Mango

That won't happen. As somebody who has done a lot of college recruiting, other major sports colleges will chase internationals.

The resources at the NCAA level are much higher than juniors. Let juniors be actual juniors and let kids develop in college like every other sport. A strong NCAA hockey league is much better for the NHL than a junior league. I'm a big proponent of taking this a step further. If a player is too young to play in the AHL, they're too young to be drafted. The only reason it's a thing is to protect the juniors leagues revenue.

No. But the draw of an American degree for international athletes is a huge safety net and the major factor for global recruiting.

I think it will be more of a shot across the bow for OHL, WHL, USHL, etc. Which is totally fine by me. Talent gets spread across everywhere and you can't ever see your prospects play. Filter everybody through the NCAA -> Draft -> AHL -> NHL. Just like every other sport, intrnationals are all welcome to get a free American education and make a couple of bucks if they're lucky. Also add the AHL to the NHL Center Ice Package. NCAA is already part of ESPN. The NHL desperately needs to make hockey more accessible and do a better job of player access and story lines. That's especially true since you can draft a guy and never ever be able to see him for 3-4 years...if ever... The NCAA is the second best league in the world for loads of sports. It makes sense for the NHL to capitalize on it.

I agree with your overall point, but also we have fought for the most expensive blue line award the least season or two and our blue line pretty much sucks. It's already money poorly spent. Everybody gets paid and nobody plays defense.

The Sabres are a bottom 5 destination in the NHL full stop. A franchise that was once (the day Pegula purchased) the 4 most winning franchise in the league (total P%) has plummeted to 14th in 14 years. I don't think you understand just how consistently bad a team has to be to do that so that me explain what it would take to try and climb out of that hole. If you took Scotty Bowman's 10 best individual years as a HC, and you linked them allllllll together for Buffalo, the Sabres still wouldn't get back to 4th. You'd take the 10 best years ever, from the best NHL coach ever, win 6 Stanley Cups, and still that would not be enough to correct this teams historical stats. That's insane. The Sabres under Pegula have literally been worse than Scotty Bowman was great. So much worse that the greatest 10 year run to ever (hypothetically) be coached wouldn't be enough to average it out. If we're not the Coyotes then we're pretty effing close.

Not aware of the post covid era numbers, but I believe that pre covid taking a player all the way to arbitration all but guaranteed that they weren't staying with their org longer than they were required to. I think the number of players that sign another contract is pretty small.

The numbers around players who go to arbitration and then stay with their team past that season is super low. I assume the numbers around "threatening" arbitration are better if they never actually go. But I'd be very curious to see that broken out. That said, it just makes the whole JBD thing look dumb...again.

Power will be harder to play against once we invest another 1637494 resources into finding him the right partner....

You can't keep the janitor because it's not comparable. Like not even a little bit.

No it's not. The negative comments are a 1:1 correlation to how bad a job him and Pegula have done. To keep the same hospital example it's like adding the Chief Surgeon if he feels responsible for the Chair of the Department firing administrators for releasing the number of people they killed that year in the OR. Seeing as Kevyn Adams is doing the one killing in the OR, it seems like a totally fine question.

What Sabres employee who does press conferences would you like them to ask? I'm other orgs it's a dumb question. My issue is the lack of follow up. A single question is "meh". You have to hammer him about the orgs performance, his performance, and how continuously the offseasons are focusing on the wrong things over and over and over again. Firing the producer for being critical is a great jump off point. Right! Arbitration value? Homie, you could have just signed him for 2 years x $900k and avoided a QO/arbitration all together.

Karmanos is having a good day.

God forbid we fire the guy responsible for nearly half the Sabres draught. I wish reporters would ask Adams if he feels any sense of responsibility around the draught. The more Pegula engages Adams at a high level in the org the worst the org has gotten. It's a reasonable question/statement to make publicly at Kevy.

They haven't been truthful enough That's the way I feel about One Bills Live. I'm a STH, it isnt like I'm a casual fan. I take in A LOT of NFL media and OBL is soooo terrible. I almost* never listen. *I will listen if Cosell is on

I know you're joking, but I was talking about Levi.

Post this one in the "Beane is the most sensitive GM in the NFL" thread on TBD. I think we have the most sensitive owner, whose lucky to be in a small market. And it makes people who are normally suited for their roles thin skinned. God I HATE Terrance Pegula.

Don't we have one of those?

I read that as past tense originally. As in the never came to the table. My bad.

I'm curious if this was another "didn't want to be here" situation. Adams is a bafoon.

I actually think the issue with hockey and uppers is partially the schedule. These guys basically live in hotels for 6 months. I'm willing to get that if hockey halved their games (not saying in for it) there would be waaaaay less coke. I don't think the prevalence in the league is so much money related.

I don't care if the draft is destination TV. I care that unless you are like you or Thorny that you can pick in the top 10 and maybe never ever see that person again. That's a premium draft slot in other sports Imagine having to wait 3-5 years to get to know Keon Coleman or Tre White. It would certainly take away from being a fan for both entertainment and hopium. Maybe the solution is some combination of including the AHL in the Center Ice package (like MLB and F1 do) and first round picks have to play in the AHL. Access to first round picks should be waaaaaaay easier to keep track of. Part of that is making sure prospects are more NHL ready.

The labor laws in two countries applies to the MLB and NHL. The more people pretend the NHL is somehow special and incapable of growth or innovation the further it will fall behind. The NHL need not concern themselves with the KHL or any other euro league. They're part of major US sports. Let these kids develop there. That's fine. Who cares. The league needs to be concerned with each team putting the best 20 or so players in the world on the ice and making those 20 people as compelling as possible. If somebody else absorbs that cost for them and makes a couple of bucks for their home nation 80000000 miles away, even better. But some kid playing for nothing in the OHL where nobody is showing up or watching isn't helping or protecting the league. It's antiquated. There were 10 teenagers (18 or 19) at wearing an NHL sweater at league start last year. Zach Benson was one of those and he was an NHL sophomore. The 1 x18 year old is hyperbole, but it's not much at all. We all know the rarity of a first round pick playing at any point in the NHL. It is weird to get stuck on some mild hyperbole. The NHL can organize a draft that has more impact players that more fans can follow and relate with. Or they can be stupid.

My totally uneducated opinion is that more kids rely on the NCAA. Sure some end up in Europe, and some already stay in Europe when drafted. I think figuring out a way to put a cap floor on the AHL affiliates would be helpful. Maybe bigger roster sizes for both teams as well. Just my shoot from the hip ideas. I don't know though.

Cool then the irrelavance will continue when compared to other leagues,and teams will let kids with potential waste away in the dumbest most underfunded leagues in the world. There's like 1 18 year old per year that this matters for. Saying the NHLPA wouldnt be for it is silly. The amount of teenagers in the NHL is next to nothing comparatively. A total of 10 to start the 24-25 season. It's not that anybody is for it or against it It's that nobody gives a short to change it because they NHL is antiquated.