Drag0nDan

I agree with the statement as well, good players find a way. One issue i could see is that they look poor on your nhl team, and then be considered expendable or a trade chip. Theodore and Tuch with Vegas are examples of good players who were moved at a young age thinking they had become a player, and becoming much more with a different role. You could say the same about buakovsky, hartman, Teräväinen are also similar kind of players.

There's obvious exceptions. When you watched eakin play for long stretches the team was clearly desperate for another center. I dont care if the guys 18, you need to play the best guys. Don't hide a player in the minors if he's better than a guy on your roster. Irwin is fine as a 7th guy (assuming you had everyone healthy to start the year it should have probably been miller). You want Bryson to get playing time I get it. But when McCabe goes down for the year, it isn't irwins chance. It's brysons chance. Trade Montour, bring in borgen full time. Kruegers vet obsession was a little over the top because it ended up keeping fringe NHL players in lineups far longer than they should.

The charts all said he was similar in his D+1 which makes no sense. Briere had a 47, and rossi had a 0.

I think with goalies the key is playing time. You don't develop playing like 20 games as the 2nd goalie, so it makes sense to play in the AHL where you can get more starts. If the team is trying to make the playoffs (which should be every teams goal), you tend to want to keep developing players in the minors. They tend to need to find a more complete game, they need to learn timing and how to play more effectively without the puck, get used to the travel and physical toll of a longer season, and just generally learn to be pro's. If the players skating and ability mean they can do that in the NHL - great. But some of these kids are 18 and they look like they're 15. They're used to skating around everyone and it just doesn't translate to the NHL where everyone's bigger and faster. Then you have guys like thompson who struggled with playing time. Who knows if he's an NHLer because he barely played sometimes. And yes, sometimes the shifts were awful or uninspired, and his trends looked terrible. If you're going to play him 7 minutes a night with cody eakin, then he should play 16-18 in the AHL imo.

I'm curious who really pounded the table for Quinn. It sucks that he'll always be compared to a former teammate, it isn't like its his fault he was drafted higher. The only thing that doesnt make sense is how the comparisons factor in a Development+1 year considering rossi didn't play hockey this year.

They kept the right pieces, mackinnon is massively underpaid , and got a sick return for the malcontent duchene (byram and girard). Erik Johnsons still solid, and they have 3 solid young blue liners in girard, byram, and makar (all 22 or younger). Throw in Toews - their d is loaded with talent. They also whiffed on their O'reilly trade for the most part, but did get a usable bottom 6 forward in Compher (probably comparable to what we'll end up with Tage) - hopefully johnson turns out to be something. There are things that they did that take a little foresight though. Trading for Grubauer before they lost varlamov sticks out to me (we are losing ullmark and have no real plan at the position other than an unprepared rookie). Grubauer is a free agent, but they currently would still have Francouz - which is still better than anything we got.

I'm always a bit curious what "prime" means. I know the point scoring prime of players is the mid 20's or so, but does that really correlate to wins and building a roster?

It's like hanging your head - to me its just a sign to the other team to step on the gas because they're already beaten.

Have to agree. Actions speak louder. Hating to lose is one part of it - the other part of it is a drive/desire to win, be great, and create that same feeling amongst your teammates. Josh allen hates to lose too - but his desire to be great is what is infectious to his teammates. Everyone works a little harder, they don't just want to "not lose" - they're trying to understand how and what it means to become a champion. Sabres leaders seem to SAY the right things - I'm just not sure behind the scenes if they're actually doing any of the right things.

Right - I remember murray sitting down with Moulson and basically saying with him, at your age you need to work harder than everyone else or there isn't a place for you here. I think Adams is more at that point after a season: Show me that you want to be here and you're proud to be here. Show me that you want to outwork the opponent. Show me that you deserve to be in the NHL.

I don't think teams are willing to part with players they deem future superstars. You might have a shot at kaako? but i think Chytil or Miller plus strome. I'd try and pry georgiev too if I'm working with the rangers. Then tack on some picks.

I think the worst team in the league in most sports isn't going to try and win it all the next year. The big free agent signings of okposo, skinner, hall (and leino and ehrhoff before them) as the "piece that puts us over the top" has legit been a failure. The best teams in the league don't do this. They signed the key guys, and moved others to manage their salary more effectively. Free agency and deadline deals can be useful to bring in a piece, cover for an injury, but thats never the key cog that wins a cup. This team doesn't develop or elevate talent properly, instead they take on other teams spare parts that they're willing to part with - Bogo, Sheary, hunwick, Vesey, etc. The root of the problem to me is - the players are their worst when they play in buffalo. Figure out what it is that makes people the worst versions of themselves here.

Ullmark started 20 games. He finished 18. Good for 44th in a league of 31 teams. If you finish last in the league... arent you rebuilding?

And if his agent said no? Do you pay him more?

I like it. If he brought it like that i'd be impressed. Like how do you fire a guy with that kinda fire and moxie?

Staal trade was fine - lowered the payroll of johansson and honestly he was at least "as good" as him. At least he was a center.. who knew we didn't actually need a center though? Not RK... They got a decent enough return from montreal, and he sucked for them too. The goaltending thing, the kahun thing, even teh montour thing - all tied up in hall imo. They didn't tender kahun because they wanted hall, there was a debate on whether to tender montour as he was getting considerably more in arb than he'd get on the open market. Goaltending should've been a trade target to get an upgrade at 1B. Moving risto or another d-man could've facilitated. Ullmark being healthy and this team is not in last place (43 goalies started more games than ullmark - nhl high was 44 of 56 games), we can all pretty much agree to that. But in any spot duty whatsoever hutton was a disaster, tokarski and johansson arent good either. He wasn't signing without the NMC. The NMC guaranteed hall if it didn't work out here that he could go to a contender where he wanted to play.

I meant last season.

2yr 7.3M in 2018. Didn't try to extend and buyout the remaining RFA years. So that left him with 2 years of control after the contract he signed with JB.

Theyve been doing that forever. Rivet, pominville, ott, gionta. I'd make it a point to bring back mccabe if i move eichel. He and Okposo seem to have some sway on the locker room, and both wore the A this season.

Doesn't reino have to have an appetite for a long-term deal? JB's failure to bridge rein is really the mistake here.

Scheif has a M-NTC. So you have to assume that's out. Why would he leave a playoff team to play 3 years and decrease his value?

If we're moving jack, i expose risto in the expansion draft. I'm just going to get bad salary back in any trade for assets anyway, and I'd rather keep a borgen around at this point.

I think the thing that bothers me the most - is bringing in all these vets (eakin, sheahan, rieder, irwin) - just to keep asplund, ruots, mitts, borgen and tage's buried in some capacity. It's like they don't know who they want to be. You don't sign a bunch of vets, you keep the valuable ones around. The team needs to put a big priority on goaltending this year. UPL is either the starter (not wise), or he's in the minors. He's not going to get better starting once a week so either you roll with him or you sign 2 new ones.

Wild could send Dumba (probably can't protect him), hartman (wouldn't be able to protect him and Jack), Rossi or Boldy, and picks.

The more rigid Jack is with the NMC, the more games he's going to have to suit up for buffalo.