PerreaultForever

Yes I said that because of the "throw Byram in". I think Peterka, 9 and Östlund is rich and marginally too much but I'd still do it. I have no interest in them "winning trades". I want them to add roster players. It's the 9th overall that gives me pause. I'd certainly do Peterka, Östlund and a 2nd (throw in Rosen if you want as I think he's a bust anyway). Or 2 seconds. If that 9th pick becomes Martin or Bear it feels less appealing.

If Edmonton wins and Skinner gets a cup that means the big line that was supposed to launch us forward (and did have a 10 game winning streak where we all got excited) will have sequentially (in terms of decreasing talent) won the cup. Eichel-Reinhart-Skinner. I guess you'd argue that we've always had top talent, we just can't build a proper roster around it.

Way too much. Regarding Byrum, San Jose are apparently desperate for a top pairing D man and are trying to entice the islanders to swap picks. I'd dangle Byram in front of them as a possible plan B for them. For what idk. Not that familiar with who or what they have.

This is the crux of the whole thing and it simply validates what we've speculated on for years. This ultimately started when Pat LaFontaine realized it and said this won't work for me and walked out the door. It's been a clown show with ringmaster TP in charge ever since. So the question now is will JK make a difference? Has the owner realized he needs senior advice after all? Will JK stick to his guns and go up against a TP idea or will he just be happy to get a payday and climb in the clown car as another yes man. I thought Ruff would refuse to get in the clown car by demanding his own assistants but when they ran all that back and even promoted Appert I thought Lindy's just glad to have another job. No serious boat rocking here. idk, if you want to be optimistic you assume JK will change things and it'll finally change, but the pessimist in me just says it's a fan placating window dressing move to give false hope (and sell tickets) and it'll still be the TP clown show. No idea which way it will go at all. Hope and pray.

I don't see the urgency in getting rid of UPL. If we got Demko he starts, Levi can battle UPL for the back up job and if he earns it definitively then you can look at it but otherwise you start Levi in Rochester and let it play out the way these things play out on other teams. Rookies EARNING jobs, not being given them.

Cap finagling isn't the problem some people keep thinking it is. You can move bodies out if you are a creative GM. It's done constantly around the league.

Demko might be very available given how good Silovs has been in the Abbotsford Canucks playoff run. He's no longer waiver exempt and so Canucks might decide to move Demko and keep him.

Hagens as well. That's probably it though. Misa separated himself from the pack so he gets 2 and then after that likely Martone and then ??? Which one ahead of which is uncertain to say the least.

Now, can he get us an Olivier for a 4th round pick?

Highly possible. He definitely won't fall to the Sabres. Chicago is definitely a possibility and would make sense. My point was only that years later he might end up being better than most of these centers everybody is talking about and arguing over. He seems to get less press/attention.

That is true. Later in the season Savoie kept dropping. I can't remember if his play trailed off or what the reason was but it seemed people were losing interest. Hagens is a bit like that this year. Misa went way up but Hagens had been top 2 or 3 and is now a question mark around 6 or even lower. Desnoyers kept rising with his playoff performances but now after his last bit people souring again. Very few players are seen as can't miss this year. I think Philly got all those picks in the wrong year. I normally would never trade a top 10 first rounder but in the Sabres case, if there is a great deal out there this might be the year to do it. Whoever they take will be a question mark if they do pick. You know the guy I am now intrigued with is Martone. Others have gone up and down the rankings but he's quietly stayed there around 4. Nobody talking about him much other than "big" as a description and everybody obsessed with centers but what he turns into will be interesting to see.

Earlier he got up to 3. Not final rankings but mid season roughly. He went up and down a fair bit.

Oh I think that's easy. Benson was ranked 4 or 5 and Savoie sometimes got as high as 3 (or thereabouts). They fell because of size and then Sabres had their BPA analytic lists and went oh my, we can't pass on these guys at 8 or 9 or whatever it was. In Rossi's case he was ranked roughly where we were but so was Quinn. Close enough in any event that you could choose either one and they went for the bigger. This year is weird and thin with a lot of guys ranked roughly the same so if teams do go size you never know what we get and we might be looking right at Hagens thinking here we go again, the higher ranked smaller guy. I think it likely he gets taken earlier by Philly or Boston but you never know. Cam Neely might think Martone is his long lost son and maybe somebody even thinks McQueen is fine. Drafts can go that way. I would have taken Rossi over Quinn myself, but I wasn't sure about either one of them. I would have taken Perfetti (although I also liked Holloway and Mercer but recognized they were going to be a little lower).

It's just size. It's still size. There are people still questioning whether he could hold up in a playoff series. How could he handle Florida type play. That sort of thing. A shorter guy is always going to have those questions. So you need to look deeply at his compete and his build/strength and all those things. More small guys fail than succeed in this league but the little guys who do succeed are usually special. Brad Marchand is slightly shorter than Rossi for some perspective on that.

Just to be clear the rumor is Foerster and the Colorado pick they have, not the Flyers first which is 6th overall. Flyers have a lot of picks. 3 first and 4 seconds. And the current rumor is Briere said no and offered a 2nd rounder with Foerster but that was a no from Minnesota. So maybe your sweet spot is between those offers.

Funny you should say that as I hear Philly is very interested in Rossi. There could be a bidding war .

Well that's true and we see on ice performance but you have to be inside to see attitude and work habits and desire to win, how coachable they are and how receptive they are to learning and adapting. Many personality quirks and nuances. The thing you'd have to ask yourself though is if it took Lindy 6 months wtf are these entrenched assistants doing? Shouldn't they have been able to tell him Day 1 who was who or what? and shouldn't they have already told Adams? My standing issue (and I know I am not alone on this) is when they decided to hire Lindy, if it truly meant a changing of anything and turning any sort of power over to Lindy why oh why did they not clear out all the assistants and let Lindy hire his own? That would have been real change. As is, hiring Lindy really just feels like a marketing move to sell tickets on hope of a return to the Lindy era of old.

I get that, but you also have to have a clear plan and direction going in so that you make moves for those players and you don't do this sort of rotational add and subtract getting nowhere. Young players also need clear direction and expectation.

I'd still like a clear identity to the Sabres that is stated clearly and then coaches etc. are hired to fit that identity and when they don't live up to playing like that stated identity we and they can call them out on it. What exactly are the Sabres aside from young?

I'm not going to be cynical about this. It's the first optimistic thing that has happened this off season. My hope is that, although he's technically answering to the GM, in reality Terry has given Adams etc. this season to get in the playoffs or he will clean house and that house cleaning will be everybody except JK who will be retained to either advise on the new GM hire, new coach hire etc. or will be the new GM himself. If it starts really bad KA can be fired mid season and JK can be interim GM'd to start. In any event I kind of see him as separate from the existing clown car and he's hopefully a dissenting voice of sense that gets listened to.

I'm not saying much other than FINALLY THEY DO SOMETHING SMART.

If you could get him out of Dallas imo it's a no brainer and you give them all the picks and prospects it takes to make that happen. Then you run with UPL as the back up and if Levi earns it you later trade UPL but only if.

Wild guess, they fire DeBoer and elevate Donskov.

Personally I would add a goalie. One of the free agents (not Georgiev) or trade for somebody like Korpisalo. I know people will say he's crap or the FAs are crap and it doesn't matter. We need a veteran to take half the load and Levi has to bump a goalie out of a spot by playing well enough, not just be handed a spot.

The Hells Angels do pick up some drugs at the ports and then run them inland crossing the border in a few places and into the prairies. That's a long standing fact. The amount, however, is miniscule compared to the Mexico border. It most definitely never warranted what is happening.