nfreeman

I agree with all of this, although I still think Risto will only be traded if there is a really good forward coming back. I also think JB wants RK to be well resourced and doesn't want to assume that Bogo or Pilut will be fully healthy to start the season, or that Borgen or Joki will be NHL-ready to start the season. Most likely outcome IMHO is, later this summer, a Risto trade for a good forward and a Scandy trade for a mid- to low-round draft pick.

Here's a bit more from the Athletic on Joki: Not impossible but pretty doubtful IMHO. McCabe is an asset, albeit with a somewhat depressed value due to injury and team suckitude. JB might want to move him to make room for one of the FNGs, but not without getting a decent draft pick or prospect in return. Totally agree. By the end of this coming season I think almost all of the pre-JB guys will be gone. I think the bolded and @woods-racerare the right call here -- JB decided to move on from Nylander before his value declined any further -- which JB figured would occur this year.

I beg to differ. Since JB continues to arrogantly blow off @Randall Flagg's demand for early-summer trades, leaving us with little to discuss, here's what happened in the great feigning hoax of 2019: I posted the following quote from Tim Graham in the Athletic regarding TP: To which you responded: ...to which I responded in a totally non-feigning way that I wasn't sure what your point was. Recriminations, accusations, betrayals and tears soon followed. Lives were shattered. If your point in the post in question was that since he is de facto president, he is therefore an obvious meddler -- well, I submit to you, sir, that that point is far from clear from your post, and moreover that it doesn't hold logical water. I'll await your defense with bated breath..

It's your tone. Whenever anyone disagrees with you -- or posts something you disagree with -- you exude an air of ticked-off exasperation. We're just trying to have a friendly conversation here about something we all care about. Your hockey talk is great. Just try to make it sound a little friendlier and with less of a "how can you be so stupid? this is driving me crazy!" underlying vibe.

Not a big deal, of course, but there was no feigning. Dimwitted I may be, but not dishonest.

Leaving aside the general touchiness of this post, as to the bolded -- holy assuming facts not in evidence, Batman! I would submit that the "track record" to which you refer is wholly theoretical and not in the slightest "demonstrated" or "admitted." (Citations to prior Sabrespace threads are not admissible as evidence here.) Also, I was joking about bitter clingers.

Good stuff, as always, but... - 1st par -- This is an oversimplification. Yes, those of us inclined to defend JB for the trade think there was probably a good reason -- with the most likely factors being some combination of ROR demanding a trade, ROR contributing to a toxic locker room environment and TP instructing JB to get rid of him. Your underlying assumption continues to be that they could've kept ROR without adverse consequences. This simply can't be known. As for the 2nd bolded, @darksabrehas posted multiple times about ROR's issues -- so there is stuff to be gleaned, and, depending on how you feel about Wawrow, Harrington, Vogl, etc., it's about as credible as what there has been to be gleaned about Lehner et al. - 2nd par -- You are choosing your window to start at the tank, which is of course going to skew the results. I'm fine with blaming TP for the tank, as it was a stupid and terrible decision (which I suspect he signed off on after it was recommended by Darcy) that has kept the Sabres in the basement as many of us knew it would, but it would be more fair IMHO to have the window coincide either with the day they bought the team or the beginning of Eichel's 1st season. - 3rd par -- I don't think there is much of a spread between 5th-worst and 9th-worst, or between the quality of the Bills' season last year and the quality of the Sabres' season (although there is IMHO an unjustifiably large spread right now between fans' perceptions of the state of the Bills and the state of the Sabres). -4th par -- What does the last bolded mean? That the Sabres have the fewest wins of any franchise since 1970? And this swung from 4th-best to DFL since TP has been the owner? Really? - 5th par -- I sure hope so. 1st & 2nd bolded -- well said. 3rd bolded -- what is it specifically (other than wins and losses and Kim's continued playing of hard-to-get with message board types) that makes you doubt them?

OK -- I'll let JB know. Certainly he needs to consider the summer dog day hockey talk preferences of our board in making his decisions.

One other tidbit from the interview with Beninati: MaJo (better, @shrader?) excels at gaining the zone on the power play.

I'd encourage anyone interested to listen to Howard and Sal's interview today with Joe Beninati, longtime Capitals play-by-play guy. It's in the WGR vault. Joe B spoke very highly of MJ, including: - Joe B. loved MJ as both a player and a good guy. - MJ was great in the playoffs. One season he was on a line with Kuznetsov and Justin Williams that was highly effective for the Caps in the playoffs. - For a while it looked like MJ was going to be their long-term 2C behind Backstrom, but MJ ended up getting caught in a cap numbers game in DC. - MJ is a good scorer from the dirty areas as well as being a good playmaker. - MJ is an excellent, smooth skater. - His nickname is "Jo-jo."

I'm not sure what your point is here. TP is the owner. He has all the power over every single decision, large and small, that he cares to exercise. It doesn't matter whether he also has the "team president" title. More broadly, it seems like you and PA are bitterly clinging (heh) to the "TP likes to meddle in hockey decisions" narrative. Is Graham's description, which runs counter to this narrative, "weak sauce" for any particular reason?

All owners have final say. And just to cut through the spin -- here is what he said exactly:

Yes please.

I took the family to see the Rolling Stones last night in Foxborough. They are getting a bit long in the tooth but they sounded terrific and it was a great night.

I can see a winger included as a sweetener (although I'd be inclined more towards "throw-in" as a descriptor), but I don't think anyone is going to give the Sabres anything for any of their wings. Interesting, and I would like to see how this looks. I kinda think though that due to supply and demand they are unlikely to bring in a good #2 center between now and the start of the season, so MJ's most likely landing spot is 2C. So maybe: Skinner-Eichel-Vesey Ehlers/other good W coming back for Risto-MJ-Reino Olofsson-Mitts-ERod Sheary-Larsson-KO Separately: I like this acquisition. It's a low-risk, cost-effective move to bring in an experienced pro who has pretty good size and speed, will turn 29 in October, has played a good, productive supporting role on good teams and has won a lot of regular season and playoff games. I still think it's fairly likely that JB scoops up a good forward who pops loose from a cap-strapped team as the RFA dust settles around the league, but this move reduces the urgency of that happening.

Dude.

I think “Sobotka ugly” just became the new “gay porn hard.”

Well, it wouldn’t be his 3rd season with no #2C, as ROR was there for 1 year. I agree that he needs to acquire a viable center though. And I wish @dudacekwould stop lobbying for another questionable BC guy in Turris, because I’m growing increasingly concerned that he’s the guy we end up with and the likelihood of him being lousy for most of that albatross contract is extremely high. (Although I think JB is too smart to take Turris unless KO is going the other way.)

Excellent stuff here. I hadn't thought of Bjugstad. I'd be happy with him and that is the kind of move that is plausible and that I think JB is going to end up making. Wouldn't want to give up Risto for him though.

That is awesome. And that island in North-North-Northern Canada makes Cozens' hometown look like Miami.

Now that should be the new goal song.

I think if the compensation were substantially less -- or zero, as in the NBA -- there would be many more offer sheets, and as a result the team with matching rights would find itself having to make hard salary cap choices more often, and more guys would inevitably change teams.

Excellent articulation of the issue. Certainly if we thought Rasmus and Cozens weren't going to far exceed Nylander and Mitts, we would do it in a second.

Agreed, and I think he was also drag-racing a teammate (I think the one that died) through regular Atlanta highway traffic IIRC.

Excellent breakdown. It's hard to see any of those big-dollar guys waiving a NTC to jump from a Cup contender in warm, tax-free Florida to a chronically crappy team in a wintry, high-tax state. But stranger things have happened.