PerreaultForever

Does this make Miles Wood potentially more likely to be available?

I can't really follow the argument in the first sentence. You make an evaluation of the team and make moves based on what you believe will be happening with that roster next season. It's not hope. It's an analysis of what you see on the ice. Slow can be too slow. I've never taken issue with the direction. I wanted a tear down and trade Eichel etc. over a year before we actually did it. It was like FINALLY they did what had to be done. Cap floor? You're content with cap floor for next year? I'm not.

They have "an abundance" of offensively minded forwards, not 2 way forwards. What did Greenway do that was in any way "gritty"? Don't tell me what I am doing. Especially when I'm not. The bolded I agree with, but ideally we need a little more than that. We MIGHT make the playoffs, but only if we upgrade the roster or several players make big unexpected leaps (or both). At this moment it's iffy. I don't bet online, but if we miss the playoffs you can make a donation to your favourite charity in my name.

"never going to happen" and I'm supposedly the pessimist. They may not happen, but those are the weak spots that need to be resolved. If they aren't, we will be bitching about those weak spots come year's end and if we miss the playoffs again, it'll probably be because we didn't deal with filling those holes. Clearly, you're not a real fan if you don't think your GM can be brilliant.

Of course it is, and you can take all the shots you want at me, but it doesn't change the fact that I was right. I'm not always right. I was dead wrong on Tage Thompson. I'm likely going to end up being wrong about Mitts. I did however say that the Reinhart trade was brilliant and Levi would probably be a star goalie for us back when most people were bitching that he was some 7th rounder and we didn't get enough in that deal. Totally right about Cozens and proclaimed him when we drafted him. So ya, hindsight. Not right about everything, but I was spot on about this team being agonizingly close AND (despite the impressions here) being far more optimistic than Adams was last year at this time. The pessimism set in when he missed the moment. Hoping for now, that he doesn't miss it again.

Hard to say but I think it'll be Peterka.

Success - a solid 4D and a decent veteran goalie. Great success - a solid 4D, a decent veteran goalie and a 3C/4C 2 way PK guy. Brilliance - a solid 4D, a decent veteran goalie, a 3C/4C 2 way PK guy, a 6D/depth defenseman and a 2 way PK gritty player with size.

The mistaken impression is I do not love them but I do. Always have. I just don't want to wait 3-5 more years or however long it takes to develop a full roster with our own picks and prospects. I felt we were ready to leap forward last year and I WAS RIGHT as we were so close and if we'd just been a LITTLE better there you were and everything looks up. So now we're there again and I just don't want to wait any longer. If that desire ain't love idk what is.

Quinn was a first rounder though so at least you'd get something back. Remember when Edmonton gave us the squeeze on Vanek? I still do. Probably marked the beginning of the eventual end. Wouldn't you enjoy doing that to Boston? I think you would.

Nosek is NOTHING like Girgs. It sounds to me like you've never even seen him play. He's an outstanding penalty killer. Better than anyone on our roster and that is a weakness we have so it fills a need. You really like Krebs, this is obvious. I hope you're right about even half of that, but I don't think you are.

Maybe he's a Jethro Tull fan.

Really? You don't see Savoie as future 3C? Better at what? He's definitely not a better penalty killer or face off guy than Nosek.

Ya, I don't remember talking about Graves but it's possible. I don't think he's the direction we go so I might have said that before.

Stepan is no longer of value imo. I think they go with Krebs as 4C again but myself, I would look hard at Nosek. VERY good on face offs, has lots of speed, and is a good penalty killer. Lacks some of the 4th line grit I'd prefer, but he's very good value.

You poach Swayman (although I suspect the Bruins would match the offer and then trade either him or Ullmark but you never know) and you have a goalie competition but the lean is Swayman 50+ games Levi 30+ , If their play changes that ratio so be it. If not you continue developing Levi as a back up and maybe 2-3 years later the ratio is different or you have one of them to trade. It's simply an option worth exploring. Sabres shouldn't really care if they piss off Boston, they're a rival.

Offer sheet on Swayman was my idea way back when we first started the off season goaltending chat. Puts Bruins in a really hard spot and Swayman is a lot better than some people here think he is.

Line combinations are a later discussion. I'm simply looking at upgrading the team from Zemgus rather than icing the same team and simply saying "well we have Levi now so that's all we needed". If Wood is on your 3rd line then Greenway or Jost or whoever else we sign is on your 4th line. I want to be better, markedly better, not the same. (just as an aside, I advocated signing Pat Maroon when he first left St. Louis and people here laughed at me and called me a neanderthal and well, he got 2 more rings - and ran over our goalies a few times for extra measure)

Too many options to list. Miles Wood was stop number one. (and yes, he might even go up the line up unlike Zemgus).

Oh man that's a sad list and best forgotten.

(sigh) I have nothing against the guy but this is downright depressing.

Well as we've both said, he's likely to go to a contender for their bottom end. Just don't see a guy like that being motivated to do much on the bottom end of anything less than a top contender, so not a good influence on the young players imo. I'd rather go with a Gudas type if we can't land a Pesce or an Orlov or some other higher end guy. Clifton's still my cheaper fall back alternative if all else fails. I would not be unhappy adding TWO D men tbh. We won't though.

First off this is a non issue. If he's going to sign for a vet minimum deal it'll be on a top contender as a depth guy. Teams like Boston, Toronto, Florida maybe. They'll kick those tires to add him for depth in their cap situations. I don't see him going to any lower tier teams (even if they are up and coming) unless it's for more money (mid range D level). So no. It's a non starter and non issue. Second, Bogo's a different type of player and fits a bottom end role there because of his physicality. Tampa won the cups when 2/3 of their roster was talented. Now with cap issues they are only 1/2 talent and the bottom end is all cheap physicality. How the Sabres messed up on Bogo I don't even want to get into aside from saying he was never as bad as he was painted here BUT he was also never as good as the team wanted and expected him to be. I'm going to keep hoping for the Pesce deal until it does or doesn't happen. It's the best one on the table at the moment.

At this stage I don't think he's any better than Mike Reilly, and we passed on him as a waiver pick up for less money. I want big mobile D with reach and shot blocking ability. OEL is just aging meh.

Ya, I talked about the goalie thing when it happened. That was strange I agree. Line juggling idk. We weren't a deep team and have a lot of guys that are similar so there weren't really tons of options for anything different stylistically than what he tried.

I agree with this, except I'm not sure if it was Granato's inability to adjust tactics in game or the team's, and thus his knowing there was no point to trying that. He has young, and presumably malleable players on this roster so if he can't teach them a defensive system this training camp and into this season, well then he needs to be replaced. We shall see.