Marvin

I hope it is not protection like criminal organizations give. 😉

Sorry. That's how I talk. That's how my wife talks. That is how my siblings and cousins all talk. That's how my friends talk. If we are going to interact civilly on this board, you will need to get used to it. Put simply: remember all the social outcasts from school. Now think of the one person who was even beyond their pale. That is I.

Sure you can. They did not have to *like* the trade; they just have to view is as acceptable. I didn't ask the impossible. I have seen a few proposals for Eichel and for Reinhart which had grudging acceptance from a majority on both sides. There were even a couple which I actually liked. I am asking you to find them and bring them here in another thread for evaluation. BTW, there is no way are you getting Byfield AND Turcotte without taking a long-term, crippling cap-dump and sending something juicy with Eichel. Their window isn't now. And that is one hint: what team can use these guys *now* to become a legitimate contender AND has NHLers or NHL-ready players whom we might like? Another hint is to ask what team is like the Sabres where we could make a Hawerchuk or LaFontaine trade to shake up the cores?

Whatever their flaws, I think it is churlish bordering on slander to view Eichel, Reinhart, and Ristolainen as slackers and prima-donnas. For the first time since 2012-13, I think we actually have 6 defencemen AND 12 forwards who are better than borderline NHLers when healthy. Seriously, if the team were healthy, the line-up wouldn't have at least one guy whose presence on the Sabres main roster would make me wince. Raise an eyebrow? Sure. And even at their worst under Granato, I haven't laughed once at something the players did on the ice that was monumentally incompetent. No team since 2012-3 has done that for me. Rolston had a rebuilding team. Nolan had a super-tanker. Bylsma never had a fully competent defence. Housley had 1 or 2 lines of forwards who got caved in nightly. Krueger had at least 3 dubious forwards. Only Rolston and Nolan had consistent goaltending. None of Eichel, Reinhart, Ristolainen, McCabe, Girgensons, and Okposo have played on a team with clear NHL-level competence at every position on the roster. Sure, they might need a change of scenery, but many of the problems here were not their fault.

Let us turn this around. Construct a plausible trade with another team which you would accept and a majority of posters here would find acceptable. I trust the overall evaluation of the fairness of a potential trade here. Your limitations are: 1. Use the threads on other hockey boards as examples of your trade's expected return. 2. You are not to exceed the best offer on all the boards which is acceptable to a majority of fans of your trade partner on those boards. 3. A majority of Sabres fans who have access to that board think the trade is acceptable. Good luck. Until you and others do this and give me multiple possibilities, I can not take anyone's desire to just trade Eichel willy-nilly seriously because we could be staring at 15 years of a rebuild when everyone else wants out.

I have a hockey book which analysed what the worst teams all time have in common and what causes massive one-season drop-offs. One common, but not universal, theme was injuries to the goaltenders. I personally would put in Houser once. Why not?

That may be, but, say, $6M is a helluvalot more palatable.

From what I heard, Terry did not want to risk Skinner signing with Pittsburgh, Toronto, or even Detroit. That was silly because no one else had cap space. They could have got him for a fair amount less.

I heard this too from two distinct sources who are very reliable.

If the Sabres keep Granato, we need goaltending to cover whatever mistakes he has on the learning curve like Hasek did for the first half of 1997-8.

I would be thrilled if that's how our offseason went.

I think we are seeing a team with promising youth which needs to grow up a bit more. We have clear flaws which I think we agree on: 1. Inconsistent goaltending. 2. Inconsistent defencive awareness. 3. Lack of forward depth into the top end of Rochester. The next few are more debatable: A. Inability to handle extended physical play by the forwards. B. Leadership on defence, in part because we are playing 5 guys under 22. C. Too many players who play the same kind of game. This is the kind of line-up I thought we should have had 5 years ago. If it were, I would advocate staying the course with minimal changes aside from adding goaltenders. But it is year 10 of The Tank. Instead, we need to make some hockey trades to fill some holes. This means useful pieces for useful pieces. I personally believe in the cliche that, all other things being equal, a little more will beats a little more skill. We have a lot of higher skill guys, but we need to move them for slightly more rugged ones or they need to learn how to deal with more physical teams. So we might see players whom we like moved.

Mucho wings

I did. 🙂 I figured another interpretation might be fun for the other Beatles fans here.

And 3:11 later, it sounds like someone pulled the plug on your stereo? Or is it "Heavy. She's so heavy (heavy (heavy))."

Vanek and Pominville are two I know of. Pominville was quasi-willing, Vanek was not. I think the same thing happened with Miller once The Tank was official policy. On the other hand, Stu Barnes was willing to stay with the team through the bankruptcy, but Darcy wanted to rebuild. The Sabres also considered trying to get Barnes and Peca back after 7/1/7.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot. Moisture Wet. (it's raining outside.)

After Hasek, Miller suffered around town by the comparisons. He is one of a long line of very good goaltenders the Sabres have had.

Not one of their goalies?

What I would be curious about is if someone is collecting data on checks finished, take-aways via physical engagement, board battles won, etc. IMHO, this would be useful, albeit hard to quantify. We would be able to determine how much a Wayne Simmonds helps or hurts different teams. One thing that no one seems to remember is that, at the time and before the playoffs, the 2005-6 Sabres were nicknamed things like "the pond-hockey pansies" on several well-regarded major media sites. They were considered soft like "cotton fluff" and "tough as shattered glass". They were seen to be undermining "traditional hockey." No one here remembers that because we have seen games with them playing a demonstrably tougher style in the playoffs. In the playoffs, everyone can see for themselves how that team turned into a much physically tougher team. A team need not play a tough game in the regular season yet still be tough as a $1/lb steak in the playoffs.

You can only do it with one player when he has "stature." Chris Drury had the stature -- and the support of Jay McKee, Danny Briere, J. P. DuMont, and Jochen Hecht. Who in today's game has that kind of stature but is young enough to make a difference?

Life. Don't talk to me about life. Me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.

NOTE: I am assuming that Seattle will choose Zemgus Girgensons because they will need guys who can slot all over the line-up. Should we think about rolling 4 lines? Go Eichel-Reinhart-Cozens-Mittlstadt? Something like the following with whom we have now. (That changes in the off-season.) Bjork-Eichel-Ruotsalainen Skinner-Reinhart-Olofsson Asplund-Mittlstadt-Thompson Caggiula-Cozens-Okposo

I married someone I met otherwise who did not meet their income and social status requirements. Aside: There was one woman whom they pushed really hard on. At my wedding reception, she asked if my parents had pushed harder than her parents had for us to get married. This happens a lot in many eastern communities. I just feel lucky that our parents didn't believe in honour killing.

This reads like the typical entry in the matrimonial want-ads of certain national publications. The only significant difference is that instead of an age check, they ask for astrological information and income requirements. No, I am not kidding. My parents tried to arrange a marriage for me for 20 years.