Curt

Pretty sure that didn’t happen. You’ll have to show me. There was a point last summer where he was asked if he would be back with Buffalo or if he had requested a trade, and declined to confirm or deny anything. If that’s what you are taking about, that’s not the same as requesting a trade.

Did he actually say that? You have a quote?

Couple years away. He probably needs real time in Rochester. I expect that he will split time with Johansson in Rochester over the next couple years, probably getting a few NHL starts in along the way.

BS. There was enough cap space each of the past two off seasons to add a C. To imply that Botterill had his hands tied is just not true. Not to mention that money in/ money out trades can be made. You know, like trading Johansson for Staal, where the Sabres actually gained cap space in the deal.

You know, this offseason has shown so clearly what an NHL team can do in one offseason. Botterill was sold as a calm calculated guy, but it really looks like he was just too cautious and too often sat watching the league make moves around him. GM Kevy at least doesn’t seem afraid to make a move or stick his neck out on a player he believes in.

Yeah, Hall w/Eichel would certainly be lethal, but their skill sets overlap quite a bit. Skinner-Staal-Olofsson looks like a line with too much shooting and not enough puck carrying/creating, but if they try it like that and it works, I won’t complain.

This is what I came up with: Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart Hall-Staal-Olofsson Girgensons-Lazar-Okposo Eakin-Cozens-Thompson Rieder This is just tremendous. Two sexy looking lines, each with a legit MVP candidate level player, the pieces for a checking line that can be used defensively, and a line that is young and can be sheltered, but has nice offensive upside.

No F’in Way.

This free agency is going super slow. Assuming that Buffalo keeps the RFAs who are moving towards arbitration, I see their remaining offseason To Do List as follows: -Bring in a top-6 (at least middle-6) RW -Improve the goalie situation at least a little -Move one of Risto, Miller, Montour -Bring in a reliable bottom 4 LD If they can’t get 3/4 of that done, I have serious doubts about their ability to be a playoff team. If they don’t get 2/4 of those done, I think there is no chance.

I agree for the most part. I’m just saying that the “4th line” from last season wasn’t actually the 4th like. The 3rd line was non existent. The Sabres definitely have improvements still to make before I am near satisfied with the progress. They haven’t done anything, apart from the Staal trade, that improves the team over last season.

You demonstrated my point exactly. Yes, I agree, it seems extremely likely that Buffalo will not be spending to the cap. However, actually reporting of this and the often referred to “low 70s” number, from a claimed source, all comes from one place. Frank Seravalli wrote this one time: “Sources say the Sabres are considering an internal salary cap in the low $70 million range...” And since then every outlet has rewritten this same quote over and over. It’s not coming from independent sources. It’s just something that someone said one time. Both of your linked stories directly reference this same statement that Seravalli wrote. If one person writes a story that states something, then 50 other people write stories that say the same thing, but all source the first guy who said it, how does that make it widely reported???

Lasts years 4th line was last years 3rd/2nd line. What the heck was last years 3rd lone? A big pile of trash, not something to complain about losing.

I’m not saying that it doesn’t exist, but you show me where it is openly acknowledge by anyone who would know, or where it is widely reported by multiple different sources. As far as I know it was just a vague statement written by one guy.

Cool, big help.

Can anyone here tell me what Eakin is good/bad at?

What underlyings are you looking at? I see that his shot share metrics have bee consistently poor, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

But why do you think Lazar is a better offensive player. I don’t even think he is. Larson excels at puck possession/cycling in the offensive zone.

You keep saying that Lazar is definitely a better offensive player than Larson. I’m not even sure that is true. What makes you think so?

I don’t think this is a true fact. When did Mogilny score 97 goals?

I know who he is. They want to get rid of him because they can’t afford to pay all of their players. He isn’t crap. If you think he is crap, then I guess I understand why you would think it’s dumb to take him. If you don’t think he is crap, then it could be Buffalo’s only chance to get Tyler Johnson. He doesn’t need to accept a trade to Buffalo.

The answer would be because you want Tyler Johnson on your hockey team. You are “helping them out” by taking a pretty good hockey player from them.

Agree on the necessity of filling that role. I was just trying to show that many (majority) of the good FAs are still unsigned after day 1. That the best F addition made today was a 3C is kinda telling in that regard. Just a note, but Wennberg probably ended up in Florida in large part due to Bill Zito just being hired there.

I’m not using just points as a gauge in that determination. Those Bylsma teams were close I guess, but they felt consistently dull AF and like there wasn’t much more to give. I thought last years team played better in general, but obviously had a bad collapse at the end (a bad habit over the past couple seasons).

So they missed out on a 3C and a nice 4th liner? That was the BEST any team did with forwards?

Yup, not saying credit has been earned, just that these signings are a totally normal part of an NHL team’s offseason. These signings aren’t something to be frustrated by. Viewing every benign, mundane NHL personnel transaction through the lens of nine years of failure is a sure fire way of finding fault in places where they don’t exist. There aren’t too many high priced players for the AHL roster. These players will probably be fine for the minor roles they will fill. There isn’t anything wrong with these signings. It’s just that everyone wants other moves in addition to them.