nfreeman

The idea is intriguing to be sure, and I think they’ll get enough resources as we get closer to when more bodies are needed and available. They just need at long last to execute well.

Good post @Taro T although I’m not sure Team scoring was optimized last year. But it was great seeing Eichel have a monster year and VO score a ton Of exciting goals as a rookie. Either way I sure want to see how team scoring goes with 2-3 new and improved forwards in the top 9.

Awesome. This jibes with my impressions as well. He's got a great nose for scoring opportunities, he's strong on the puck, he's a very good skater and he plays with an edge, but he still needs to be with Eichel or other very good NHL center -- which, along with the petulance, are regrettable when you're paying him that much -- but he will score 40ish goals with the right linemates. And that's more or less worth the contract he got. KA and RK need to make it happen.

Well, I agree that he should be able to kill penalties, and that he needs to play on the PK in order to learn that part of the game, but as a risk management matter I'd want his minutes in that role to be pretty limited. I want to save most of his minutes for ES or PP.

I'm with @mjd1001 on the PK issue -- save the Ferrari for the open road.

Here are the rules and the odds -- it's more complicated than usual because of the participation of the 8 teams who finished in slots 17-24: https://www.clickondetroit.com/sports/2020/06/23/nhl-draft-lottery-2020-is-friday-june-26-red-wings-have-best-odds/ The Sabres have a 6.5% chance (a bit less than 1-in-15 -- so what XGMTM would call a great chance) to win #1. The odds that they could move up to #2 or #3 will depend on who wins #1.

Is it wrong to want to win this lottery? We certainly didn't want to be in it, but now that we're here, it's OK to want to win, right? Or does it just make us more pathetic?

I wonder if KA can order these 2 guys to switch their names around so the new director of scouting is named "Jeremiah Nightengale." That would have to be a top-5 coolest name in any NHL front office.

So character assassination and misogyny don't lend credence to otherwise unsupported theories that are ceaselessly presented as fact?

Well, my point was not that they don't meddle. It was simply that we shouldn't pretend an article that says X also says Y, Z, A, B, C and "Kim confessed that the GM isn't allowed to hire his own coach" -- and that repeating it endlessly doesn't make it any more true. In any case, the real question isn't whether TP is involved in decision-making -- it's whether, as @tom webster points out, they are more involved than most other NHL owners. I would guess that they have no more overall involvement than 25 other NHL owners. But please note that I don't pretend that it's any more than a guess.

Interesting, especially since you agreed with me on this up this very thread. How did it go so wrong between us?

I'm disagreeing because facts are important, and it's important to distinguish between fact and theory, and not to pretend that a theory is a fact, regardless of how often it is repeated or claimed to be factual. Terry's 2013 "confession" has been established to the same degree as Kim's confession of today -- which is to say, not established in the slightest. You are welcome to your theories, of course. But in evaluating them, it's reasonable for the board to be clear that they are only theories, and that they are theories that are being propounded by someone with an avowed fear and loathing of people like the Pegulas -- whom you've referred to here as "rich scumbags who rape the earth."

More JB incompetence. Good riddance.

Will you be citing the TBN article as "proof" that TP hired RK over JB's wishes? After all, the article doesn't say that, either. This trial is a mockery of a miscarriage of a sham.

Serious question: is anyone here not able to get tested pretty quickly and easily? I'm in a small town in upstate NY and can drive 15 min to a walk-in care center where I can get a virus test and an antibodies test with no appointment, with the results on the virus test delivered within a couple of hours and on the antibodies within 24 hours. If that is the case for most people (which I think it is at this point in most places in the US), why not just get tested before taking a trip/visiting relatives/other events?

Except that the article doesn't say this. Why do I think you will will from now on repeatedly claim that "the Pegulas said they don't let their GMs hire their coaches" based on this article? Again: spin plus repetition does not equal fact.

I hope you’re right, because it would mean the NHL is more economically healthy than I expect it to be. It is indeed a reasonable bet, and a path that I might expect him to take if the Sabres egregiously lowball him. But I think it’s more likely that the Sabres end up in the low to mid 6MM per year range for 6 or 7 years and he and his agent (and perhaps his parents) decide to be prudent and accept. I wouldn’t mind giving Holtby a 2-year deal at $3MM or so per year assuming they replace Hutton. As Curt notes, those years of established practice weren’t anything like this year or perhaps next year. The NHL is looking at 2 seasons in a row in which revenues will be down by... who knows how much? 15%? 25%? 35%? And the CBA says the players eat half of that loss. The NHL and the PA will probably work out a way to spread the impact over 3 or 4 years. There might be compliance buyouts or other mechanisms. But the teams are going to spend much less on payroll than they did last year.

I think there is a high likelihood that the cap will not be any higher in the summer of 2022 than it is this summer, and that for the next 4-5 years it will be substantially lower than it was last summer. At some point I'm going to start a thread on this, but in the meantime, I will say that I think the NHL is going to absorb an enormous economic hit in the next 12 months, and the players are going to have to eat 50% of it. It will probably be spread out over time, and will be implemented partially via increased escrow and partially via reduced cap.

Well, the good news is that TP has had a year to get to know RK, plus however much time it takes to make RK the POHO, so if it happens, at least it won't be a knee-jerk decision.

Serious question: do you think saying "there is NFW that XYZ happens" is the same as calling someone a fool or saying that something he/she said is stupid?

I'd like to get a look at Skinner and Reino together too, but I think it's pretty unlikely that neither of them is on Eichel's line. As for TT and Casey -- I am more optimistic about TT than about Casey. It sounds like, and the numbers indicate that, TT was better in Rochester than Casey was. TT's slapper is also a legit high-end NHL weapon -- something that Casey has not shown he has in his toolbox. I think there is a pretty decent likelihood that TT becomes a good scoring NHL winger, and at least as great a likelihood that Casey washes out.

Well, it depends on how well the 2C, Cozens and the 3RW play -- i.e. whether they can go from a 1-line team to a 3-line team -- and, more importantly, whether they get better goaltending. If both of those elements come in, then yes, I think this is a playoff team.

Except the post you quoted didn't say anything like this. As for the 2nd bolded -- do better or keep quiet.

Leaving aside the obnoxious tone here, what narrative are you referring to with Reino?

Interesting. Keep these nuggets coming please! I will agree that a long-term deal for Hall would be nuts. I'd be more than happy to give him a 5-year deal though (which I think would be the minimum he will accept). I also think it's pretty unlikely that he comes here -- he's been in the NHL wilderness his entire career. I expect he'll go to a contender. I would also be pretty happy with Granlund. FWIW, Hall will be 29 in November, while Granlund will be 29 in February. I wouldn't want to give either of them more than 5 years. As for the forward lines -- I'd like to see Skinner back with Eichel. Skinner shouldn't need Eichel, but I think he does, at least psychologically, and I think RK needs to get more out of Skinner since the Sabres are dying for more offense. So I would go for: Skinner - Eichel - Kahun Olofsson - [Granlund/other FNG] - Reinhart Johansson - Cozens - Ruotsalainen/TT Asplund - Lazar - TBD However, I don't expect RK to listen to me, so I expect to see Reino back with Eichel and Skinner back on the 2nd line -- making it all the more critical to find a good 2C.