DarthEbriate

The Amerks have rebounded well and Appert/Peca/Weber have been a big reason why. But, so too have Quinn, JJP, Ruotsalainen, Kulich, Rosen, and Rousek. As well as Subban and Houser. Taylor never seemed to trust his rookies as much, but it could be argued he didn't have the likes of Quinn, Kulich, etc. for any breakout seasons as they'd have already been in Buffalo. He got the likes of Nylander, Olofsson, and partial seasons of Mitts and baby Tage. Precisely. And the best of luck to Peca with his promotion. Perhaps one day he's promoted again and is head coach in Rochester or Buffalo. Perhaps he'll lift the Cup with the Rangers or elsewhere. It must be noted that Taylor didn't leave for an opportunity/promotion. He, his staff, and a bunch of scouts were purged for the Covid-offseason cost purposes. He later took a promotion job with Ruff and the youthful Devils have done just fine with him on the staff. (And Brunette will get all the credit for this last year, but the previous season the offensive metrics were already there and the Devils were sunk by horrific goaltending.)

The easy reason is he's not a 1st round pick. A big trade may shake this all up, but I'm still sticking with Rousek as the 12/13 in Buffalo this season. The franchise finally has the forward depth where it isn't forced to rush players to the NHL simply because they're more skilled. Now, you need to be skilled and be able to play a complete game. This should be what we want. Quinn and JJP were the last of the "don't want our kids blocked", but now JJP and Quinn are the guys doing the blocking. That's a good thing. Savoie likely gets 8 games, then goes back to the WHL because for all he's got the vision and skill, his body is nowhere near ready yet. Kulich will see time in Buffalo this season, but he starts in Rochester and belongs there this season while honing his all-around game and also growing up. Rousek is the new Hino. If healthy, he'll play 40+ games up and down the lineup. If he becomes a valuable PK guy, all the better.

OEL is not a top 4 anymore. He would be a vet minimum reclamation project as a signing, which is fine, but you don't want him anywhere near Dahlin or Power and their assignments or minutes.

It all starts with the simple conflict of interest over the taxation of trade routes.

Another team in the US Division. Fast-growing area just east of the Cascades with a lot of Seattle money. Immediate natural rivals over the pass (Everett) and down through the desert (Tri-Cities). Hope I'll get to watch Savoie more next season (because I don't think he sticks in the NHL next year, instead he'll get the Wright treatment and do NHL/WJC/AHL to build more mass) in Seattle.

If Svechnikov (and some others) are fully healthy, Carolina is a Cup-contender. Losing Pesce would be a huge blow to their team over the course of a season/playoffs. I don't think they move him. Unlike when Skinner was dealt on the expiring deal, they don't have the defensive equivalent of Svechnikov chasing Pesce down to the 3rd pairing. Because it's an expiring deal, I doubt teams would have to give up too much for him. You sweeten the deal a bit if you can do a sign-and-trade. But from Carolina's perspective, it's best to just keep him and go for the Cup again next season, then let the cards fall where they may.

They have the space at the moment, but they won't next summer when his deal is up and new deals kick in for Aho, Teuravainen, Necas, and Jarvis.

He's got size, he's got top-pairing usage as the defensive-focused guy, he's from NY state... There are other D who score more points, there are other folks who would be credited with more hits, but there are very few defensemen available who would be considered better all-around than Pesce.

Didn't and didn't. And it was all cleaned up in less than 10 minutes. It's another reason why 'Space is such an excellent place.

Isn't he a little short for a stormtrooper defensive d-man?

It's right there in the name!

A (Sabrespace) communications disruption can mean only one thing.... Admins, we'd like to all thank you in advance for taking care of this morning's mess.

If Simashev or Reinbacher is at 13 and it's believed either could reach a 2D defensive stalwart level to hang with the Dahlins and Powers of the world... the Sabres ought to take him. In 2 years, Muel will have a bunch more blocked shots on his frame (from playoff games), and all these forwards will be filling out a top 9.

Drafting Star Warsy names in the 13 range, plus a couple bonus 2nd/3rd round options: Sandin Pellikka "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and it gets everywhere. I especially don't like getting sand in my pellikka." Barlow - an Imperial officer Benson - "I don't know anyone named Ben Son, but Old Ben…is kind of a strange old hermit." Simashev - an Ithorian in the cantina Brindley - a gunner in the backseat of a T-47 airspeeder for the Rebellion But - pod racer. George Lucas plays his name for laughs. Quentin Musty - bounty hunter Wood - "What is… something you find on the moon of Endor?" Stenberg - he was in the Legislative Youth Program. He was not, however, as dreamy as Palo. Cristall - the alias of a ritzy gambler visiting Canto Bight Perron - Mon Mothma's husband Willander - a stodgy, mustachioed colonel in the Rebellion Perreault - a Rebel spy carrying valuable information. Once he uploads the data to an R2 unit… it's curtains. Reinbacher - a helmsman on the Executor (Imperial navy) Honzek - smuggler, gambler, scum... you'd like him. Yager - human A-wing pilot, but it's an A-wing with experimental superfast sublight engines. Hameenaho - a Mon Calamari X-wing pilot Leonard - boring! Moore - boring! Sale - boring! Ritchie - The younger kid neighbor on Tatooine who thinks Luke is the bee's knees. Luke is totally annoyed by him and doesn't want anything to do with him. Then, one day Luke is asked by Owen to drive Ritchie into town as a favor for the neighbors. In this 23-minute episode, Luke learns a valuable life lesson that even annoying kid neighbors can turn out to be pretty cool. Zeb Forsfjall - a Lasat. There aren't many of them left. Bonk - a boxy droid waddling around saying, "Bonk! Bonk!"

Jackikin Eichwalker and his Golden Knights in game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final saying hello to the Florida kids without Tkachuk.

Overall, it's been a very entertaining hockey season.

If he's unprotected. The Sabres GM/coaching staff was still very high on TNT's potential. Super-duper hindsight says we protect: Eichel, Reino, Tage, Mitts, Dahlin, Risto (to trade), Joker, Borgen, and Ullmark. It would depend on what Seattle's leadership thought of VO, knowing he was not a defensive forward but had a lethal shot. They probably take Asplund if this is the 4+4 setup. Who the Sabres Protected in 2021: Asplund (F), Bjork (F), Eichel (F), Mittelstadt (F), Olofsson (F), Reinhart (F), Thompson (F), Dahlin (D), Jokiharju (D), Ristolainen (D), Ullmark (G) Available in 2021: Caggiula (F), Dea (F), Eakin (F), Fogarty (F), Girgensons (F), Oglevie (F), Okposo (F), Rieder (F), Sheahan (F), Skinner (F), Smith (F), Borgen (D), Davidson (D), Irwin (D), McCabe (D), Miller (D), Nelson (D), Houser (G), Hutton (G), Tokarski (G) He waived his NMC with about a week before the expansion draft knowing Seattle was staying away $9M/yr and coming off a 7-goal season.

The Sabres were in the Final in their 5th season. Just gotta cash in the chances you get.

If he hadn't already requested a trade, they'd likely have gone with his preferred surgery as the face of the franchise. They'd have seen it as risky, but he'd almost led them to the playoffs (play-in) and had gotten better year-after-year up to that point. But once he said he was out, they weren't going to risk his trade value.

That's fair. Risto turned into Hagg, Rosen, Karlsson, and the 2023 PHI 2nd still to be determined. Joker (1st rounder) had just been acquired for a 1st rounder; they weren't going to keep Borgen over that investment. They should have exposed Bjork and gone 4F-4D with Borgen, but he was the fresh new acquisition from the Hall trade and no one wants to give up on their newly traded-for piece. But then, maybe Seattle takes Skinner or Okposo and there's no 1st liner resurgence or Dad-figure? (Doubtful, it's true, because cost. But it could've happened.)

In Russia, they describe Samuelsson as the "Voorhees Township Novi".

I'm not sure it's so much a matter of suburbia as where in suburbia/boonies. It's a matter of access for the entire metro region. Arlington is smack between Dallas and Fort Worth. For Orchard Park's comparison it'd be as is <looks at map> ... Springville... was another city with 250,000 people. NE New Jersey has another 2-4M people within a short distance of the Meadowlands coming from the opposite direction of NYC. If it's centrally located and you've got population centers of 6M and 20M, suburbia isn't really an issue. If you're winning (and the tickets aren't music concert cost), then the more casual fans will show up. If you lose for 10 years, you won't have nearly as many kids asking to go to a game. You won't be able to rally a few friends to make a weeknight of it to go watch your team get caved.

I don't think they were downgrades relative to Detroit's prior roster. Copp is an upgrade over Suter/Rasmussen as 2/3C from the previous season. The issue is if Larkin (very good but not great) is your 1C, you'd better have another 1/2C caliber as your 2. But Copp is not that. He's a low 2/good 3. Maybe in a couple seasons if Kasper becomes a 1/2 and Larkin is a 1/2 and Copp an overpaid 3 it'll work out for them.

Overall, I'm fine with the latest expansion rules. This latest protections of 7-3-1G or 8-1G at least gave the newcomers a chance to get 1 NHL/tweener player off your roster.o The last expansion (Wild/BJs) the league didn't have a salary cap in place, so this time around there would be "better" players exposed because of cap implications. It was up to VGK/SEA whether to take those established higher-priced veterans vs. potential or about-to-breakout players. The 2000 protections of 9-5-1G or 7-3-2G + no salary cap meant the only real option was to go full youth movement. What I didn't like about the new expansion? Seattle's delay: They set their date. Then, GMs and players/NHLPA planned and signed contracts that would either expose or protect them or head to UFA accordingly. Then, Seattle put off the expansion for a year. I understand Seattle's reason for the delay, but it was a move that should have come with expansion protection modifications. I would have extended all ineligible players out 1 year in time to meet Seattle's new timeline. VGK should not have been exempt from the expansion draft, especially if the League was going to allow Seattle to shift back a year. Your roster is established by year 3, you're a real GM, you play by the same rules as everyone else. The long-term workaround on this would have been forcing both teams to enter the same season and do a true expansion draft. That way, the 7-3-1 or 8-1 protections make tons of sense. You're losing 1 good player, but which team takes them... that's the fun.

In watching the WHL Final, Benson was the better player than Savoie. Both had the instincts and the awareness, but Benson was more dynamic and shiftier. Of course, paired together on the same line in Winnipeg they were simply eaten up and beaten up by bigger, but just as fast Seattle T-birds guys playing aggressive defense. If Benson is the pick, then you might as well trade Savoie.