kas23

I went to high school and Church with Chris. He was a good guy, then he disappeared up north pursuing his playing career. Now he's a assistant coach in the NHL. Things are working out well for him.

I definitely think it causes strain. Basically the team will be placing all of your deficiencies under a microscope and arguing how bad you are.

Correct, the Preds play the game they do is because they don't have an elite forward on their team. They have no Jack Eichel.

Remember from the introductory presser, our defense will be our offense too.

Perhaps, but even with linemates functioning correct, he's still a 25 point guy.

Something has to give because there doesn't seem to be much discipline amongst GMs. It's everyday we hear about this team or that team trying to dump a "bad contract". It's a recurring theme in the NHL these days. Every team has horrible contracts they're trying to deal with. There's no doubt, most of these contracts were seen as a good thing when they were signed, but you are taking a huge risk giving out anything more than a 5 year contract. This risk increases with increasing player age.

Yep. Another contract that's too long, especially considering what we experienced with Matty Mo and the contracts GMTM wantonly gave out. It's likely going to come back and bite us later.

It definitely possible I'm being dramatic, or don't know much about the game, but I'm the one JBott agrees with. He said he never offered a 7 year contract.

Don't forget Patty too.

Because a 7 year deal would be ludicrous for a player his age and talent. Give him him that was he's 23, not 28. It'll only be downhill for him from here. Why would we strap ourselves with a contract that long that'll be obsolete in 3 years? I can't think of a team that didn't regret handing out an expensive, long term contract to someone his age.

That doesn't instill much confidence in JBott. I hope it's not true, and it likely isn't considering JBott said there would be no big splash.

I wonder if this means Lehner is on his way out. Or, they want Ullmark to learn Housley's system full-time in the AHL rather than sporadically in the NHL.

I agree with this. The decision was Golisano's. It would've made no sense hockey-wise to let them go after what the team accomplished. I hate to say it, but DR's hands were tied the whole time. But, once the shackles came off, he proved to be a better GM when his hands were tied.

No thanks to Shattenkirk. He'll be expensive and he's not the right age. By them time we're actually seriously contending for the Cup, his value (performance per cap hit) will likely be low (definitely lower than now). We need to shed these types of contracts, not add them.

You don't know if you don't try. I'd never say no to a young D with potential.

It's good to see Jack isn't the only player/GM.

I bet Putin could do at least 20.

Forget it, I've been told he was a horrible GM.

I'm talking about the players he drafted. Ghule, Asplund, Pu. You can't deny that. The problem with GMTM is he caved to the fan pressure to make this team competitive ASAP. He took the "I heard of him" approach to acquiring players (and HC too!), instead of just focusing on the draft and system of play. ROR, Kane, & Okposo are great, but will they be great in 3-4 years when we're actually a serious contender? We look at TOR and EDM and it took them well over 5 years to get to where they are. Murray tried to do it in 3 years and failed.

Ok, maybe calling Murray "excellent" was a bit much. He did have a great eye for talent though. His main problem was that he tried to force the rebuild. He traded away a lot of draft picks to spene up competitiveness. Now, I know 90% of fans want to be competitive yesterday, but that's just not the best way to build a team long term. I think JBott realizes this, and most fans are going to have to become comfortable wit this.

Murray was actually an excellent GM. He just didn't mesh well with Pegs vision of how a GM should act.

I think this is a fan narrative that has become a bit out of hand. Straight from JBotts mouth: "We view him with having a great skill level, plays with pace," Sabres General Manager Jason Botterill said. "We just think he can fit well within our group of dynamic players such as Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly and Sam Reinhart within the next couple years." http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/23/one-minnesotan-another-mittelstadt-happy-go-sabres/ Clearly he thinks Sam is part of the future.

Don't worry, JBott himself explained BPA very clearly. From TBN: ""If there's a fit, we'll make that selection for a defenseman or a goaltender but we're not going to force it," he said. "... If there's another good center man tomorrow in our early picks, we're probably going to select him. if it's close, then we'll probably lean toward a defensemen."" http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/23/mike-harrington-lots-needs-sabres-stay-middle/ Clearly, "BPA" is not blind to position. That is, position plays a roll in the player picked, but it is not the determining factor for drafting a player.

It's happened twice to us now in the last couple years, if you count Vesey (we owned his rights at one time and he chose to go the FA route). Lemieux couldn't have done this to us because he was a NCAA player.

Is there a trade brewing? It's taking long.