Porous Five Hole

I want you to know that I laughed out loud

I am a Reddit r/hockey lurker. On the post of this signing, Aves fans appreciated EJ and wished him well. Reddit has no problem calling out bad players or airing dirty laundry. That was not the case here. Nice signing.

Casey gets a top six role after all. This is going to be a monstrous 40 game stretch from him.

Three first round (or equivalent of first round) assets is a pass for me. What is the most recent comp of a top tier goalie who doesn’t have trade protection being traded for the equivalent of three firsts? Genuinely asking…I’m just trying to understand who set the market price.

I would like to complain about opinionated people who don’t pay their debts 😳

But should it? I don’t like how team success translates to being deserving of such an individual honor. The eras are slightly different, but did you know Ryan Miller had more career wins and a better career save percentage than Vernon?

Highlights from last night. Game seven went to OT!

Mike Vernon is Canadian and also played with a Canadian NHL team for a time. If you are Canadian or spent your career with a Canadian franchise, the bar to the HOF is lower. And people, don’t @ me. It just is.

I am not a rich man, but I’ll gladly pay the $100 on @Buffalonill behalf if he goes away until the season opener. Maybe that will be more painful than actually paying up. But something should happen.

Murray was the Sabres GM from Jan 2014 to April 2017. So he headed three NHL drafts. For purposes of this exercise, I am only looking at his drafted players and not his trades. 2014 Entry2 Sam Reinhart 2014 Entry31 Brendan Lemieux 2014 Entry44 Eric Cornel 2014 Entry49 Vaclav Karabacek 2014 Entry61 Jonas Johansson 2014 Entry74 Brycen Martin 2014 Entry121 Max Willman 2014 Entry151 Christopher Brown 2014 Entry181 Victor Olofsson VO was a home run. Jonas Johansson was a fringe NHLer. Rhino was a consensus #2 pick (not blaming GMTM for not drafting Draisitle, but not giving credit for Rhino). Lemieux has never scored double digit goals in the NHL, but has been an NHLer. Draft grade: B? 2015 Entry2 Jack Eichel 2015 Entry51 Brendan Guhle 2015 Entry92 Will Borgen 2015 Entry122 Devante Stephens 2015 Entry152 Giorgio Estephan 2015 Entry182 Ivan Chukarov Jack pick gets no credit for obvious decision. Guhle washed out. Borgen in a 5-6 D. The rest was a dud. Grade: C-ish? 2016 Entry8 Alexander Nylander 2016 Entry33 Rasmus Asplund 2016 Entry69 Cliff Pu 2016 Entry86 Casey Fitzgerald 2016 Entry99 Brett Murray 2016 Entry129 Philip Nyberg 2016 Entry130 Vojtech Budik 2016 Entry159 Brandon Hagel 2016 Entry189 Austin Osmanski 2016 Entry190 Vasili Glotov Nylander was a yikes. Raspy was an NHLer for a terrible team Fitzy is a fringe NHLer. Hagel was a swing and a miss by Botts. Grade: C-ish? His eye for talent of players who weren’t already pros was kinda bad.

Interestingly enough, Ullmark has a 16 team no move clause. That will make it tough on the B’s.

Assuming Rousek is a third liner, this would mean we are IN BUSINESS come playoff time next year.

The way I see it, a move like this hitches your ride to that guy. And if Levi outplays that guy, then you’ve got a 6MM backup. Not to mention Levi is an RFA in two years, so that timeline doesn’t really match if you need to pay Levi. While Swayman could potentially be moved later, it isn’t exactly easy to move a 6MM player via trade without taking back a contract. And Buffalo will be a capped team by then. It just comes down to Levi’s trajectory and I think KA is a believer.

I brought this up during the playoffs. If the cupboard only had UPL, I would endorse this. But I really think the Sabres believe in Levi as the long term answer and Swayman would be a blocker to Levi ascending into the role. I think a UFA for two years (a La Freddy Anderson) makes more sense.

Well, the Gulls are averaging 7k and no one spends a billion dollars for minor league sports.

Are you just in a bad mood tonight? Everyone knows where this team is. No one is making excuses. It was the most successful season in more than a decade. Happy Father’s Day 🍻 Are you just in a bad mood tonight? Everyone knows where this team is. No one is making excuses. It was the most successful season in more than a decade. Happy Father’s Day 🍻

The youngest team in the NHL was inconsistent while sporting nearly league-worst goaltending. And still found its way to 91 points (the most since 2010-11). But it’s because the coaching staff is to “buddy, buddy.” You really nailed it.

Just because Meatballs hasn’t had anything at the nhl level to work with other than a developing team doesn’t mean that’s all he knows. I’m willing to give him some latitude to see how he evolves as his team does. This team doesn’t have a problem scoring goals. Defending at the NHL level with a bunch of young D and young forwards will come with experience. It’s not like this team has a ton of experienced two-way forwards and they’re failing compared to previous results. Plus goaltending has been replacement level for his entire tenure. Im optimistic.

I know you say stuff like this just to say it, but the Sabres improved by 16 points with the youngest team in the league and missed the dance by a win. The staff here suits the team they have.

The trend with defensemen of Hanifin’s profile is seven or eight year contracts (Parayko, Pulock, Faulk, Brodin).

I have doubts that the arena would be ready by the start of the 2025 season. While it sounds far off, it’s only 16 months from today. The question is would a guy like Kroenke really build an arena to just hope a team would show up? It’s probably a good bet (eighth largest US city and no NFL competition). This guy owns an NHL & NBA team already. My guess is there is some level of assurance of a relocation or expansion.

Well the board got spammed by bots furiously making posts about airlines and their customer service information. It was pretty funny 😂

https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph.php?tmi=11894 Their attendance has been consistently excellent. Does it help that they’re a perennial playoff team? Sure does.

I’m sorry if there’s a paywall, but here you go: https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/what-msg-networks-launch-of-streaming-service-means-for-cord-cutting-sabres-fans/article_494e8370-b908-11ed-8cd4-fff949e8bdd8.html

This is true. Individual Sabres (or Knicks) games for the 2023-24 season can be streamed through MSG for $9.99. Or, a monthly cost of $29.99.