nfreeman

The GDT is not supposed to launch until after midnight. Now Casey's career is cursed.

Well, grizzled vets who are good players and who set good examples for da kids are IMHO a precious and desirable element, especially for a young team looking to muscle its way out of the basement. But they need to be Drurys, not Moulsons or Gorgeses, in order for it to work.

Starting to get interesting...

Good stuff here boys.

What bias? The facts speak for themselves. No one has given him more than a 1-year deal, and no one that has had him at the end of a contract has given him an extension.

That would be a fair bet, but I think it’s fair to say that the NHL has concluded that he presents other issues.

How good do we think he is? Better than Larsson? Faster than Larsson?

There’s a reason that no team that signs Vanek to one of his one-year deals wants to keep him.

Not sure what the point of the snark here is, but the relevant point in the context of the discussion upthread is the comparison of Casey's 1st 2 NHL seasons with Vesey's 1st 2 NHL seasons -- so their production in the year before joining the NHL is also relevant -- and Vesey's was far superior to Casey's. But if you want to jam your fingers into your ears, jump up and down and yell that Casey is better than Vesey and that Eichel is better than McD -- enjoy. Separately: Kris Baker of Sabresprospects.com was on with Schopp today and said, unhesitatingly, that Casey would be an impact NHL player right away and that he does not expect Casey to play in Rochester next year. So that was kinda exciting.

Movies I watched on the plane recently: Wind River -- murder/drama with Jeremy Renner set in Wyoming -- had never heard of it, but it was quite good. A-minus. Thor Ragnarok -- reasonably enjoyable superhero movie -- B Guardians of the Galaxy 2 -- decent superhero movie -- B-minus 3 Billboards -- quite good IMHO -- A-minus Also, I am now fully caught up on "The Good Place" -- excellent comedy from the maker of "Parks and Recreation" -- highly recommended.

I agree that there is plenty of strength in Eichel's stride. However, I'd also note that Soupy's skating style included plenty of the "quick/small" moves and he was probably the 2nd-best skating defenseman the Sabres have ever had.

Who knows? It's not like he put up Gretzky #s (or Vesey #s for that matter) this year in the NCAA.

Well... And Vesey had 16 goals as an NHL rookie and has 17 so far in his 2nd season. I'm not at all confident that Casey will hit those #s.

Welcome to the board, Larry Q., but I'll never forgive you for screwing up that 2005-06 team.

Very nice.

2 strong moves by JBott. Kinda restores some hope for the franchise that he’ll be able to right the ship eventually. Now we of course need to hope that Casey and Borgen are actually good NHL players. And that we can bring in a good goalie and about 10 more good players this summer.

Sir: either communicate in a less obnoxious way, or keep quiet.

I am fine with a major trade and I may even be hoping for one that includes one or 2 of Reino, ROR and Risto, but I don’t want to trade Eichel. FWIW, I kinda think JBott will be discussing deals involving Reino and/or Risto this summer.

Well, if he hasn’t signed by, say, Monday, I think we need to assume that it’s not happening this year. Wonderful.

Thanks for this. I didn't realize that Cal Peterson was having a big season -- losing him was indeed a bummer for the Sabres.

So is KO now officially a 4th-liner?

Perreault was unquestionably a top-5 player for most of his career, and there were a number of years when he was in the conversation for #1. Eichel is simply nowhere near that level at this point. He might get there but he might not.

No one is going to give them anything for Shaq.

Welcome to the board, but this is a zero-value-added post. Please try to participate in the conversation without throwing insults around.

Well, I have posted my feelings about the tank many times. It was a terrible decision that has worked out as expected, and Eichel was in no way worth it -- but very few players in NHL history would have been worth it. Having said that, we are where we are and we need to make decisions based on what is best for this team given our current status. In that context, IMHO Eichel is an excellent young player who at times looks like a dominant, top-5 NHL player and is locked up though his prime. You don't trade a guy like that unless you know there's a Forsberg coming back -- and it seems incredibly unlikely that a trade like that will materialize. So yes, the door isn't closed, but a trade possibility is pretty much an abstraction. And what you definitely don't do is decide that he's not as good as you were hoping, so you're going to trade him for a bunch of decent players and start over. That would be insane.