kas23

Me neither. He’s injury prone.

It’s not a horrible idea. I do like the idea of having a guy that will make our GT worries go away for at least a few years and keep UPL in Rochester for a couple years. Then he can take on a more backup mentoring role. That said, it’s BS the Ducks get out of that trade dumping a salary (Gibson) and not giving up one of their top 2 prospects. They’ll have to throw in 33OA or another blue chip prospect.

Geez, we may actually have prospects playing in Rochester. Keep em coming.

Everyone laughed at Darcy and Larry Quinn back in 2001. They were actually trailblazers, pioneers, and men before their time. Jokes aside, I would love someone to interview Darcy today and ask him how that went in hindsight.

I would usually agree with this. It depends though. I don’t think rushing a player ruins a players skill trajectory, but it could mess with their mindset and subsequent motivation and ultimate success. If the proper mentorship isn’t in place, I can see this causing major developmental problems. These are kids who have excelled at every level of hockey they have entered. To suddenly get to the NHL and be completely schooled has to be demoralizing. I think we can all agree that Mitts was inappropriately rushed to the NHL. I can’t say this “ruined” him though.

What Lance writes is clearly inaccurate and calls his journalistic integrity into question. We have seen videos of either Terry or Kim in the draft war rooms of both the Bills and Sabres. We also saw them in those behind the scene team released videos of them being directly involved with operations. Off the top of my head, we saw them at the table to the call with Hall. Sure, he may have specially wrote “Terry” and didn’t mention Kim (who is the President of the Sabres!), but they are just extensions of each other. Did he also forget the trip to Florida Adams and Karmanos took to discuss the coaching search? If this was to just keep the boss informed, it could’ve been done over Zoom.

I problem with this is that none of them, at least in public, have directly indicated they want to be traded or want to be off the team. These are guys in their early 20s. Remember back then. It’s an emotional time and things tend to be idealized, rather based in reality. All of them have stated they are sick of losing, especially Risto and Rhino. I would be more worried if they just shrugged their shoulders and said “whatever, go team”. That said, Jack isn’t just saying he’s sick of leaving. He has serious grievances and it has become ugly. He’ll be gone for sure. But, I’m optimist Rhino will stay.

Agreed. But a good spot to grab Wallstedt.

I really hope they don’t pick a captain next season. The HC, likely to be Granato, should be the captain and have the final say in all matters. If someone presents himself as the leader, then great news.

Oh, I definitely have person opinions on his actions. I didn’t see the homophobic stuff though. He’s a nice slice of Americana to say the least. And the frightening thing is he’s hardly alone. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there’s other players agreeing with him on the team. The thing is, the guy is definitely clutch, probably won 1-2 games for us last season. But, he’s not elite and not above the team. Cut him, if needed.

Wanna open this can of worms… Anyone following the Cole Beasley drama? Not only will he not receive the vaccine (a personal choice only he can decide), but he announced via Twitter that he will not follow Covid social guidelines either.

Look, I never wanted to think this would be a financial decision (and I’m actually for trading Jack) until I heard they wanted to move Jack as soon as Adams started. Did Kevyn really already have his hands that deep into the cookie jar to have already formed an opinion on Jack? This is what Terry said on the day they fired Botterill: "When we were in detailed discussions with Jason and how we felt we needed to move forward effectively, efficiently and economically running this franchise, we felt that there were too many differences of opinion going into the future that we just thought -- since we had more time -- it would be best for us to make this change," Terry Pegula said. Enter Kevyn and the cost cutting begins and efforts are immediately made to gauge Jack’s market. Coincidence? Whether they have spent to the salary cap in the past is irrelevant. Things have now changed as detailed above. We have 1 year in which to judge these new economics. Much of the hockey department has been gutted and not rehired. Players? You cannot just fire them. But, you can’t trade them to save cash. And Terry has done this before. We’ll see what happens going forward, but we certainly are not spending to the cap next season. Doubt the year after either.

Yes, look where “spending to the cap” has got us. This is what Terry was saying about having a leaner, more efficient team. Spending to the cap doesn’t get you any prize and Terry knows this. If Jack and Rhino (and Risto) get traded this off-season, there’s a near 0% probability we will be spending to the cap next season. Who in the world would then be spending that on considering we’re projected to have $20M available?

At the Botterill firing presser, Terry made it abundantly clear that he wanted the Sabres to become a more “leaner”, “more efficient” team. Carolina may or may not have come up as an example, which is a team having success with a much lower budget. It even sounded like he was extending this “efficiency” to the roster as well. Yes, they did sign Hall, but against Hall’s wishes, only for 1 year. They wouldn’t even sign Rhino for more than a year. My guess is that Terry wanted to cut costs, including Jack, upon Adams being hired. Instead, Adams talks him off the ledge and asks for just 1 year to right the ship. One last hurrah before blowing it up. This leads to the 1 year signings. Lastly, and perhaps the biggest proof is that Terry has do this before. ROR was another 1C jettisoned. Was it a hockey decision to trade him before the bonus had to be paid? We supposedly had much more attractive offers if we had paid the bonus. Yes, there were other issues and I don’t want to minimize them, but money seemed the highest priority in that trade, not hockey sense.

And why was Adams brought in and what was his primary job? This whole thing is starting to sound like a cost-cutting measure, rather than a sound hockey decision.

Ironic thing is if we had kept GMTM, or in the very least kept ROR, we’d likely be having a very different conversation. The tank in itself was successful. We drafted a “generational” talent, which we still have the rights to. What we definitely failed is forming a cohesive team beyond the tank. So, the tank itself was not sufficient for forming a competitive team. This is obvious. However, this story hasn’t ended yet. We have Eichel and Rhino, which we’ll likely flip for (hopefully important) assets in the very near future. These are assets we would not be acquiring if not for the tank. I’m still interested in where this goes. And I’m sure everyone else posting here is too.

If Skinner ends up being part of an Eichel trade (which would decrease the value we receive in return), we can all assume Terry was driving this transaction. I can’t think of any other major reason to shed $19M in salary.

Best ability is availability and Jack doesn’t have that. Sam and Jack essentially broke into league at the same time, but Sam has played 79 more games.

I think Sam has a higher value than Jack. He has shown a consistent ability to be on the ice, has demonstrated improvement each year, has excelled during Granato’s tenure, has shown he can be a decent 1C, and is cheaper than Jack. I can’t blame him for vocalizing he’s sick of losing. Would anyone on here say otherwise?

Are you suggesting NHL GMs aren’t currently concerned about Jack’s injury history? I can’t possibly believe that. Keep in mind that any accepting team is on the hook for another $50M and a NMC.

So, you’re saying this is a team sport and even Jack in his prime couldn’t have helped them this past year. I agree. The playoffs are proving this too. There are excellent players, but I don’t see any Jacks, Connors, or Austins. So, maybe we need to take a different view on how we form our roster. This may be with or without Jack, but trading Jack for different assets certainly doesn’t preclude us from playoff hockey.

With his injury, the exact same thing could be said of Jack. He may never get back to the player he was 2 years ago. Then the Ducks are left with nothing.

That pretty much describes 80% of all married men over 40.

If they want a player who will likely be their top LHD for many years (or any other young player they highly covet), then they probably would want to trade up. They have no players right now, so they’ll probably be open to anything. The problem is they’re not likely to part with draft picks. They need as many of those they can get too. The only way I would do it is if we can get Skinner to waive his NMC and they select him.

If we get 8OA too, I’m going with Wallstedt. Sorry, don’t know if he’ll work out, but next to 1C, that’s the most important position on the team.