nfreeman

There are a million ill-advised panic moves they could make. The prudent thing for TP/KP to do is to understand that they hired someone to do a total rebuild, that a total rebuild takes time, and that there are going to be a few hiccups along the way. They need to let GMTM build it his way and to hold him accountable for the results -- but not until enough time has passed. Two NHL seasons following the intentional icing of one of the worst teams in NHL history for a 2-year period is not remotely close enough to being enough time.

I've seen about half of season 1 and although I wouldn't go quite as far as you have, I've enjoyed it and think it's pretty funny. Separately: I watched "the Accountant" on the plane today. Pretty good thriller.

I watched "Hell or High Water" on the plane yesterday. Not greqt but pretty good IMHO.

At the airport getting ready to depart for bachelor party weekend in Vegas with a bunch of old friends. Holy mackerel I'm psyched.

This is fair, but I think you'd need to identify a few of these prospects and provide some specifics as to why they'd be superior assets to Lehner if you want to really make this point.

I don't see Nylander in the NHL next year.

yse -- good post with good detail. Although TW beat me to it, here are a few additional items: - Chychrun is a 3rd-pairing defenseman for a terrible team, and Sergachev has played 3 NHL games. It's way too soon to know whether either will be a better pro than Nylander -- and it's certainly the case that neither would've been a difference-maker for the Sabres this year (and probably not next year either). - As TW noted, the Sabres took a shot at Oduya -- and he's been pretty much a disappointment in Dallas anyway. - Certainly others (including TW) agree with you on Pysyk, but I am not one of them. I think he adds very little value -- and if we want to compare apples to apples, Kulikov had a much better year for Fla last year than Pysyk had this year. It's too bad Kuli was hurt all year because I think he has much more game than Pysyk, but we aren't going to get to see it. - I agree with TW that the proposed Fowler trade is neither here nor there, as it's highly unlikely (and in any case impossible to know) that Anaheim would've accepted that offer. Similarly, I would guess that Boston didn't want to trade Hamilton within the division. - I think you make good points though on Quincey and Seidenberg.

Maybe. Montour has played 17 NHL games and was drafted a year before Guhle, who is 19 years old. It's way too early to tell about either of them -- and therefore it seems pretty odd to criticize GMTM for not drafting Montour, because saying that Montour would be a significant difference-maker on this year's Sabres team seems pretty unrealistic.

yse -- the point about the D needing an upgrade is valid, and you've made it repeatedly. I think it's incumbent upon you at this point to identify the defensemen that have changed teams in the past couple of years that you think GMTM should've brought in for the Sabres, as well as the realistic price you think he should've paid for them.

Now say it in a British female accent, with a hint of naughtiness...

Your perspective is certainly reasonable, although the opposing view is also reasonable IMHO. I was more reacting to Robvy's assertions as to what #21 in 2015 would've yielded. In any case I think your ongoing discussion with dudacek is good hockey talk, as are Robvy's posts.

What is the percentage likelihood that the goalie prospects you mentioned will have better NHL careers than Lehner? I would guess that for each of them -- it's less than 30% that he will turn into a full-time NHL starter. Whoa. The #21 pick overall almost never makes the NHL before serving another 2 years in juniors, plus at least a year or 2 in the A. And the #21 pick overall very often becomes a marginal NHL player/washout. In particular: 2008 -- Anton Gustafsson © -- played 1 game in AHL and returned to Sweden 2009 -- John Moore (D) -- became a full-time NHLer in 2013-14; now low-scoring #4 defenseman on NJ 2010 -- Riley Sheahan © -- last year -- 25 pts in 81 games 2011 -- Stefan Noesen (RW) -- 33 NHL games since being drafted 2012 -- Mark Jankowski © -- 1 NHL game since being drafted 2013 -- Frederik Gauthier © -- 28 NHL games since being drafted 2014 -- Robby Fabbri © -- 66 pts in 123 NHL games -- so far he's the only solid player 2015 -- Sabres traded pick for Lehner -- Ottawa drafted Colin White © -- still in college -- too early to tell.

Congrats Josie!

Works for me!

This sounds right -- at least I sure hope so.

No one is going to take that contract.

Well, that D group does look lousy indeed -- but you omitted someone important (his name rhymes with "shmisto." I'm confident that GMTM is going to seriously pursue a real NHL top-3 defenseman this summer -- but there's no guaranty he gets one, especially if the price is Reinhart, Kane or Nylander (which I think will be the case). These potential signings indicate to me that GMTM is not going to bring back Franson or Kulikov.

I agree that this should be considered an NHL move, not an AHL move. But I think it's fair to be concerned about size. Marner isn't really relevant, as there are many more smaller nifty forwards than smaller defensemen. And if a defenseman needs to be as good as Karlsson to overcome smaller size, then we haven't really proven anything. As for Ghost, his play fell off substantially this year, so he's not a great example either. Bottom line: if a defenseman is on the small side, he needs to have really strong speed, puck skills and decision-making to be a good NHL defenseman. Nothing controversial about that.

I wonder if he knows Borat?

Well, it looks like so far he's #2 in playoff ice time on the best team in the KHL's Eastern conference (3rd-best in the KHL). I can't figure out how to get the KHL's website to deliver regular season stats. So presumably a top-pair defenseman from a good KHL team -- and also presumably a guy with some speed and skill. That sounds like it has potential.

I like living in NYC, but they are so soft when it comes to snow. Schools are closed today, elevated subways shut down, etc/ -- and we've got 3-4 inches max. Weak sauce.

I think Season 1 was terrific, a few of the other seasons were quite good and a couple were OK, but I'm finding this season by far the worst -- boring, predictable, ridiculous and a chore to get through. If my wife wasn't determined to see it through to the bitter end I would have bailed by now.

"Homeland" is freaking terrible this season.

I am curious as to whether this too will be claimed not to constitute trolling. It fortunately isn't a high percentage of PA's posts, but like herpes, there is an outbreak every so often.

Just saw a commercial the other night for season 3 of "Fargo" -- starting in April on FX. Season 2 was the best show on TV in 2015, IMHO. Also, "The Americans" just started the other day on FX -- also one of the best shows on TV. And at the risk of losing my man card, "Girls" has been excellent this year and I'm also enjoying "Big little lies" (which includes, for those who are interested, a pretty good amount of Nicole Kidman on display).