Broken Ankles

At the time, based on the years remaining to Weber’s contract it was unanimously decided it was a horrible trade by the Canadians. The savings was only $1m annually AAV but you were committing more years to a player who was 4 years older. And my point is a 32 year old came in and solidified the blue line. Ligers argument against Pietrangelo is he is too old at 30. I disagree.

Will Borgen cannot play #1 minutes regardless of his pairing. For the same reasons Risto should not have been put in that position. Let me add to my previous list the ‘Clean Slate’ philosophy. If an advocate, it would be better in the locker room to hear one new voice, and lose three. And let me also add, Risto might be the other RD that does stay. If Joki is the lynchpin on a 2C trade which saves #8 overall, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was moved and Risto kept. Depends on what their values are outside the organization.

Seemed to work for the Canadians and Shea Weber. And they don’t even have a Dahlin to supplement that.

Leadership Playoff experience An a perfect pairing partner for Rasmus that can play #1 ES minutes. PK skills (which don’t seem to exist with any of the current 5) The head coach doesn’t seem to think much of Miller. The probable trades of Risto and Montour this off-season. A salary cap year where you are not in a huge bidding war and the cost for a top-flight D will be less than others. If the Sabres trade Miller, Montour and Risto (not saying this is likely) it makes sense to add stability. The average AAV between a Pietrangelo and Will Borgen wold be about the same as Risto and Miller.

F*%k Tom Wilson. Bravo to Anders Lee for standing his ground against a heavyweight.

An inexperienced card player can obviously be intimidated in a head to head battle in the game of poker. Bluff, steal pots or put you on tilt. But in the games where I have dominated or placed in tournaments where there has been better competition, having good cards was an equalizer. And good cards in this analogy is the Sabres situation relative to the Salary Cap and many other teams in the exact opposite position. Adams should not feel compelled to make a ‘swing for the fence’ type of trade. It may find him, but I doubt it. I’m assuming he is placing calls but probably fielding more. Teams with no room must call teams like DET/BUF/OTT because there just aren’t many others (even in the middle) that can help. This can create an artificial type of confidence during these one/one discussions. How many scenarios has SabreSpace put out there for the 2C alone? So Treliving wants too much for Monahan? Thanks Brad, gotta go. I have meetings with Tampa at 1pm and St.Louis at 2pm. As long as his pro scouts has the right values, he should be fine this offseason.

Stastny has only one year left.

Vancouver trade - no thank you. NYR- I see the point of getting the third however Cirelli is not coming by way of offer sheet. Especially for under $6m. The NYR need to pay in excess of a first round to take King Henry. Think Leafs/Carolina. Not the Sabres paying with a #8/Casey. Big overpay. I’m in the minority but I think Tuch is highly overpaid. I can accept him on the first line with Jack And Jeff, but ONLY if it means Reinhart and Victor are there with a reliable 2c. I would trade Montour and a future second (21/22) for Tuch and stastny, both overpaid cap dumps by Vegas needing to reset after a Cup run. Lastly, why trade Risto for some Magic beans? They can fill in the 4th line with Lazar and Okposo and a Street UFA making $800k or Roch. Risto is as good as gone, but a right shot D with a reasonable contract who plays PP and second line minutes brings more. Always appreciate your trade ideas!

Correct and Apologies. Substitute NYR for Montreal.

That pick is lottery protected, so they have a damn good chance at #1 overall. I hate the fact Montreal, Pittsburgh, Edmonton and Toronto are all in on this.

Same error. Please correct this ASAP as a Sweet Lou trade is like catnip.

Appreciate the insight on the timing of the horn. Never thought this was an issue but makes sense. What are you suggesting as the replacement horn? And is the recommendation because it’s a new administration and clean slate? I would get rid of that song (clear my throat) and employ a rotation of songs based on the goal scorer, not one for the team.

Is that where GASabresiufan has been hiding?

Milbury is better as a color analyst than on set. He is not good at either, but better in the booth.

Incredibly astute historical analogy. Have you been to The Roosevelt inaugural site? Renovated a few years ago. Quite impressive. on topic - if there are hockey gods, then a team like Minnesota or Nash should win. But there aren’t and we need to reluctantly cheer for a Toronto victory so there can be zero percent chance for the Leaves to win.

If this philosophy (which I subscribe to) is truly the reason Taylor was fired, then Larsson and Grirgs will not be back. It's contradictory to any reason for bringing back either player. I liked the play of our 'GLO' line, but I think there is value in fresh starts. New dynamics can evolve inside the locker room.

I think you forgot Lenny Bruce, Bob Hope and Mark Twain. If I hadn't seen 4 of these 5 in person myself I say, "Christ are you Old!" Here are my top five: 1.) Jerry Seinfeld 2.) Chris Rock 3.) George Carlin 4.) Sarah Silverman 5.) Louis CK (I saw him at small club in NYC back in 1991 - met him after his set.) honorable mentions: a.) Sam Kinison - Died too early, but had some great HBO specials. b.) Sebastian Maniscalco - probably my favorite to watch today. c.) John Mulaney - too young to be considered great, but definitely rising fast.

How or why would the TB GM float Killorn (or Johnson) as a possible trade option when they both have NTC and you won’t know their temperature to accept a trade until after the season? On the other hand, of all the Centers mentioned, Cirelli and Strome seem to be the most likely candidates to increase in value during the playoffs. Going back to Calgary, does Monahan’s value actually increase if he plays well? I think he is a known-known. Same with The Phx options. What about Copp? He is getting a chance on FL#1 without Scheifle. Could his stock rise significantly? I think so. I llean toward the WPG option only because Ehlers has been rumored as a trade chip for over a year and their desire for RD seems to be greater than others. Lastly because that option would not require #8 overall. Which I would prefer we keep if at all possible.

I agree completely with the bold. Didn't trade as much capital as TM but outside Skinner they were mostly shite. And while Kane and O'Reilly were clearly the best players in those respective trades, and typically you judge the winner as who got the best player, time has shown us that had we held off the O'Reilly/Kane deals, perhaps Colorado trades him to another team in Feb at the deadline that year, and maybe he signs a long term contract to avoid UFA in July but the Sabres might have been rewarded with Matthews the next year instead of Nylander. And I'd like to believe that maybe one of the 4 picks between 21-43 was going to be Aho or Boeser or Carlo. Here is a little nugget from researching those draft picks from TM. An early trade by TM is moving Halak to the Caps immediately after getting him as part of the return in the Miller/Ott trade. He gives up Halak and the 2015 3rd for Neuvirth. Seemingly innocuous. And, he gets gets a 3rd in return from the Isles (+ Chad J) for Neuvirth a year later which on paper is kind of a wash. In retrospect keeping Halak would have been best. But only 9 picks after this 2015 3rd round selection (#62 overall was the pick we traded) one Anthony Cirelli is selected by Tampa Bay. Would our scouting staff had Cirelli in their sights if they had a pick here? They drafted Guhle and Borgen in the 2nd and 4th. We will never know but interesting to speculate what that pick would have been had it not been traded.

.....and then he missed two other glorious chances after the penalty shot.

Looking at this from a net draft count is not telling the whole story. The narrow scope of just draft picks, with no assigned value does show a net positive for TM. However when you add the draft value of what each pick is assigned based on the round and position within the round, as well as the value of the prospect given/received in the transaction of trade (which is not factored in your evaluation) the net loss under Murray is more substantial. Below is a breakdown of the trades and the estimated net value of the exact draft pick or prospect. If you look at the total number of outs (draft and prospects) they are the same at 16. Only the value of Murray's out's is 79% higher than that of JB's. My own personal feeling is that if you factor into the equation how much more valuable the draft picks were in 2015, it makes the 4 he gave up for Lehner, Kane, O'Reilly and Fasching even that more egregious. If we could only see the order of what his scouts had on the draft board through pick # 43......but alas. **also note this commentary is in no way, shape or form support for JB's trades and how he treated the currency of draft capital. It just looks at the individual draft pick for what it's worth, not as equal in value.

The trade for Raanta included Tony DeAngelo and #7 overall. Now that #7 pick has not played out well for NY but would you trade a prospect #21 overall - say Joki, and this years #8 overall for a back up goaltender (low AAV not withstanding), and a 50 point center who makes $7.1m (cap adjusted for Stepan)? Stephan has quickly declined to a 30 point center and is now part of the cap Hell I was referring to. They have $1.5m is space, $5.5m with Hossa on IR, to sign 5 players. That’s well below league average. Darcy K was a nice find. Watched him play for the Kings a number of times. But he got paid, so now they have $9m of their cap dedicated to the position for both players. Also the Pacific division was a consensus worst of all 4 divisions this year, and last. If your argument is he’s better than JB I concede. But that is such a low bar. IMO, he has done nothing to warrant consideration for a top position with the Sabres organization.

What has Chayka done in 4 years? The team is worse for the wear under his 4 year tenure and they spend to the cap. Dare I say they are in 2020 cap jail? He has lost most of the trades they have made, including the Hall deal. He’s nothing better than JB, with the exception of his willingness, nay reliance on analytics in his decision making. Let’s review: Cap team, middling results, and loses trades - sounds like he has all the characteristics of a Pegula hire. p.s. A bit of schadenfreude, but considering how Buffalo has been the poster boy for dysfunction, I’m taking comfort in this debacle.

Why are you forgetting Little Nikita? He's the only one other than Point without a NMC. And his return would be bigger, would it not? Your valuation on Cernak is $5M? Or is it Serg with $5M and Cernak at $3M? If you offered 4 years at $4.2M for Cernak the Offer Sheet calculator suggests the comp is only 1 second round pick. A better bridge (outside State taxes) than Tampa could offer.

If that’s the case, you expect Vesey to take a haircut and Son of Lars penciled in for raise? Should make for an interesting experiment. Not that I want Vesey on our team, but I could see him get more and get signed faster than Larsson.