all is a rebuild. Yes losing and high draft position can come with it, but it is a logical way to go.

Have you actually seen any of these kids play? Compher is potential second line stalwart. Very similar to Benn. Austin is a sleeper. Very solid defensively, big body good on his skates in front of the net. Risto is going to be a star in my opinion. Good hockey sense and simply needs to fill out. Baptiste plays like baby Iginla. Probably not that high of a ceiling but earns tough goals. Fasching has great hands for a big guy and drives the net constantly, lives in front of the goalie on the pp. McCabe I am not sold on. Disappears for long stretches, needs to improve his conditioning.

Good read. But he even said they never intentionally told the players to lose. They accepted the result of a less than nhl quality roster....ahem.

The Colts pre Luck. Unless Zemgus, Myers et al are faking it, I don't think anyone is manipulating the roster. What we had wasn't good, what's left is worse. Again these are expected consequences of a turnover. Sitting a healthy Girgs or Myers would be more manipulative and I agree, less tolerable by the league.

I don't remember seeing that stated publicly anywhere. There is a difference between accepting the results of a roster turnover and intentionally attempting to lose games. The former has been SOP since expansion beyond the original 6.

This

And ...if they do not defer I would not be shocked if they "won" the McDavid sweepstakes. Building an interest in the league's largest market has Bettman written all over it.

I get personal preferences, but am curious as to your blanket aversion to euros. Too soft? Not talented enough? And for the record, Toews a Mannitoba boy, thinks cup first, so I can see wanting that attitude at the top.

Whether we get the Isles pick this year or not we will be bad next year. DR's ineptness left us with few options. But I am one of the few who felt loading up on youth and letting them play NHL minutes and get experience was the way to expedite the rebuild. I don't buy into the crap about losing culture and ruining development but I again am in the minority. But that leaves the question of who will be on the ice in 2014? If we follow precedent these picks will sit in the CHL, then AHL, then finally get a shot. Forget capspace. Unless you want more Leino's fa's aren't coming here. So without a conscience effort to be bad in 2014, we will still be bad simply due to a lack of horses. 2015 we should see some of the kids coming up.

Thanks...so he spends another year in jr. For some reason I thought the cut was in August.

Nobody, at least not that I know of, is saying the current path guarantees a cup. I think there are two points of view in the current debate. One, which I subscribe to, is that to win the cup your highest probability is directly related to the amount of high end talent on your roster. The other view is that it does'nt take much to put together a squad who can compete for a po spot. In no event does either camp want the end result to suck. I choose to want the brass ring and am willing to sacrifice in the near term. Time may well show it was not the right path. I can live with that. I can also understand the cynicism toward promises.

Hope lives...

Slacker

Hang in there it will get better. If you really needsomething to hang on to get hockeystreams.com. i have able to watch a lot of our prospects across all the leagues and we do have troops coming.

Yeah we heard you...but answer me this: where are we supposed to get better players than we have? Even with the players we traded away we didn't make the playoffs. FAs? That Leino is pretty special. The big time players aren't coming to Buffalo even if you overpay them, unless coming there gives them a chance at the cup. Draft in the middle teens consistently and you set yourself up to draft there constantly, and you still miss the playoffs.