PerreaultForever

If we trade Eichel we will need a captain. I don't think he's coming here either, but he'd be a good addition.

2/3 but spread out for twice the remaining contract period - if I have it right.

On TSN today Dreger said he believes Minnesota will now make a serious offer for Eichel, but he might just be blowing smoke.

Yes, Rask has said that. He's also having some sort of surgery that might make him miss the beginning of the year. Rinne has retired, today. Dubnyk as a back up only. He's hot and cold (lately mostly cold). Anderson not sure. He could still have some life left in him. Really nothing to get excited about among the old guys, you are right.

Mittlestadt?

imo the only way Ullmark comes back is if nobody else offers him good money and we drastically over pay him and I don't really like that scenario. I'm with the majority and feel UPL should be in Rochester for the year. KA needs to make signing a couple goalies a priority but I'm not sure he will. Haven't heard a word about needing a goalie from them so I worry they think it's going to be UPL now in a learn on the job bit of folly. My preference would be to find a way to get Merzlikins in here. Dubnyk could be an affordable back up.

I like Borgen but I do think people are really over valuing him. I don't think he will be taken even if unprotected. I think they take Bjork/Asplund whoever is left exposed.

idk why the Hedman comparison keeps coming up. I guess that's just LGR4GM pushing that to make his point. He's not going to be Hedman, He's going to be Shea Weber or Pieterangelo. Anyone have a problem with that? and Beniers isn't going to be Bergeron, he's going to be Horvat at best. But that isn't bad either. I'm not sure who Eklund will be. He's tenacious but I don't think he's Forsberg level. I've seen some Zetterberg comparisons but that might be a reach. Maybe. (by the way @LGR4GM I forgot to mention this earlier in the other related thread, my mentioning Reinhart wasn't supposed to mean a direct skating comparison, but rather that both lauded as having great hockey IQ but neither having elite speed and that was where it ends).

You still need to relax. You seem to feel that if someone disagrees with you it's a personal attack and it's not. We simply have very different ways of looking at hockey, and that's okay. I'm fine with that and you should be too. I truly believe Power is Shea Weber good. At worst Pieterangelo good and in either case that's something this team can build out from. I truly wish we had a solid goalie to put behind him and if UPL becomes that we are going to be a really hard team to score against if we get even mid level forwards. I see the possibility of a completely different looking Buffalo Sabres and it gives me hope. Here's an upside to consider. We draft Power and he goes back to Michigan for a year. UPL plays a year in Rochester. We trade the entire core for prospects and finish dead last and get first pick again. We draft Shane Wright, who unlike Beniers really is the next Bergeron. And that's if things go south. The other scenario is we start to get better already.

Well I didn't "imply" any of that and you're far too "touchy" as they used to say. Relax. You're way too tense. I did my research, I saw what I saw, I inferred what I inferred, I used my lifetime of hockey watching as a guide and made my mind up. I got other things to do besides look at draft numbers and stats for months on end. KA can do that, he gets paid for it, not me. You can do that if you got nothing better to do, hope you're having fun. So once again, it's almost here. WHO are you picking if it was up to you? Is it Eklund? Final answer as they say in the game show......... To me, Power is the best player in this draft and he will be a huge impact player. Help me out though, I'm old. I know IMHO is in my humble opinion, what's "IMPO" professional? pugilistic? punk rock? what's the P stand for?

This could go on forever...........but I don't see your point at all. It's a possibility. He wouldn't be the first disgruntled player to coast or play shall we say "less than" his ability. Are you claiming it's an impossibility? If you are, you have a lot more belief in his character than I do.

Okay, fair enough. I would. I have said that since the draft talk first started and nothing has convinced me that's wrong. It doesn't matter, but you argued with me before about it (draft rankings thread maybe? or one of the specific players threads, can't remember which) and to close the argument I asked you to be definitive and say "I wouldn't draft Power" but at that time you surprised me and said you would. You later went all in on Beniers, now it's Eklund . That's all fine, but maybe you're spinning yourself in circles reading too many rankings and reports? Just saying. Again, doesn't matter. You're free to change your mind. So, to pin you down again, if you're GM, #1 pick, you're taking Eklund, correct? and I'd assume your ranking is 1. Eklund 2. Beniers 3. Power is that about right or you still undecided? Mine is 1. Power 2. Beniers absolutely solid as a rock on 1 2 . After that I'm a little less certain but 3. Hughes 4. Clarke 5. Eklund and the wild card is Mason McTavish who really intrigues me and if we got that Vancouver pick or something and took him I'd be really really happy because he might turn out to be the best player in this draft in the long run. Not 100% sure, many IFs but maybe.

I wouldn't give up any draft picks unless it was for them to take a nmc waived Skinner which isn't going to happen. Nothing else we have is overly important or matters. Bunch of low end guys all pretty much the same.

Just what we need, another undersized winger with good but not great speed. At best he's Reinhart, at worst he's Nylander. Let me guess, Nylander had good metrics and you were in favour of that pick? I wanted McAvoy. Power is better and will develop into a great D man. A franchise cornerstone. I've already gone over his upside in other threads, and I believe when I asked you directly you said you'd draft Power as well, so why the argument???

idk, I don't share the dislike for the guy seen around here. I'm not sure how good he will be in that role, but he's a knowledgeable hockey guy who has made numerous connections over the years. Could be worse. So far Ottawa's rebuild is moving much faster than ours so I'm not going to criticize them. I actually think we need to do what they did (so far).

Get back to me in 3 years.

how so?

Ya, and the thing is it used to be just that. In the 1970s (and somewhat into the 80s) lots of Canadian players loved the idea of playing in Buffalo and being able to still live in Canada (St. Catherines was quite popular) and be near family. This is the way it should be. Toronto should suck and Buffalo should be good. It's a natural order that needs to be reinstalled.

idk when this "recent" interview was, but if this bit is accurate it isn't definitive, but it also doesn't sound like a guy who wants to be in Buffalo. https://causewaycrowd.com/2021/07/10/boston-bruins-jack-eichel-intriguing-comments-recent-interview/ Not trading him somewhere, before the nmc kicks in, is too risky.

It's not an assumption, it's a very real possibility, and given this moment in time, this opportunity, I don't want to take that risk, because if we do risk it and he does quit on us then we're in ROR V2 to the extreme. We'll get an even worse deal and Jack will end up in Boston. I say don't risk it. He may be a competitor, but he may also have also had his fill.

I agree with the risk idea but I think Adams is in a pretty good position. We are dead last in the league. We're a joke. If he makes these deals and the team even starts to look like a team and steadily improve he will look like he finally righted the ship. It's possible we could be even worse, but it'll take a huge f up by him for that to happen.

How are you going to have a healthy locker room if your star player wants out? That sort of situation won't be in the team's best interest.

Already did that in the draft thread and we already argued about it. Beniers is a good player. Eklund is also but I'm not as sold on him. If we drafted 2 or 3 I'd be happy with that but @ 1, Power is the guy. You just don't get a huge minute D man like him every draft. With him added to our D we have the potential makings of an incredibly good back end that could become the envy of the league and potentially that can also lead to playoffs and playoff success.

I have a hard time believing the Sabres would be stupid enough NOT to draft Power. But given the history of the last decade, it's possible.

So just to be clear, you WANT them to be fully in on analytics? You think that's a good thing?