dudacek

Do the holiday pictures on the feeds of the kids in your personal circle contain shots of them enjoying good times in the sun? Are they all (presumably entitled and non-committed) chill bros? Will the existence and sharing of this picture have more or less impact on the hockey success of Tage Thompson than pictures of Rasmus Ristolainen flipping tires?

The league moved from a 20-year-old draft to an 18-year -old draft in 1979 due to the threat of lawsuits tied to the old WHA.

Sounded like Power was paired with Parayko. That’s one massive pair of humans. He’s scored a goal in each tuneup. Byram also scored yesterday. I believe he’s on pair #2 with Oleksiak (another massive human).

Good points, but I think the fervour is there without the media. Teams are rarely trading for the 11th pick because they’ve targeted a player. They’re trying to maximize value for a player who, for whatever reason, they feel that they have to trade. The fanbase is sick of the future, they want now.

Pick 11 is a valuable asset. We've also got a handful of recent picks that should have somewhat similar value depending on the beholder: Benson, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich and Rosen. It’s not dissimilar to the Levi/1st package the Sabres got for Sam Reinhart. Ideally I’m looking for a team that - through cap and/or contract - is going to have part ways with a forward in a similar career place to where Sam was 3 years ago and we make a similar trade. The Dubois trade last year, Ottawa giving up a high first for Debrincat. St. Louis acquiring Brayden Schenn for two firsts, or O’Reilly for a 1st and Thompson; Florida getting Bennett for 2 2nds, LA nabbing Fiala for a 1st and Faber, even the Sabres getting O’Reilly for Compher, Zadorov and Grigorenko. Its not usual for a deal like this to be available at the draft and we’ve got the pieces to make it happen.

Everybody is available for the right price; it’s a motherhood statement. What’s more relevant is where the list of players who might be available, and the list of players you would include Owen Power in a trade for intersects. Not wanting to trade Power for Makar is different than not wanting to trade him for Marner is different than not wanting to trade him for Ullmark. Kevyn Adams said Casey Mittelstadt was off limits until someone offered the right price. If you asked him, he’d probably say he took it because he was serious about winning. The bold is no different. It’s just painting a player judgement as a philosophical argument when all it really is two people disagreeing on what 2 players are worth.

Superficially, Yakemchuk seems to be a spot where ranking and need might collide: big, mean, pretty skilled and a RHD, ranked in the 2nd half of the top 10. Guys with those specs not ranked higher often come with concerns about hockey sense and discipline. For those who have done their homework, is he any good?

And a lot of what I post is usually tongue-in-cheek. Or it least it used be until it started to feel like no one was getting it. My sense is my “neutral position” is no longer any where near the middle in terms of what the Sabrespace collective thinks (as much as Sabrespace ever has a collective 😁)

It feels like I have made people angry. I’m not going looking for receipts. 13 years is absolutely the cause. More arguing, less anger. That’s exactly what would I’d like to see.

I take it this is reference to my comment about the Lindy Ruff hiring you’re “butthurt” about? This isn't a hire for the hardcore fans like us. It's a hire for the next level on the pyramid of Buffalo hockey fans. Not the guy I would have picked, but if I'm honest with myself his resume probably ticks a lot of boxes if his name wasn't Lindy Ruff and this wasn't the Buffalo Sabres. I suspect he's going to flame out spectacularly. But I'm going to go with the way @Thorny is reacting because if I squint really hard I can kinda see it, and giving the latest move a chance is just the way I roll. Now where's my Scotch? That one? The one where I refer to Sabrespacers (like yourself) as hardcore fans, and I agreed with your take as the most optimistic, yet still plausible? You took that as a shot at your fandom? The point of the “hardcore fans” line was that Adams wasn’t going to get guys like the Sabrespace crowd to flip by hiring Lindy. Guys like us need to see results. But the next level of fan, the one who has kind of stopped paying attention, this is the type of move that might get them to consider returning. Take that for what it’s worth. *** From my perspective, the worst part of this season is adjusting to the anger around here. I mean I fully understand why people are angry. I just hate the fact that I often seem to make them angrier for basically not being as mad as I should be. The answer seems to post angrier or post less, and it is not lost on me how many Sabrespacers have chosen to do one or the other.

On AHL.Com you can sign up for ahlTV I signed up to watch any playoff game for $30, or you can also do it one game at a time for $8.

We are what our record says we are. All the rest is just hope and frustration.

He was at the Lindy presser. Lindy also said in one of his subsequent interviews that he has been meeting with the holdover coaches about the team and their roles and will be fleshing out his staff later. I fully expect a new hire or hires and I also expect Ellis to be back, it’s just a matter of where.

But players frequently do “magically” get better. I mean it happens every single year. (Just not in Buffalo, it seems. 😜)

Talent is loaded word. If you define talent as the ability to skate, shoot and stickhandle, I think we’ve got a pretty talented collection of players. If you define talent as “good at playing hockey” there’s work to be done.

As for #11. "We're in a different phase right now. We need to look at every possible scenario that will help our team get better. So when I talk about winning now, that absolutely comes into play. We're not going to do something that doesn't make sense, but we will definitely talk about that type of move. Maybe it makes a lot more sense now than it did one, two, three years ago based on where our prospect pool is." —Adams

Or like you said. LOL

Actually scratch my previous post, I can see where you're coming from in the bold.

I listened to the interview and didn't catch this. It sounded to me like they wouldn't be spending big money free agency, just filling out the bottom half of the roster. But I didn't hear pushback against the idea of adding to the top 6. I thought his willingness to trade #11 sort of implied the opposite.

His response on Skinner was very interesting. He was asked about whether or not he thought Skinner's game was falling off. He responded about Jeff being proactive about taking care of himself and how there is no crystal ball, but then finished up with a statement all players are being reviewed and they are going to look at everything: make decisions that help them win hockey games. The question really had nothing to do about making any decisions on Skinner, so I am making the huge leap that there may actually be some consideration given to moving on from Jeff.

Adams tells WGR the merits of long-term extensions for Quinn and Peterka are questions they are talking internally about. He didn't outright say this, but to me his tone was such that it seemed the team and the agent might be cautious about doing.

Adams tells WGR talks with UPL are underway and positive. Says getting players in their prime is important and UPL is entering his prime.

Adams tells Jeremy that trading the pick is absolutely in play.

Actually, I was kinda ranting about UPL being pissed off about not getting “a fair shot,” if indeed that was the case. Second paragraph is both a misrepresentation of my feelings and kinda dickish. Sorry you feel that way. I’ve obviously overstayed my welcome.

I happened on a St. Louis Blues draft video last night that made it it clear the Blues used McKenzie’s list to get feel for how the draft was likely to unfold. Which really reinforced to me how valuable this list is. Even more interesting, the video made it clear that the Blues had a deal in place to trade down to #13 in last year’s draft if their guy (Dvorsky) wasn’t available. He was, so they cancelled the deal. In case we don’t remember, #13 belonged to the Buffalo Sabres.