Drunkard

I'm on board the offer sheet train but I'd rather go for Lindholm than Kucherov, especially when we still have a good chance to sign Vesey. I'd also rather wait until we extend Ristolainen, whether it's a 3 year bridge deal or locking him up for the next 8 seasons.

Yeah, that does seem to be laying it on a little thick. The Sabres were in no danger of leaving when he bought the team and when they were owned by the league, Buffalo's personal Lebron James was no where to be found (although I have no idea if he was rich at that point either). The legend of Terry Pegula will one day surpass that of the great Tedy Bruschi, if it hasn't already.

I still don't see why people want to offer Ristolainen a 6 year deal. That would only buy 2 UFA years. If you're not going to lock him up for the full 8 years then you are better off giving him a 3 year bridge deal and then locking him up long term with a year to go.

It could go either way and there's definitely pro and cons to both. He can extend him before the season but then you risk locking up a guy long term that you're not sure how he'll perform in a new environment with a new team, new defensive partner, new system, etc. You can wait until the deadline but run the risk of his price going up and you have one less person you'd be able to protect otherwise because you are using a spot on him. Or you can let him reach UFA status, vegas likely won't pick him and you get to protect another player but you run the risk of someone else signing him or him being highly productive and his contract demands exceed what you feel comfortable paying him. I think I'd talk with his agent now to get some basic parameters on a possible extension worked out then wait and see how he does in blue and gold and decide sometime before the deadline.

I think he meant use the enter key to put some spacing between your paragraphs. I seem to be Eleven's interpreter now but I believe he means losing Pysyk to the expansion draft not to free agency. We were obviously going to protect Ristolainen and with no other quality LHD (prior to this trade) we were going to have to protect McCabe or potential have no LHD. The 3rd spot likely would have gone to Bogosian meaning Pysyk could be snagged by Vegas. I'm ok with extending Kulikov early but it would definitely be a shrewd move to wait until free agency next offseason. No way Vegas wastes a pick on a guy who can walk in a week.

Exactly. The numbers will always be with the rest of the entire field. It's an unfair comparison.

Except for being teammates and possibly even friends with that coke monkey Zach Bogosian. It's only a matter of time before Eichel and Reinhart start showing up to work with the permanent sniffles. #Antics#

The thread title needs to be changed. If the performance of Cody Hodgson warrants that he doesn't deserve to have the letter O in his name then he certainly doesn't deserve to have the letter D in it either. Cy Hgsn should be his name.

They had to do that in order to keep gray as one of the colors they are allowed to use. Otherwise we wouldn't get to keep those awesome gray armpit stains. Hence the extra gray piping.

It sounds bad initially but after reading the whole article I'm beginning to think this is a whole lotta nothing. In responding to these latest developments, Paul J. Cambria, the hockey star’s lawyer, said Monday: “We reviewed the videos and talked to everyone on that and he steadfastly denies doing anything wrong and we have seen nothing to the contrary.” I would assume the bar would have cameras both inside the bar and in the parking lot. If the lawyer watched all the tapes and said the quote above I'm think there's some embellishment going on. I guess we'll all find out eventually though.

Same here. I never purchased a single thing with the slug on it and told my family and friends not to purchase anything for me with the logo either. I just bought goathead and/or throwback items off ebay with the original logo.

I can't find it either. I dvr'd the show prior to the draft and the draft itself on NBC Sports but they didn't air it. I'd like to watch Terry's introduction speech.

Babcock was just an example. The truth is that I have no idea what's going on in the mind of Stamkos and neither do you. We're all basically here to speculate and discuss. I made my comment because you seemed to be speaking in absolutes like it's some auction and he's guaranteed to go to the highest bidder when that's not necessarily the case. I'm not from Buffalo and have never even lived there so the woe is Buffalo mantra doesn't really apply in my case. I'm not trying to rain on your parade or piss in your cheerios or whatever analogy you prefer but like everyone else here we have to beat this topic to death (it's the offseason after all and Stamkos is as interesting as anything else to talk about) and you can't really fully discuss the topic without looking at it from all angles which is part of what I was doing. To be honest, I'm almost having pre-buyers remorse already on Stamkos. I like him a ton as a player but the injuries, production decline, and cap hit concern me. I go back and forth. I like him at 10 and I'm wary at 12, but then I think about how the difference between 10 and 12 is basically just the difference between what Marcus Foligno will probably make next year vs some guy on an entry level contract and I'm back on board. Then I think about Ristolainen needing a true top pair caliber partner and I'm back off. From reading this thread I'm not the only one who seems to waffle back and forth. It's a game changer (good or bad or a bit of both) for whoever signs him.

Didn't we offer Babcock more money than Toronto did? Maybe Stamkos does go with the highest bidder but if the money is close it's not completely unfathomable that he goes with his gut and either chooses the team close to home or the team with the winning tradition. It's not an auction where he's obligated to go to the highest bidder. There's also the Rangers and Flyers (possibly) in play. 2 teams known for backing up the Brinks truck first and finding a way to Houdini under the cap later.

That's my guess too.

He's no Vojtech Budik that's for sure. I predict Budik takes his spot on the roster in 2020 just like he did for the interview.

I've been in favor of pursuing Stamkos but with the Red Wing ditching Datsyuk's cap hit, the Leafs interest, and now the Rangers I think I'd rather help drive up the price on Stamkos and let someone else pay him 11 or 12 million for 7 years.

Or maybe we let him reach UFA with the understanding that we sign him on the first day of free agency and we can protect someone else. Vegas isn't likely to use an expansion pick on a guy that can literally walk away a week or two later. If he has a great year and we don't want to risk losing him we can extend him before the trade deadline, protect him, and expose someone else on defense.

Yep. Plus we gave up another expendable 3rd rouder. It would be funny if Murray trades the other two 3rds to move up in to the late 2nd round. Start with four 3rds and not make a single pick in the 3rd round.

To be fair, we didn't have room for him in the top 4 with Ristolainen and Bogosian. Glad we were able to flip a righty for a southpaw though. Plus Kulikov is only a year older but has played 3 times as many NHL games. Plus were were able to move up from 38 to 33 for a 3rd round pick. I'll take it.

Long live the meme!

Does this end the Murrays hates Russians assumption?

Oh I do, sir. I had literally just checked their site out because I had read through every single post here (other than the occasional marking the forum as read whenever the only threads with unread posts are from the threads I don't read like the Game of Thrones thread or the soccer thread). This place is always first in my batting order.

Just saw that on HF boards. Looked like a verified tweet as well although I don't use twitter. He's on NHL network now too.

I personally don't think so. With the addition of Nylander in a few years and the potential of signing Vesey, I'd rather focus on finding a LHD through trade or offer sheet and see if any of the kids (Bailey, Baptiste, Carrier, etc.) will be ready to step up. That's harder to do if we sign Okposo to a long term deal for big money.