DarthEbriate

This current Sabres squad needs a Peca/Kadri/Perry in the very worst way. And it can't be a DLo, or a Kaleta, or a ... Pekar... or even an Angry Larry. It can't be a 4th-line guy. It needs to be someone in the top-6 who's just simply tough to play against on every shift and is going to cause chaos. And can score 20+.

I had been known to yell "Speed kills!" at the TV when we played Philly in those days while we skated circles around those lumbering oafs. Holzinger and Sanderson had elite speed. Primeau, Rasmussen, Brown, etc. were fast young guys. But defensively, they all relied on clutching-and-grabbing just as much as the opposition did on them. That's the re-learning. What concerns me more when I really think on it are ... Peca. Peca was borderline then. We can't have our captain getting suspended left and right. Today, he'd be worse than Kadri. And Smehlik. Smehlik would be in trouble in today's game.

Ahhh... this trade: D McNabb, F Jonathan Parker, and two 2nd round picks (both from LA) to LA for LW Nicolas Deslauriers (AHL), W Hudson Fasching (NCAA B1G Minn) I always liked Fasching's potential as a middle-6 power forward. DLo was a good 4W. But how is that worth a potential 2nd-pairing D and 2 2nds? (And Parker to free up a roster spot.) The real error here was McNabb would have been with the Sabres the following season -- thereby keeping Ristolainen/Zadorov in Rochester where they belonged. Moving him set up a chain reaction that led to rushing kids up when they could have been a) playing top minutes and learning the craft because they were nowhere near polished prospects, b) not brought into a tank situation.

I also always state not to underestimate that 1999 team. But I've got to give the caveat -- the post trade deadline 1999 squad. Because on the shoestring budget of Hasek + some guys... they got to the 7 seed. Swapping Barnaby for Stu Barnes, swapping Wilson for Rhett Warrener, getting Joe Juneau for (...I had to research... Tezikov? Tezikov!). The final iteration was really solid. Kicking Rob Ray and Paul Kruse out of the lineup. I don't know if I'd swap the '99 squad sans Hasek for today's roster. I'd take the '99 squad plus prime-Hasek. 🍺They'd have to learn a different non-clutch-and-grab game. But yes, we'd be entertained. This, too. That was a frustrating team to watch. But oh so very entertaining.

Yes. And it was a disappointment both times. (Gah... Vanek's leg... ). But that's also just the way it goes once you make the playoffs. TBL lost in the first round against Columbus a few years ago. In '05-'06, Detroit lost in the first round (while we were a juggernaut 4 seed). In 1998-1999 we were the 7 seed, in 97-98 we were the 6 seed. Just gotta get to the playoffs -- then live it day-by-day.

Then he needs to stop authorizing paying top-dollar on the UFA market to get the likes of Leino, Ehrhoff, Moulson, Skinner, and Hall (and then buy them out). Instead, go get a Tyler Toffoli + Jake Allen combo. But that's not sexy. Maybe TPeg just read lately that none of the remaining teams in the playoffs has a double-digit million dollar salary on its roster. That'll be the shiny new focus.

I always forget that Leopold scored that one. I just always [edit: remember it as] thought it was simply Foligno willing the puck in via Komisarek completely losing his head.

For myself, the hope is that it's still a veteran roster and most importantly, they had the goaltending. Drafting poorly, Leino... gah. (I still love the Ehrhoff signing and cap hit,just not the front-loading that turned it into a horrible contract.) You get into the playoffs and let the chips fall where they may. We've seen wild runs before and underdogs advance a couple rounds all the time. (You could get a Hamburglar/Binnington playing lights-out, you could get a team missing a bunch of key players, you could win on some bounces in OT.) But if you don't give your team the opportunity to even make the playoffs, then you're casting all hope solely to the future that isn't even there yet. And of course, the tank was successful. The hope was rightfully there and re-established around a new youthful core. Hope can never be the strategy. It must always be there... whether you're the #1 team in the league or the #32. You can expect to compete for a championship, but the expectation of a championship is also not a strategy (and is unfounded because of how these seasons and the playoffs in the NHL play out). We had him right in our sights. (Or White or Samsonov or Beauvillier, etc.)

I count the tank starting point at the "suffering" press conference. We know we have no centers -- Grigs and Girgs are drafted but years away from playing (ideally), Leino is not a C, Roy is traded, Hecht is best-suited as a wing and not part of the future, and Hodgson and Ennis are going to top out at 2Cs at their best. We're going to suffer to get those top centers in the draft. McDavid is looming. I had to go back to check it -- 4/29/2013 is the press conference (or 4/28, if the articles came out the next day). We'd just finished the lockout season 21-21-6. That's where I start the tank. Others may not agree with me. But my tank begins with "suffering" and the nosedive 2013-2014 to get Reinhart and then the continued stall to get McD/Eichel. Prior to that, we're in a XGM Regier rebuild --- is it working? Meh. We're trending downward as the core ages. But the previous three seasons had resulted in 1st in division - playoff berth (09-10), 2nd in division - playoff berth (10-11), and 3rd in division (11-12) and a heroic charge to 9th. Good enough? No. Stuck in no-man's land and faltering? Yes. Were those three seasons suffering? Gosh no.

The decision to tank (for Eichel/McDavid) and dismantle the organizational depth down to the studs --- to the extent that both Buffalo and Rochester were bottom-dwellers in their respective leagues --- is the reason this team has sucked for a decade. So I guess, maybe we could blame Eichel/McDavid for that. But really that's on TPegs and whoever sold it to XGMDR. Was it Eichel on the ice? Absolutely not. Trading a 1C in ROR while Eichel was still becoming a solid 2C was horrible. Having consistently-below-average goaltending behind a youthful roster... horrible. Hiring a coach who wanted to play a defensive shell 100% of the time and sit solely on the PP as the means of offense... horrible. Tons of reasons beyond Eichel for this team being terrible on ice.

When GM Sheevyn's phantom menace coup finally reached its realization, all that was needed was to remove the one final viable competition from a position of power. That last thread is Jack-ikin Eichwalker. He's more machine now than man, and soon will be traded to some star cruiser in Outer Rim to waste away, from from the city-planet of KeyBank Center. Every GM gets at least 3 years to make over the roster in their own choosing. Except here... here it's sometimes shorter.

It's time to write, direct, and produce another trilogy.

I think it'd be worth the Canadiens' 5th or our 6th to get Seattle to bite on Miller instead of Borgen/Bjork. Simply because they're NHLers and the 6th Seattle could use to stock their farm. Remember, they have to put together an entire AHL roster, and in a season or so, they'll partner with an ECHL team as well. Or this. Particularly if you pick up a D in a near-same-day Eichel move.

They became Deslauriers and Fasching. *zing*

I also believe this trade is really close. Maybe ensure that that 2022 1st is lottery-unprotected (unconditional). Maybe another toss-in prospect who projects more to AHL/4th liner. But it has the constituent parts. And I'm hoping if that's the offer, that GM Sheevyn says "Nope. Where's the Zegras/Drysdale?"

You're not going to die in childbirth trade Eichel just for the 3, Gibson, the rights to Lundestrom, and Derek Grant, @Randall Flagg, I promise. No, I promise you!

Hasek was so very fun to watch. Even moreso because the Sabres teams in front of him were sometimes quite scoring-challenged so he had to be fun to watch. I really, really would have loved to see Peca on that 00-01 squad. That iteration had serious depth. Baby Dumont, baby Afino, old-timers in Andreychuk and Gilmour. Gratton would have been the 4C with Peca present. We'll never know. And always the caveats --- that '99 team was much better than given credit for. Three 2Cs and a 3/4C, fast wingers all around, really complementary defense, stymie-and-counterattack offense. But that Dallas Stars team was a star-studded roster. At that time in everyone's careers, up and down that lineup, I think you take the Stars player at nearly every position except Hasek (+ research: Stu Barnes over Carbonneau at 3C; and Satan over Jere Lehtinen at 1LW). And Belfour was no slouch either, especially with a Hitchcock shot-suppression system and the dead-puck era. (And Colorado and Detroit were even more loaded. We were massive underdogs for good reason no matter whom we played.) And always the dream -- let's magically heal everyone and go again. Give Grosek back a healthy back (he was a beast that season), give Satan back his foot, and give Modano back his wrist/hand. Rock and roll.

Don't sell us SabreSpacers short. 🍺 We can be idiots, too, when we put our minds to it. Myself more than most.

This. Goaltending is the #1 issue since the rebuild started. Lehner/Johnson was a solid tandem for a team not ready to compete. Then Lehner couldn't stop a shootout attempt for anything. Then JBott signed Carter the Hutt and the rest was history. Hutton had 2 good months (Nov 2018, Oct 2019) in his three seasons here, and otherwise he pretty much hung the team out to dry 4 times out of 5. Yes, I know that innumerable other factors contributed. But we saw it the last two seasons as Ullmark solidified his game. This year: Ullmark, average-to-good starting goalie, had this team hanging around .500 in arguably the strongest division top-to-bottom. We'd still have missed the playoffs: fine. But when Ullmark played, we were in the games.

Did you have the accent? I think it's the accent. I don't think it's the shaving-of-the-head to hide a receding hairline. This from someone with eyebrows... or digitally removed eyebrows, depending on when you look. He tampered in Hodgson's domain.

I just don't see Vancouver as a trade target for Reinhart with only one year left on his deal. He can just play this season and then go home as a UFA. They're clearing some bad cap hits this year so they should be able to sign Hughes and Pettersson (Baertschi, Edler, Sutter). And they can buy out Eriksson's final year. Then, they can simply sign Reinhart next season after Roussel, Holtby, and Beagle's poor cap hits come off the books. Then, they wouldn't need to lose any good, cheap pieces along the way.

What we're hoping for future conversations: ++ I can't understand how we won that trade. I thought we were ROR'd. -- The Concept of the Ehrhoff Karmanos can have a strong influence on the TPegs.

I like this. I like this, too. At 1 and 3, give me Eklund and either other guy.

He might consider the Hall-treatment. 1 year, $9M. With a NMC so he can effectively choose his playoff team if he's not enough to get this team to the playoffs. Then, when we do realize we need to move him, he coasts so he doesn't get injured. We end up having to retain half the salary and throw in an overperforming player that season (let's say... Asplund) to make it happen. 😇🍺

This is hypothetical magic of moving Jack, Sam, and Rasmus the Elder. GMTM (pre-) loaded up on heavy forwards, a veteran D-corps (sort of?), and drafted/acquired big Swedish guys to play goal. GM JBot was alllll about puck-moving D. He even traded a 6th round pick from 2018 to take a lower 6th round pick in 2019 otherwise he'd probably have drafted another PMD and he didn't want to look silly. (Fun way to think of it: JBot traded a 5th, 6th, and 7th to trade UP to draft Cederqvist.) -- edit: I really wish Cederqvist was a PMD. I would laugh more. You could look at this thread as --- what kind of team is GM Sheevyn trying to build if he trades Jack/Sam/Risto. What's already here that could be type-of-team-A or play-style-B, and how would that impact the types of players GM Sheevyn would attempt to acquire in said trades. Based on his single five-player draft, Hall experiment, and in-season pickups like Caggiula and Bjork, I don't know we have enough to go on as to what he wants to build. All he's claimed is to try to get players who want to be here (as if a draft pick or a waiver/trade pickup has much of a choice) and play the game the right way, which means... they don't coast or take shifts off? Every GM says that.