Curt

Oh yes, I forgot about that.

Lindy Ruff was Adams’ boss?

He has taken over two youngish teams that hadn’t been to the playoffs in a few years and got them both to the second round. Im not saying that this is a slam dunk awesome hire, but when you get past the 5-6 most highly regarded coaches, the NHL HC landscape is such a free for all that often doesn’t make much sense. For me, this was one of the acceptable options.

Yeah, I get how this can come across as a lazy PR type of hire. However, when you boil off all of the sentimental stuff, Ruff is still a solid, proven NHL Head Coach. It works for me.

Sullivan seems like a bit more of a “players coach” kind of guy. That worked for the Pens because they had leadership in the player group with strong internal accountability, so Sullivan didn’t need to be a hardass. I think the Sabres need a coach who will be a hardass.

I’m all for a real tough HC this time around. Someone who isn’t going to tolerate any nonsense and is well respected around the league. I don’t even care that much if he is an excellent x and o’s guy. If he is well respected, good assistant coached will want to come work with him. Berube, McLellan, or maybe Ruff make sense to me.

I don’t know for sure what will happen, but it was Adams himself who hinted that this would probably be his last shot at hiring a coach if it doesn’t work out.

Just seems like bad value for a trade though, no? Mittelstadt seems to have turned his career around and Byram is kind of struggling. Byram has all the potential in the world, but Buffalo needs guys who are ready now.

Is this seriously a 1 for 1 trade? Thats a joke.

They are something else all right. Won two games in a row for the first time in two months! Yay?

I don’t think it’s an issue of investing what went wrong with the hospital. I’m sure they understand how ERs work. It’s more likely that the NHL/NHLPA have protocols that if the player can not be helped at the normal ER within X amount of time, then they have some sort of on call specialist take care of him. Somehow those protocols weren’t or couldn’t be followed and they are looking into why. At least that’s my interpretation of the situation.

No fun. We have more interesting discussions when we disagree. Yeah, I think the team needs to make a change too. They could theoretically pull off a pretty big trade without shipping out any top-9 or top-4 type players. Part of me thinks it might actually send the team a wake up call if they see a member of the young guys cohort get shipped out though. On the other hand, I kind of think the team is just young. It’s hard to blame them for not showing the consistency and resilience of a group of hardened veterans. I know people get sick of hearing it, but it’s just true that they are very young. I think they need a couple more significant veteran additions. I’m a bit concerned that they will try to add a couple more rookies (Kulich, Rosen) to the lineup next season.

Hey @Thorny! Why you thumbs down me?

His coaching jobs have lasted 7yrs, 5yrs, 1yr, 6yrs, and now he is in year 2 in Philadelphia. Not many coaches keep a job for 5 years.

Not sure how much truth there even is to the shelf life stuff. I think he is just a very good coach.

Not quite at Nylander or Reinhart level. They received 8.7 and 8.0% of the cap on their contracts when they signed. Also, keep in mind that they signed their contracts a few years ago, and in Nylander’s case he had a lot more RFA years remaining, which lowers the salary. 8% would be about $7M AAV based on next season’s cap ceiling. 8.7% would be $7.6M. I’m thinking something close to $6M for Mitts. Depends how the rest of this season goes though. He had 59 points last year. He is currently on pace for 60 points this year. Does he fall off or get injured and have a drop off from last season? Does he surge and end the season with 70 points? How he finishes this season could have a big impact on what type of salary figures are realistic for him. Discussions can be had about what type of players the Sabres should spend money on, but as things stand right now, a salary in the $6-6.5M range seems very reasonable for what Mittelstadt has done these past two seasons.

No. Sabres are $15M above the cap floor.

Everyone has their opinion, but I just don’t think it’s anywhere near realistic. When they signed those deals, neither player had had a season of more than 36 points. Mittelstadt will be coming off back to back 50+ point seasons. I know points aren’t everything, but there are vast differences in production there.

I value him a bit higher than that. I’m curious though, could you give an example of a deal that would value him as an average 3rd line center?

No, not really, but Greenway shouldn’t be a primary top-6 forward. He is a good bottom-6 guy.

With that in mind, what would you like to see the team do with Mittelstadt? He needs a new contract.

I honestly believe that they can sign Mitts to a $6M+ long term contract, and make the money work. If 2-3 years into the contract, you need to do something like buy out the last year of Skinner’s deal, or trade someone (even Mitts himself, it’s not like he will get trade protection) you can cross that bridge when you come to it. I don’t see the reason to move out a good player before it’s absolutely necessary.

Yeah, I’m projecting something in the $6-7M range on a 4+ year deal.

I don’t think that would really be a team’s decision. They are employees, not indentured servants.

Never heard this usage before. Seems weird. I’ve only ever heard it used in the context of paying out money in some way or another.