Curt

Part of my problem, is that it’s not binary. A guy is not either puck mover or not puck mover. Physical or not physical. Defensive or not defensive. All players are on a spectrum in all their skills. I don’t think that the Sabres blue line was/is particularly soft/unphysical. Risto, McCabe, Miller, Scandella are all pretty physical. Borgen, the top D prospect, is very physical. At the same time, I think none of Risto, McCabe, Miller are great in their own zone. I think that “good at defense“, is a much greater need than “physical”. And I think that center help is far and away a greater need than anything on defense.

I mean, I’m not advocating for slow, big, defensive defensemen. Not ever. That’s not Scandella. Scandella is a good skater And he does/can move the puck pretty well. People use the term puck moving defenseman so much now, that I think it doesn’t mean much. If a defenseman isn’t a puck moving defenseman, if he can’t move the puck out of the zone, then get him off my team. What’s he good for?

Scandella: In 2017-18 he was fine. In 2018-19 he was hot garbage. In 2019-20 he was fine. He deserved the criticism for 2018-19.

I’m thinking that Sabres should be looking to add a “boring”, and cheap LD, regardless of size. Someone who can be solid on D, help the PK, and make smart, but unspectacular contributions to offense, thus not racking up many points. Basically a Scandella type, hopefully a little better though.

I don’t think that is a reasonable expectation.

RNH is under contract one more season, then is a UFA. I wouldn’t. Monahan is tougher, for sure.

I don’t think I would do those deals. Definitely not for #8 and Jokiharju for one of those first group.

Yeah, I’m not challenging your position regarding Jokiharju. I do think that he is overall very solid though, especially for his age. I feel he might be on a trajectory to be a top pair defenseman.

The recorded Giveaways/Takeaways stats are weird and I’m extremely skeptical of their accuracy

I wouldn’t trade Cozens, full stop. However, I would not let Cozen’s existence discourage me from adding a 2C quality player. I would say that a 2nd pair LD would be very helpful. Someone to replace Scandella. Then trade one of Risto/Montour for forward help. Leaves us with........ Dahlin-Jokiharju XLDX-Risto/Montour McCabe-Miller I think that would be a very solid group.

Agree, and probably they could add a D who is a great PKer and that would help, but I think a lot of it was system and goaltending. If the D is such trash, why were they good at ES? It’s a combination of things on both the PK and ES. Overall, I think this is the best D group they’ve had, post-tank.

I can agree that maybe Botterill could have done more. He certainly should have tried. We don’t know to what extent he did. However, I can’t put more blame on Botterill for not managing up better than blame I give Terry for making horrible, emotion based, illogical, dumb decisions.

I think it would be unwise to move forward under the assumption that Cozens WILL be a good 2C at age 21. The ES defense was not bad. It was pretty good. The PK though was horrible. I think the total failure of the PK may be coloring your perception of the defense as a whole.

Some are, and some aren’t.

Yeah, I’m sure most are. I’m saying that living through a pandemic at age 15-25 might make some young people come to realizations about such things sooner than they otherwise would.

I very think that this is all something that will change a lot of people. It may change the way that a lot of young people view the world. With invincibility, comes responsibility!

That’s bananas! He turned down a guaranteed $700k, for a deal where he could make anywhere between $70k-$700k. Jebus.

So many experiences are being diminished. Turns out that life during a pandemic just isn’t as much fun. Who knew?!

Hickey is 24 years old and hasn’t even shown to be a good AHL player yet. The odds of him becoming anything in the NHL are almost zero. Borgen has a huge scar on his neck from a skate blade accident when he was a teenager. That’s what you are seeing there.

I believe that the Islanders did in fact still hold his rights.

I think the real deal was that it spread all over the world during WWI, wherever it originated from. Most major countries were involved in the war and suppressed their newspapers from writing about how bad the pandemic was there. They didn’t want to expose national weaknesses in the midst of the largest war in the history of the world. Spain on the other hand was not involved in the war and their papers were publishing everything about it when no one else was. The pandemic became permanently linked to the country putting out the most information about it.

I could read the first paragraph and a half...... Anyway, everyone has choices to make. If the local government and university decide it is safe enough to hold in person classes, and this guy chooses to teach in person, as long as everyone adheres to all safety guidelines, there is no problem.

Kiss of death. Boeser will be traded within a month.

I’m sure the teams are pitching in a fair share of bubble expenses. I’m sure it is expensive, but how much more expensive could it possibly be than chartering private jets and the countless other things that NHL teams would normally do?

In 54 games. That’s a 60-65 point pace over a full season. Still I think you may be right. He would probably be 3-3.5 on a bridge, and 4+ on a long term deal.