IKnowPhysics

Of course. One presumption was that the teams that suck this year will substantially suck next year as well. I haven't seen much improvement from them. Oh, ###### that.

Keep in mind that Connor McDavid is that good. A once in 5-10 years type of player (at least according to Don Cherry in the D&C yesterday). But expecting to load up on picks and trading picks at draft time to get that #1 overall pick is extremely unlikely. So what we need to do is target the teams that suck and acquire their 1st round picks to increase the chance of winning the lottery. I'm talking about guys like Ehrhoff to Edmonton for their pick (and more) and some combination of Stafford, Stewart and/or Moulson to Florida (and some other details) for theirs. New York will hopefully defer (and still suck balls). That would give us, at the current standings: Buffalo 25% Edmonton 18.8% Florida 14.2% New York 10.7% That totals to a 68.7% chance of winning the lottery for McDavid, plus whatever else we got back in trades, plus a guarantee for four of the top five players in a strong draft (regardless of lottery). I think it's really, really aggressive, but definitely not impossible. And I like Ehrhoff. edit: I forgot about Calgary, but ###### Calgary. We could trade to them as well and make it totally ridiculous at 76.9% and five of the top six players, or if we didn't, it'd be down to only 66.1%.

It was just posted the other day. I agree with you.

So we can phrase the trade a few ways: STL gets: Miller as just a rental, Ott as just as a rental, and no significant playoff success: BUF gets: Halak, Stewart, Carrier, 1st round pick 2015, 3rd round pick 2016 Opinion: That's a pretty ###### good haul for two rentals. Something like Halak, a 1st and a prospect for a couple months of Miller, and Stewart + 3rd for a couple months of Ott. OR STL gets: Miller as just a rental, Ott as just as a rental, significant playoff success, 2nd round pick 2014, 3rd round pick 2014 BUF gets: Stewart, Carrier, 1st round pick 2014, 1st round pick 2015 OR STL gets: Miller locked up before the draft, Ott as just a rental, no significant playoff success, 2nd round pick 2014, 3rd round pick 2014 BUF gets: HalakStewart, Carrier, 1st round pick 2014, 1st round pick 2015 Opinion: Even better haul for the Sabres if it's just for rentals. It turns out that the price of success OR the price of signing Miller pre-draft for STL is the difference between a mid-low 2nd round pick (like pick 45-55) and a very low 1st round pick (pick 27-30) minus the cost of a high 3rd round pick (61-63) for and a who knows 3rd round pick (probably 75-85). A nice little bump-up for the Sabres. Ends up being something like Miller and a 2nd for Halak, Stewart, Carrier, and a 1st, plus Ott and a 3rd for a 1st. OR STL gets: Miller locked up after the draft, Ott as just a rental, no significant playoff success BUF gets: Halak, Stewart, Carrier, 1st round pick 2015, 2nd round pick 2016 Opinion: Still not a bad haul, but a little less than the others. Something like 1st and 2nd and Halak for Miller long term and Stewart and Carrier for Ott. Bottom line: We want that 1st round pick for the mid low 2nd and high 3rd, but if Miller doesn't sign until after the draft, we still get a free mid-low 2nd rounder, and that's better than a 3rd three drafts from now. I hope it would, and I think Tim Murray's smart enough to cover that loophole.

Terry Pegula: We should try to draft everyone. Tim Murray: Everyone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBKXu3Kg4yg

BREAKING NEWS: Sabres hire G. Gordon Liddy as Vice President of First Niagara Center Plumbers Unit.

Never, ever. I usually glance at the thread author to gauge how stupid it might be. Do I need to start doing that? Probably not.

This was posted this in another thread, but I'd like to get it in here. From TSN: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=444922 Reading that ###### in prose is a little tricky, so let's break it down: If St Louis makes it to the Conference Final OR Ryan Miller signs with St Louis before the 2014 draft: BUF gets: STL 1st round pick in 2014 STL gets: BUF 2nd round pick (from MIN) and BUF 3rd round pick If St Louis doesn't make the Conference Final AND Ryan Miller signs after the 2014 draft: BUF gets: STL 2nd round pick in 2016 If St Louis doesn't make the Conference FInal AND Ryan Miller doesn't sign with St Louis: BUF gets: STL 3rd round pick in 2016

Is that what this thread is trying to be? It wasn't Pegula meddling, it was one of Pegula's guys... Idiotic conspiracy theorists couldn't provide evidence that Pegula was "meddling" (which was loosely defined for convenience), so now every ###### guy that gets hired in the front office gets put on trial as a tool for Pegula to remotely do his meddling? For ######'s sake. That is brain-rottingly stupid.

I'm torn. Because of my understanding/lack of understanding of exactly what the conditions are for the conditional pick. The best possible draft would come from the following scenario: St Louis tanks, but Ryan Miller signs with them anyways before that mystery signing deadline. I believe that nets us a 1st round pick in 2014, and would be higher than if the Blues actually made it deep in the playoffs. But if Ryan doesn't sign, our conditional pick gets knocked back, possibly as low as the 2016 3rd rounder. Ryan's in control in this scenario. The best scenario where Ryan's contract doesn't control the fate of the pick is that the Blues make the conference finals. We'd get the 1st round pick in 2014, but it could only be as high as the 27th pick. And that requires that the Blues go deep in the playoffs. Note that they haven't done that since 2001; they lost in the Semifinals in '12 and Quarterfinals in '13, after finishing tied for 2nd in points in '12 and finishing 6th in '13. Blues are currently second in the league, with 22 games to go and a five point difference between second and seventh. I believe it boils down to the question: Will Ryan Miller resign with St Louis? If definitely yes, we boo the ###### out of that team to get the higher pick. If definitely no, we want that team to win at least two rounds, which may be within their power, but not absolutely. The second option is possibly the safer play, but the first option gets the best return.

It was asked at the press conference yesterday what the role of Joe Battista was. You can rely on actual information instead of wildly imaginative speculation, if you choose. Without seeing more information, it sounds like he's in a highly paid position somewhere between Assistant General Manager and Assistant to the General Manager. Reading his bio, it sounds like he knew Pegula from Penn State, where he helped launch the new NCAA hockey program. The guy was a co-founder of the ACHA (which has almost 500 teams in it now), was Head Coach of the Penn State ACHA team for 19 years (winning six national titles), and worked for the Penguins for a few years. He's a hockey guy doing hockey things, working underneath Tim Murray. Doesn't, on paper, seem like the type to maliciously try to work outside of his job title. This "telling Ted Nolan about Ryan and Steve" is all complete junk. Battista was asked to do a simple clerical task by the person he works for, when the person he works for was understandably busy with a crucial last-minute-before-gametime deal. Absolutely nothing more, and it's not worth any more conversation.

I think unless Pat opens up later at some point in time, this will go down as a Sabres story that very few will know the details of, sort of like the story of what started the Hasek-Nolan feud. And it may not have any appreciable impact on how the team operates.

Last question from the full-length audio: "Would you characterize Terry as disappointed?" Ted Black: "Yes, I would. I think we're all disappointed."

That's probably why one was in my mental spelling dictionary and the other one wasn't.

Lulz @ Drano trying to psychoanalyze ten seconds of a stoich Tim Murray. Double lulz @ people engaging in debate with it.

Either both of theses guys are lying through their teeth, which I wouldn't expect of Tim Murray's straightforwardness, or there really is no story here. LaFontaine wanted to go back to NY and work for the league, and surprised everyone when he resigned. I think the reporters started a twatterfire for pretty much nothing.

And to this city, I would like to believe.

Unless you really want to watch them in the first two of rounds in the playoffs, I'd save the money. STL is on NBC, NBCSN, or NHLN eight times before the regular season's done, not counting the one game they're on MSG when we play them 4/3. Then the later rounds of playoffs should also be available on the national broadcast.

And that's BEFORE any moves we make with Moulson, Tallinder, Halak, Stewart, and anyone else before the deadline. Simply outstanding. I'm pretty excited. HARD CORE TANK CORPS.

I didn't quite understand what this meant until I just watched the last episode of Beyond Blue and Gold. I now get it that one of Gilbert's functions is to prepare the front office guys before holding a press conference. Practice questions, etc. Make sure that the guys speaking are well prepped for their statements and possible questions. I didn't have a good sense of the behind the scenes PR stuff until that little clip. He's got a lot of prep to do today. IE, Do tell them what a good job PLF did. Don't tell them that they got drunk and had a bar fight, PLF kicked Sawyer in the nuts, and Pegula landed a beer bottle right on LaFontaine's crown, before Ted Nolan busted through the door and socked Terry right in the gut, making Tim Murray laugh so hard he had to give Nolan a contract.

David Drewiske to waivers from the Canadiens. Canadiens paid a fifth round pick to LA for him before the deadline. Was on LTIR, rehabbed his shoulder, headed to Hamilton if he clears. $637k.

I think those can be core traits of a successful head coach. I don't think those can be core traits of a successful team president.

At the moment, without any other evidence, I believe Paul Hamilton, which results in the idea that Blue boiled down: Pat LaFontaine may not be cut out for the front office. PHam said that off-camera, Pat's a very intense person, which I'm sure is a result necessity of being one the great, hyper-competitive players of all time. You can be that way on-ice and in the player transaction (trade, UFA, draft) market, but you can't be that way in a management group among allies that need to work together. You have to be able to compromise. Pat was brought in to perform as a very specific piece of the management puzzle: hire the GM, let the GM do the heavy lifting, then be an ambassador and adviser for the team. But if he thought that there was some expanded role he was to have, or if he thought it was going to be his way always, he was wrong. It's also possible that LaFontaine, who is a very passionate person, didn't have the professional ruthlessness required for being in the chain of responsibility for trading and cutting players, but I'd like to think he's brave enough to try. Paul Hamilton's also somewhat correct about the aftermath: it may not be that big of a deal. We have a GM with a lot of hockey experience working hard to build the team. The coaching and the ownership situation haven't changed. The Sabres are still well-positioned to advance going forward. We're just minus one well-respected ambassador. I don't like seeing Patty go because I think he could've grown his role to do great things as an ambassador for the team. But by no means do I think we're in a world of ######, because, barring any real power struggle nonsense that I have yet to see any evidence of, we still have a very strong front office. edit: And until I see evidence to the contrary, I don't think Ted Black has a single thing to do with any of this. If there actually was any sort of argument with "Terry Pegula's people," I'm looking squarely at Ken Sawyer or Joe Battista.

Good call.

DEFEAT! (Not pictured: tanks that were traded.) We're now within three points of 2nd (last) with one game in hand. Hopefully we can curb this three game win streak. Meanwhile, Florida and Calgary are on losing streaks, coming now within seven points of us with more than 20 games to go.