dudacek

It was widely speculated that Seattle loaded up on NHL defenders because they are always in demand and teams will inevitably come knocking. I don't buy the Jason Botterill narratives people ascribe to the Kraken; Francis is the GM, not Botterill. But this hoarding excess defencemen to the detriment of your team is pretty funny.

Pretty sure this is false. It originated here three months ago:

This fascinates me. Why did you walk away feeling like the Sabres sound like the bad guy? (I didn't) Where is the manufactured narrative in that segment? (The closest I can come up with is "this situation is bad for the league" which certainly is a widely held point of view and hard to argue against: star player can't play hockey, team's most valuable asset can't be traded, potential CBA battle brewing, never mind the perception among some that the owners are holding a player's health hostage. How can you not characterize it as bad?)

Nice to see Matty back in practice. I still expect him to play in Rochester before we see him in Buffalo, but it looks like they might keep him around a bit first.

Olympic participation was a collectively bargained item between the NHL and the NHLPA, so under normal circumstances no. How the health question muddies the waters I’m not sure, but I would imagine if Jack passes a physical and is deemed healthy enough to play, the Sabres can’t stop him, unless he was suspended for some reason. This is my preferred path: he gets ADR, gets healthy and rehabs his trade value. I hope the Sabres can be convinced.

Ive only seen snippits of Rosen, but everything I've read about him indicates he's of the same mold.

Jankowski is on an AHL contract, although I suppose they can change that. I would imagine picking up either he or Barre-Boulet, or anyone else would be contingent on the length of time Casey, Vinnie and Cody are going to be out.

The crux of this issue always seems to come back to the actual merits of ADR and the sincerity of those celebrating or demonizing it.

He mentioned emphasizing two points: The rule is not in place to block players from getting reasonable treatment. Brisson's team is collecting evidence backing their contention ADR is reasonable treatment.

Absolutely. Peterka, Poltapov, Kisakov, Rosen, Cozens, Asplund, to a lesser degree MItts and Quinn — same style, more skill, lining up to move their way on to and up the roster. Related, but more important than speed is relentlessness: these guys are on the puck hard and quickly and their feet are always moving.

From the context it seems to me its primary purpose is to create another lever to pressure Adams.

Friedman talking Jack right now on Marek's show. He says what many on here have been saying: "Jack's agents are trying to ratchet up the pressure" He also says the Sabres are pushing back; that's the genesis of the Risto reference, and Adams' repeated mentions of pressure points: to get the message out that Eichel will be flipped when the Sabres get what they think is value, not before. And he reiterated his sense that the Eichel camp is working hard to create the groundwork for a grievance.

I wish I was a good enough scout to tell you. Pysyk is actually a good comparable in terms of his game as a junior, so I could easily see him settling in there. I could also see him settling in more as a prime Tallinder (with his game revolving more around his feet than his length)

So glad that this 8-year-long conversation will slowly fade into the Sabrespace archives.

Any time I've watched Ryan Johnson I've come away thinking he's a surefire NHLer. His combination of skating and poise demands it. He's safe with the puck, very good on defending entries and even better on exits.

This kid is going to be a fan favourite in a few years. Separately, you've long pointed out as one of the biggest problems for the Sabres their inability to find players after the first round. I'm not going to count the chickens of the past few years before they hatch, but from what we've seen from Bryson and Asplund this year (and with Samuelsson and Peterka looking very close) that tap might finally be open.

Not sure how this could not be considered good news. Sorry for repeating myself, but I think the Sabres are still wearing the “cheap” badge after the scouting department bloodletting of Adams 1st day. Let the record show that the Sabres have live scouts in all major development leagues again, and that a large portion of their scouting budget cuts has been reallocated to their analytics and player development departments.

Me neither. But I am not going to let this get in the way of enjoying this while it lasts, or prevent me from hoping that it might be creating the proper culture for the new talent to walk into.

Can't say I disagree with any of this (my long-held belief Reinhart was limited by turning him into Eichel's hand-picked lackey, notwithstanding). I agree that Jack is an unselfish, competitive hockey player on the ice, and that any negative elements to his makeup off the ice won't really be issues in most organizations. The bolded, not the on-ice play, is primarily what I was getting at. I think there is also the related elements of Jack (rightly or wrongly) blaming the organization for not getting him the proper support and the (conscious or unconscious) implication he consequently sent out to the team's rank-and-file that they were less than worthy. We've heard Granato talk about players needing to "get wet" in order to develop. I think there have been large portions of the Sabres locker room in recent years who never felt fully invested in the team's success or failures because they essentially felt like the peon down in the mail room. Shut up, stay in your lane and get out of the way. Thus players outside the immediate core got stunted in their development, and the core got frustrated and shortchanged because there was nobody behind them to pick up the slack. That's primarily an organizational failure not a Jack failure. My evidence for this is the past 25 games, the obviously calculated switch in focus from "core" to "team" and the apparent across-the-board growth happening as a result. I'm not saying a core-based culture can't work, or that we won't need to move back in that direction at some point to go on a run. I am saying the core-based culture built under Murray and Krueger didn't work and needed to be flushed. Jack is less the cause than he is collateral damage.

I'm just relaying what I heard. Friedman and Marek said the NHL has signed one-off deals from time to time that specifically state they cannot be used a precedent in any future case. League sources seem to be more sympathetic to the situation than Sabrespace and perhaps more cognizant of PR, legal and future CBA costs an ugly standoff here could spark. Couple that with more info about ADR and maybe some are thinking that a partnership underwriting the surgery is less risky than the alternative. Just speculating.

I think what he’s getting at, and what was was hinted at in the Friedman piece was that some sort of one-time deal was struck where the NHL and NHLPA would break the logjam by collectively agreeing to take on (part? all?) of the risk.

I think this more than anything else might come closest to the central issue of the Eichel/Sabres dynamic. It often seemed as though both Eichel and his teammates (in a culture fostered by the organization) expected Eichel to be at the centre of everything.

Agreed. He's been replaceable, but useful.

There's a good argument to be made that a Power/Drysdale combo could be Canada's first pairing in the 2030 Olympics.

This surprises me. I would think Olofsson would be among the least likely to get benched. He's produced, he's looked pretty good, and his line has completely tilted the ice. I think the "might rotate in and out" brigade most likely includes R2, Hayden, Caggiula, Eakin, Bjork and maybe Hinostroza, with Cozens ('just needs to watch a game from the press box') and Okposo ('just needs a rest') on the outskirts. But really, no one would completely shock me. And so far, no one really "deserves" to be pulled. Replaceable parts is really a theme of this roster.