nfreeman

I love the confidence about Power, and I'm on board with an 8-year deal. But a 4-year deal takes him, as stated upthread, to one year away from UFA and, critically, he'll have arbitration rights. The Sabres would have very little leverage out of their RFA rights -- certainly not enough to coerce him into signing a long-term deal if he wants to test UFA at that point. A 6-year deal, if he's the guy you think he is, gives the Sabres six freaking shots at a deep playoff run, and they have a long time to sell him on the organization and make him never want to leave. I think reasonable minds can disagree on this one in any case.

#1OA picks since 2010 have included: 2010 - Taylor Hall 2011 - Ryan Nugent Hopkins 2012 - Nail Yakupov 2020 - Alex Lafreniere 2022 - Juraj Slafkovsky Obviously it's too soon to tell about Juraj, but if we disregard him, that's 4 guys out of 12 that I probably wouldn't want to have given the type of contract we're talking about for Power (or, to be fair, one out of the last 10 -- but if Juraj is a disappointment, it's 2 out of the last 3). I think Power will be at least as good as Ekblad, but that's just a guess and the risk is real IMHO. I assume so based on what others have said upthread. I agree that it's a relevant fact.

I'm not advocating to walk him to UFA. I'm simply saying that if the choices are a 4-year deal or a 6-year deal, I'd prefer the 6-year deal.

I think it will cost about this too, and I agree that they should do it. However, I think we all need to remember there is a real risk in giving him this type of contract. I think the worst outcome is giving him $8.5MM x 8 years and, like Tyler Myers, he never improves and in fact gets a bit worse each year as the league figures him out and he doesn't figure anything out. But I agree with taking the risk and giving him 6-8 years. Brawndo is right -- it's not optimal to get zero of his UFA years, but you would still be locking up, for six freaking seasons in which you think you have a team on the rise, a guy you think is a great young player at a contract you can live with. A six-year deal is a no-brainer IMHO if he won't go any longer. More good stuff in here, Brawndo.

Don't forget Doug "6-10" Jauron! And Sexy Rexy Toe-nibbling Ryan!

I'll be very interested to see whether KA is willing to give big dollars and term to a FA defenseman. That would be a significant departure from his m.o. to date.

If an extension is part of the deal I can probably, albeit reluctantly, live with giving up #13 for Pesce, although I'd much prefer #39 and next year's first-rounder. I totally agree that securing a strong top 4 for the foreseeable future is a very attractive proposition.

Yes please. This is the kind of guy the Sabres need.

Moulds was a fantastic player in his prime but as a matter of personal preference I can’t have a wife-beater as one of my favorites.

Thurman is my all-time favorite.

I am so sorry for your loss. God bless you and your family.

From the Athletic today: Girard just turned 25. He's 5'10, 170 lbs, LHD and has played over 21 min per game for Colorado for the last 4 years. He's under contract for 4 more seasons at $5MM per year.

Well, I don't think anyone would dispute that JA is more important than Diggs, but they aren't doing anything in the playoffs without Diggs.

Eichel was, by many accounts, an immature jerk when he was here, and validated that impression with his behavior at the first Vegas game in Buffalo, but IMHO he was also set up to fail here. The tank was a stupid, low-percentage strategy that produced the expected result, and it was compounded by a series of bad GM and coach hires. It wasn't realistic for a kid to muscle the franchise out of that quicksand. I don't blame Jack for not wanting to waste more of his prime years on another rebuild, or for not believing that KA was finally the right guy to build a good team around him -- especially when KA only got the job when JB got fired after refusing to gut the organization and implement an austerity budget in response to the pandemic. Certainly that was a crossroads at which he could've made himself an icon here if he'd chosen to stick it out and lead the resurrection, but his choice was reasonable. He landed in the perfect spot for him -- a successful, top-shelf organization with established veteran stars and leaders. He didn't need to be the focal point or the leader. He just needed to play hard and play the coach's system, and he did it extremely well. I don't see how anyone can think Vegas would've won the Cup without him.

I'm guessing that Diggs doesn't like Dorsey.

Diggs is maybe my favorite player on the team, but this is way out of line. WTF. They are trying to win a SB. Save the drama for your mama.

That stinks. It seems highly likely that at least 1 of the 3 Buffalo guys (Graham, Fairburn and Buscaglia), all of whom are very good IMHO, will get canned. I like their league-wide NBA and NHL coverage, but I probably won't renew if there is a significant reduction in Buffalo coverage. EDIT: so it looks like they are laying off less than 4% of their writers. Most of those laid off are named in this article, and none are Buffalo guys: https://nypost.com/2023/06/12/new-york-times-reorganizes-the-athletic-with-layoffs/

I've been a Mitts skeptic as long as the next guy, but I'm OK with a reasonably priced extension. The coaches and management extol his work ethic and his teammates love him. He gets a bit better every year. I don't expect him to be the 5th-best forward next year, as I think Quinn and perhaps JJP will surpass him, but if he's your 7th-best forward, you have a really GD good offense. And as others have said he fits pretty much anywhere in the top 9. I am totally fine with a 3rd line next year of Mitts-Krebs-Kulich. $5MM x 5 years is too rich for my blood for him. I'd be fine with $4.25MM x 4 years though. And they should only trade him if there is a really good player coming back.

I think a Korpie-type acquisition is the most likely outcome. I don't think KA will give up any of his prized assets for Helly or Hart (and I agree with that decision, FWIW), and I think the sellers will demand some of those assets in order to make a deal -- which means the price for them will be too high. There will be goalies a tier below Helly and Hart -- but still a tier or 2 above UPL and Comrie -- who will be more interested in a 2-year deal with Buffalo now than they were the last couple of summers. I think KA will procure one of them, try to trade UPL and try to get Comrie through waivers to Rochester.

Respectfully, there is zero possibility of this happening.

I'd sure like to see some evidence too, but 2 government officials stated publicly this week that the US government has these alien spaceships. This is after the government in 2021 released records of over 140 reports by US military aircraft of UFO sightings, only one of which was proven wrong, plus footage of something in the sky that no one could identify. I don't see how anyone can be sure of anything on this.

So if, like me, you've been interested in watching Yellowstone but didn't have the right streaming service, you might be interested in a promotion that Peacock is running: $20 for a full year of Peacock. It's the cheapo level, which means there are commercials during the shows and you can't download anything, but it's the full library, including a bunch of NBC shows and 4K movies (and I think there are no commercials during the movies other than about 3 minutes' worth before the movie starts) and it's only $20! You have to remember to cancel before it auto-renews in a year at $50. My wife and I watched the 1st episode of Yellowstone yesterday and I think it's going to be our summer binge show. This has been a Sabrespace public service announcement.

I’ve been quite resistant to wearing crocs my entire adult life, but I’ve been wearing them recently in the house and when walking the dog and my feet feel great.

Not sure, but one of you may be referring to average while the other is using median.

So who thinks the government really is in possession of a dozen alien spacecraft?