Robviously

I'm sure everyone feels terrible for them. It's not fair that they haven't fallen ass-backwards into the first overall pick again recently.

Was anyone upset about how free agency works last summer?

Well, did they ever actually get anything out of holding onto it? If they were going to eventually come to an agreement, then fine. But holding onto it forever is just petty at this point. Plus it'd be a nice gesture after taking the team away from the community.

:lol: Almost everyone makes some variation of this joke every year.

This is insane. It's like seeing King Kong get beat up by an even bigger gorilla. :unsure:

I don't remember the specifics but I knew it was a whole thing with Dallas not letting them use the name. Totally stupid. (Also, Minnesota really should have just come up with a better name on their own.) For fun, check out the 2005 draft: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2005e.html Pretty much the opposite. Slim pickings.

Vanek is 7th all time on the list of Sabres' goal scorers and should be 5th after this season if he has an average year. Only 2 players from that draft have more NHL points than him and of those two, only one (Getzlaf) was drafted after he was at no.5 overall. We did fine there. EDIT: And no player drafted after him has more goals. Only Staal (drafted no.2 overall) has more goals.

Agreed. I just wish they weren't called the "Wild." Probably the cheesiest name in pro sports. I really wish they would have gone with "North Stars" again -- one of my all-time favorite team names (I remember getting my dad to buy me a Minnesota North Stars puck at a Sabres game back in the 80's) and I really don't think there would have been any confusion with the Dallas Stars (they're 2000+ miles apart).

TSN article: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=399913 Interesting tidbit: The 2003 draft was pretty insane: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html

This too. Sorta cool to see a new team take big steps forward.

Cool. I didn't give us a chance at either so I'm just glad they didn't sign with an Eastern Conference team.

This is good news for us in the East. (BTW, love that you finally updated that avatar. Good choice.)

Leopold and Regehr are both UFA after this year and I don't think we're re-signing them. I've said it before: Trade one now and make that a smoother transition. The future is Myers, McNabb, Pysyk, etc.

Those would be my picks as well. Because 1. they're both good enough to fetch something decent in return and 2. because I want to see what Brennan is capable of in the NHL. (I guess 3. could be that I want to see if Weber can up his game not that his 'big brother' Ott is on the team.)

FWIW, Vanek's best season was 2006-2007 (84 points) and I'm pretty sure that was the same season he was being used on the PK (and was very good at it). Signing Semin would be terrible. I really hope we aren't that dumb.

Free agency started just over 50 hours ago. And he probably spent most of that time hearing what different teams had to say to him. I imagine most people need more than 24 hours to make a decision that will determine the entire rest of their careers.

Actually, if he can really beat up all the people I don't like, maybe the hockey stick can be optional. I really don't care. Teams that win the Stanley Cup generally don't rely on getting goals from their 4th line guys.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!1!

It doesn't take that much to be a 4th line winger in the NHL. Basically it comes down to "Can you hold a hockey stick and skate without tripping over the blue line?" Sold.

Regier said they'd "penciled him in" to the Amerks. In other words, that's where he'd be going the way things are right now. If more moves get done, he could still start with Buffalo. (They also said something about him playing his way on but I'm not sure how that could work given the current number of defensemen we have.)

Too good to be true by a factor of a million.

I'm liking this idea.

:lol:

I hope you're right. I'd love it if he left the Eastern Conference. The problem with Pittsburgh is that he'd just be another guy on Sydney Crosby's team. He'd get a lot more credit for any winning that happens on any of the other four teams mentioned (including the Red Wings, who don't revolve around one star player).

So pretty much exactly the teams everyone thought he'd choose from. It's nice to know that hockey rumors can occasionally be true.