mjd1001

Zegras is 'flashier', he may be more exciting to watch/provide more highlight reel clips. But that doesn't make him a better player. Unless it was a very good bargain, I'm not interested in him...I don't think he would bring in as much as what you might have to move out to get him.

As if people from the right side of the aisle have never done things for the goal of getting votes instead of doing what is right? Laughable comment.

I don't disagree with you in the fact that I WANT him locked up long term. That is the best case scenario in my mind. However, you said he shouldn't be capable of getting top money long term, but if he thinks he should then that is why there is no extension yet. If you don't want to listen to anything less than 6 years (from the Sabres point of view) that may be another reason why there is no extension yet. You can't put the pen in his hand and force him to sign what you want him too. I'm not disagreeing with anything points you make, other than if Dahlin and his agent don't think the same way, THAT is why we are closing in on camp stat with no extension for him (yet). One side is going to have to give in a little bit, lets see which side that is.

He might be betting on the cap being in the upper $90m-$100m range in 2029 when his 5 year deal would be done. If he thinks he is a top 5 D-man in the league then, and in his prime, he will then be looking at a contract closer to $13 or $14m per year then. I'm guessing his thinking is why not get 5 years at $10 or $10.5 now..and then cash in 5 years later when as a D-man he will be in his prime AND the cap is likely to be much higher. From his point of view, long term he probably has more potential earnings going 5 instead of 8. Another thing to think about....Thompson and Cozens are likely to be this teams stars up front going forward. Their deals are done in 2030. If Dahlin signs an 8 year extension, his deal won't be done until 2032. He might want the 5 year deal so he is up again BEFORE Cozens and Thompson are up. He and his agent may not want them to 'take all the money', he may want to be first in line for it.

Would I want a player like Dahlin tied up for 8 instead of 5? Sure do, especially for a D-man where their career peak years go a bit longer. Remember that he is under contract for another year and this extension would start a year from now...so if he signs for 5 years, you have him here for 6 more from the current time. That is a LOT of hockey.

I've always thought Favre was the best comparison for Allen. High energy, throw caution to the wind, reckless at times, very high risk, high reward. One thing you have to remember about QBs like they are....they don't have just 'bad games' or 'bad months'. They have great years and bad YEARS. Look at Favre's career: -Favre won the MVP in 95, throwing almost 40 td's (38 actually) and 13 ints. 0.2 points away from a 100 QB rating. He won the MVP next year in 96 with 39 passing tds. -3 and 4 years later he was bad, (1998 and 99) he had back to back seasons with over 20 ints in each, with one season with a QB rating in the 70's. -2 seasons later in 2001, he is back to being great, almost 4000 yards, 32 tds, only 15 ints, and a 94+ qb rating. -Then in 2003-2005 he was really bad, he threw 67 ints over 3 seasons. In 2005 and 2006, he threw a total of 38 tds and 47 ints over those 2 seasons. In 2005, his qb rating was 70.9. -Then he came back to being great in 2007-2009 to throw for over 4000 yards in 2 of those 3 seasons. In 2009, a 107.2 qb rating, with 33 td and only 7 ints. When you have a QB that takes chances, and after a few years it appears he isn't going to change...odds are he won't change. Again, forget about a good game followed by a bad game, or a good month followed by a bad one. You may get a good year or two (MVP caliber) followed by a year or two where he looks like he is on the way out of the league, only to get back to close to MVP form a year or two later again. There may be no way to 'fix' Allen, now way to 'reign him in'. No guru to change his style. He just may be what he is...and his career might be higher highs and lower lows... more than many of us want.

Its worse than that. For most of the 2021 season (ESPECIALLY the 2nd half) and the first half of last season, he cut down on those bad throws quite a bit. Its not that he is just making the 'same bad throws' as always, he actually has regressed from the progress he has made. One thing I have noticed (at least my opinion) that has changed is the lack of medium-length throws. The throws that travel 12-225 years beyond the line of scrimmage. I don't have any stats to support this, but compared to last season and the season before, it seems like those throws are lacking. Now there are a lot more under 10 years passes or simply chuck it downfield as far as you can. The medium length passing game seems to be a lot smaller part of this offense. (either its not there at all, or it is just a lot less successful than it was).

How about all drafted players have one year shorter? Probably only matters with first rounders, but even if you made all drafted players have a year shorter waiting time, it is a small fraction of all players in the chl.

One similarity to the 05-06 campaing: The previous season the Sabres (of course) did not make the playoffs, but had a young team. 3 of the top 5 teams in the league the season played previously were Boston, Tampa, and Toronto. Buffalo would pass them, as they either had major changes to their rosters and/or an aging team.

Allen played very poorly. It is just one game. My belief all along was he was hurt the 2nd half of last year and it impacted his play, and once he starts playing 'not hurt' this year he would go right back to being a top-5 MVP candidate. But, he made numerous bad decisions. It wasn't just the INTs but he often threw the ball into coverage that a ball should NEVER be thrown into (2 or 3 defenders shadowing his target), while other players were open. He passed up on running or taking the 'almost sure' first down for something bigger that never came to be. He had a very bad game, much worse than I thought. Lets hope this was a one week thing. As for the rest of the team, nothing is really different to me. The OL was "OK" but not great/good. The defensive backfield looks old and slow. The pash rush was improved. Again, not much to take from just one game. Allen needs to get a lot better.

Whatever. Learn to not always need to get the last word in to prove your point. Sometimes I let things go, but not when you are being such ar Hard *** about this. You really need to get a new hobby if the reply I gave you caused this lengthy of a reply. I can't and wont even read all of that. I made my point, don't try so hard to always be right.

You are really reaching to split hairs to prove your right. Aren't you? Settle down a little bit. Stop making enemies by nitpicking on tiny facts and look at the big post overall. If he didn't play it 18... My error but the point still stands he played at a younger age than Sanderson and if he wasn't 18 he was 19. I just guess some people like you don't like being responded to with a different point of view than your own and you will search for a technicality to call someone else out on. Loosen up. It does make talking to other people and engaging in the message forums a bit more fun if everything is in a confrontation. At

What are you talking about. I was replying to your post saying how can Power ask for $9m? Did you even read your own post I was replying too? Of course it is not factually accurate. You asked how he could ask for $9m, and I was giving the case as to how he could ask for more than Sanderson. Follow the chain of the conversation for context people, especially when it is reply to your own post.

I would at this point bridge Power rather than pay him over $9m at this point. But he can justify a bit more. He's not Sanderson, he is slightly better in a few ways: -Sanderson 5th overall pick, Power 1st overall pick. Slight advantage Power -Sanderson started his NHL career at age 20, Power was good enough to start at 18. Slight advantage Power -First full season for each last year, Sanderson 4g, 28a, -6. Power 4g, 31a +10. Slight advantage Power. -First full season, Power given/trusted with about 2 more minutes of Ice time per game. Advantage Power. Maybe those things will or won't matter long term for who is better, but the metrics are what we have now, and all of them are slightly in Favor of Power and his agent will be using them all. If I was Power/his agent, I know I would think based on the above I deserve about 10% more than Sanderson.

If they get Dahlin locked up long term, I'd be 'open' to a bridge deal with Power. That doesn't mean I'd PREFER a bridge deal.....normally I hate bridge deals. But, with Cozens, Thompson, and Dahlin locked up long term I think you have some flexibilty where you can Bridge Power and it won't hurt you as much in the future.

Good point. One of the reasons I have soured a bit on the NFL and the Bills is just the oversaturation. ESPN saying more and more controversial things just to get viewers/interaction/clicks. Social media being full of non stop, often times non-sensical talk about it. The hype, etc. It gets to be too much for me at times. When a sport gets that big (you can also see it a bit in F1 racing and Soccer, even the NBA a bit), it kinda turns me off. I like the NHL in part because there is a little of that, but when you watch a game you can just watch the game and not get hit over the head with all the extra stuff the 'bigger sports' give you.

When he's ready to come back in January, he practices with the Sabres for a week or two, then goes to Rochester to play for 2 weeks to get re-acclimated to the speed of the game. He comes back to Buffalo in late Jan/ early Feb, starts out very slowly, but is almost back up to speed by the end of the year. Plays 30 games, 7-10 goals, 15 assists. Better play at the end of the year then when he first comes back.

If he's healthy, similar production as last year. 10 goals, 30 points. 4th liner that gets a day off occasionally (once or twice per month), and if the rest of the team gets hammered with injuries, he can still function on a 2nd Power play unit (not ideal but he wouldn't be out of place)

At the moment, I see Clifton as a pretty good 5/6 guy, and an acceptable 2nd pair guy. Someone who can thrive on 14-16 minutes per game. I HOPE he is more than that, if only slightly so. I want to see him be a guy that you can trust at 20 minutes per game.

I don't like missing the college football games (I watch some, but not a lot) and I do not like missing the F1 race last week, but putting emotion of the moment aside, I agree with you. We have been in this grey area the last few years of what is on streaming, what requires a cable package..what is changing year to year..etc. If they got to the point where Spectrum did not carry sports, but I could get my basic cable programming from them for an affordable price AND then pick and choose what streaming I want for sports, I'm all for that. The problem right now is some live sports still aren't streaming. The industry needs to decide where it is going and then just get there.

I hated missing my favorite F1 race of the year last weekend from Monza. We aren't there yet, but maybe this is what gets us to a cable tv package with no sports for those that don't want it...and streaming for just about any sport you want. Of course, you need to get ALL the live stuff to streaming (not there yet), and without the entire cable customer base to support the sports, those sports streaming packages may be more expensive overall (people who want sports pay MORE than now, those who don't pay a bit less than they do now) here is an article that discusses this: www.yahoo.com/entertainment/charter-ceo-chris-winfrey-reports-165235682.html Some highlights: Charter CEO Chris Winfrey indicated that little progress has been made in the week-long carriage fight with Disney and said a leaner, ESPN-free TV bundle “could stick” with price-sensitive Spectrum customers. Winfrey reinforced his conviction that Charter is committed to pursuing a permanent shift away from the traditional cable TV business if a Disney renewal is not reached. In recent times, Charter’s management team viewed the company’s broadband business as a supplement to its video offering, Winfrey said. Now, “it’s on the verge of flipping,” with the video side “becoming a liability.” Ultimately, in Winfrey’s view, “it’s going to be Disney that decides” the outcome. The “alternative world” without ESPN and other Disney content would yield “a smaller base of customers” but a more loyal one, Winfrey said. On a broader level, the cable industry veteran acknowledged, a smaller bundle would represent a significant milestone. “I don’t think it’s good for the entire video ecosystem,” he said of a Disney-free Spectrum offering.

It does when it is a proxy for the general view who are the best D-men in the league. If now what are the metrics we can use? Where does Dahlin rank among the top D-men in the league?

But is it? I mean enough for a 40% increase in salary? A forward with Thompsons quality....Thompson's value to this team is in terms of goal scoring. I went to NHL.com and looked at scoring per 60. Last year Thompson was 10th in the league. Over the past 2 seasons he is 5th in the league. Goals per game played? He's 11th. And that is with him playing injured for a good part of the last quarter of the season. If he is healthy and progresses even a tiny little bit, he can/should be in the top 10, if not top 5 in scoring in the league next year. D-men. Scoring isn't as important to a D-men as a forward, so I wasn't sure what metric to use so I just looked at Norris voting. Dahlin finished 8th last year. The previous year he was out of the top 15. Now personally, I think Dahlin is more important overall to the team than Thompson, but I think it is close. But as a forward/center/goal scorer Thompson right now probably ranks in the top 10 in the league (or very close to it) and an argument can be made Dahlin is in the same area when you rank D-men. AND the Top forwards in the league make more than the top D-men do.

Don't exaggerate to make your point. Dahlin averaged just over 25 minutes per game, in the NHL, that is WORLD away from 30 minutes. 2nd, it just doesn't really matter. top D-men almost ALWAYS play more minutes than the top forwards, that is the nature of the position. The best D-men in the league play. Karlsson, Dahlin, Makar, Doughty, Josi, Fox...all averaged about 25 minutes per game. McDavid, McKinnon, Draisatl, Pastrnak, Robertson, Hughes, Matthews...averaged between 18-22 minutes per game. Top forwards, on average DO average 20% less ice time, but the top forwards around the league do NOT get paid that much less (or less at all) than the top D-men.

Exactly my point. In the other 'expection' threads I usually have a pretty strong opinion of most players. This one is different.