Porous Five Hole

Backstory: It will be interesting to hear how this shakes out given the city of Buffalo *probably* doesn’t want to venture in the arena owning business.

Kadri had another great year, but 7MM annually until he is 38 in 2029 is too risky. As much as I want to do anything to break the drought next season, the cliff is coming on his effectiveness and it’s too short sighted to take on his contract given his age. Unless you can talk Calgary into 50% retained for the life of his deal (likely impossible).

Amerks add another defenseman to the fold, Aidan Fulp. 25 years old, RD, 6’ 3” and good speed. Unsure if it was injuries or ineffectiveness, but 84 GP combined the last two years for Bridgeport. Went directly from college to the AHL to start his career. https://www.amerks.com/news/detail/amerks-sign-fulp-to-one-year-ahl-contract An article from Isles training camp last September talking about his potential. https://nyihockeynow.com/islanders-rookie-camp-aidan-fulp/

Rousek went home when his NHL window closed. All good. He played hurt down the stretch and still performed in the playoffs. I don’t know if Jobst or Murray were playing hurt (neither missed any time down the stretch or in the playoffs), but they were both awful in the post season. Murray had eight games, zero points, and a minus six. Woof. Jobst had two points and was a minus four. No points in the Laval series. I think Jobst ran out of gas and while Murray had a good regular season, his playoff was absolutely unacceptable and as usual…allergic to contact. Time to go veteran hunting elsewhere.

How does Victor Oloffson sound? 😬 There’s not much available out there…

lol gotchu now. 🍻

lol I like Bo as a player, but who was signing him for $11M? Plus give up two firsts, a second, and a third? I know you’re not a GMKA guy, but I absolutely don’t buy into the offer sheet hype as the reason why the Sabres were not aggressive with their cap space.

Saved a bit more than a million bucks by moving Clifton out and inserting Timmons to the third pair. Kevyn always be saving.

Proud to share my home town with him. He was a very giving guy and loved ROC. In 2000, he raised over $50,000 for St. John's Nursing Home at his 60th-birthday concert at the Eastman Theatre. He also graduated and taught at the Eastman School of Music. He was known to play local high school orchestras and bands for the fun of it. A tip of the brown felt hat to a legend.

I didn’t care about wrestling past age 12 so he wasn’t an important person to me. I will remember him more as a racist who made sex tapes with his radio DJ friend’s wife. 🤷‍♂️

LOL we are out here calling the Granato/Wilford youngest team in hockey a structured defense now? I’m trying to be funny here… UPL’s one “good” year was an average year for an NHL goaltender. 16th in save percentage and 16th in goals saved above average. He got hot enough to be NHL average for 50 games. Unfortunately, the only thing we have in the crease right now is hope.

🔥🔥🔥

The Bills have been teasing a new alternate helmet for this year. And I think this is a teaser. As a guy who was a kid in the 90’s, I will be PUMPED if they bring back the red helmet!

They’re pretty deep right now with RyJo, Rathbone, Komorov, Novikov, Metsa, and one of Bryson or Zac Jones being sent down. Laaouan got a two year AHL deal so that makes Tischke at least eighth on the depth chart. But injuries happen.

lol I struggled to write it because Leafs

Cancer sucks. Joshua lost quite a bit of speed following his return from testicular cancer surgery. Hopefully for him, he returns to form now that he will have sufficient time to recover and a proper offseason. But, if his performance last year is his new floor…then it is a very bad contract. The Canucks are trying to free up cap space to spend on the center spine. This was a logical contract to move for them.

Some Amerks depth signings from today: “Rochester Americans General Manager Jason Karmanos announced today that the team has agreed to terms with defenseman Peter Tischke and forward Trevor Kuntar on one-year American Hockey League contracts for the 2025-26 season.” Tischke exclusively played in the east coast league last year. I don’t expect him to make the Amerks roster. Kuntar is a former Jr Sabre and son of former Amerks goalie Les Kuntar. Brings grit and is not afraid of PIMs.

It’s because the bank doesn’t design or engineer ATMs. We buy them from a company like Diebold. Your beef would be the same with another bank or credit union. 😀 This made me chuckle out loud because I forgot about that slogan. M&T has been “understanding what’s important” for a very long time now. Source: Me, I work there.

Also, specific to this, what trades are you jealous of that have happened during the offseason? Zegras? It’s easy to say trade prospects for forwards, but that’s not actually real life. 🤷‍♂️

I believe your Peterka projection is way too high. Signing Bo is best case scenario cuz our GM sucks. You get a competent partner for Dahlin for two years & his worst case scenario is his cap hit is low enough that it's very tradeable. Given the current blue line structure, this makes a ton of sense. Ok to disagree with roster construction, but it is what it is.

I cannot refute anything you said. A lateral move is not an obvious improvement to the team. Osmosis is a ***** strategy, but that’s the best I can hope for with our awful GM. He did not improve us overall.

Yes, Kess’s trajectory can be elite. This team is going to have to be better than everyone else by being better at the blue line than everyone else. It’s just the way that it is when you draft #1 overall at the blue line twice. Hope is a ***** strategy, but I hope the blue line takes a huge step forward. It’s the most logical path toward this team being elite. And no credit to KA if and when that happens.

Honestly, that’s ok. Defense Dahlin-Byram Power-Kesselring Timmons-Samuelsson To me, that trims the goals against by 30ish compared to last year to cover for Peterka and his poor D and not much PP production. Plus Bo & OP should continue to ascend in ability. Bo & Dahls were elite together last year. No argument there. Kess and Power should be better because it is OP’s best partner to date. Sammy at third pair minutes is a better fit than his previous top four role. Protected minutes could keep him healthier and more productive. I still want a top six forward, but the D core is better with Bo here. Our GM still sucks, but I think this is best case with Bo here at this point and if we blow next year…he can be traded with a year to go for the new team. Cost controlled next year is OK.

Or…