DarthEbriate

To be fair, Bjork is a Rochester player.

Chicago mishandles the request and types in "Korchinski" instead of "Welinski". We can dream.

Oh man, that Bogo debut! Steve Bernier! Also of note the trade tree now stands as: Marcus Johansson --> Eric Staal --> 2021 MTL 3rd (Josh Bloom) + 2021 MTL 5th (Viljami Marjala) + D Riley Stillman

So for the moment this trade tree reads... Taylor Hall + Curtis Lazar = Aleksandr Kisakov + future considerations

Dreger says there's another Aho who'll be even better than Sebastian Aho (the forward one) coming back from Chicago. CJ I. Aho. I've never heard of him though. 😇 As nice as this is to treat Bjork with respect as a player and person, and as much as I love "Skoren de Goalen bjork bjork bjork!", I'd prefer that Adams be helping the Sabres for the stretch and not worry about the feelings of a bottom 6 forward on the Amerks. Priorities!

If it follows the Nashville Jeannot trade: 2024 1st, 2025 2nd, 2026 3rd, 2027 4th, 2028 5th, 2029 1st, etc. Just Saros? I'd say Comrie or UPL, conditional 2023 protected 1st, Rosen or Kisakov, and a 3rd. I was drafting up a goalie instead of the other 1st.

Quick comes off the bench with the VGK trailing LAK in game 2 of the series. Already down 1-0 in the series and trailing 3-0 after one in game 2.... can Quick exact vengeance on his old team? Could be a fun playoff. How many 1st and 2nd round picks does VGK give up for a backup goalie?

It's possible, however unlikely, they might find a weakness... and exploit it. But I doubt it because any good goalie with term would block Levi who hasn't even signed a contract yet.

Oh! So when Eichel is controlling the GM he's a GM and coach-killer. And when it's a GM making promises to Giroux it's all good and happy Chychruns? 😇

Well, sure, but Quick hasn't been good in ages. Good teams don't keep bad players just because the player helped them win 10 years ago: that's poor management. Instead, look at the Kings -- in 2nd place in their division, with a loaded farm system and an upward arrow. And no destined goalie of the future. Portillo's going from one potential bright future to another.

Just pondering... Just pondering... Hall is on LTIR. Let's say he's really hurt and out 6 months (highly doubtful, it's going to be 6 weeks), but let's just ponder for a moment. He's got a 16-team M-NTC he would have submitted at the beginning of this season. If you're Boston's GM... do you ship him to one of the tankers or also-rans to give them the "Hall for 1st" guarantee? I'm betting the Saint Louis wasn't on his no-trade list to start the year. Vancouver? Big-market Chicago? All the others in the bottom 10 probably were on his list. Trade for Hall, guarantee yourself Bedard. Add one more guy and you've got a top line right there for a few more years! Hall finds himself right back on a last-place rebuild being overshadowed by a kid. Hall doesn't deserve nice things. Make it happen!

It's entirely dependent on Bergeron and Krejci and who they have to replace them. They're two of the best 2-way centers in the league and they're making a combined $3.5M. Take them both off the ice for a season and that team is a shell.

The Bruins aren't in cap hell. They're all in this season and only have $11M in cap space next year after the Pasta deal. Lots of bottom 6 holes to file, yes. But if they get Krejci and Bergeron for a combined $3.5M next season like they are this year, then they can still ice a perfectly good roster with a bunch of small contracts because the top 3 lines will be set. There's no reason they can't retain one of Orlov or Bertuzzi next season if Bergeron/Krejci retire or play for next-to-nothing again. Now -- once Krejci and Bergeron hang them up -- that's when we'll see what really happens there.

The Cap as a total joke is the NFL, though you do have to work in floating 5-year increments based on when you decide to apply the signing bonuses. So... the NFL cap is not the hard cap it claims to be, but it isn't a total joke. It's not 'Nam is what I'm saying: there are rules. The Concept of the Cap has only one big loophole in the NHL and that's that an LTIR player isn't out until the start of the next league year. Close that loophole and this Cap is both hard and downright vicious. Speaking of LTIR: Taylor Hall has been placed on it, thus the Bertuzzi pickup for Boston. While Hall is definitely hurt, I'm guessing it's one of those where he'll be out until exactly April 16th, but he'll be able to practice with the team (but not be cleared to play) for a couple weeks before then.

If you move Anderson then you sell the season and any chance of the playoffs. You'd need to also send Okposo with retention (for cap floor and also a higher pick in return), Girgs for... a 2nd?, and Hino... for a 5th? out immediately. edit: Check that. If you retain all 50% on Girgs you might be able to get a 1st for him as a rental. There are contenders who'd love his game and it's worth the late, late 1st and the deflation of draft picks this season. The circle would be complete: Gaustad -> 1st -> Girgs -> 1st

I hope the Sabres are awake from the start, play with urgency, play with the passion they did in their last game against Boston, and win again.

While the D is young and the forwards sometimes really struggle in their own zone and all the RJ "Not out!"s over the years... it's really come down to this. JBot and GM Sheevyn have neglected goaltending since the instant Hutton's eye was injured. Arguably since Miller was traded, but there were tank reasons to not worry about it then. As soon as Hutton's eye became an issue they needed a veteran starting goalie. Ullmark was improving and became a slighty-above-League-average starter while with the Sabres but had no backup. They let him walk. Since then it's been designed around a player that was about to retire which is a garbage plan. No pressure, Levi! (Darth Aside: Though, as the spawn of the trades of Reino Amidala and Jackikin Eichkwalker... [Princess] Levi and Tuch [Icewalker] are the destined leaders of the destruction of 2 Cups [sandwiched by a Cup-loss to Eichel Strikes Back in the Final], then another Cup and ... whatever Snoke's ship counts for... as their careers end... depending on how you interpret the sequels.)

One note: because of retention, McCabe is only costing the Leafs $2M/year each of the next two seasons. That's a fantastic deal for a guy who can be a 4 with the right partner, and excel as a 5.

A full list with some RFAs here: https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2024/caphit/all/defense?stats-season=2023 Several of the enticing ones (Dunn, Miller) will get locked up by their current teams before hitting free agency. Unlikely to find any top-4 available in UFA this summer, but there will be lots of 5/6/7 options.

11. 😇 Out of more than 2000. Listen... I'm not saying he was a contender, just that he was noted for his defensive skills as a forward and earned some votes. It's really sad that the only other Sabre to even get a vote last season for any major award was VO. 28 votes for the Lady Byng. He finished 23rd. https://www.hockey-reference.com/awards/voting-2022.html But this year will be quite different.

GM Sheevyn says:

The spring of 2012 and a heroic charge to 9th. The Sabres got into 8th place with a win over the Caps with 5 games to go (knocking the Caps into 9th), then lost to PIT and @TOR to effectively end their season and miss the playoffs by 3 points. They've not gotten close to 89 points since then, but are on pace to surpass that this season.) I saw Ville Leino score 2 goals in Vancouver just a few days after that Gaustad trade. Kassian scored 1G-1A against the Sabres after being swapped for Hodgson.

Asplund finished in 19th place in Selke voting last year.

Not in my 1-0-0-4-1 five goalie defensive mastermind system. We call it the ultimate Alamo Death Star II mode.

And Moulson and Cody McCormick did.