Samson's Flow

What do you mean? He's a point per game defensemen in the NHL. That's elite. http://canucks.nhl.com/club/player.htm?id=8473415

Unfortunately this season has skewed my shot total gauge. 17 shots in a game doesn't even look bad anymore. :bag:

Despite the guaranteed awfulness of this Sabres team, the Buffalo tv market is always near the top in terms of % viewership, which is why NBC likes to schedule the Sabres for the weekday matchups. Plus the TV schedule is set at the beginning of the year.

I think I figured it out. And turns out both Taro and Tank are both somewhat correct in the RPTC number. For the first place team (Sabres), the remaining points to clinch should be calculated as enough points to beat out the highest possible total of the rest of the teams. - So in this case, it would be Buffalo getting to Edmonton's 123 Maximum Possible Points number. Since the Sabres have 75 pts already, they would need 123-75=48 pts to tie EDM, so 49 pts to clinch dead last. For the rest of the teams chasing the Sabres, the remaining points to clinch is always more than Points Remaining (PR). It is the amount of points needed to pass the top team's (Sabres) maximum possible points. - In this case, Edmonton would need to surpass the Sabres' 129 MPP number in order to clinch, so they would need to get 130 points. Seeing as EDM currently has 71 pts, to clinch they would need an RPTC of 59 (130 - 71 = 59), as this would get them to first place no matter what the Sabres do for the rest of the year. However, it is impossible for EDM to gain 59 pts, so they would need some help in the form of Sabres losing CHL games. - Edmonton needs the Sabres to miss out on 8 of their possible points (EDM RPTC of 59 - EDM PR of 52 - 1 pt to prevent tie) in order for them to be able to pass the Sabres. In this scenario, the Sabres MPP is 122 and Edmonton's MPP is 123, resulting in EDM clinching first. In summary, I hate you all for making me explain this. :anger:

To further this, if anyone is pencilling in Stewart on the roster next year, you may as well say UFA RW instead. There is just as much chance of us signing Justin Williams or Jaromir Jagr as Chris Stewart. They are all UFA RW. It's a matter of which groceries GMTM wants.

With regards to Lemieux v Bailey (and other prospects) I think it is a bit of recency bias. We as fans tend to forget about the 'older' prospects and over-value the more recent picks. Once a player has a few years in the system, they are more valuable to GMTM, but we as fans are thinking of the most recent acquired prospect because they are still in the limelight during their draft year.

Neuvirth is a UFA. You can't trade him in the offseason because you lose his rights once the season ends. It would be near impossible to re-sign him and then trade him for value a few weeks later. Move like that from a front office get us blackballed by NHL players/agents.

Stewart is gone simply because he is a UFA this year. GMTM has openly stated that all UFA's should be moved for picks in order to maximize asset return. IMO they have just as much of a chance in re-signing a UFA in the offseason if they trade him away as they do letting his contract run out. Heck, our UFA's specifically might be grateful that GMTM sent them for a chance at playoff hockey and away from the dumpster fire that is this season.

Let me take a shot at this. I will add the caveat that I think there is no way that Reinhart and Eichel are not on this team next year. Yes, we will be young, but players of that caliber don't spend year(s) in the AHL/juniors. Kane - Eichel - UFA RW (J Williams/Stewart) Moulson - Reinhart - Ennis Gionta - Grigorenko - Girgensens Deslauriers - McCormick - Foligno I realized that I have left off Hodgson, (who I am high on for next year in a bounce back to pre-2014 levels) so maybe instead of UFA RW, we plug Hodgson in the open RW slot. I put Grigo in the center spot and pushed Zemgus to wing because of Grigorenko's strong faceoff skills and I think he is a more natural centerman. This team is still young, but has way more talent and seems to have competent #1 and #2 scoring lines. My concern may be that the #2 line is a little small/light, but they will get better matchups. If this becomes a concern, you can move up Girgensens or put J Williams/Stewart on that line instead. Plenty of options. Bogosian - Gorges Risto - Zadorov Weber - Pysyk Niemi/Neuvirth (other FA) Bogosian and Gorges allows Risto and Zadorov to develop without the pressure of taking #1 minutes/matchups. Eventually years down the line, this role will flip and the kids will take over as the #1 pairing. I think GMTM is going to address the goalie situation next year through FA/trade, as there is no chance he relies on a Neuvirth level goalie when he is trying to compete.

The idea of having all that cap space isn't to go fill it with a declining player in Phaneuf. It's so that when we have some star players we aren't forced into what Chicago had to do a while back, in letting go some of the key support players in order to keep Kane/Toews. Just because you have $50,000, doesn't mean you go out and blow it on a convertable with chrome spinners. ;)

You two are making my head spin. It took us all long enough to figure out this bizarro world CHL language where up is down, now you guys are debating the made up RPTC stat from the invented reverse standings where a win is a loss. :unsure:

Take care JJ. See you next year. :thumbsup: As a side note, people react to emotional trauma in many different ways. With the season that the Sabres have put us as fans through, I have no objection to any means of coping/dealing with this dumpster fire. If you want to watch real NHL hockey for a little while, more power to you.

I have a strong inclination that your point is correct. #2 overall players (and #1 forward drafted) don't spend more than a year in juniors/AHL level. I think the only reason we don't have Reinhart on the team this year is that the roster is a full blown dumpster fire. He will be here next year as the #2 center. I would surmise that generally posters here are over-reacting to the Grigorenko situation and wanting to be extra cautious. A mid-teens first rounder is way different than a #1/#2 overall in terms of development needs and NHL ready-ness. No need to overreact the opposite way by holding Samson back another year. The centers next year will be McDavid/Eichel, Reinhart, Girgensens, 4th liner.

We couldn't pay for a flight for Bogosian? That's one long azz drive. Jeez.

Enroth. there were twitter rumblings about Enroth to Dallas when the Kane news broke. My guess is that GMTM was sidetracked by all the press conference stuff and was prevented from continued discussions

Shut it Down. The thread that never dies is finally dead. :worthy:

There's got to be some "other stuff" thrown in on WPG's side. The tweets from Dreger have mentioned there may be more than the principles mentioned.

I would do that trade. Gives us two top of the draft prospects that have demonstrated NHL level skill. Losing Myers hurts, and Stewart gives them a player to fill Kane's role pre-IR. Seems fair. I'm not high on Bogosian either FWIW. Rather have Myers.

Although GMTM has mentioned that he has identified the few prospects in the system he thinks will make it nd be players in the NHL, so the ones he doesn't think will make it may be some surprise names included in trades to get NHL roster players. The prospects that GMTM likes can be very different than the ones that we think are our top prospects.

Way too much smoke out there to not hae somthing going on. If this is the case, the only way IMO that Winnipeg is sending Kane + is ifthe Sabres are including Myers. Then we send a forward rental and forward prospect and get a defender back.

If this is true, I think the biggest question is how is McDavid's golf game?

See I knew I wasn't crazy. This is what I was talking about upthread. Although to be fair, my posts resembled a drunken homeless man at 4am in terms of cohesiveness. :bag:

Okay point taken. Maybe I was recalling that Pegula wanted to get both teams to the same color, but that the Sabres blue was different than Bills blue. I know it was something like that. :oops: Is it possible that the Sabres jerseys can't be changed until a certain timeframe? IIRC, the third jersey design can only be changed every couple of years. Or I could be out in left field on this one... Apparently the one from 2000 - you know when Schobel and Edwards were still on the team. I hear Terrell Owens is gonna be a star for us next year. :bag:

It might have something to do with the "One Buffalo" concept. The idea was that similar to Pittsburgh, the city's sports teams all have the same color scheme so you can recognize "hey thats a pittsburgh fan cause they have yellow/black/white Penguins/Steelers/Pirates gear". Pegula has mentioned that he wants the Bills/Sabres to have the same deal with Blue/Gold, so the Sabres color and the Bills color will remain the same Navy blue until both teams change back to the Royal Blue.

If that's how it worked the Sabres should immediately hire the guy that broke "Press Your Luck" by memorizing the patterns. That would guarantee McDavid for sure. http://mentalfloss.com/article/28588/man-who-pressed-his-luckand-won