etiennep99

Well, for starters, Stephens is a LD and Spencer is a RD. This matters because Cincinnati only had 1 true RD. Spencer is bigger. Spencer has more AHL games under his belt. They are the same age. Both were drafted in 2015: Spencer in 2nd round, Stephens 5th round. I don't know if Stephens was injured or not, but he had only played 3 games this year. Last year Stephens was +39. Either way, they were winning without Stephens; so, why not trade for a RD? Of course, in the Sabres system big picture, RD is super-abundantly staffed, while LD is only slightly overstaffed. So, in the grand scheme of things, LD remains a priority for the Sabres, especially if they trade Scandella or let him walk as a free agent this next Summer.

We should trade for Jake Virtanen, Mikko Koskinen, & Mats Niskanen We could have the play-by-play of: Ruotsalainen, Laaksonen, Niskanen, Virtanen passes to Jokiharju, Koskinen means " Swedish - little Valley - source of- small stream - passes to - river - rapids". Kukkonen translates to a barnyard word which has the double-entendre that we see in Pekar and Peca. Ristolainen kinda means place-of/son-of Risto. Originally (before the Winter War), the Ristolainen name came from Finnish Karelia.

I love our new defenceman: JokeeHarJew....JokeeharYou...Yokeeharhew...Yokeeharhyu....Yokeeharyu. I think that the last one is correct, I believe. It's just crazy how many of the highlight films have the announcer pronouncing the "J' as both "J" and "Y" in the same word !! My trusty Google search tells me that indeed, "J" is always pronounced as "Y" in Finnish. (As opposed to English letters like C and G which can change according to which letter follows.) Jokiharju just rolls off my tongue like a river of water....Joki and Jokinen mean "river(s)". Like my favourite comedienne Joan JokiehardJew (nee Molinsky), a Russian who must have been from Karelia.

Maybe, just maybe, part of the reason why we got Colin Miller instead of the other teams run by "idiot" GMs (Chevy, Benning) is exactly because the Vegas Knights don't think that they have anything to fear from the Sabres since the Sabres are in the Eastern Conference and aren't even likely to make the play-offs?

Olofsson, CJ Smith, Nylander, and O'Regan all might be gone next year. Our only new Sabres talent will be Pekar, Fitzgerald, and Bryson. Maybe they bring up Glotov from ECHL. I expect Olofsson to default to NHL. CJ Smith is a nice player, but we are overloaded on LW. Nylander is an unpassionate, fringe player who I doubt even becomes an AHL star. O'Regan is a free-agent. Randy Sexton has a lot of work to do.

Thatcher Demko?

tl;dr Defense + Speed + Timely scoring win championships Using Nashville template in short-term(Dahlin, Montour, Broberg, Laaksonen?) * = Expansion Draft Protected Sabres Depth Chart (2019-2021) ----------------------------------------- Olafsson Eichel* Reinhart* Skinner* Colin Wilson A. Tuch* Sheary Mittelstadt* J. Roslovic* Rodriguez Girgensons Okposo* Wilson ---------- Zegras Asplund Pekar Glotov ----------------------------------------- Dahlin* Montour* Scandella M. Benning McCabe Nelson Hunwick --------- Broberg* Hickey Borgen Samuelsson Laaksonen Bryson Fitzgerald ----------------------------------------- Hutton/Ullmark//UPL*/Johanson/Free Agent ----------------------------------------- Draft : P. Broberg(D)[Can't teach size and skating] T. Zegras(C) [Turcotte is gone and Caufield is too small] Trades: Ristolainen + SJS 4th(2019) <==> EDM #1(2019) + Matt Benning(RD) + #3(2019) Nylander + Elie + 5th(2019) <==> Roslovic [wants out & WPG has cap issues] STL #1(2019) + T. Thompson <==> Alex Tuch [Need to dump salary to sign W. Karlsson] Larsson + CJ Smith + Daugherty <==> Wash 4th(2019) + 7th(2019) [Wash. needs bodies] FA Signings: Colin Wilson

That was very instructional. Thanks for posting. For those who don't speak German, some key quotations: Ich weiß, wie man motiviert, auch wenn das Leben nicht nur aus Einhörnern, Regenbogen und Jujuben besteht "I know how to motivate even when life isn't all unikorns, rainbows, and jujubes." He also said that the situation was that his life scenario was such that his situational verbal skills have progressed since the 5th grade scenario; clearly he was taking a jab at JBott. An insider told me that JBott didn't think that Krueger was American...err...Canadien despite his father's insistence, that was until Krueger said, "Wirst du mich einstellen oder nicht, eh?" Ich trage keine Hüte zur Eisbahn, weil ich meinen inneren Jean-Luc Picard gerne kanalisieren möchte. Another interesting quotation: "I don't wear tuques to the rink because I like to channel my inner Jean-Luc Picard". Ich trage keine Hüte zur Eisbahn, weil ich meinen inneren Jean-Luc Picard gerne kanalisieren möchte.

Philip Broberg(LD) - fast skating, puck moving d-man who needs to learn to play defence better. We need to trade down from 7 to the teens to get him. We would have an all Swedish left D.: Dahlin, Pilut, Broberg.

AHL Thievery Abounds, Amerks D-Men next year. Randy Sexton just signed NCAA Sr. Justin Baudry(LD) to 1 year AHL contract. He was already playing on an ATO with the Ontario Reign! By the way, Chris Brown, Sabres property, was signed to an ATO with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. I don't think that we miss Brown though. D-men Tennyson, MacWilliam, Paetsch, Brycen Martin all have expiring contracts. So next year's D will be something like this, assuming that Pilut is in Buffalo. They are all 22 years old save for Bryson who is the odd man out at 21 yo. Hickey Dougherty Bryson(?) Borgen Gosselin Fitzgerald Baudry Hopefully we get Bryson locked up this year. I'm not high on Dougherty ever making it to the NHL. The other night he got totally humiliated by a forward who blew by him and scored on a break away. Dougherty is just too slow IMHO.

I'll take a stab at this: 1.Last Summer, JBott made enough changes to give the players some hope. 2. Housley made sure that everyone was going at 100% right out of the gate. This cannot be understated. Since most teams were still slowly gearing up, the Sabres had the advantage. 3. The goaltending was very good at the beginning of the year. 4. Skinner was hotter than a fire-cracker. These past 2-3 months, Skinner has been almost completely unable to score. 5. Once again, Pominville started the year well before age and injuries took over. 6. Although his play was anything but great, Berglund took some load off of Casey. 7. When Berglund quit on the team, and the Sabres didn't hesitate one second to void his contract, I think that it sent a bad message to the players. That is: "The Sabres don't stick by their players", "Quitting on the Sabres is a valid escape route", and "Buffalo really sucks doesn't it?" 8. They had an incredible stretch of luck. 9. When the collapse started, the Sabres did still believe in themselves and did try to keep it going for a little while. But they've totally collapsed now. 10. They added three rookies/sometimes four, one just 18 years old, to a last place team. 11. I actually think that Beaulieu deserved to play more. The collapse started around the same time that Housley benched Beaulieu. [I'm still glad that he's gone just so that I don't have to hear/see so many people mangle his name anymore.]

No. That's Rasmus Asplund.

He hired Pat Lafontaine as president and Craig Patrick senior advisor, right? Patty hired Tim Murray who had paid his dues in Anaheim as a scout and an assistant GM in Ottawa. They hired former Jack Adams coach of the year Ted Nolan. So, no, Pegula is _not_ fail to hire experienced people from the start. The problems began when Patty got squeeze out and Patrick decided to jump ship. That left GMTM in control, and GMTM went Christmas Shopping with all of Regier's murrancy.

Scotty Bowman fired a bunch of good coaches in the '80's, including himself. Hammer has been at least an excellent assistant coach. Maybe that's what Phil's destiny will be. On numerous occasions, during intermissions, Rob Ray has reported talking to Steve Smith and company and being explained what was going wrong and what they needed to fix, and time and again the advice was good but futile; so they know their X's and O's. The fact is that we are a very shallow team talent wise. Just look at Montreal with Drouin on the 3rd line and Byron (15 goals) on the 4th line. Last Summer I played pretend GM and had the Sabres trading for Max Domi; he's worked out well for Montreal. VGK's trade of Tatar for Pacioretty was a head-scratcher at the time. It all comes back to the GM really. Scotty had HOF guys like himself, Perreault, Andreychuck, and Housley, good coaches in Mr. Video Roger Nielson, et cetera, and the team still went nowhere, but it did almost always make the playoffs, and it was entertaining.

At the very least, Fitzgerald is a huge upgrade over the wasted (expiring) contract used for Brycen Martin. You gotta sign some of these guys just for Rochester's sake. It would be poor asset management to allow prospects to walk away, which Fitzgerald could've done this Summer. So there, a prospect actually chose to sign with Buffalo. Take that Jimmy Vesey and Will Butcher!

I don't have access to watch Cyclones games, but you gotta figure they've improved at least a little to help the team to such a great record. Anyhow, Roch just signed Kurt Gosselin. He's an NCAA guy from the power-house of Univ. of Alabama-Huntsville. He played 7 games in Cincinnati on a try-out, scoring 7 points in 7 games and a +5. He shoots left. They still have Nathan Paetsch playing the odd game here or there. He's a left shot too. Right now their current line-up would be: MacWilliam - Tennyson Hickey - Dougherty Gosselin - Fitzgerald Paetsch Zach Redmond(right shot) is injured. He was having a career year at: 25g, 54pts, +21; he set the Amerks record for goals by a D-man. That is a pretty thin line-up with Pilut and Borgen in Buffalo.

The Buffalo News said that Fitzgerald was a welcome addition because Rochester's blue-line is thin. Rochester has a farm team too: Cincinnati. D - Arvin Atwall has 37 points and is plus 45 ! D - Devante Stephens has 25 points and is plus 35. Stephens is Sabres property. Cincinnati is rocking the ECHL with only 12 losses so far this year.

More time in Rochester wouldn't hurt him, IMHO. But Olafsson and CJ Smith deserve real long-term shots. C.J. Smith consistently drives play for the Amerks. He is a very fast and nibble skater. He reminds me a little of Skinner. The other night he took a pass backwards, turned flawlessly, and then flew into the o-zone to score a point as I recall. He kills penalties too. I think that during his call-up that he wasn't allowed to play his real game. He deserves at least as much of a shot as Tage Thompson.

Getting out is relative. Compared to certain unnamed folks here on SabreSpace, it seemed like I was away at a Mensa Retreat. You know the Mensa types: people who know the difference between "then" and "than", the kind of folks who know that you can find the word illusion hidden in Russian Collusion, the kind of folks who actually know Physics and know what circumstances permit collapse at free-fall rates, the kind of folks who use logic and reason instead of broadside attacks or even snide remarks, the kind of folks who don't turn ugly shades of red-white-n-blue when someone points out that the government is fallible.....sigh.... I'm still here because the big guy in the sky thinks that I still have a mission on this backwards planet. I have no delusions that my hockey insight is anything special. That's partly why I'm still here, to glean an interesting fact here or there and to catch the general morale of the fan base.

Per EliteProspects, this looks great. 2016-2017 U20 WJC Gold Medal But, every year his stat line has gotten worse. Of course, every year BC has gotten worse. Still, he is a right hand shot. From Elite Prospects. 2018-2019 NCAA (Hockey East) Honorable Mention All-Star Team We have someone rated higher. Jacob Bryson won 2nd all-star for his conference. Jacob Bryson Per Elite Prospects: 2015-2016 USHL All-Rookie Team 2017-2018 NCAA (East) Second All-American Team NCAA (Hockey East) All-Tournament Team NCAA (Hockey East) First All-Star Team NCAA (Hockey East) Sportsmanship (Len Ceglarski Award) NCAA (New England) D1 All-Stars 2018-2019 NCAA (Hockey East) Second All-Star Team NCAA (Hockey East) Sportsmanship (Len Ceglarski Award)

In summation, depending on which #1 pick (StL or SJS) is the piece leaving, the trade is either: A. Kane + Guhle = Montour + O'Regan + 4th(2019)* , the pick seems to be surely this year's 4th round since SJS' 3rd(2020) is conditionally traded away now B. O'Reilly + Guhle = Montour + Thompson + Sobotka + 2nd(2021) I'm not very high on Guhle. He can skate like the wind, but he is timid with the puck, and doesn't drive play enough. I was very down on Kane. So, I'm happy with option A, the Kane trade scenario. But, I'm not pleased with the return on the O'Reilly deal. Montour seems like a player. Thompson will be lucky to turn into our Joel Armia part deux. Sobotka ain't anything special. And a 2nd round pick is certainly not a guarantee to return a player. So, the only guaranteed return on O'Reilly is Montour in scenario B. Ugh!

I wasn't trying to goad anyone into any discussion. I was just wondering if anyone was willing to take a stand. I realize that people's professional reputations are on the line regarding "conspiracy theories". I'll stand with the experts on this one: "The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth"; and I'll leave it at that. Good day y'all. https://www.ae911truth.org/

Not to put you on the hot-spot, as if I hadn't already, but any opinions on the soundness of the NIST report? Feel free to ignore or "no comment". You see, I think that we best honor the victims by telling the truth, the whole (as much as we have) truth, and nothing but the truth. One day I imagine writing a very vague Freshman Physics final exam on subjects like: Newton's 3 Laws, potential & kinetic energy, momentum, conservation of energy, elastic & inelastic collisions, free fall, the range equation of projectiles, specific heats of metals, et cetera.

Off topic, I think that I'm going to name my new kitten: Cagey MittelCat; Mitts for short.

He looked like he was 75% during the Summer league. He was definitely taking it easy as far as I could see. 6 weeks for Malone looks like a knee sprain. They never heal to 100% again.