Curt

True, but difficult to judge someone in that situation. The choice isn’t always between justice and money. Often the choice is between spending tons of money and years rehashing emotionally and physically traumatic events, or coming to an immediate agreement where you receive some compensation and can move on.

I don’t disagree that it’s in the long term best interest of the team, but I’m skeptical that they would. The prospect of missing out on the playoffs (and the wads of cash that come with it) and the fan optics of giving up on the season might be too much to overcome.

You have consistently maintained this half baked opinion. It’s not full supported by facts, but not disproven by them either. I can get on board. There are much worse things to have as a GM than a master manipulator.

It’s true that they could get a lot at the deadline, theoretically. It’s going to be an excruciating situation though. I expect that the Flames will still be a good team. I think they will be a playoff team. If it’s coming down to deadline and they are in playoff position but haven’t made progress towards a contract with Huberdeau/Weegar, what do they do? Can they really justify selling those guys to ownership or to the fans if they are a playoff team?

This is awesome....... Hopefully they’ll cancel it, it’s pointless, won’t have any buzz, will be a flop, least watched ever...........I’m going to watch.

Goaltending for both is a big question mark. Defense looks pretty close to equal. NJ looks better at forward though, especially at C where they look significantly better IMPO.

That’s just good clean fun. I know that this particular thing from 1986 was obviously lame, (though maybe seemed less lame in ‘86?) but I wish NHL teams tried to do fun things more often.

Wheeler’s list is not a ranking of the “best players not currently in the NHL”. Its a list of the best drafted prospects, which obviously is a subjective evaluation of the players taking future potential strongly into account. Not just ranking who has proven the most against men. Savoie has not had the opportunity to play against men, through no fault of his own. It’s still possible to evaluate him as a better prospect than Quinn. To say that Savoie isn’t a better prospect because he hasn’t played against men is a lazy argument, in my eyes. He needs to be evaluated for the skills and potential he has, not just based on the leagues he has played in this far.

Stastny is a 4th line C on a deep contender or some sort of allstar team. He is a perennial 40+ point scorer, skating 17+ mins per night and scored 20 goals last season. On the Sabres, he is a 2nd line or middle-6 C.

The Flames are going to have the same issue retaining Huberdeau and Weegar that they had with Tkachuk though. Both are only under contract for 1 season.

Because we aren’t educated enough to discuss it, obviously.

I think part of it was that Huberdeau is 29 and has just one one year left. They maybe were hesitant to commit a big 6-8 year, $9-10M contract to a 30 year old. They were able to change him out for another star winger signed for similar money for ages 25-32 instead. That’s a big deal. They might feel like they increased their window for contention by 3-4 years.

True, they will probably not be as good as this past season, because they lost Gudreau, but assuming Tkachuk = Huberdeau, they did add Weegar who is a good top-4 defenseman, and have some cap space, so they could potentially take a run at someone like Kadri. I think that they could still be excellent next season. The problem is that if Huberdeau, or Weegar, won’t resign I find it hard to believe that they will move them at the deadline. I think they would ride it out and end up losing them for nothing. I don’t really think they are going to end up retooling. I think they are going to lose their best players and drift into mediocrity. I think this is their last shot.

I actually disagree. I think this trade sets up Florida better long term, not short term. They exchanged a 29 yr old on a 1 year deal for a 24 year old on an 8 year deal. They now have a core of 6 top-6 quality forwards and a #1 defenseman all age 24-26, along with a high potential C and G age 20 and 21 respectively. They will try to keep as many of those guys together as long as possible and fill in around them. They were going to have cap issues a couple years from now regardless of whether they made this deal or not. All good teams do eventually. A couple years from now they will find a way to ditch Bob and open up some space. Calgary is the team that is now all in for this one season. Calgary fans are going to watch Gadreau, Tkachuk, and Huberdeau all reject them in the span of two years. Sucks for them.

No one on this forum ever knows what they they are talking about. Truthfully. That’s not a prerequisite to having a discussion here. You could literally go into any thread here and tell everyone that they don’t what they are talking about.......and you would be correct! Being a long time poster here, you must understand this! No one on this forum needs you to tell them whether or not they are qualified to have a discussion about this or that topic.

Was reported not just by some guy, but by the After The Whistle podcast account. Thats Andrew Peters and Craig Rivet. This feels like a Hail Mary all in for one year move for Calgary, and a long term play for Florida. Florida changed out their 30 year old star winger on a 1 year deal for a 25 year old star winger on a 8 year deal. It cost them a couple other pieces, but they can find a way to fill holes. Calgary acquired a couple good players on 1 year deals who might not want to resign. Calgary got better for 2022-23, but with a lot of long term uncertainty. Florida got a little worse in 2022-23 but set themselves up better for the long term.

Even if Huberdeau wanted to return, Florida would need to do A LOT of roster shuffling in order to afford him.

Which teams’ prospect pools would you place ahead of them?

No ***** they haven’t proven anything at the NHL level. That’s pretty much the definition of the word prospect. We are comparing the Sabres’ unproven prospects against the unproven prospects of other teams. That’s what this thread is. Both of you: What is your opinion of the Sabres’ prospect pool compared to other teams’ prospects pools?

I doubt it too, Florida seems like a really good spot for him. Great team in front of him, great goalie to learn from for a couple more years and take pressure off him. In 2-3 years, when Florida feels that Knight is definitely ready to carry a starters load, they are going to need to move on from Bob. That’s going to be expensive for them.

Knight is under contract for one more season so he isn’t eligible to sign an offer sheet, but yes, a team can match an offer sheet on an RFA even if they are over the cap.

What a huge trade. Florida gets cost certainty and Tkachuk is younger and definitely brings a different style than Huberdeau. I’m not sure that Florida actually got better for next season though. They are going to miss Weegar a lot and they are going to need to ditch someone else to get under the cap. Probably Hornqvist. Their defense now looks kind of weak. Ekblad - Montour Frostling - Gudas Staal - Själin/Carlsson

Colors are kindergarten. Reading is 1st grade. Let’s have your kindergarten graduation! 🤣

Looking back at what Chicago and Tampa did some of their guys, I think I nailed down the right strategy to use. With Tage, you are out of options, just need to pay him on a 5+ year deal. But with the guys you still have RFA years on, like Cozens, sign him to a 5-6 year deal that covers the rest of his RFA years and buys just a couple UFA years. It’s the best way to sign a good young player to a longish term contract at a reduced rate. You could sign him to a really reduced rate bridge deal, but then you are going to have to pay him real UFA rates sooner. For example, this is two avenues for how Cozens’ next 10 years of AAV could play out Bridge deal: $0.86M-$3.5M-3.5-$6.5M-$6.5M-$6.5M-$6.5M-$6.5M-$6.5M-$6.5M Early Medium long extension: $0.86M-$4.75-$4.75-$4.75-$4.75-$4.75-$4.75-$8.25M-$8.25M-$8.25M Personally, I think that second structure is better.

I’m inclined to agree. If Thompson puts up another season of ~35 goals, ~70 points, the contract should still be no more than $8.75M AAV maximum. Honestly, the takeaway might be that you should either (1) lock up your good players to long term value contracts BEFORE they break out, or if you can’t do that (2) bridge your good players as long as possible to delay paying them absolute full value as long as you can.