dudacek

Can't wait for the snap.

Yet Rutherford has hinted the opposite. He's stated on the record that Malkin, Crosby, Letang and Fleury should be able to retire as Penguins, and that trading Fleury is one of his biggest regrets.

One would assume that if Adams is shopping Eichel and planning his build around that move that the owners have signed off on that plan. The fact that the bolded could still come true despite that tells you all you need to know about the Sabres.

More or less. There's a thread about it.

I agree this is the most likely situation. It also may max his value. The expansion draft may create a situation where we can trade him to a team with blueline space and a forward squeeze, but I haven't seen one presented. Right now it stands in the way of most teams wanting to add a blue liner. Also, don't shut the door on him being included in an Eichel or Renihart package. He seems like a potentially attractive option to teams like LA and Calgary

Dumba, Fiala, Rossi/Boldy would be among the more attractive returns I've seen that are somewhat realistic. At least it involve players who can help us now. Essentially, we'd add a Risto and a Reinhart to the current roster, as well as a prospect who projects to be at least as good as Quinn.

It's my wife's go-to. I think it's fine.

I don't see that as being pessimistic at all. Yes, re-signing Ullmark and McCabe should be doable. That's much different than counting on it. You need desire and dollars from both sides, and McCabe's injury further clouds things. They might, they might not. And trading Risto (and Reinhart) just opens up different checklist boxes to tick. With all due respect, my checklist isn't steadily being worked through, the work through hasn't even been started. That's not pessimistic, it's realistic.

Yep. And in the only big stage they played on, Rossi put up zero points and -6 in four WJC games while Quinn had 5 points and +10 in 7. Quinn had a hernia and Rossi had COVID. It's hard see how anything that happened this year could have "widened" the gap. I wonder if Devils fans are carrying on this painful conversation about Holtz, or the Wings about Raymond, or if it's just something Sabresfans do?

By shutdown defenceman, I did not mean Nik Lidstrom. Jay McKee is fine. I'd take Jake McCabe. Keep Eichel, re-sign Ullmark and McCabe and we only need two more to be in contention, IMO. At this point it doesn't look like we can count on them to do any of the above.

So your trepidation on Tkachuk is this season? Because I don’t think his 61 in 69 last year was a significant drop-off. And his bad year this year was much better than Jack’s. With Tkachuk, I’m more concerned of his attitude. He seems to be a far more selfish and divisive personality than Jack has ever been.

“Still” is an interesting choice of words. I would say his contract makes him a less valuable asset than either, but that is entirely based on projection; right now, he is a much better player. D+1 Tkachuk 76 13/35/48 D+1 Lafreniere 56 12/9/21 D+1 Byfield 6 0/1/1 D+1 Eichel 78 24/32/56 D+ Reinhart 9 0/1/1 Reinhart’s career highs are 25 goals and 65 points, Eichel’s are 36 and 82, Tkachuk’s 34 and 77.

I think Adams has already gauged the interest around the league. The second step is to see who is serious. Drury, if you want Eichel, we are going to have to have Lafreniere coming back as part of the deal. Blake, Byfield. Treliving, Tkachuk Murray, Zegras. And on down the line. See what prime assets might be on the table. If you have multiple teams stepping up with one, you are in good shape to set up a bidding war. If you have none, then you look at the counter offers and see what you can build off.

This is what I was alluding to in my action/reaction thread. Jack generally has appeared loyal to the Sabres and Buffalo up until now. His attitude in his presser fits with a guy who has realized the team isn't feeling the same way about him.

Quinn works his ass off and is very diligent on D (and, apparently, off the ice too). "Floater" is among the last words that comes to mind when I watch him play. Peterka also works hard, he appears faster and he uses his speed, but he does tend to cheat towards the offence.

Is this really going to be a thing? Can't we just be happy that we have two promising prospects on the wing?

The proper conclusion to take from the Granato run is that particular group of kids has promise and many are ready for regular roles. The reaction should be to bring the proper pieces in to augment and improve that. Counting on the group we saw to be a playoff contender simply by adding a goalie is utter folly. It needed two top six forwards, two goalies, and a shutdown D at minimum.

This has been my sense for a while now: they think he's the wrong personality (or at least in the wrong headspace) to be the centrepiece of their team.

I think if you go the lottery ticket route, we are probably going to end up with Turcotte as the centrepiece. 5th overall in 2019, high motor, complete player, USAHockey... he fits the Adams profile. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=209490 I loved Turcotte heading into the draft, not so much now. He projects as a good, likable, rounded player — Drury, without the "born winner" mystique — but he is middle sixer, IMO. That's why I'd much rather be looking at a possibly available good young NHLer in a hockey trade, Matt Tkachuk, Seth Jones...

Thompson was 1st round pick who put up a point a game in his D1 college season and had just spent half his D2 season in the NHL. You might not have liked him, but at the time he was traded he absolutely met the definition of a good prospect. I think there is a lot of hindsight to this post, or maybe we have different definitions of run-of-the-mill. Berglund had just put up 17 goals in 57 games. Sobotka had 31 points and was top six among Blues forwards in ice time. Both were ordinary, every game players.

I think you and Adams might be on the same page when it comes to what the problem is. Im not sure if you agree exactly as to where it lies.

The only time in the last decade I could find an elite prospect like those two getting traded was Brayden Schenn in the Mike Richards deal. Coincidentally, Mike Richards is one of the traded players that most closely resembles Jack.

One interesting thing about trading Jack is how few precedents there are for a 24-year-old 1C on a long-term contract. Here are some relative non-rental comparables (as they appeared to be at the time) Duchene: a 1st, a 2nd, a 3rd, 2 good prospects, a B prospect and a mediocre backup O'Reilly: a 1st, a 2nd, a good prospect and two run-of-the-mill NHLers Hamilton (+ a good prospect and an NHLer): a young top six forward and a top young defenceman Subban: Weber Hall: a top 4 NHL defenceman Kessel: essentially a 1st, and a good prospect (a lot of other lesser pieces moved in either direction) Johanssen: Jones Hamilton: a 1st, 2 2nds Yandle: a 1st, a 2nd, 2 good prospects Kesler: a 1st a 3rd, two run-of-the-mill NHLers Ryan: a 1st and 2 good prospects Seguin: essentially a 1st liner and 2 good prospects Nash: a 1st, a good prospect and two NHLers Staal: a 1st, a good prospect and a good young NHLer Carter: a 1st and a very good 25-year-old NHL defenceman Richards: a 2nd, an elite prospect, and a good young NHL winger Carter: a 1st, a 3rd and a good young NHLer Kovalchuk: a 1st, 2 good prospects, and a young NHL defenceman Kessel: 2 1sts and a 2nd Heatley: a 2nd, a top six NHLer and a fading top 6 NHLer So we learn that: These types of trades are usually for futures, almost always net a 1st and an intriguing young piece as a base, and elite prospects are almost never included (the lone exception was Brayden Schenn in the Richards deal) Hockey trades aren't unheard of (Subban for Weber, Carter for Johnson+, Hamilton+ for Lindholm and Hanifin), but package deals rarely include a top player coming back (70-point scorer Louie Eriksson in the Seguin deal being the primary exception). You are inherently rolling the dice. Sometimes your lottery ticket turns into Tim Stutzle, Jakub Voracek or Tyler Seguin. Sometimes it turns into Derick Pouliot or Niklas Bergfors. None of these comparables were a 24-year-old unquestioned 1C at the time of the deal. The closest matches would be Carter, Richards and Seguin. We are kinda breaking new ground here.

Is like Elliotte Friedman saying " John Davidson The Rangers told me have let it be known" or like Paul Hamilton saying "Sam Reinhart wants to be traded to the West Coast (because he is from there and is grumpy in interviews, we don't really talk)"

It’s what I’ve been hoping, for sure. My thought train has been running a lot towards Bruce McNall’s comments after buying Gretzky: how undervalued he was from a business perspective. We’re so focused on the hockey aspect, we tend to look past the fact that NHL teams are businesses owned by businessmen and there are marketing departments across the league salivating at the chance of selling Jack to their city. Add in egos like Dolan’s and it’s a lever the Sabres should be pulling. Acquiring a player like Jack Eichel is an ownership call.