PerreaultForever

This is unknown. He may simply be doing what he is told. Adams etc. may have said play the kids so we can see what we got. We know what Irwin and Eakin are etc.

Quite the opposite imo.

no words.

This is silly. Marchand is an incredibly talented player. One of the best in the game. If he was a Sabre you'd absolutely love him and his jersey would be a best seller. So ya, you hate him cause he's one of them, but he doesn't fit in that list at all.

Good game until the last few minutes. We're definitely a better team than we were earlier in the year. It was nice to hear the Boston announcers say "Buffalo is no longer an easy 2 points" as they were laughing at us earlier in the season. A little push back on the March-antics too. Nice to see. Progress.

Exactly. Which is why he's going to be a steal for whoever gets him. Now sure, maybe he never grows up and never gets it, but with the proper development and coaching I think he will. Today's the NFL draft as I'm sure you know. There are countless examples of players who fell in the ranking for various issues and problems and then went on to great careers. Arguably you take a chance, but you have to remember these guys are young and young does stupid but also grows up. Usually.

Ya, no kidding. I've mentioned this one before when we were bitching about Sabres bad drafting. Bruins totally had the right idea loading picks in a very deep draft year but then totally blew it. I can see the DeBrusk pick. The old family lineage scouting bias strikes again, and Zoboril does play in their top 6 now but Senyshyn was a total bust. The players they passed on all so much better. Now if we hadn't picked Nylander................. 🙂

I think he gets marked down because of his lack of discipline. He's hard to rank.

I think he's the next Marchand, I really do. He lacks discipline but he's young. So a pest at first but eventually he could grow into that type of two way scorer as well. He has really good puck control skills and uses them to drive to the net. Not afraid of anything. Good passer and excellent wrist shot. Just like Marchand. Will go right to the dirty areas and would be a perfect complimentary player for some of our fast skilled guys. Exactly what we lack. At best Marchand. At worst Barnaby. That is of course another option, but we don't have all that many trade pieces. The details of any deal up or down are impossible to speculate on. I'm just saying this is my sleeper pick and a guy I'd love to get one way or the other. If we could land a top 5 guy AND him I'd certainly have no complaints.

Marchand was drafted 71st overall.

Right, agreed. Which is why I would consider moving 1 top pick for several lower and grabbing a need type player (who I think could be the steal of the draft) and several development players to stock our prospect pool full.

Nah, it depends on the details. If you think you can land the player you want lower down and add extra there's nothing wrong with that. There's no Eichel/McDavidi/etc top pick this year.

Runs? Sure he does. Tom Wilson? Fine. I disagree but if he's that I'm fine with it. Also disagree he will be there round 2.

You can do that as well, but then you have to give up thing(s). Either way it depends on the details. I just don't see a sure fire star player in the top 10 and am looking at other dark horse candidates. This draft is a bit of a guessing game with the limited games and recent scouting.

Yup. Obviously I'd want something for that down trade. You make it sound like I'd just give away the first overall for say the 17th overall and a bag of pucks. I'd want either multiple high picks in return or another first next year or more depending on what it is. He's the type of player we need, and I'd hate for Boston to get him 🙂 The top picks in this draft are not immediate impact players.

You know the guy that really intrigues me in this draft is Zachary L'Heureux. I would trade down to get him mid 1st round or make a deal for a second first round pick. I know this will raise a few eyebrows and maybe a few scoffs, but I think he could be the next Brad Marchand.

hey same for me. Friday. Finally.

This is an annoying thing to read. https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/taylor-hall-trade-has-transformed-bruins-offense-into-elite-5v5-group/2455897/

Crosby's definitely grittier than he was (back for example in that series where Giroux demolished him and they went down to defeat) . I just meant that team as a whole was a skill team and not very tough but so skilled they won it all. It's a rare occurrence. You're more likely to have a Bruins/Canucks type situation where the more talented ends up on the losing end.

Well, my view is trade Eichel and then signing FAs is wide open and it's the dawn of a new era. BUT, we probably won't, we probably won't do much, and then I just pray we sign a goalie (or two). I am truly afraid this team will think it can stay the course.

Thompson hasn't been good lately imo and I agree with this. I even suggested a benching a game ago. He briefly started to play a little more like a big power forward but has slowly drifted back to all his old bad habits. Guy doesn't get it. Granato is right to demote him.

As always you know everything and there's no talking to you. Have a good day.

First, I've sung the praises of Cozens from the draft onwards. Nothing added needed. Quinn and Peterka remains to be seen. I'm high on Peterka, not sure about Quinn. Second, you win in the playoffs with the ability to face and deter what the opposition throws at you. Again, Tampa got tougher for a reason. Pittsburgh, with prime Crosby is the only recent (arguable) exception to the rule that you need toughness to win it all. It'd be great if you can do that with true power forwards and young studs, but in a salary cap era, generally you need the low cost Simmons type players to fill out the bottom end and your reserves. yes they are. Again, Tampa did pretty good importing it.

I'm not sure what you mean. My point was never that you add Wayne Simmons and suddenly you're a great team, that's silly, but you can't win building a team simply on analytics and/or offensive prowess either. Toronto got beat and beat again by Boston and has made a concerted effort to get tougher, much like Tampa had to do. You need a balanced team in the playoffs that can play to the conditions of the game and the opposition. In one series you might dress fasty mcspeedster and in another you might bench him and play roughy mcroughster but you need to be able to do both, and Toronto is a better team by adding low cost toughness in players like Simmons to their skilled, but soft, upper roster. We haven't faced much of that so some people forget. Nobody has felt it necessary to lay into us because they can beat us with minimal output. IFF we ever get good and fast enough to be a real threat we will see tougher opposition and this roster (with a few exceptions) won't be able to handle it. Mitts has already gotten shoved around a bit, but just a little. Nothing serious yet cause it's not necessary. Dalton Smith's aren't your answer. They need to be a little more skilled than that, but remember when you have toughness on the roster and you feel there are people there who will step up then some of the other players play tougher and bigger too and the whole team gets braver and better.

Assuming we don't trade Eichel and add more grit(which is my preferred option) my view is close to this. I would, however leave the Skinner-Reinhart-Olofsson line intact as I think this combo is bringing out the best in Sam and the dynamics of it work better. R2-Eichel-Cozens intrigues me as a possibility. All 3 can skate, shooter in R2, playmaker/superstar in Eichel carrying and playmaking, and Cozens is strong on the wall and not afraid of net front presence. A good complementary mix. I'm not sold on Thompson or Bjork but for now, is what it is.