Taro T

Won't take that bet. Which doesn't mean that won't be very disappointing if that happens. They'll have cap space & ownership'll have the cash to have a real goalie in town.

The team will do "whatever it can" to get out of the lottery short of trading any prospects or picks that they see fitting into the future. So, they will leave a lot improvement options on the table. (Not commenting on the merits of that, just pointing out that the playoffs come he'll or high water is NOT next season's plan.) Agree that there's a real possibility they're in the playoffs in 2 seasons. And as @Thorny says, what happens next year & how much management really wants to see the kids winning "now" rather than after next year's draft reinforcements are selected will be tipped by how goaltending is addressed.

When our Onkyo of about the same vintage as your Denon started having issues went with a Denon last year and have been VERY pleased w/ it.

JVC SR-600 Mark II is the basement receiver. Has a Marantz style tuner wheel. Need to get that fixed as the mounting post base broke. Other than that it's in great condition.

, Gaustad

Awfully long winded way of saying Gragnini. 😉

Was there anybody else even remotely getting consideration? MAYBE Thompson. Guess it's good to have a requirement that every team gets a rep. Curious if people think he'd've gone even without that requirement.

Yep. Give him his 9 games & if he earns a full year call up, keep him up. If he doesn't earn it & seems too small or whatever, let him follow the Sam Reinhart path (at least for the ELC years; for the love of all that's good & holy do NOT follow that path through the bridge years).

While he does deserve more talk here, don't really want to until he's actually signed. Agree that he's 3rd pairing on this team due to the 1 area that the team has real depth & likely tops out as a 2nd pairing guy. But, considering it's likely 50/50 that he actually signs, don't really want to "hear" about his upside. Probably too cynical, but too many "nice things" left this off-season to get attached to another one that might simply walk.

He is a poster boy for high event hockey. Considering the rest of the young D crew the Sabres have in place & in the wings, don't see him being a fit. Could see him being another Gragnini. Nobody wants another Gragnini.

Funny how the team that was beating everyone doesn't know how to play w/ the goalie pulled. Good. Also, taking back any half hearted endorsement of giving Robson a callup if Dell & Houser are THE guys for an extended spell. He has definitely returned back to Earth.

Well, when nearly all your goalies are AHLers being asked to play against NHLers there would seem to be a possibility that some will need to try to make their bodies do things they simply aren't capable of doing. That they all have done that is rather excessive but not completely unexpected, especially after what we saw in a shortened season 1 year prior. Get actual NHL goalies & watch the injury bug fade.

Almost hope Jiricek doesn't play again this year & either Vegas or the Swamp Cats have a 1st round exit & somehow he slides all the way to the mid-teens and is sitting there when that pick comes up. The concept of Jiricek is intriguing.

So, this is the real reason teams go into the season only using ~44 of their 50 allowable contracts. So that when you have to find a 9th goalie, you still have an available slot to sign him.

UPL, IMHO though Granato publicly disagrees, still hasn't convinced himself he belongs in the NHL much less as a starter. And only playing once per week like they have the last 3 or so weeks gives him too much time between games to get into his own head. Expect he could be a reasonable backup next year & moving forward getting 1/3 - 40% of the starts, but really want a true starter brought in until Levi (or Portillo) is ready to take the reins or they both have shown they won't be able to be THAT guy.

IF Levi is in Ra-cha-cha along w/ someone at least as good as Tokarski, it might, possibly work. Would still rather have a guy that could max out at 50 games as the 2nd 1/2 of the pairing even if he's only a mid-tier goalie than one that will max out at 25 games & quite possibly only 12. They have the cap space & the owners have the cash. Find a real goalie for next year.

So, they're going to end up using 6 goalies minimum 2 years running with at least 9 different guys getting at least 1 game in that stretch. That has to be close to a record, if not one. Somebody suggested Dubnyk. If his heart isn't set on the Olympics, it makes sense as a stop gap. He can't be significantly worse than Dell. If Robson can recover from his last Amerk outing when he knew he was likely Cincy bound before the game started, could see giving him a game. His play is seriously a wildcard. He might give up 2 or he might give up 15.

It's been a very long time since Ra-cha-cha was both successful & a lot of the success was due to the kids. Yes, the Mersch line has been good, but Quinn & Peterka & now Krebs have been big contributors. Samuelsson & Fitzgerald have been the top pair & UPL was their best goalie (after Dell had his callup, before that he was a disaster). The past couple of times they were good it seemed more AHL vet driven. (Didn't really follow the Amerks THAT closely though until last season. So, will freely admit that perception may be off.)

It has. But what's the point of decrying once again the decision to re-re-reload this off-season in a GDT? The guys out there tonight would likely lose to the Habs & have a hard time beating the Yotes. Get through tonight & get some bodies back for the road trip.

They're playing the Stanley Cup champions w/ their full roster including their #1 while the Sabres play w/ their #4 goalie & no Tuch, Thompson, Okposo, Mittelstadt, nor even Krebs. And Olofsson is a shell of what he was back in October. This is about as bad a mismatch as you can get in this league.

Upon watching the Sabres fail on their 3rd breakaway attempt, turned to my son & said the Bolts don't respect the Sabres at all.

Place in the standings, no. But looking to maximize the value and cash coming back from their investment, absolutely. And if a group that owns a share of 2 or 5 teams can get a better return if the stud player on one of their rosters were on a different one, they'll be pushing for that. Hopefully the majority owner won't go along w/ it, but especially if the majority owner has immediate issues, that owner might be willing to sign off on the move that helps in the ST but kills in the LT. Don't have a good example, and maybe it's simply worry/distrust of the new for no particularly valid reason, but just keep seeing "Coyotes hosed again" as a nearly inevitable outcome of this. Who else? And, really don't see how further imbalancing the competitive landscape being a good thing.

Likewise.

Hannu Virta doesn't make up for the sheer chutzpah of selecting Dudacek in the 1st round. The dumbest draft pick EVER.

You mean he wasn't? He was the greatest LW South Africa ever produced. 😉