TheAud

We just have very different reads on it, that's all. No way JBots was being nice in my opinion. If the car seller had said "I'll give you a lower price now, but if you sell the car for a higher price in a year then you come back and give me the difference" you might take that right? You either keep the car at a price you agree to, or you sell the car and got to use it for a year or less and netted out at zero. The point is in this case buying the car is tied to a motorcycle purchase you really want.... Holy cow I am done with these analogies!

If he's worth 2+M per year for 2 years then do the Sabres get Sheary and him both for a 3rd or 4th? No way. Come on, man. It's a negotiation. Ever buy a used car? Did you consider pointing out all the flaws of the car to extract a lower price or some concession from the seller? Nothing any different going on here. They probably do want to trade Hunwick but are worried they can't get anything for him. Pens are just saying "hey, if you can't get anything for him them it's only a 4th, not a 3rd". In a certain sense a 3rd and 4th aren't a lot different, but when it's your profession to build an NHL hockey club, build a winner, and prudently spend your owner's millions of dollars at a time, you probably should be fairly focused on optimizing each draft pick acquired or traded away, and only taking on $4.5M in salary over two years for a player if you have a good chance to utilize him and not simply waive him and consume cap space, and those millions go out the door for nothing. I mean, if it's worth it to get Sheary you do what you have to do but no reason not to drive the absolute best deal you can as well. I think this is an area where ex-GMTM was lacking. He made bold moves but didn't necessarily optimize each trade for the best possible deal (just my sense of it, I can't really prove that) to maximize assets.

In other words you're making an argument based on the demonstrated performance data as opposed to narrative and opinion. Opinions may currently be 10:1 that Casey is a better player. And opinions matter. But a space alien coming to Earth and looking at their stats and performance would say "they're not that much different". Except that Casey resembles them a bit.

Try this one on. Buf: "Yeah, I'll take that terrible overpaid Hunwick off your hands if you give me Sheary for a 4th" Pit: "Hey! He's not that bad. We were a Stanley Cup contender and he played half the season" Buf: "No, he sucks and negates the value of Sheary" Pit: "No it doesn't! He's at least a neutral addition..." (this goes on for awhile, it's a negotiation). Pit: "I tell you what, we think Hunwick has value, you don't. If you can trade him for something, that proves our point that he had value. In that case we get a 3rd instead of a 4th. If you are 'saddled' with him, then it's just a 4th'. Buf: "Fair enough, deal". (This is the abbreviated version) So Pittsburgh doesn't actually care what Buffalo does with him per se, they are offering it as a hedge for Buffalo in order to get the deal done. That's my take on it anyway.

If I had analysis indicating the rest of the NHL overvalue the Canadian Jr's (i.e. they have a disproportionately higher failure rate over time given their draft position vs. other leagues) and I valued the extra development years more than most other NHL teams, I could see a draft where I picked no CHL players happening quite often. The Sabres board would systematically rate players from Non-CHL leagues a little higher than most other team's boards. When the draft happens, the other teams are snapping up more CHL players whereas the Sabres board doesn't have them quite so highly ranked (in general), so the scenario where a higher rated CHL player is left for the Sabres to pick, per their board, may rarely happen. Now I am not saying the analysis indicating the CHL is overvalued exists, nor do I know how strongly JBots values the additional development years. I am just saying that if these premises were true and the Sabres were in a minority in the NHL, a CHL-free draft result may happen more often than not. As others have pointed out, it's more likely a CHL player would be picked in round 1 if the Sabres had a high pick and the talent was clearly evident. But as the draft goes on, the difference in valuations will make it increasingly unlikely a CHL player would be selected by Buffalo. I don't think this is a problem per se. It's just a valuation made by the front office. If it's a bad judgment then of course that is likely to hurt over time. BTW it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Canadian juniors were systematically overrated by old time hockey management types.

That Russian kids Mom is smokin’. Or it’s his GF? Can’t tell My God that makes me feel old

“It’s so cool” Indeed Rasmus, it is.

Just giving her a hard time...agree she did fine.

The Stanley what championship?

Do mosquitos actually have good vision? Barry Sanders? I’m confused

Tough speech to give for a guy who could never have imagined being in such a position. Also, Dallas fans are clueless idiots with the booing.

Bernier for 2 years @ $2.5M per would be a good complement to Ullmark. Let them fight it out for playing time. Then take a flier on another veteran who can battle for playing time in Rochester. Like Christopher Gibson or Scott Wedgewood.

Oh right, JT and Bonnie Raitt show...I might have thought of that since I AM GOING TO IT

I can see offering tickets first to STH, then after a period of time opening it up to the general public. Maybe even have a mini-pack holder time period in between. If keeping it in HarborCenter was a hard constraint for some reason (any conflicting concerts in Key Arena for example? I haven't checked) and they really wanted to do it on those dates for some reason, then I get it. But it seems like they could have found a time that would work from a hockey and PR perspective. Would be interesting to know the rationale.

Work sucks, but it's Friday and the wife and I are going to Geneva tonight for dinner at the best rated restaurant I could find on Yelp, and then sitting in the 3rd row to see Robert Cray in concert.

They do have whoever Vegas would have taken instead of McNabb. So there is that.

I thought about the timeframe for UFA vs. RFA and should have looked that up and included it but I was lazy. Thanks for pointing it out. That said, I don't really agree that $4.5M for 4 years is all that horrible for the team. It all depends on which risks they want to live with and which they want to hedge against. -If Reino ends up as a consistent 65+ point stud scorer this contract has the risk that they can't resign him at the end of 4 years. It has the benefit of getting tremendous value vs. the salary cap for 4 years. -If Reino stays at that sort of 45-50 pt guy with a lot of it on the PP, they have him at a fair market value or better for 4 years and can deal with resigning him or not in 4 years. -If Reino regresses (unlikely at his age) or becomes injury prone (no evidence of this) then they regret this contract. This risk is low. So if we're convinced he's going to end up as a premier scorer, then this would be a bad deal after 4 years (and a great one before that). In the other scenarios it's not a bad deal at all. At least that's how I view it. I agree they probably still prefer a bridge deal.

At this point I'd keep ROR's fixed salary (which as Flagg points out becomes relatively more reasonable vs. the salary cap each year) and near elite performance with a game not predicated on speed, assuming a normal decline over time of his skills as he heads toward 30 and past it, vs. Reinhart's untapped potential and pending RFA status. If Reinhart can be signed to a very team friendly deal (like 4.5M for 4 years or something like that) it would start to swing my preference more his way. But I expect he'll get more like 5.5M for 2 years bridge deal which is less appealing. ROR's beard is impressive but Samson has superior flow, so from a hirsute perspective it's a draw.

Took you up on that and listened to his one full album I had access to on Amazon. It's interesting enough I will give it another try for sure, but didn't quite grab me like that Metamodern Sounds in Country Music album by Sturgill did. Thanks for the reco.

A recent revelation for me: Sturgill Simpson. Shades of prime Outlaw-era Waylon for sure, but 21st Century production, lyrics, and sound. Still getting into it but I am intrigued.

My wife is Taiwanese and English is also her 3rd language (I'm hoping she's not who you are dating btw) and she had a very hard time with the accents and language in Darkest Hour. We use sub-titles for most shows we watch together. The only show I consistently had to use sub-titles on was The Wire.

I concur...it was discouraging.

I like how a discussion of season ticket renewals for 2018-2019 ends up back at a discussion of Briere and Drury leaving in 2007. Let's talk about letting Scotty Bowman go and the impact of Punch Imlach's poor health causing him to retire while we are at it.

Antipin will be in Russia, so you'll have to watch KHL games to see him.

I would add something but this take is exactly how I feel.