LGR4GM

I know I sound really down on Adams but he has to prove it here, now. There is no more "next year" or "next week" or "at the deadline". Now or never.

Traded his captain - Okposo wanted to be traded to Florida so Adams obliged Traded his leading scorer - Adams didn't want to sign him and that was made evident, still he made this decision Acquired one the more highly touted young defensemen of the past 5 years, who has a Stanley Cup ring - Jury is still out Fired his coach - what was he going to do? Not fire him after that god awful, uninspired, joke of a season? 82 games of lackluster effort and crap. Hired one of the winningest NHL coaches of all time - k, and? Might work, might not. Also Ruff lives in Clarence, pretty much gift wrapped for Adams. (Apparently) cut his highest-paid player - No he didn't. His highest paid player is Rasmus Dahlin. Also, he only gets credit if he does something with the extra funds. So all in all, he made one move that wasn't forced and that was Mitts for Byram. Okposo wanted a cup shot and was on a dead team, easy. Mitts was apparently not a guy Adams wanted around, easy. Byram as the return is perhaps good, time will tell. Firing his coach was a literal no brainer move. Hiring Lindy after not doing a search at all... yea, lots of credit for that. Cutting skinner... jury's out. Basically Adams made 1 move that wasn't simply "yea duh of course" and that was trading a player he didn't want for one he likes in Byram. Everything else is just all the meh. Where's the aggressive remake of the roster, the no crap and no one will be spared brutality that teams like Vegas and Florida have shown in previous offseasons? Guess we shall see this week. Adams has one shot, one opportunity, mom's spaghetti. I hope he gets it right because since the Eichel trade, he's done a lot of jack *****. My long winded point is Adams should not get credit for doing the very bare minimum what any human with a functioning brain could have accomplished.

If he punts this offseason or does his usual stick of adding a couple of tweeners 3rd pairing or 4th line types, then next year will be his refrain. He will start talking about how Lindy had to teach his new system and the team is still young and with Skinner leaving they had to see who would step up and how krebs deserved his chance etc... Guy has 1000 excuses but so far has not shown any solutions. I am more than willing to give him this offseason because I fully understand what he has done. It is exactly what should have been done under Murray which is make us competitive by 2019. My concern remains that Adams is not cutthroat enough to execute that plan by trading away his players. Skinner being bought out makes me mildly interested but I need Adams to show us, the days of him waxing poetic about what he wishes he COULD do are over for me.

Adams timeline is always, next year, well this went wrong so next year, well idk maybe next year, Dahlin has to get traded so next year, Power has to get traded to next year, Benson has to get traded so next year. You keep coming up with reasons why Adams hasn't won, which is my point.

WTF are you even talking about? NHL contracts are 100% guaranteed, Okposo couldn't have taken a cut in his current deal and stayed in Buffalo if he wanted to.

He wants things to be perfect before he "goes for it" and that will be his downfall. Making good or better the enemy of perfection.

If we miss the playoffs this season, will Dahlin ask out? If he does, what then? What is the new timeline? Power? Benson?

If he saw that he would have kept Reinhart and Mitts. Two players we could have on this roster right now for reasonable deals. He, at every opportunity, has decided that players under 23 is the way to go over and over.

Adams seems to not understand that it takes years for NHL players to become true veterans, capable of the hard and demanding season in front of them. Instead he just keeps tossing in new guys hoping they will swim.

I think it technically has to wait until like 11pm tonight or something

What success has Buffalo had since the gaustad era?

Zach Benson is well known for avoiding contact and being a figure skater. His draft profile reads "small guy that avoids contact as much as possible and loves playing the perimeter. If he can avoid a physical battle he will as he tries to hide behind bigger teammates. Soft and small are the best adjectives to describe Zach Benson" ... har har. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/3e44edc1-c666-4da6-b134-d8cf170cfc30

What a strange comment. Outside of I suppose Östlund and maybe Rosen? they haven't drafted any small euro players. 2023: Wahlberg, 6'3" and certainly uses his size Strbak, 6'3" and loves using his size 2022 Jiri Kulich, 6'1" and uses size Komarov, 6'3" and is a blend 2021 Poltapov, only 5'11" but not a figure skater I really only come up with Östlund, Rosen, and Kisakov?

Jeff Skinner's caphit after buyout: COURTESY OF CAPFRIENDLY 2024 - 1.44 2025 - 4.44 2026 - 6.44 2027 - 2.44 2028 - 2.44 2029 - 2.44

16 of 22points this season, came since the world jrs in just 25 games played. That puts him on 0.64ppg which would have made him just barely 3rd in the Allsvenskan for players u20. Just something I found interesting. BTW, I like Nygard but 11 is probably a bit of a reach for him. He looks like a better checking Tuch with slightly worse hands (of course we are comparing 26yr old Tuch to 18yr old Nygard so I would expect Tuch to handle better). Anyways, he is just this guy who looks like a hockey player and idk how else to explain it. I watch him and compare him to Helenius and Nygard pops more to me.

Again, this was just thinking out loud as a way for the Leafs to redistribute their roster, not to replace Marner 1v1 with Skinner.

Can I interest you in some Michael Brandsegg-Nygård?

There are almost no players in the league I would include Benson for in a trade package. I mean that, he plays exactly how I want more Sabres to play.

Full. No. Movement. Clause.

Well as soon as Skinner signs with a new team, I am betting my house and retirement on them to win the Cup in 2025.

Iginla is flawed, I just want to point that out. He has a bad tendency to just haphazardly shove pucks to the middle of the ice on low chance plays and he sometimes likes to shoot from the perimeter because there is a shot lane. He also over-handles but alot of jr guys do so don't care there. Basically, I am saying he needs to get better at playing a pro game but that isn't much of a concern.

They are but the connection is the Leafs could shed salary and get a nice haul to augment a top heavy roster while signing Skinner to a cheaper deal and still gettin 30g and 30a or so. It helps offset losing Marner while they rebalance a roster that clearly needs it. It would free up 10mil - Skinner at say 5mil while allowing them to get assets, redistribute that money to the defense or to the NHL player they get for Marner (would assume they get NHL player, high end prospect, 1st round pick, something else). Just thinking out loud if the Leafs wanted to do some things that might make them better long term.

Reposting for those who missed it on the previous page. Chad DeDominicis is reporting that Jeff Skinner will be bought out if a trade does not materialize which seems unlikely (the trade part)

Leafs could sign Skinner and trade Marner.