ska-T Palmtown

nothing about the *you're?

In an alternate universe where Z had *not been a Sabre for his whole career and tainted by the drought - I could see him being a "solid" 4th liner pick up and many members of this board being meh to OK with it. He has decent numbers (not befitting of a 1st rounder, but aside from that) and I doubt his work ethic on or off the ice has ever been questioned. I real "lunch pail" "blue collar" kinda guy ... I do truly wish him the best.

can i interest you in a vegan meat substitute burger?

so, are we merely to feel whelmed? 😉

I will reserve judgement until i see some fancy colorful charts that I don't understand.

But, like, for reals .... how are so many UFAs already accounted for? What are the REAL rules around this??? I get the extensions / people staying with a current team. But how, oh how! can UFAs already have anticipated deals in place???

Let's not discuss why the Sabres are bad in this thread ... but here is my list of complaints 🤣🤣😉

I thought the $8.625 AAV number was odd ... now it makes total sense to the 12 yr old that still lives in my head. hehehe

Earlier today, I was thinking "Maybe I will take an early lunch (I am central time zone) so I can pay close attention to the enormous bounty KA will be bringing!" It feels less exciting now ...

That felt like a great big "welp" ... amirite?

I have Jags and Pronger in my HHOF binder, and I have several extra Jagrs. Such a great player! Most of the current non-Sabres I have, I have then because they are future HHOF locks ... stamkos, hedman, barkov, kane, toews, crosby, malkin. I find it really hard to cheer for active players who are not Sabres, lmao!

@shrader @#freejame - I think most card shops, unless they choose to specialize in truly vintage stuff (LIke, mid-80's and earlier), they just don't have the room and I bet the walk-in demand is really low. I have been tempted to buy a box of '86 OPC for the rush of tearing open a pack and hoping to see Mario staring back at me in pristine glory - but those boxes seem to come in around the price of a pretty decent used car, so I have not done it. My wife and I have a "your money is your money" policy - but if she ever found out I dropped that much cheddar on some old cardboard ... she might question my sanity 🤣 I admit I am a bit of a "deal" junky outside of the Sabres cards I want. Like, oh ... this graded card with a book value of $100 is auctioning for $40?? I don't mind if I do. (this only applies to retired or twilight of their career players with sustained value - I am not out there dropping any money on Cole Caufield.)

Who are the players? Always cool to see who everyone like. I have a ton of Mario Lemieux cards - including a Topps rookie. Apparently the OPC is the one to have ... but I have a budget, lol.

And as much as I love the idea of supporting small local card shops, if you are looking for hockey and especially old hockey, most shops in the US are just not gonna get it done. I troll ebay looking for things that seems to be under valued. You can find some. Sometimes you find an auction that for one reason or another is not attracting much attention and you can get a sweet deal. @shrader - Yeah, I am pretty sure after a nuclear winter, there would be cockroaches and old trading card gum!

I thought there was a "FA you want the Sabres to get" thread, but I can't find it, so I dropped that article here .. I'd be interested to hear opinions on Arvidsson, Marchessault, Pearson, and Wennberg.

In case folks don't have ESPN+ ... for whatever it is worth:

Isn't it nice when someone else makes your point for you? lol

That's a really cool idea! I have been tempted to do the same for my own birth year. Maybe that is the next project after the HHOF book is complete.

I found an online database thingy that trolls ebay for sales and calculates a value that way. Who knows how accurate it really is, but it is kinda cool!

Oh man! That is where it is at ... I will admit it is not quite the same opening the puffy package from ebay, but I still get a little rush when I have one less slot to fill in the pages of my book. I have to admit, the 71 and 72 sets were a touch before my time, but I have a few of them now and they are pretty sharp looking. One of the first things I did when I got back into it was find some decent condition reasonably priced French Connection cards. I was a wee lad watching TV when Gil got to 500, but I can still remember it. There are no real Hobey Baker cards, or for anyone that came and went before 1911 - and cards from the 30's are expensive and they disappeared in the 40's during WW2, but I found some commemorative sets and they are pretty cool in their own right. It is nice they come with some history of the players. The real cards from before the 1951 Parkhurst set got things going again usually just say: Babe Johnson on the front (why was everyone's nickname 'Babe' back then?) and something like "he plays hockey" on the back. We never knew the dollar value as kids - just the joy you got from seeing your favorite player on a medium stock piece of card board! **Also, damn - a gretzky! I think you can get $1k even if you used a hole punch on it 🤣 I am almost glad I never had anything like that - I woulda trashed it and had deep unshakable regret! Oh god! The crappy gum! Even in '89 and '90 they were still pushing that stuff ... seemed like it was left over from the '70's! Me and my friends thought it would be hilarious to collect all the gum sticks, too. I think we almost filled a shoe box just with gum!

Thanks! I totally get the wanting to avoid the Flood. And it has decimated card values from that era - you can get a Forsberg, Lindros, Kariya rookie for under $2! All HoF players. I mean, that has helped me fill quite a few pockets in my binder, so I guess I can't complain too much. If you thought the early 90's was crazy ... don't even look now. I dipped my toes in to find some current Sabres cards (Levi, Benson, Power, JJP, etc) - I think UD published 20+ different sets this year. Even the "base" set, when you account for all the inserts and variations, it was something like 4000 cards. Some are 1 of 1, but still bonkers! I will stick to the 50's - 70's where there were between 1 and 3 sets a year, lol! Thanks for taking the time to share!

Just wanted to see if any fellow 'spacers are into card collecting. I was really into it in the late 80's and early 90's (the junk card gold rush), but stopped once I discovered girls, lol. Got back into it a few months ago and find the Reddit threads on cards a bit ... awful? I won't post too long in case this just gets mothballed, but my current work in progress is trying to put together a binder with a card from every player in the HHOF. I think I am at something like 220/297 - skipping all the founders and refs. Holla if this is you! *Disclaimer - not intending to sell any, nor am I secretly planning to troll for cards on SS, just interested in some nerdy conversation!

Yeah, I get that angle. It is a bit too much crying over ye olde spilt milk for me, but I see it. On to the draft?

I don't like McDavid because he was the cause of the tank - so he can be the next Dan Marino for all I care ... I find all this angst over "former Sabres" winning to be a bit odd. Very few folks on any roster are home grown ... Barkov and Lundell are the only forwards drafted by FLA. Bob wasn't. Ekblad is the only FLA drafted D worth mentioning ...

I have mentioned this site before - it is not perfect, but it attempts to address the discussion between @Thorny and @Taro T: Right now, McDavid is 10th for forwards. Based on having a decent length career, he picks up another 50 points, throw in 21 more for awards, 10 or more for playoffs ... puts him at 436, right where he probably should end up - behind Gretzky and Lemieux and ahead of everyone else. (note that MANY top end forwards are penalized heavily for playing in bygone eras in the TIME column) I don't recall exactly if the numbers are balanced across positions, but Orr has 525, Bourque at 497, Roy 425, and Hasek 423. So, Looks like McDavid settles into 5th place unless he decides he wants to flirt with 200 points in a season on a regular basis. www.adjustedhockey.com - I hate doing math, but I love and appreciate when others can do it to provide some context to an otherwise existential debate. 🙂 The website gives a very detailed explanation of each column and their rationale behind it. As with anything subjective, you may not agree with all of their logic. Bonus emotion: It makes me very angry that Pitt has had 3 of the top 4 forwards of ALL TIME, with Malkin casually sliding in at 16 - like, eff them. Hard.