nfreeman

Again -- you keep saying this, but there is no change in the underlying facts. If Eichel gets the new surgery without the Sabres' approval and it doesn't work, he's lost $50MM. He's not going to take that risk -- at least not anytime soon, and definitely not this summer. He wants either the Sabres or whoever trades for him to take the risk. My guess is that he thinks it's pretty likely that the arbitrator would say he can have the standard fusion surgery but not the disk replacement surgery, and he wants the disk replacement surgery -- and once the arbitrator issues that ruling, Jack's position in arguing for the disk replacement is much weaker.

Well, to really judge this or any other situation, we'd need all of the facts, and we of course don't have anything remotely approaching a complete picture. I don't think it's rash to think the Sabres screwed up the medical team hire, especially since (i) they've screwed up a lot of other hires and (ii) they've since replaced that medical team. OTOH, in light of the statements here supporting the current medical team, I'm inclined to believe that they've corrected that mistake and now have a good group in place. Also, if Lehner didn't do so on that podcast, it would've been nice if he had credited the Sabres (as @Brawndo pointed out) for digging him out of the abyss.

Good call. I didn’t realize Rivet was referring to total savings for the contract and not per year.

This is good info, but I think the key point is that Florida players must pay state taxes to the states in which they play road games — so NY, Michigan and Massachusetts for divisional opponents. NY and Massachusetts are high tax states, while Michigan is relatively low. Does anyone know whether the players pay taxes to the road jurisdictions for games in Canada? In any case, the state tax rate paid by FLA players is well above zero. If there are 41 road games in states with an average income tax rate of 5%, those players are effectively paying 2.5% in state income taxes. That’s still a nice savings compared with 8.5% in WNY, but it’s $60K per $1MM in salary — so $390K for a $6.5MM salary — not over $1MM as Rivet apparently claimed.

I appreciate the support for the Sabres, but there’s a lotta closing ranks going on in here, and it should be remembered that the organization being defended has been a complete poop show for a decade.

I agree with much of this, and I like KA, but criticizing him is far from ludicrous IMHO. He was GM of a team that finished DFL, and he certainly wasn’t trying to achieve that outcome. He also appears to have neglected the most critical position on the team 2 years in a row. Yes indeed. I agree with much of this, but if KA doesn’t bring in a credible goalie by opening night, I think there will be I way to avoid the conclusion that he is tanking, which I find unacceptable and, like last time, a stupid and shortsighted plan that is highly likely to keep the team in the basement for another generation. If that happens I will probably do what I ultimately did with the Bills — not turn my back on them entirely, and watch the odd game, but pull back quite a bit in terms of time and emotional investment, and not plan my days around watching them. A rebuild is fine, but they have to try to win along the way. Trying to lose is freaking terrible.

Good thread @bob_sauve28, but make it a poll, eh?

Good hockey talk here boys. IMHO, if they don’t bring in another goalie who is more credible than the current group, they are clearly tanking, which I will not be OK with. Yes. Vogl reported this.

Oh goody. The Prius of NHL defensemen.

Ugh. Talk about a depressingly plausible prediction.

USA vs France tonight at 10:30 pm for the gold in basketball!

Awesome.

Serious question: Portillo will be a junior at Michigan in the Fall. If he sticks around for his senior season, he becomes a UFA, correct? Given the state of the Sabres, plus the fact that there are 2 other young goalies in their system, there would seem to be a real risk that he bails on the Sabres like Cal Peterson did, innit?

And the goalie!

I can see this happening but wasn't confident enough to predict it. I thought his play was solid last year if unspectacular and he generally gave me the impression of quiet, rock-solid backstopping strength. I've also heard a couple of his coaches -- I can't recall who it was specifically -- interviewed about him and they raved about him and said they expect him to be in the NHL next year. He might be one of the young guys that low-key becomes an important part of the rebuild.

I think Samuelsson will be in the top 6 by New Year's, I like Bryson and I have never been a fan of Pysyk's. So: LD - RD Dahlin-Jokiharju Butcher-Miller Samuelsson-Hagg Bryson Pysyk Hagg moves over to his off hand as Samuelsson forces his way into the lineup.

Although I think both of your suggested reasons are quite plausible, there is a 3rd possibility IMHO: Adams is resigned to the market-driven need to show a healthy Jack to the rest of the NHL before he can be traded for a rich package, but Adams, based on advice from team doctors, wants him to have the traditional fusion surgery, and Jack wants the newfangled disk replacement surgery.

Gentlemen -- I think these posts indicate a black-or-white view of his injury and its effect on other GMs' willingness to acquire him -- i.e. he's either seriously injured or he's not, he'll either regain his prior form or he won't, and he's either worth trading the farm for or he's not -- and I don't think that's the correct perspective here, nor do I think the comparisons to Seth Jones, McCabe, Tuch, etc are relevant. Those guys either weren't injured or aren't being sold off at huge prices. IMHO, we're in much more of a gray area. The injury is without question a serious matter. I think it's clearly the primary reason he hasn't been traded yet. If he'd played a full season last year and had, say, 25-38-63 in 52 games, does anyone doubt that other teams would've ponied up rich packages to get him? Even so, I think for many (admittedly not all) GMs, the injury, and now-almost-certain spinal surgery, aren't "NFW are we trading for this guy" barriers. Those GMs are taking a perspective that is more "trading for this guy is risky; there's a decent chance he regains his MVP-contender form but also a decent chance he doesn't -- so I'll take the risk on his contract if our doctors and our owner sign off, but only if the price to acquire him isn't too high." That's why Anaheim isn't delivering Zegras and the Rangers aren't delivering LaFreniere. For you 2 guys and anyone else who disagrees that the injury is a major factor: if you don't think it's the injury, then why hasn't he been traded yet?

I’d rather have @inkman around than Jack Eichel anyway.

Good.

So our last poll on this asked whether Jack would be traded by the draft. The noes, including your humble narrator, won that poll 58%-42%, with heavy voter turnout. A few things have happened since then: - The draft and the start of FA, both of which are high-action events and thus good oppportunities for major trades to be made, have come and gone. - Eichel's injury has apparently not responded to rest/rehab, making some kind of surgery very likely. - The tone emanating from Eichel's camp has become pretty aggressive, with several statements openly urging a trade and challenging the Sabres' medical approach. - KA has publicly and firmly stated that Eichel is under contract, that KA is fine with Eichel coming to camp and that the Sabres are only going to trade Eichel if it's a deal that is good for the Sabres. - Teams have seemingly conducted a fair amount of negotiating through the media, with teams allegedly dropping out because the price is too high, the injury risk is too great, etc. - Some teams, like Vegas, have most likely taken themselves out of the bidding by spending their assets/cap space elsewhere. So where does that leave us? I continue to think that the injury is a major factor and has depressed the prices that other GMs are willing to pay -- to the point where their offers simply aren't good enough for KA to accept. That could change between now and Sept. 12, but I think it's more likely that the other GMs will not increase their offers without seeing Jack healthy and ready to play. On the other hand, if Jack won't be healthy until he has surgery, that puts KA in a bind. I don't think KA wants the Sabres to be on risk for Eichel's surgery. I think he (and TP) wants to trade Eichel and let his new team take the risk. But if no team is willing to increase its offer until after Jack has surgery and recovers, then KA either has to accept a lower offer than he wants, or allow Jack to have some kind of surgery, so he can recover and show the other teams that he's healthy. It's a tricky situation. I'm sure KA wants to avoid another ROR-type trade in which the Sabres get lousy value and look like buffoons, but he probably also wants Jack not to have surgery while he's the Sabres' property. (I think KA would also like to avoid an ugly situation in which the 2 sides are publicly flaming each other and Jack is creating a problem in camp, but I think the other 2 factors are more important to him.) I'm going to predict that the "let someone else take the injury risk" factor wins out and KA takes the best offer he can get before camp starts, but I don't have much confidence in the prediction. I can easily see it going well into the season.

I don't think the NFL will contribute a dime towards a new stadium. It may extend a loan, and I believe the NFL has a program designed for this, but it will be a loan that needs to be repaid, not a grant or a contribution.

I love the Ralph and I think building a new stadium in WNY would be enormously wasteful. However, no one should kid himself/herself about the risk of losing the Bills if they don’t get a new stadium on a good deal with plenty of public money. There are plenty of cities that would deliver a sweetheart deal and a stadium that would make much more $$ than whatever the Bills will make here. And the other NFL owners will not stand in the way. You can have an NFL team, or you can insist that no public money be spent on a new stadium. You can’t have both.

This is also highly unlikely IMHO. I think one of KA's priorities here is to let whoever acquires Eichel take the risk on the surgery.

Dude. You keep saying this like it's a simple solution. It's not going to happen. Eichel has zero interest in risking $50MM on the surgery. He wants the Sabres (or whoever they trade him to) to take the risk.