Curt

Wait. He wasn’t on the all star team. He didn’t play with other all stars. He didn’t play at all. Do you seriously not get the difference between being an NHL all star and playing in the all star game, as opposed to being part of some promotional rookie side act during all star weekend?

Ok. Fair enough. Full disclosure, I have absolutely no recollection of Luke Adam, lol. That season I was 24 years old, the Sabres were not particularly good, and I obviously had better things to do.

He didn’t play in the all star game. He wasn’t on the all star team. I get what you are saying, but he just wasn’t an all star.

Oh, ok, I see what you are saying with the points thing. He wasn’t an all star though, even though he did participate in a skills competition.

No. He wasn’t on the all star team. He was pick to be one of 12 rookies to participate in a skills competition at the all star event.

Like Adam was never an all star. Luke Adam did not have a season where he had 20 points in 32 games. He did score 6 points in his first 4 games in 2011-12 and apparently he took part in a hardest shot skills competition. He wasn’t on the all star team though.

This literally didn’t happen.

Throughout the season and in the world championships, what parts of Power’s game did you see the most growth in? What are the outstanding adaptations and adjustments that he made?

Yeah, you are right. For a league breaking into a new market, the worst thing you can do is make sure the new team is going to be terrible for the first 5 years they exist. Still I doubt that Kraken will do a repeat of Vegas. That still seems like lightning in a bottle.

Why do you do this to yourself?

Yeah, it’s not that so many think he is going to be a great player. They just really want to see a player of his type on the ice for Buffalo.

They paid $650M for these expansion rules.

It probably didn’t even happen.

A lot going on regarding Borgen. Maybe he gets picked, maybe he doesn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if Seattle prefers and picks someone else. I must have missed all of the people who think Borgen is going to be a star or a #1/2 D or whatever. I thought the idea was that he could be the defensive guy to pair with an offensive D and provide toughness that the team lacks. I’m still hopeful that he can do that and I’m not sure many people are expecting anything more than that.

Oh wow, my eyes are open now! I had no idea TB was really good and Sabres were really bad and will be bad for years to come. Thanks for the heads up.

That’s interesting. I didn’t realize that they could do that.

Well they are obviously incompetent idiots with a naive neophyte GM. Their fan base should be going berserk. Am I doing this right?

I could see Seattle taking Miller, Borgen, or Girgensons. Miller is useful as a playable D who can QB a PP2, and also he has been through this process before with an expansion team that ended up having great success, so he will have extra confidence that this can work. Borgen if they just really like him. Girgensons if they want a hardworking veteran bottom 6 guy. Probably least likely.

Oh, yes, my bad. Why would they sign Hutton? Lol

Seattle can’t sign him in the exclusive negotiation period because Buffalo protected him. So he can’t be Seattle’s guy from Buffalo.

I don’t think this is quite correct. Doesn’t Seattle already have an exclusive negotiating window with all unprotected UFAs, happening right now? They don’t need to select them to get that early negotiation time. Just checked: yes, from today July 18 until July 21, Seattle has early negotiation rights with all unprotected UFAs. If they sign any of these UFAs in this early negotiation window (as its rumored they will with Drieger) that player counts as their selection from the team. But it’s not like all the teams are protecting their UFAs to stop Seattle from signing them. If Avs are leaving a UFA like Landeskog unprotected it’s because they don’t feel they are going to get them signed. I don’t think Seattle will be taking players that they intend to just let walk in UFA, at least not without some compensation. Seattle needs to take minimum $50M in contracts for the 2021-22 season. Expiring UFA contracts don’t count towards this. In fact I don’t even see how they could select a UFA in the actual expansion draft. I don’t think that’s a thing. Their only way to get UFAs is to sign them to actual contracts. They can’t pick them up without first signing them.

If it’s a lucid dream type of thing, go on and get Byfield! Is any of this informed by things you’ve been told?

Landeskog is a UFA. Technically Avs could still protect him, but their contract talks have broken down and it doesn’t look like the two sides will come to a deal. Seattle can’t select Landeskog in the expansion draft. He would have to sign a free agent contract with them. His choice.

Heiskanen is definitely considered a better player though. He has a 12th place Norris finish, he is already playing big mins (24-25 mins) with good results on a pretty good team, he plays on both special teams. Dallas is projecting him to continue to be their big min #1 for the next 8 years. It’s a lot of money, maybe a little too much, buts it’s not an unreasonable bet considering what he is already doing.

That’s not a bad point. Sometimes we don’t think about stuff like this, but GMs probably do. Would Ron Francis like Borgen? Maybe. Would he feel confident that he will want Borgen in the NHL for the entire season? Maybe not.