PerreaultForever

As a counter, retaining salary for any length of time is a constant reminder and this gives you more of a clean slate. We will be in great shape to add players or sign kids longer term if they earn it even with the Skinner burden. Retaining salary for another pick? Not really worth it.

Finally caught up! Glad it's over! Overall I think a reasonable and fair trade. If Eichel recovers fully and plays to his potential maybe history will say Vegas won the deal, but I think we got about all we could under the circumstances and will be a better team for it. If Eichel really is a s##t and there was locker room issues due to him and such well then we will win the deal hands down and Vegas will slide. Time will tell. My guess is he racks up points and they do well but he will never take them to the promised land and in the long run we will be better. Our foundation is improving. I really like Tuch as a player and think he is exactly the type of guy we need. He is a character guy, a playoff guy, a fierce competitor, and it will rub off on his team mates. Being a local-ish boy won't hurt at all. Once he's back and healthy we are all going to love this guy. Krebs has great potential. I'd really like to see Cozens on his wing IN ROCHESTER for this season. The future is brighter. Wish the pick wasn't lottery protected as Vegas could miss this year with all their injuries but picks are picks and don't mean anything until you see what you get down the road. Helps stock the cupboard. So I'm satisfied. Not ecstatic, but satisfied. and really really glad it's over.

Bigger game for the Kraken. They are a tenacious team and hard to play against but they are very offensively challenged. Likely a low scoring game but if we play as poorly as we did against San Jose we will lose.

I suppose that's true, but if we made him captain, told him we'd mold the team around him...............ya, I know, I know, but a boy's got to dream............

You know the thing I can't get over is they wrote this guy a letter of recommendation. I just can't get past that one glaring point. Unforgivable.

I personally don't get Calgary wanting this deal. They're already good, they play a Sutter brand of hockey which I can't see suiting Jack, a Boston boy ain't going to be happy on the cold prairie, and Tkachuk is loved in that town. I guess they want Eichel vs. McDavid forever??? Seems foolish but I'd love that deal personally. I know some people here won't like it, but I'd be ecstatic if our next captain was Tkachuk. A deal like this would change everything.

I have said this before but will say it again, I think Cozens would be a better winger than center. His skill set is more suited to that and he's quite good along the boards. BUT, at this point I think a stint in Rochester is what he needs. It helped Mitts, it helped Tage, it's time to help Dylan.

I suspect they plan to trade Giordano near the deadline (possible another D man) and thus they are hanging on to Borgen for that time (or sooner if injuries).

Sure it can. Time to accept the reality that this is a tank team. Cozens needs to go to Rochester before we ruin him entirely.

This is beginning to look like the same anemic disorganized mess we've seen for years. Kind of figured this would happen. The D is running around again and making mistakes, we get pushed around in front of the net, and we basically fall apart easily. We're still passing better than last year, and that's good, but lots of other things are looking familiar. Cozens is really struggling and I think it's time to think about sending him down to Rochester. I think it would do him a lot of good, much like it did for Mitts. Best part of the game was, as mentioned above, listening to the anti Kane stuff. Felt satisfying.

I don't think that'll be the case, but I do think he'd benefit from a stint in Rochester right now.

and it's circular, like a drain.

Well see "scoring center" is a bit of a wish fulfillment at this point don't you think? One assist in his last 5 games, he has 5 goals in his entire NHL career. Five minutes in the box really not going to hurt us too much. Cozens isn't a finesse player. He doesn't need a bodyguard. If he develops (big IF) I see him more as a Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry type (although at this point no signs he will be that good) definitely NOT a soft fast big point scorer type. Beef him up, let him play his game. Use his strengths and let him be himself, and that, as I'm sure he'd tell you himself, will involve the occasional fight.

There is absolutely nothing less tiresome than people with nothing to say dragging out old memes like they're meaningful punctuation points. Weak and just too easy and ultimately meaningless. I mean if you just have to at least have some class and use the good version of the Office Since when is Cozens the top line???

But it is a thing. Proof is right there in that fight log. Nobody's debating there's less of it than in the old days but sometimes you still have to step up. I am dead sure this isn't the case, but if the Sabres as an organization admonished Cozens for having that fight, if Granato told him not to fight in the future (as some seem to want) then this team is clueless and I'm out the door cause we will never win in the playoffs if we ever get there with an approach like that. I am 100% sure that's not their view however, that's just the view of a small number of the fanbase who don't have a clue.

Definitely. They have none. Reilly Smith is the obvious dump. Braydon McNabb would be kind of funny but possible unless they unload Theodore. They definitely need to unload multiple salaries without question. UNLESS they are thinking of Kucherov'ing Eichel.

Doubt it. More likely he serves as the money needed to get past the cap floor as the line up will be filled with rookie contracts and low salaries overall. Won't be buying out skinner for years yet, if ever.

Whatever they are they are going to add up to less then they are paying Eichel to sit on his ass. Just finish it. Cap dumps, conditional picks, whatever. We will simply be better off to close the book and call that era done.

Not sure what his age or how smart he is has to with anything. Care to explain that? It's a stereotype to think only dumb players fight. A false one. As for fighting being down from 25 years ago, of course it is, but it's far from gone. https://www.hockeyfights.com/fightlog I think I counted 15 in the last week (including Cozens one). That seems up from last year but definitely not gone regardless. Look at how every cup winner added muscle, beefed up, and fought at least one opponent in their cup runs. You think the Rangers added Reeves for his good looks and off ice flair? Come on man, it's hockey. Dylan got in a fight, he lost a fight, but he stood up okay, he will be just fine and he will fight again. Or would you like to swap his roster spot for Casey Nelson?

Talk to Dylan Cozens about it and I guarantee you he would disagree with you. It's still hockey. It always will be hockey, and if you let yourself get pushed around teams will intimidate you and dominate you. It's not rocket science, it's more like school yard rules. Dylan Cozens is fine.

Emphatically no. It may not be 1987 but it's still hockey and they still intimidate and they still fight and I personally want Cozens to develop into a complete player. The problem is he shouldn't have to take on a punk like Lemieux by himself. My question would be where was the follow up with Murray vs. Lemieux as they talked but ............... We need to be bigger and tougher, there is no question of this. My issue with this team right now is why are we almost always out of gas in the 3rd? We have young guys all up and down the roster but every game we run out of gas so what is it? Bad conditioning? Skating skills unable to maintain the pace Granato asks for (so we start fast but burn out)? Practicing too much and too hard? idk, but if we don't fix this, what we have will burn out and we will fall apart by mid season if not earlier. Not a great game but it had it's moments.

Gorgeous day today so I'm going to record this one and watch it later. Hope it's worth the bother.

I'm not sure a number designation works for any of the lines. maybe Thompson's line is currently the top offensive unit but the Girgs line has been used as a counter/checking line more often than not so far.

idk this feels like step one in dropping him down the line up just like before. Don't see a good outcome.

I hear you, and I agree about Skinner, but Cozens is really good at digging the puck out of traffic or on the wall and getting it towards Skinner creating opportunities. Yes, that combo has some defensive issues, but aren't we more of an attack run and gun thing? Isn't that the plan? Bjork is better defensively cause he had that drilled into him as a Bruin, but if we start doing this aren't we bringing back Kreuger hockey? I do not think Bjork has done anything worth rewarding. At this moment I'd play Hayden ahead of him.