Kristian

I hear Leino's available? Quite the center, there.

Still, for those of you who didn't play the XB1 or PS4 version of NHL15 - While that game misses some features from the current gen series, the gameplay itself was still a massive improvement, and was most enjoyable and even pretty "realistic", once you got the sliders right. I will however conceede, that those missing features hurt the longevity of the game. Normally I'd still be playing now, but I haven't touched it for several months now. Heavily into Project Cars atm, lol.

Aside from bringing in a top 3 forward, this trade is as much a statement to any FA defensmen out there, this year. Buffalo are now past just talking about getting better.

Vanek, Roy, Pominville, Stafford, Campbell, Miller, Afinogenov. Yup.... Things were ugly, back then.

The Russian economy is in ruins these days, KHL is far from the guaranteed money it was a year and a half ago. I'd say it all depends if we have any free agents or trades coming in over the summer. Having him play with the current roster makes no sense, but I'd like to see us add a few guys, then see how he does.

DeLuca mourned the firing of Status Quo. *Edit - Damn things move fast here now, missed that post by two :-)

Thanes16 is actually Larry Quinn and secretly plotting to take over Batista's job, and drive the Sabres into the ground once more.

I actually once posted Mika Noronen was a good goaltender....

I realise I'm late for the meeting.... But I'm still grumpy and disinterested, dammit!! I BELONG!!

Oh gawd, not another Larry Quinn...... :wallbash:

Hehe, well played.

Looked up the 96 finals series on Youtube a while back, man oh man, are we talking some high quality hockey there. Oh, and John LeClair was a monster in 1996. Some people claim Eichel disappeared over the last 2 or 3 games here, but I think people forget he probably lacks conditioning compared to the NHL'ers, and that he's basically played 9 games in two weeks. Can't blame the kid if the tank was empty in the end.

But don't they always send a young squad?

Call the clutching and grabbing like it's supposed to, it'll speed up the game, and scoring will increase again. Even if it doesn't, games will still be a lot more enteratining to watch.

I still scored a ton of goals with him. Only goes to show how unrealistic that game was :-)

Wouldn't it be morbidly hilarious if Edmonton had those exact same thoughts? :flirt:

I could easily see Vanek become a Dave Adreychuk-like PP specialist. He'd have to take a massive paycut though.

But we can agree that Regier was no stranger to overpaying for his own draft picks? And even if Pegula was willing to overpay for Ryan Miller, wouldn't it be the GM's job to decide whether or not that happens? Darcy was a yes-man, if ever there was one, which is probably how he survived three different ownerships. I have no problem with that as such, but I have a problem with any Sabres GM who can't build a proper team.

Because he turned down Darcy's ludicrous offer, obviously he was traded. Your point? This may only have been a rumour, but if there was ever a GM in the league that would make Thomas Vanek the highest paid player in the NHL, it was Darcy Regier. Hence : Thank god he's not around anymore to overpay grossly for his favorites, as this was Regier's MO.

Thank god that didn't happen. And thank god Darcy isn't around to make these ludicrous overpaying moves anymore.

On a sidenote, Tyler Ennis looked pretty good in Canada's 6-4 win over Sweden today. Played a solid game, and scored the gamewinner.

"BOMBS AWAY!!! BOMBS AWAY!!! Sundin is leveled by McKee, and now everybody mixes it up!!"

I'm actually psyched we're getting Eichel, rather than McDavid. Not because he's the better hockey player, but because he's not. I'm betting Eichel is not at all unhappy McDavid's getting all the fuzz, but probably also has a bit of an axe to grind with every scout who's labeled him a clear no. 2 draft pick for years. Given the choice, I would much rather have the "almost-as-good-2nd-overall-pick", who gets to avoid most of the spotlight, than "the-next-Gretzky-to-be" who needs to put up 40 goals for a crap team in his rookie season, in order not to be labeled a bust. The Oilers have hardly done anything than draft first in recent years, and it's gotten them absolutely nowhere. I doubt getting McDavid is going to change much, as they're already loaded on offensive talent, it's their D and goaltending that needs help. I doubt anyone TRULY expects the Oilers to magically stop sucking, just because they draft another offensive gem. The jury's still out on the Sabres though, where are they going to go from here? I think Eichel has a better chance of shining here than with the Oilers, and I also expect Rheinhart and Grigo to factor in somewhere next season. Call me nuts, but that's how I feel.

I'd agree with that. The ultimate goal *should* be the cup, but sportsfans everywhere go through entire lives, never winning anything. The goal may be the cup, but for me it's as much about just having a team worth cheering. Something we've lacked since 2001, apart from the no-touch years.

I have to say, at this point, I'll take almost whatever - The worst part of this for me, were the years from 2008 and until Darcy was finally canned. I'd been very doubtful that Darcy knew how to build a balanced hockey team since 2003, in 2008 it became painfully clear to me. The remaining years were pure futility, even though we took the Flyers to 7 games in a first round defeat. The team consisted of good goaltending, smallish, soft, skill players, or useless plugs. No in-between players, and it was quite clear that this was how Darcy thought a hockey team should look. He then finally realised his fabled "core" would never get anything done, and decided to blow it all up and start over, seemingly having no clue why his beloved "core" failed. Darcy would've done the exact same thing all over again - Our smallish skill players might have been better, given our high drafts after the tank, but rest assured - Darcy would've made the exact same mistakes as he did with the "core" team, had he still been around. Thankfully, he's not - Hence, I'm happy with whatever we get next season, just because I know it's a step in a different direction than what've seen since 2000.