Curt

I think you are ignoring the fact that Botterill has made several trades since the OReilly deal.

It was kind of a joke. It’s true that his size limits his ability to defend in a lot of situations. But it’s also true that his transition/offensive ability really reduces the amount of time that he actually has to spend defending. Overall you are looking at a solidly above average player. A very dangerous player. There are other guys who can play in the more defensive situations and PK.

These roster moves are pretty standard. I don’t know why people are getting worked up. Gilmour is a 26 year old career AHL/fringe NHL guy. He is on a one way contract. I’m kind of doubtful that he gets claimed. It’s absolutely normal that he would be waived in favor of veteran Bogosian, who really isn’t a bad player when healthy.

But can he clear the crease? Oh, what’s that? He keeps the puck in the OZone so it never comes near the crease anyway? Oh, that works too.

I doubt that, he is a UFA after the season. I hope you are right though.

I get the skepticism, but he isn’t Vesey. If the trade includes a bottom 6 guy or someone like Scandella and a lower pick, or something like that, then whatever, go for it. What’s the harm?

Hey! Don’t knock it. It worked for thousands of years!

Ok. So every single player on the team sucks. What’s the next step? Trade everyone? I’m honestly curious what you propose.

So, just a note on this guy Jankowski. Zeros this season, but the last 2 seasons he had 17 and 14 goals, playing about 13 mins. This includes just 2 PP goals and 7 SH goals. Im not advocating for him, but it looks like he could possibly be a change of scenery candidate. I wouldn’t like giving much of anything for him, but I wouldn’t be mad to add him.

Couple points: 1) +/- is really a mix between a team stat and individual player stat. For any player it’s going to be heavily influenced by the team they play on. 2) +/- is not a defensive stat any more than it is an offensive stat. 3) If you take the view that Reinhart is not defensively responsible because his +/- is negative, then you are also taking the view that Buffalo has had zero defensively responsible players over the last few years, because they all have negative +/-. This includes even ROR.

Lightning, Leafs, Sens, Rangers, Devils, and Blue Jackets are all going to pass Buffalo in the near future? Bummer. PS: Can I borrow your crystal ball?

I don’t know. I would guess it’s around 5% of 3rd/4th round picks.

Haha, there are a lot of very good NHLers who didn’t come up with impressive pedigrees. Guys who no one would have assigned a high upside when they were 20. Marchand, Stone, Panarin, Gaudreau, Giordano, Dadonov, Hoffman, Atkinson, Pavelski, Yandle, Nyquist, Marchessault, Dzingle, Leblanc, Letang, Athanasiou, Benn, Krug, Gallagher. Thats just players who were drafted 3rd round or later and were top 100 in NHL scoring last season. That’s about 20% of the leagues top 100 producers coming from the 3rd round or later. It’s not some freak occurrence that a player exceeds expectations. It happens sometimes. And I see Pekar as someone more likely than most to do just that. I’m not even daring to hope that Pekar will be as good as most of the players I just listed.

Sure he does Thorny. Anything is possible. Sometimes players exceed expectations and surpass their assigned upside. I’m not saying that’s what should be expected of him, or even that it’s at all likely. I just really like the kid and feel like he is going to find a way to be a positive contributor in the NHL. My feelings about him are definitely driven by gut instinct and hope, as opposed to rational analysis about what is most likely. I’m letting myself have this one though.

Well, one is a start.

I thought he was kinda bad. (*Ducks*)

If you don’t want to watch and see how they play, or talk about it, just check the score after the game. It will save you a couple hours.

This was a really good effort where they carried the play for long stretches against one of the top 5 teams in the league. This game shouldn’t be looked at as another example of Buffalo sux. If anything it should be looked at positively.

Oh course he is, it’s kind of his thing. Well, that and scoring goals.

I understand the sentiment, and agree to an extent, but Marchand is a unique. It’s true that he didn’t become a really high scorer until a little later in his career, but he was a top-6 Forward from his rookie season on. His career arch and the type of game he plays makes him quite the unicorn. It’s a tough comp for any player. Keeping that in mind, I totally see Pekar as someone who has a chance to be Marchand-lite.

This may be true. I personally feel very positive about him though. I don’t think he is the typical 4th round pick who score at a high rate as a junior overager. I feel that he has the personality and mentality to bust his butt to get to the NHL and bust his butt to get better every chance he gets. To me, he could be the kind of guy who keeps getting better and better and better. Maybe starting off as a 4th line guy, but working his way into being a good middle six wing, or even better.

So, problems in the locker room may have existed, but that doesn’t change that ROR was a great player for Buffalo. Saying that he wasn’t is just not true.

Bogosian will inspire this team to play well and will demand his teammates to play up to his level, just as he has with all the other good teams has been on......... Bogosian has literally never been a member of a good NHL team.

I don’t think they are getting cap relief from it.

Ok. I so your point is that they are both “soft”. I guess I can at least see where you are coming from with that. With regards to the above, Buffalo definitely is not stressing puck movement and modern metrics right now. The D is playing a conservative, safe game and playing the defensemen with worst “modern” (shot?) metrics the most minutes. They are stapling a “defensive” forward to every line even if it drags down the offense. They have an energy/checking line that can’t score playing plenty of mins (before injuries at least). The Sabres are just not playing a progressive style in any way. They have been pretty old school.