Taro T

Couldn't recall ottomh if it was the 3rd Eichel season that he played close 80 games; was pretty sure it wasn't that year but not positive w/out looking it up so just left it at 65 points. And, yeah, it wasn't a 120 point pace, it was only a 105 point pace through 60 in '19-'20. Oops. 🍺. Still way better than anything we've seen since Briere.

OK, was confused with the designation of the Semifinals games. Was believing that implied there had been quarterfinals which was incorrect. Danke. 🍺

Sam who? 😉

Dumb question. Any idea when the Memorial Cup expanded from just a 4 team tourney? (And, no, don't care enough to google it. Pretty sure somebody will know offhand.)

Which is where having someone other than Okposo as captain sooner rather than later may be a good thing. Haven't been in the room, but Okposo seems way more Pominville than Drury. And the team really needed a Pomms rather than a Drury this last year. Drury would've made the room miserable. Hoping we're ready for them having a Drury soon. Why not now if he's here? (Not positive he's here.)

Not telling you anything you didn't already know, but getting 65 points at 20 is usually viewed as having more room to grow than getting 68 at 24. Still room to grow, especially when circumstances have changed so significantly as they have for Thompson this year; but would be shocked if his ceiling is ~60 games of 120 point pace (which has been roughly Eichel's peak production to date).

Probably semantics, but if in general teams get 2 players on average every draft and a bit less than 1 "good" one each draft, having 6 drafts worth of the top 1/2 of a draft would guess they SHOULD get 4 top 6 / top pairing guys (or at least guys that are comfortably middle 6/ 4/5's that aren't too out of place bumping up in a pinch) with 4-6 more bottom 6/3rd pairing guys and then 2-4 guys that are essentially washouts but who will get their cup of coffee. Expect there'll only be 2-4 of those tweeners. Which IMHO are guys that are top line guys in the A & have to claw &/or get lucky to be in the show.

Yes, because if Adams brings back the equivalent in net of Anderson, Dell, & UPL all those other takes will be proven out as truer than the Gospel & the team's losing will be proof of their lack of growth. <_<

Yeah, it may have started out as mockery, but this last year our baby giraffe got all grown up & he is now 1 kick arse fine hockey playing fully grown giraffe that the lions & tigers DON'T want to #### with. The elephants might be willing to #### with him, but they'll wish they hadn't. 😉

But that could be said about significant portions of the entire roster. Sentiments we're still seeing this summer. (Not universally, but they're still there.) Thompson's a bottom 6 winger w/ no hockey sense that might be an OK C but probably not a 1 or a 2. (OK, the 1st part of that's pretty much been dispelled, but the latter half is still there as your post highlights.) Okposo's a 4th liner. Olofsson won't be worth his next contract & should be traded. (Presumably because he's only a PP goal scorer w/ no defensive awareness.) Mittelstadt might be OK as a 3rd line C or middle 6 wing but is absolutely not a top 6C nor a leader because he's lazy and is trade bait. Cozens IS the future C and 1st line C in waiting. Krebs is too small & probably needs more time in Ra-cha-cha. To name just a few. And, some of that might still be the case (and hoping it is w/ Cozens) but there was a lot that happened this past season that puts many of those projections in doubt. (And ftr, if the Cozens projection isn't correct IMHO it's because he very likely could be their 2 way shut down C or a top 6 W (& just not seeing true 1C out of him so far though he's young & maybe that comes) and there are some guys like Tuch & Dahlin (to just name 2) ahead of him in the pecking order as far getting a letter may be concerned.) It seems to take at least 2 years to fully change perceptions & only that little if people are paying attention.

And there was much rejoicing. 😉

Don't know for sure, but would take 2 things from the "BPA" bit. 1. Don't expect them to try to trade up should Nemec or Jiricec slide to 6 or 7. And 2. don't be shocked if a "non-need" LHD goes at 16.

It really is up to Kane. IF he's only willing to be moved to the Sabres, the Hawks have 0 leverage and will be lucky to get your proposal. Until we hear more, would use the Skinner package as the template. (Middling prospect, a 2nd (next year?), & a lesser pick another year out.)

There is also an outside possibility I might have access to additional tickets provided the Sabres Season Tix Exchange is operational this season. No idea what the cost would be as it's hard to know the details of something that currently does not exist. 😉 That is, assuming there's demand here for additional seats.

In.

Last year's junior tournament will be restarted/resumed in August, so there's that.

One would have to slide to his offhand side, but several here have said Power has done that in the past. It also would give Johnson a vision of playing top 4 minutes down the road, though at best he'd be the 3rd best LHD on this team & likely 4th. So, maybe he does sign rather than walk. And, it makes talk of grabbing a LHD in this year's draft should a stud fall to 16 not as ridiculous as it seems upon 1st glance.

McCabe you say ... 😉

Any idea what it would take to pry Perry away from TB? If they can get him to waive his NTC, Stanley Cup Final loss, here we come! (After 11 years in the desert will take it. 😉 ) Guess his juju was stronger than Maroon's. The Sabres could use that.

Question is not directed at you particularly, as several posters have expressed similar sentiments, but how do they do this without tampering while he's still under contract to Chicago?

Very few people get upset at tax $'s being spent on items such as that. What many people take exception to are expenditures like disgraced former Governor Cuomo's spending a few $MM of taxpayer funds on hundreds (1,000's?) of blue attraction signs along the Thruway which far exceeded the federal guidelines for such signs & then had to be removed (at taxpayer expense) to keep from having NY's federal transportation allotment from being significantly curtailed.

Yes, with very rare exceptions, the annual cap hit of a player is the total $'s to be paid out over the life of the contract divided by the term (in years). So, a 5 year contract w/ $35MM paid out has a cap hit of $7MM per year. A contract w/ $10MM paid out over 2 years would have a $5MM cap hit per year. And because the cap hit is calculated by total $'s/ # of years and is nearly always constant over the life of the contract, there is no renegotiating of contracts.

Nor why people are so concerned about natural race horses. What about other horses & ponies too?

He certainly didn't. And reportedly he was playing w/ a broken bone in his hand. Which would be a big factor in his scoring drought down the stretch. It's the frequency of the injuries and the combination of his ability to play through them but at a significant downgrade in performance that will end up being the reason the Sabres are coming out well in the aftermath of the trade. Just what we've seen from 1/2 of the trade package is pretty comparable to 60 games of healthy Eichel & another 12 of broken Jack. And there should be 1 more legit NHLer & possibly a 2nd showing up in 2-4 years. Doubt he will shy away from contact - he never has when healthy. And because of that doubt he ever sees another season above 72 or so games played. But, yeah, should it happen, his game would suffer. His game ain't Miro Satan's; he would be much less effective being a true passenger.

And not accusing you or anyone else of calling him a liar. Poor choice of words. That meetup was something like 4 years ago now. 🍺