That Aud Smell

I see no reason why not.

I keep reading that The Athletic is out there trying to be bought. I am sure that their rank and file are being pushed hard to generate clicks. Um - it doesn't. 😔

Sadly, I think this is right on. OTOH, there was a puff piece about Sam Ventura in today's online Buffalo News. They're building out the analytics department and, we have to hope, will be really good about what kinds of role players they bring in. Relatedly, moving Eichel's cap hit could be one of the significant benefits the team realizes from this deal.

absolutely - i'd hope they could go as far as 3 years out. of course, that would be a lot of delayed gratification (and, sure, risk) for the Sabres. but i don't see any other way for the Sabres to pull something close to fair value.

There's no way an arguably fair deal gets done here without conditions. They have to be part of the deal. If Eichel/receiving team accomplishes this/these things, then the Sabres get that thing/those things. What makes it tricky is the matter of what present value the Sabres can expect to receive. There's no conditioning that. And there may be nothing to do there but grin and bear it, from the Sabres' perspective. The Sabres are most likely not getting a top-shelf prospect/young NHLer in this deal.

God bless him.

why did this thread survive the Sabrespace DNS routing crash, but not other more important threads?

Right. That's the message I received when I clicked on a notification of a reply/reaction within one of those threads. Then I looked for them, and could not find them. 😕

*Poof* Gone. At least 2, maybe 3, of them. What gives?

Interesting. From what I saw moments ago (sorry no link), it sounds like other teams have a fuller medical picture because Eichel himself is providing it (with records of his doctors' own making (MRI's, etc.)).

As a rule, employers are not governed by HIPAA; health care providers are. It's probably right that the CBA has something to say about it. And the player may have rights under state law regarding the privacy of those records. My sense all along had been that the Sabres were the ones who didn't want his medicals out there -- that Eichel's camp wanted more of an open-book approach. But maybe that was a mistaken impression.

I'm not sure whether HIPAA would restrict the team from disclosing his medicals -- the Sabres are not a HIPAA-governed entity and his medicals, in this instance, may not qualify as protected health information.

I'm inferring that the source is the agent. The fact that he's signaling a potential shift is a significant development.

Are we gonna have a new thread for every new Dreger of Friedman Tweet re Eichel?

Also, why in fresh hell is the main Eichel trade rumour thread locked? If posters were, like me, occasionally sick and tired of the thread, well, then, just stay away. But locking it? C'mon.

Not the point I was making a’tall, but, sure, go off.

Fair deuce. Your initial post on the topic led off with a prediction that, given the apparent state of the Pegulas' finances, Buffalo may be on its way to losing the Sabres franchise. That was a bit like yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre based on getting a whiff of cigarette smoke from the men's lavatory.

Let's pump the brakes on that. That venture he put together had/has very little downside for him. If that deal doesn't close, it won't be much more than a blip on the radar for a guy whose net worth reportedly rose from 5.4 to 5.7 billion dollars in the course of the last few months. With respect, I think you're under-informed on what the nature of that venture is. Yeah - this isn't a proverbial pimple on his buttocks (eww) - but it's close.

^^ For those, like me, who prefer to avoid giving Harrington a click, here's the quote from Bettman that I saw on another platform: "It's a terrible situation. I don't think it's fair to point the finger at anybody in terms of who's right and wrong. I think everybody's approaching this with the best intentions and that the injury is complex both in its diagnosis and its treatment and I think people need to be a little more patient."

So he gets paid the same amount regardless of whether he's in the A or in the NHL? (I forget how that works, precisely.)

I'd like to see the Bills have a big day against the Chiefs D, yes. Whether they're bad or not, that Chiefs D has had the Bills' number the past 2 games. If Allen & Co. were to have a big showing, it'd be really encouraging.

I don't need the Bills D to shut down Mahomes, so much as I need the Bills O to outscore him.

I’ve come to know a family with a career AHL’er, occasional NHL’er. I try to remain mindful that all of these fringe guys are (1) incredible hockey players (on some level) and (2) chasing a dream.