#freejame

Of the few Boston fans I’m friends with, most like the guy a lot but are willing to admit some of his more over the top moments are pretty bad. Like when he compared Campbell playing on a broken leg to D-day or Boston beating Montreal to the revolutionary war. As much as it pains me, this is true. It’s the only argument that can be made in favor of Edwards in the “who’s worse debate” between him and Trip Tracy.

Carolina did just pull a similar move with Adam Fox, feel free to use that as an excuse

He was suspended a game.

I would imagine his side would have been looking for 6-6.75 last off-season. I’m hoping he’s between 7-7.5 now, but that may end up being low depending on when he signs and the contracts signed this off-season.

I hope that’s not directed at Brawndo like that. It doesn’t have the most appreciative tone considering the information he provides.

You don’t think Sam was a $5m player last season? Or that he won’t be this year? That’s ridiculous. If Sam got a long term contract similar to his peers last offseason he would have lived up to the value this year (2018-19) and eclipsed it the next.

I don’t think Sam is going to be Nate Mackinnon. I don’t see why he can’t live in the 75-80 point range on a playoff Sabres team though. I’m hoping he’s on a long term contract before that happens because otherwise he’s going to get $9+

Nathan Mackinnon didn’t “earn” big bucks and Joe Sakic got him to sign a long term deal that’s now one of the best contracts in NHL history. In fact, he had very comparable numbers that Sam. What did Eichel do to get his monster extension? His stats and game didn’t scream $10m. Maybe they indicated that he would be worth it by the meat of the deal, but that argument can be made for Sam too. Why wasn’t that a bad deal at the time? There were lots of good comps out there for Sam, all of which he will surpass now. I’m not mad Sam is going to get paid, he deserves it. I’m just not going to pretend to it was the right call.

What’s that mean?

Yeah I definitely don’t see a suspension worthy hit. I was surprised he was even called for a penalty when I first saw it.

Every time someone tries to say nonsense like this it’s disputed by plenty of posters. And people try to say nonsense like this all the time. Just because you like the deal doesn’t mean everyone else did. Plenty of posters wanted a long term deal for Sam. Plenty of posters saw Sam performing the exact way that he did. Great, two years of “cheap” Sam just to pay eight years of an inflated Sam. He’s going to cost at least $12m more now than he would have signing a long term deal.

Who would you look to target in a trade with that pick? And if there is no one interesting does that devalue the worth of the pick and therefore the return?

I agree with this. Eichel has a much higher ceiling than Marner and plays a premium position. That doesn’t mean that right now Marner hasn’t been better though.

I’m not sure it’s the same people holding those views, but if it’s the case I agree.

I’m standing by what I said. Still think Eichel will end up better but Marner has been a better hockey player so far. Marner: 77/19/42/61 65.5% even strength points (15 goals) 2.7 pts/60 82/22/47/69 60.8% ev (14 goals) 3.0 pts/60 82/26/68/95 74.4% ev (22 goals) 3.7 pts/60 Corsi%: 55.9, 58.7, 55.8 Eichel: 81/24/32/56 62.5% even strength points (16 goals) 2.2 pts/60 61/24/33/57 57.9% ev (14 goals) 2.8 pts/60 67/25/39/64 62.6% ev (22 goals) 2.8 pts/60 77/28/54/82 68.3% ev (20 goals) 3.1 pts/60 Corsi%: 53.9, 54.1, 56.9, 57.0 Eichel gets far more ice and plays the power play. Marner has gotten little power play through his career and kills penalties.

In fact, HFBoard just had this debate with Marner winning 52% and 12.8% saying too close to call

I’m not sure many outside of Buffalo agree with that. I would think most would agree with the second part though.

I don’t think Stone and Skinner are the same tier of player, so I wouldn’t say he raised Skinners value too much. I have a hard time believing Marner won’t get a 7x$10.5 offer sheet or 8x$10 from TO At this moment, Marner is a better player than Jack so I don’t think it’s too outlandish. Jack still has a higher ceiling and higher floor in my opinion though. That’s a hard pass for me too. 68 is my ceiling. Anything more and Botts should look offer sheet instead. Making an offer on Tkachuk is difficult without the 3rd and I wouldn’t want to give him more than Eichel so that’s pretty difficult. It was talked about before that we could offer Carolina picks for ours back, but who knows how sweet it would have to be for them to help us. I think Marner is going to be in the $10.5 range, but I’m not sure how Jack would take that.

I meant the latter; thank you!

Is it possible to change the length of an NTC?

I’ve only coached d3 club hockey*. I don’t sell out for wins during little league baseball season and it’s resulted in me being asked to coach the county all-star team in both of my seasons coaching. This upcoming season will be my first as a head coach for youth hockey and it’ll all be focused on developing skating. Like you said, I couldn’t care less about winning when I coach kids, but coaching club is much, much different.

I’m “watching” while I pack for my move. Outside of the very exciting first which I tuned in for, I feel like my not paying attention hasn’t really hurt me.

A dollar more and it’s pretty hard for me to stomach. With a Reinhart extension looming and a lot of enticing free agents, that money might go further elsewhere.

I’ve been wanting the Sabres to take a flyer on him since he produced on my GM Sabre’s team. If he’s there at 30/1, I hope Buffalo grabs him. I might be wrong but I think he was pre-season top ten on several sites but has pretty much unanimously fallen. Someone here can probably tell you more.

I’m pleasantly surprised seeing Bowen Byram with so many votes so far.