dudacek

Was just going to post this. You know, there are a few pieces the Bruins might be interested in. Linus certainly comes to mind. If this is Hall and Lazar for Bjork and a lesser piece, colour me not impressed.

A week or so ago I said I liked maybe 4 Sabres. Lazar gone, Ullmark and McCabe going. Guess Sammy Reinhart will be flipped tomorrow?

Only two assets of interest to me: Samuel Poulin and Pierre Olivier Joseph. Either fit the profile of kinda what I expected back for Hall.

From someone credible, I assume? It would be a very Penguins move. Not sure what they have to offer us.

There is a lot of merit to this. Not sure where I draw the line on where the return justifies the sacrifice. We’d need to be bringing in another goalie at minimum. Adams should have a contingency in place for this situation. The Demko contract is my Maginot Line. If the Sabres refused to match, they’re being stupid. There remains the possibility that Ullmark was always going to be checking out his options regardless. Also, *****!

He's joining Casey, Asplund and Cozens as "new" guys who actually play like they care about these games as much as we do. It's fun to watch. This, so much this. And apparently we have more skill than we thought, it's just that the guys who had it just weren't allowed to play much, or use it much when they did. I am seeing exactly what I hoped to see when Ralph was fired: Both in how they are using the kids, and how the kids are responding It's only been two weeks now, but he's really playing like the player we hoped we were getting three years ago. Points in six of his past 7 games, 5/2/7/+5 in that stretch

I really have not liked the Reinhart/Skinner/Olofsson trio. It's less than the sum of its parts and lacks edge/urgency. One member of that line needs to be swapped with one member of the 3rd line.

First: Of course. it's pretty common shorthand for saying "the percentage left of Montour's $3.8 million AAV plus the percentage left of Hall's $8 million AAV. Second Exactly. I was trying to point out that there may be a reason why they didn't retain on Montour, and this is the most likely reason. Third If you mean the Pegulas, and the actual dollars out of pocket, probably not. I do point out that's a possibility and I think it may have led you to misread the basic intent of my post. i am not one of those who believes the Pegulas cheap out on everything. The evidence in regards to hockey players points to the opposite Fourth And the main intent of my post was exactly this: don't judge until all the pieces are in place. The fact that they did not retain on Montour tells me there may be another shoe to drop here. The most likely shoe is that they are planning for the possibility of retaining on two more players going out and/or bringing some salary in. IMO, it's the proper move, and I will be disappointed if I don't see some follow-through.

Because they've yet to play a game with fans cheering for them?

The theme of the deadline this year has been retention: Palmieri, Savard, Nash, Staal, Borgstrom/Connolly...the significant trades have all come with salary cap considerations as a significant part of the package. The Montour deal sticks out there like a sore thumb as the exception. Did Adams leave a better return on the table by not retaining on Montour? And, if so, why? The Sabres now have a little under $4 million in cap space and that number could swell to as much as $12 million by trading Hall (although it's a given they will be retaining on Hall). That space can and should be weaponized. If we come out of the deadline well under the cap, we have squandered an asset. Is that because Adams didn't have the chops? Because Kim and Terry were cutting costs? Both?

The Sabres have a better chance of getting Bromberg

Don't worry, the Sabres will stand firm on their 3-year, $12-million offer and won't be able to complete a trade prior to the deadline. Ullmark will sign a 4-year $18 million deal with the Leafs this summer and the 2021/22 hockey internet will be full of chatter about how he deserves to be in the Vezina conversation. The Sabres will sign Freddie Anderson to a 2-year $10 million deal. By December he will be splitting time with Dustin Tokarski. PS: Also, Risto will be traded to Carolina and put up some of the best fancystats even seen as the Canes make a run to the final four.

There is no way he takes that from Buffalo without shopping himself around first. if Demko got 5/5 the conversation has to start there. I would give him that. I suspect the Sabres won't have to and he won't play hardball, but his deal will be at minimum $15 million and probably more like $20. 16 goalies have a cap hit of $5 million or more, 25 of them $4 million or more. Linus will just want a clear sign the team sees him as the man moving forward, so that probably means he takes less salary (under $5) if you give him term (at least four years). But you aren't getting one of those without giving on the other.

Not sure if the rumour has surfaced on our board, but there was talk of Kenny Holland reuniting Hall and RNH to run the second line in Edmonton for new $6 million per contracts each. I can see Hall being interested, not sure what the Oilers would be willing to offer us. It would have to be dollars in/dollars out because they are hard against the cap, but taking a guy like James Neal back would seem like a non-starter They don't have a 2nd or a 3rd this year. Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Bouchard, Lavoie, McLeod, Broberg, Holloway are among their top young guys.

He started playing a regular shift on March 29. In those 7 games he has 3G, 2A, 5P +4, averaging about 16 minutes and 3.5 shots a game as the Sabres have gone 3/2/2, playing with two guys who were in the minor leagues last year. Small sample size, but that's not even close to trash. That's on top of the 14/9/23/+11 in his past 27 AHL games. My eye test says he has skill. I think Tage is going to be a player.

Just for some perspective here, Fogarty, Elie and Dalton Smith are the only AHL vets in the lineup. Pekar, Quinn, Samuelsson, UPL and Laaksonen are rookies, Murray and Fitzgerald are 2nd year guys. R2, Asplund, Bryson, Oglevie, Davidson, Tokarski, Borgen, Smith and Dea are all unavailable and the rest are guys you never heard of.

If this gets done it's because certain tone/parameters were set back in the fall when Linus signed his one-year deal, and both sides are following through like gentlemen on that. I'd never have any doubt about Linus in that equation.

Have we seen Risto for Haydn Fluery? https://www.thefourthperiod.com/apr-2021/fleury-available-as-carolina-looks-for-upgrade

Miller to me is a poster child for why good analytics don’t always mean good player. Used in the Jason Woolley role on a good Vegas team he had fantastic fancy stats. Here, different story. Seems to me Montour had great fancystats too prior to his last year in Anaheim.

It doesn’t set a precedent. Sounds like the Leafs paid a similar amount for a 5th last year.

I’m sorry, I like Savard and respect the Lightning, but TBay just gave up a 1st, a 3rd and a 4th for a -19 defenceman with 6 points and worse analytics than Ristolainen, who is not going to play with them after this season? Wow! Hey Vegas, we got a fresh Ristolainen for sale here.

I’m sad that Montour essentially represents a squandered asset. I fully understand we overpaid for the contribution we got from him and I fully expect he will likely go on to contribute more elsewhere than we will ever get from a 3rd round pick. None of that changes the fact that the 3rd round pick is worth more to us than whatever we would have got from Montour for the month that’s left in the season and there is no way that Montour should or would be coming back this summer after his experience in Buffalo. Adams had to take what he could get and move on. I’m glad he did.

Every-game Amerk watchers, am I right to be excited about my boy, big Mattias? First-pair minutes, all-situations as a rookie? Physically ready, no signs of his alleged speed issues, and 9 points in 16 games to boot? We going to see this guy in Buffalo before the year's over?

Staal, Johansson and Montour down on the UFA front, Hall, Sheahan, Rieder and Ullmark to go? Also gotta wonder about next year's UFAs, Risto and Miller. As far as I'm concerned this deadline is about moving out every asset that isn't part of team moving forward to leave us as clear a slate as possible for this summer.

Well, we've quietly gone from five picks to 9 in this year's draft, so that does up our chances at picking up even more trash receipts 😘