dudacek

So I am reading this is as you concluding the best acceptable plan for the Sabres is to secretly encourage Jack to get the surgery he wants, on the condition he knows he won’t get paid until he heals, then return to the bargaining table in the new year and see what you can get for a healthy Jack. Do you think Jack will go for that?

What if I team has been sweet-talked enough by Brisson and doctors to convince itself to upgrade a "conditional 1st and a team's 4th-best prospect" to an "actual 1st and a team's 2nd-best prospect" and that Adams has been beaten down enough to say he's not going to win the fusion battle?

I find it interesting that the Rangers have about $7 million in cap space this close to the start of the season. I also wonder if that ***** offer Chris Drury may have floated 3 months ago might look a whole lot closer to Kevyn Adams' ask than it once did. Don't get me wrong, I'm mostly on the same page as @nfreeman and the others who think nothing is going to happen prior to the surgery question being resolved. But, if there are teams out there still taking, this was always the team that made the most sense and nothing has happened to indicate the door has been closed.

Both of them will be back up before the season is over. Sabres haven't made a roster yet during camp that doesn't make sense to me.

Caggiula was ahead of Eakin to finish last season and he has been ahead of him in camp. Hayden provides something unavailable elsewhere on the roster Axel-Foley was picked up with the intention of giving him time on the NHL roster. You don't make a waiver claim otherwise. I can see Cody sticking around in the press box for the reasons you describe, but not at the price of sending one of the other three down.

I think Adams makes rational decisions – they aren't always correct decisions, but they are ones that can be defended. I also think there is a PR statement that would be made by suspending Jack without pay, which is essentially holding him hostage and forcing him to get a surgery he doesn't want in order to make his living. Sabrespace doesn't seem to care about how that's perceived, but I can tell you the greater hockey world has a different opinion and the NHL definitely cares. Anyone trading for Jack now is letting him get ADR and expecting him back fairly early in the new year.

Really looks like a team of 4 3rd lines. I guess a "good" Mitts and a resurrected Skinner would qualify as a mediocre 2nd line. Why would the Sabres pick him up if they don't intend to give him a shot? If they think Eakin Hayden etc. are ahead of him there is no point picking him up only to have the Caps (or someone else) claim him when you send him down.

Missed VO. I'm going (in no particular order) Skinner Mitts Hinostroza Bjork Girgs Okposo Axel-foley R2 VO Asplund Cozens Thompson With Caggiula pushing Bjork and Foley hard and Hayden being the extra guy.

Agreed. The only thing that has changed is that some GMs are looking at the reality of their season-opening rosters. And they're asking themselves one last time if a Jack trade is the boost they'll need.

Hayden and Axel-Foley get the last two spots. What @inkman said on Hayden, and they didn't grab The Hair without the intention of using him. Caggiula is on the roster for sure.

Is Cozens not one of the Sabres top 12 forwards, based on what we've seen from training camp? Clearly better than him have been Mitts, Hinostroza...? I mean you might pick 8 more guys you might have picked over him if you had to make a choice, but clearly better enough to knock him off the roster?

With all of the ***** we have to wade through with the Sabres, it is gratifying when we see personnel decisions that actually seem to reflect what we've been seeing with our eyes and not have to conjecture our way through what might really be going here.

Speaking of whipping boys, I sure missed Risto last night.

i thought Dahlin looked better last night.

Whatever else this kid is, he's money in shootouts.

I can’t wait until Samuelsson and Power are regulars. We complain about Joki and Ras down low, but Butcher and Pysyk were worse and Bryson was flat out terrible. The most easily overpowered D corps in the league, and it’s not even close.

Goalie pull situation is kinda designed to create an open man on the outside if you get the bounce.

Butcher got worked to start that, and Dell was screened, but he also left a foot of space on the short side there.

Bryson’s rookie poise seems to have been replaced by style-over-substance artistic-merit-seeking. Its positively Montour-esque. And nice recovery by Dahlin there.

No doubt the players are worse. Better team still to be determined. The bar is not high.

Was just thinking about how I hadn’t noticed him all that much and how that was probably a good thing.

Like seeing Vic pop one from just 5 feet away. Need a more diverse game from him.

Didn’t Cozens have better hands last season?

Bjork’s been the engine on that line, but Eakin has looked quietly competent. Quinn knows what to do, he just hasn’t adjusted to the speed of an NHL forechecker.

I’ve kinda liked Hayden’s play off-puck. But with the puck, oh boy, those are stoney hands.