MattPie

I think it screws LA since they benefited from paying more than the cap hit. The Flyers (as someone above mentioned) are pretty even, so they're fine. The Sabres would be paying above cap hit for a couple years, so we'd get hit until the started paying out the cheap years and salary is back down below the average. He'll be 36 when the contract ends, so there might be recapture. If LA does move him now, they''ll get hit no matter what if he retires before the contract is complete. It's very much like the Ehrhoff situation for LA.

With drawl? Oh god, oh god, turn it off! You've accidentally tuned into a Dallas Stars game! I can see how you be confused with the coach and all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6UKQd4-bgw#t=123 (2:03, if the time link doesn't work)

Miss, you certainly have charms and the person they're directed at is certainly lucky, but I'm quite taken. :)

Can we get green clovers and purple horseshoes too?

I could see EDM trading #2 to ARZ for something + #3 so they could pick up Hannafin and a vet or something.

Yep, I had to force a reload to see the red stars.

Are you sure about the cap hit? I thought players in the AHL count against the NHL cap if they have an NHL contract. (that was one of the changes in the last CBA). The players didn't want to get buried in the AHL if they had a terrible contract so there's no incentive for teams to do it now.

I'm not sure about the red, it's a bit jarring as it's the only red thing on the page and doesn't fit that well. But not enough to worry about. I'll have to check out the font; I have my browser to force my own font on every site.

Is there another team that does the "Road Crew" concept? Granted, that's not "in" Buffalo.

yep, thanks!

Football ruling sky-council (they're not cool enough to have football gods like hockey), please let the Patriots fumble 5 times on Sunday and lose 47-3.

That sounds way involved... But nearly as involved when you actually do it. Thanks! Actually, I see when I reply that the BBcode mode icon (the little grey light switch) is active in quick reply as well, so it's just a matter of hitting it on each post when you need it. Actually, now that I'm looking at it it might be that the setting is "sticky" and since I activated it once it stays on since it's already on for this post too (this is a second reply that'll likely get rolled into the previous one).

WOuld it have been so hard for them to say, Erie Owns (or P0wns) Owen Sound?

I'm going to miss not being able to cut a quoted post up to reply to separate blocks, but that's not that big of a deal. (Further explanation: If someone writes two paragraphs on different subjects (or whatever) it was nice to be able to put in an extra /quote and quote tag so you could reply directly under the first paragraph. See the tags in the quoted test above)

Chris Stewart? :ph34r:

Hedy Aquaman Pie. I like it.

It's been awhile, but I thought the expansion draft was drafting from other teams non-protected players. So yeah, you might get some gems from there but they were already NHL players to begin with. Now those teams need to pull players in from the AHL to fill their spots. I do see your point, I just find it unlikely that the few guys that excel in their new roles are going to offset the remainder of the 46 that end up being less-talented versions of the guys they replace on the existing teams. It doesn't, but it might depend on how the expansion draft works. I only vaguely remember the last one, where you could protect X players on your roster and the expansion teams pick from the rest. Assuming you can't protect all but one or two of your players, I wonder if there were/will be rules on how many players a single team can lose. It'd suck be a team full of young talent and lose 3-4 players to the expansion draft.

My complaint: GoDD can be a good poster but he can't stop himself from libelling people on this forum.

Come on, man, you're just being obtuse now. If you add two teams to the NHL, there are now 46 guys that weren't good enough to play in the league before that now are. I'm on the fence about how much disruption that would cause, but it certainly isn't going to bring the level of play up.

2 of 3 working out is still (I believe) above the averages based on their draft position. I'd bet on 1 of 3, but I won't go as far as picking which. Fitting them in? Just assume only 1/3 or 1/2 become real players, and that should make it easier. :)

Agreed. And that's household income, two people making $25k combined is probably poverty line. If if they're full-time (fat chance), that's $6.25/hr.

I would say yes, but that's more about the nature of the two games. There's probably 20-25 "positions" in the NFL (maybe more when you start talking 3-4 OLB vs 4-3 OLB, etc.) and 32 teams. Even into to the 3-4th round you still might be getting the 2nd or 3rd best player coming out of college at a position. In hockey, you have 6 positions (at most), so by the start of the second round you're talking about the 6th best player at that position that year. Sure, there will be surprises (especially in the NHL when you're picking 18 year olds), but realistically a 4th round center is probably the 30th center picked that year. It's unlikely he'll amount to anything. It's be interesting to see if in the last 20 years how many top centers came from anywhere after the 2nd round. (Some may accuse me of cherry picking that number to exclude the Datysuk and Zetterberg, but I wanted to exclude the years where the disruption of suddenly having all these Soviet Bloc players in the draft with questionable scouting was in maximum effect; I'd figure by 1995 NHL teams would have their scouting in Eastern Europe sorted out) Goalie seems to be one difference there, they seem to be pretty variable and good ones from all over the draft.

It should be noted when talking about these top-5 picks and talent surrounding them that those players went to a team that the previous year one of the worst in the league. Now, that could be an outlier situation (like when Carolina lost Ward a few years back (I think) and were terrible despite having an OK team otherwise), but for the most part these top-5 players are not coming into Detroit (of old) or Pittsburgh (of the last few years). That shows a lot. It should also be noted that the Sabres, for all the bitching around here, are having a not-much-below average last-place season in terms of points. They're on pace for 54 points as it stands, which is only a few points behind the average last place finish since Lockout 1. Last place since season 2005-2006: 57, 56, 71, 61, 62, 62, 65, 61.5*, 52, average 61.

I feel guilty I clicked on the link. I feel less guilty that I didn't bother to finish the article. All I'll say in rebuttal is, if winning the Stanley Cup didn't sufficiently build the game in Raleigh, nothing will.