Taro T

Nice, well thought out argument. (But it was the Selke, not the Norris.)

And if (when) they miss the playoffs by a handful of points but still win a lottery draw that is COMPLETELY different than going into next season w/ UPL & Levi penciled in w/ no true plan B & no upgrade to the RHD depth and "shockingly" ending up w/ the 28th best record. Heck, missing the playoffs by 4 points AND winning the Berard sweepstakes is just about the optimal outcome based on where they sit now. But winning a lottery w/ ~2% of a chance of doing so is NOT planning to do so. Setting up a roster that needs a whole lot of luck to keep from finishing 28th IS planning to try to lose and is NOT acceptable.

A - ####ing - men.

Ah, so you were cheating. 😛 🍺

???

Figured any mention of that would be deleted/relegated right quickly. Extremely sad day. The virus hasn't just taken obscene #'s of lives but appears to have taken Austrailia & Canada with them too.

As said in one of the (at least 3) threads that mentioned that trade, being down 5-0 after 2 can put GMs in desperation mode.

Literally. Suzuki blew up Holl behind the Loaf net. Then about 30 seconds later Muzzin threw himself into Widemon's knee. (Blew a tire, but the result was bouncing his torso off his knee & his head off the ice.) The Muzzin thing was a little scary. Apparently he's just back from a concussion, probably suffered another.

Apparently being down 5-0 to Moe-ray-all at the end of 2 causes GM's to enter desperation mode. 😉

Every year. And if a team doesn't have their own next 4 1st rounders, no max level offer can be tendered.

How you dumping Bjork. Has 1 more year on his deal. Ra-cha-cha could very well be in his future, but can't see anyone else trading for him.

So sad, Trade Deadline Day used to be one of the best days of the year. For over a decade now it has brought nothing but an even worse team for the final month of the season. Maybe next year it goes back to being fun?

That was not followed w/ Drury. They were negotiating in season in October.

Umm, you mean besides the fact that the Sabres couldn't do so until after January 1 but the Drury deal was ready to be signed in the fall?

Drury actually HAD a deal worked out in season w/ Regier. It languished on Golisano's desk LITERALLY for weeks & by the time Tommy got around to approving the deal, Drury said let's wait until til after the season to finalize it. And the rest is history.

The bolded is key. Since he was allowed to play his natural position, he IS different.

Day to day?!?!? Fuuuuuuuuuudddddggge. Hopefully he's back by opening night. 😉

They have Dell & this kid in Cincy named Houser, perhaps you've heard of him. 😉

Are the Yotes giving up the dream of 32 already? No wonders they never pull off achieving their goals. 1st sign of adversity & they crumble. 😉

No, they DON'T have to waive Tokarski. There are only 22 bodies on the active roster. They can bring up UPL without waiving anybody. Preaching to the choir.

After he got the puck to the face, Tokarski actually played like he did prior to contracting COVID. Would still like to see a better option than him. UPL SEEMS to be a better option, but he's down in Ra-cha-cha. Which just reinforces the impression that the Sabres brass really don't want to win many games this year. They want to be competitive in them. And they want the kids to develop & lines to gain chemistry, should the team ever get healthy again. But really don't believe they want to win games this year. (Gee, thanks, that took some SERIOUS sleuthing to come to THAT conclusion, 😉 ) And again, the concern is we end up in this same place next year w/ lousy goaltending hoping to land one of the "big 3" 2023 draftable kids due in part to the mistaken belief that a 40 or so point turnaround will be possible the following year once honest to goodness NHK caliber goaltending is in place that following year & 14 of the 18 healthy skater roles have been cemented during the '22-'23 season. So, yes, giving UPL another shot makes sense (they're only scratching 2 skaters per night so there's room on the roster for him) if winning games now is a goal. But really not sure it is. Not until there's a lot less of this season left at least. And maybe there's hope that Tokarski might draw interest at the deadline? If he & Anderson are both gone, they can look at all 3 prospects after the deadline is past & the NCAA season is a memory.

Agreed. Which is why, as stated, IMHO it's worth the risk. Who knew that when the Sabres were rolling through a rookie Mittelstadt, Sobokta, Johansson, Staal, & the closest to actually playing as a 2C Rodrigues in an attempt to find a 2C to play behind Eichel that the Sabres had 2 internal candidates that might have gotten the job done filling that 2C role but never got a look in both Reinhart & Thompson?

There's a slight chance that he won't be able to replicate what he's doing in the future, but IMHO it's worth the risk giving an extension like that based off only 1 (very) good year. He's doing way more than this kid thought he was capable of. Cripes, he's killing penalties for crying out loud and generating honest to goodness scoring chances while doing so.

Yep & yep.

Hoping he does go top 3. Increases the chance Nemec or (more likely) Jiricek slides to the Sabres. Would be nice if somebody underweighs Lambert's seemingly being a primadonna as well.