Robviously

Crap. Not drunk enough for this....

WAAAAAAT??????

Love where your head is at.

This is....probably where we'll end up if it happens. Maybe we throw in a defenseman and get another draft pick back?

Could all be speculation but it does make sense. The Islanders just make the biggest free agent mistake in more than a decade. This is their Black Sunday. So you'd think they'd want to do something bold to give their fans some hope.

If you take away his locker cleanout comments and overall mopey demeanor that may be part of the problem in the room, you'd say the earliest we'd ever want to trade this guy is next summer. Keeping him gives us a strong 1-2 punch at center and lets Lord Casey have a much easier first full year in the NHL either as the 3C or on the wing. He should have just as good a year this coming year, if not better, with the improved blue line and injection of talent on the team via Dahlin, Mittelstadt, Sheary, Guhle, and whoever else makes the cut. By 2019-2020, maybe we're good with Eichel and Casey as 1-2 with Asplund at 3C full-time. But all that said, I'd prefer to move him for the right return just to clear out whatever drama was holding us back. It's just easier said than done -- especially when you're talking about making an additional move for a center. I'd rather do nothing than do something stupid, especially given how tough our division is now.

Grabner to PHX.

Wouldn't draw any conclusions. I think the expectation was always that we'd pay the bonus and then flip him for a better return. Botterill needs to get the best possible return, not save the team money, if he's making this trade a couple months after his team finishes 31st.

James Mirtle from The Athletic.

Per a bunch of people on Twitter, Sabres pushing hard for JVR... :unsure:

We need guys like this. I really hope he makes it.

Yeah, but nobody destroys a straw man argument from "idiots on the message boards" quite like Paul H.

The price to acquire ROR should include 1-2 players you hate to part with. Otherwise there's no point in making this trade.

:rolleyes:

In his defense, he's still a teenager.

Pekar seems like a real d*ck. Wait, what?

Excited about him.

Just want to know the length of the contract.

Trading ROR creates a gaping hole in our team at center. Parayko won't make us better than ROR and McCabe, and the 2019 pick is years away (and a lottery ticket). Yikes. If trading ROR doesn't make us better this year or 1-2 years down the road, don't do it. Welp, I'm reluctant to trade him given his talent and the fact that every other decent center we have is very young or inexperienced. It'll be tough to do a trade that actually excites me, and I don't want to trade him for the sake of trading him. If we have to keep him, that's fine to allow Mittelstadt time on the 3rd line this year. It's not like he was awful last year.

Not sure what that means?

This would be awful. Makes us worth in the near term and not much long term upside. Plus we already have 2 firsts next year so it's not like we're desperate to add picks. If we're not getting Thomas or Kyrou back, why are we talking to these guys?

Shrewd move by JB. We took advantage of another team's cap issues and got a pretty nice player for a 3rd or 4th. Plus, both contracts expire in two years so they won't have really any effect in us while we have them. Between this and the Brandon Hickey pickup, I'm really liking the low risk, high reward approach JB is taking. That said, things could get dicey real quick if ROR is being moved soon.

If signing Stastny means Mittelstadt can go play on Eichel's wing this year, I'm in.

Has there been an obvious CHL player we have passed on? Samuelsson wasn't a super exciting pick yesterday but most people here would have taken Wilde or Berggren instead, and they aren't CHL players either. Akil Thomas was the only CHL guy I was maybe thinking there. And it actually does make sense to look to Europe and college in the later rounds, both for upside and because the players will have more time before you need to sign them.

I think when they made the trade they said Hickey would be there.