nfreeman

I'm sure that's right. My point is simply that trading Helle for, say, the Penguins' 2nd-best young prospect would probably be better received in Winnipeg than trading Helle to the Sabres for Rosen -- even if Rosen is about as good as the Penguins' guy.

Yes -- it's not rational or in the teams' best interests, but IMHO more likely to happen in a market like Winnipeg where the pressure and media/fan scrutiny is very heavy. I love TT, and this is likely to prove out, but I don't this story is fully written yet. Kyrou and Thomas are both really good.

YMMV, of course, but I don't think Tatar or the other available forwards represent a highly likely, significant improvement over the in-house replacement candidates.

I wouldn't give up Rosen or Östlund for one year of Helle, and I don't think KA would either. I would probably give up next year's #1. More precisely, I think Winnipeg wouldn't trade with the Sabres unless they got one of Savoie, Kulich, Benson, JJP or Quinn. I don't think they can sell their constituents on getting no better than the Sabres 6th-best prospect for Helle. I would not be a-tall surprised though if they trade Helle to a different team, and the best piece coming back is no better than Östlund or Rosen.

Well, while I agree that the Jets would probably take that package for Helle, I think there is zero possibility of the Sabres -- or anyone else -- giving up 3 high-value assets for him. I also think there is zero possibility that the Sabres would give Helle a fat long-term contract. I think a more realistic scenario for any Helle trade is one premium asset plus a draft pick. In that situation, I don't think the Jets would accept Östlund, Rosen or the 2024 #1 as the premium asset.

Well, I asked about Rosen and Östlund because I don't think that price would've gotten it done, and I'm curious as to whether you do. I agree that it depends largely on the other team. I think that Nashville doesn't need to trade Saros, that they rightly see him as a franchise goalie, and that they would have zero interest in trading him to the Sabres without getting at least one of those top 5 (Quinn, JJP, Savoie, Kulich and Benson). I think Philly feels pretty much the same way about Hart. I think that the Canadian teams are under a ton of pressure at all times and that each GM would feel like he could not present a deal to his owners/fans/media in which he parts with his franchise goalie and wasn't able to get more from the Sabres than the Sabres' #6 or #7 prospect. (Although I think it's fairly likely that you're right about Winnipeg ultimately not getting more than an Östlund/Rosen level prospect for Helle.) I will add that none of this IMHO excuses KA from not upgrading the goaltending this summer (or last summer or the previous summer). It's a problem and he's accountable for not fixing it. My point is simply that I think the price for the big-name goalies is too high, and I'm fine with KA not paying it.

Yes. Fans love splashy moves, and they hate losing. Does that mean we are dumb, or weak-minded, or morally compromised? Or just that GMTM was accountable to us and to his boss for the performance of the team, which stunk?

I think that none of Helle, Saros or Hart (and probably not Demko or Markstrom) was coming here without one of those 5 coming back (including this year's #1 as a proxy for Benson in any potential pre-draft trade). Does either of you think the Sabres could've gotten/could get at present one of those goalies for Rosen or Östlund or a 2024 #1?

IMHO it comes down to which top prospect for which goalie. Are you giving up 2 of Savoie, Benson, Kulich, JJP or Quinn for Hart, Markstrom, Demko, Saros, 1 year of Helle or any of the other goalies that were allegedly available? I am not, and I think frankly only Saros gets me to part with even 1 of them.

Both of you make interesting points here, but still: if KA doesn't bring in a goalie before camp, do you think they are going to waive UPL and keep Comrie? That seems very unlikely IMHO.

Ooooooooooooohhh. THAT just happened.

Or Moose Jaw?

Awesome.

I like the 2nd one but not the first. It would make power plays even more important than they currently are, which IMHO would not be good for the game. The offside nuance I'd like to fix is this: when entering the O-zone, I think the puck currently needs to be all the way into the zone -- i.e. it cannot be on the blue line -- before the skater enters the zone, or else it's offside. I think if the puck is on the line, it should not be offside. Separately, other changes I'd like to see are: 1. OT in the playoffs goes to 4-on-4 after the 1st OT. 2. Significant reduction in the size of goalie equipment. 3. Match penalty and suspension for head shots during post-whistle scrums like the one Dahlin got concussed on last year. 4. Helmets off in the shootout.

What a lovely piece of friendly hockey talk this is. Maybe get some exercise.

Well, I agree that KA -- like all GMs, I would think -- has valuations in mind both for his players and for outside players, and doesn't want to make a deal that departs too far from those valuations. I also agree that he wants the team to develop primarily via homegrown talent. But he still brought in 2 defensemen from outside this summer presumably to be lineup regulars (I think he expects E. Johnson to be in the lineup), and it's pretty well confirmed that he's attempted to bring in goalies a couple of times as well. What he hasn't done is been willing to part with, say, JJP and a #1 for Hellebucyk or a similar rich price for Hart. I agree with those decisions, but I still think that if goaltending is a problem again this year, he's accountable for not finding a solution.

The talk about Comrie and UPL begs the question: what happens if, as seems reasonably plausible, UPL looks pretty meh in the preseason? Would they still waive Comrie in that situation and gamble that no one claims him? And Comrie were to be claimed -- are they just going to start the season with Levi and an uninspiring UPL? I think Levi is going to be good, but still.

Great thread. I met Danny Gare at an autograph session in one of the local malls when I was a kid. He was really nice. Then, in the late 1990s, I went to my first Sabres game in Buffalo in forever. We went to a bar downtown after the game, and there was Gare, pretty sauced, big grin on his face and having a great time with anyone who wanted to chat with him. A few years later, I was on vacation in Florida during the week of the NHL all-star game, which the Panthers were hosting, and I ran into Miro Satan at a hotel. I almost bumped into him, looked up, recognized him and reflexively said "Miro!" He looked up, I said I was a Sabres fan and wished him luck. He was pretty nice too. Never got to meet Rico, who was my favorite player as a kid. I did see Perreault once in the late 1970s picking up takeout food from a restaurant on Maple Road as I was entering with my family. We didn't talk but he obviously knew he'd been recognized and smiled.

There is only a small handful of Sabres publications who get into a projected backup goalie level of detail, they are generally small shops and I'd guess they all follow each other on twitter. Those writers are going to see MH's tweet, know that he's issued yet another snide putdown towards them from his TBN pedastal and think to themselves, again, "what a DB Harrington is."

Yes, but in so doing he insulted -- quite nastily -- the outlets that the tweet was disagreeing with.

And there's ray of sunshine Mike Harrington again. Does he not realize that every one of these petty insults reduces his chances of gainful employment a bit more if and when TBN includes him in an inevitable wave of layoffs?

If you like sci-fi, I highly recommend “The Expanse” on Amazon prime.

I too have always liked Tarasenko’s game and would’ve been psyched if KA had signed him on this deal. But it’s far from embarrassing. Your 2nd sentence is just gibberish. Again – don’t waste other people’s time like this. I agree on the PT and opportunity factors, and would also point out that Ottawa has 2 Russians on the roster while the Sabres have zero. EDIT: I forgot about Loobie! I agree with most of this, but I don’t think KA is a yes-man so much as he just knows how to manage his boss. I also don’t think that TP’s reason for hiring him was that he thought he was getting a yes-man. This is a great post.