Curt

We are going to ***** around and find out.

Just a little glitch while the Matrix was running an update.

If they have a deal in place for Seattle to take Miller, why go through this public spectacle of Skinner waiving his NMC?

I don’t know about Aaron Rodgers. I’m not trying to tell you that Eichel is going to dog it or act like a total jerk. He loves playing hockey and he will probably do his best. However, when someone is in a situation/job that they seriously don’t want to be in, it affects them. It affects the level of enthusiasm they are able to muster up, and it’s usually noticed by and affects those around them. Even if Eichel isn’t actively trying to be a problem, his unhappiness will show. They guys are human just like everyone else. On top of that, it’s not just Eichel being unhappy, the team is actively trying to trade him. The other players all know that. Next season Eichel is going to be like a dead man walking in the locker room. All the other guys will look at their captain and know that he is probably gone soon. It takes away from everyone having the feeling that they are all in it together and in the moment. All the talk will be about Eichel and when is he going to get traded. It will be a distraction, even if Eichel is doing his best. That’s my view on it.

You asked me why I personally believe that Eichel wants out of Buffalo, and proceeded to do a pretty good job of laying out the reasons that he may want out of Buffalo. Everyone has a “breaking point”. Between the repeated failure 6 times over, the repeated management changes, the disagreements over handling of his injury, and Kevy Adams shopping him on the trade market, I believe that Eichel has surpassed his breaking point regarding his relationship with the Sabres. I don’t agree that it’s an impossibility that having a disgruntled captain, best player, and face of the franchise on the roster could negatively affect his own play, or the play/moral or his teammates. To dismiss this concern as nonsense, is foolish, or even naive. Have you never worked with someone who was not happy to be there?

Did you intend to reply to me? This post doesn’t seem to be addressing the things I wrote. I mostly agree with the things you wrote. I believe that Eichel is beyond disgruntled and actively wants out of Buffalo.

This has got to mean separate offers for both Jack and Sam, as opposed to one offer to acquire both, right?

Related note: check out the film Indian Horse

Basically. It saves them a bunch on the cap next season, then saves them only a little for the following 3 years, then cost them a little for a few years after that.

Why is it impossible now? Or less likely than before the buyouts? They just opened up a lot of cap space for 2021-22.

So, you are using future tense. I believe that we have run out of future tense and are now in present tense. How long can you say that he will want out soon if this keeps up? I think we got there, we’ve past that point, Its not that Eichel may theoretically want out at some point in the future, he already wants out. Thats just what I believe.

Houser isn’t signed. He’s a free agent.

Tokarski should be ahead of him on the depth chart. When they last needed a goaltender, they turned to Tokarski before UPL.

Hasn’t Rask already made it public that it’s Boston or retirement for him? Pekka Rinna is bad, and might be retiring too. Kevin Dubnyk! the goalie so good that you don’t know his name. He has been bad the past two seasons. Frederick Anderson has not been too good in a couple years. I think you are giving guys too much credit for their past reputations and not looking at how they have actually played the past couple years. I would take Ullmark over any of them, excluding Rask.

They come for the AC.

Appendectomy, that’s what it was! I forgot. So he didn’t miss time with an actual playing injury. Thanks. @Flashsabre

Cap hit was $7.5 each. So in 2021-22 they are saving a lot. The following 3 years they aren’t saving anything.

I think he missed some time with an injury, but he also missed time with Covid.

In 2022, 23, 24 they will be spending $13-15M of the cap on those two buyouts.

Yeah, then we could argue about whether Owen Power’s skating should be graded as a 50 or a 60. Can’t wait!

Yes, I like the baseball 20-80 grading system as well. It’s much more objective and specific than most hockey scouting reports. Elite prospects has a number grading system that they apply to prospects. I believe Pronman was trying to use a 20-80 type system a couple years ago. I don’t know if he abandoned it.

Some of you guys are getting weird. Stay calm and try to be reasonable.

Ugh, something that a prospect needs to improve on is a negative, by definition. The more things they really need to work on, the worse the prospect, to generalize.

I guess that’s kind of what we are talking about here. Every prospect needs to get better at almost everything. It’s the more glaring things that we generally highlight.

An area where a player needs improvement is a negative thing. It has to be. Are you saying that it’s not? Every prospect has areas where they need to improve. I’m not trying to write anyone off here.