Marvin

Arizona's.

He could work on a higher line, depending on his skills. Brad May created space on Dale Hawerchuk's wing with either Randy Wood and Yuri Khmylev under Dudley -- not that he will have anyone as good as Hawerchuk to play with. Aside: I though letting Wood go before the 1994-5 season was a bad move.

From the standpoint of needing an RHD, NJ makes sense. But given where they are and Ristolainen's dislike of the rebuild, why would they do this?

I believe the quality of a draft is not measured so much how good the players are, although that matters, but how deep the perceived quality is. Even under the usual criteria, this draft is a bit odd. Because it may not be deep, it is not a big deal to have many picks. But given how little scouting has been done, there will be more good players dropping, so you are more likely to find gems later in the draft than usual.

Welcome to the board!

My worst season individually was 2002-3 because of the cloud of the bankruptcy hanging over the team. It is hard to separate this year from the last 9. (In 2011-2, the team was trying to win and was in 8th place in the last week.) Each subsequent season has the weight of all the previous ones in the background. XHCRK's this year had the worst ensemble play of any in this era except for XHCRR. IMHO, they were the worst to watch of the entire era. What amazes me is how woefully deficient the teams have been in that span. The Tank teams were largely talentless while the XGMTM's mercurial handling of excelling players laid the seeds for a toxic locker room. XHCDB had locker room cliques, no 4th line, and almost non-existent hockey sense in the defence. XHCPH inherited the cliques, had 1-2 lines of useless forwards each season, and a mediocre defence. XHCRK did less with more than any of his predecessors had except in goal -- which is a big, big deal. This is on the owners for allowing The Tank and the GMs for failing to ice adequate teams. The odd reason I have any hope for even next year if we trade The Tanker Three is that for the first time since 2012-3, the Sabres iced a roster where I thought, "all the players on the ice are NHL quality" even if we were icing 2×4th lines and lower-end defence -- and this only happened with either Linus Ullmark or Ukka Pekka-Lukkonen. But it happened. If we can get 1 "now" centre from each of the Reinhart and Eichel trade, get a couple of veteran defencemen in FA, sign two goaltenders, and pick up solid prospects who can fill in when called up now and can grow into decent NHLers, we should be OK. That is a lot of "if's", but that hardly looks unreasonable.

At least you don't confuse Sweden and Switzerland like I sometimes do.

I intended "Rasmus The First" to refer to Ristolainen because he was the first Rasmus here. Sorry for the obliqueness making things unclear.

Part of me really hopes Jack and Sam see the upside to the line-up and would like to stay when tempers cool. The other part quotes the chorus of the old Billy Joel song, "Sometime a Fantasy." Assuming the second part of me is right, how would people feel about mostly "now" pieces for Jack, Sam, and Rasmus Sr.? Jack for a good 2C, vet RHD for Dahlin, an NHL-ready middle-6 F prospect, and a high 1st. Sam for a decent 2C, vet LHD for Jokiharu, and an NHL-ready middle-6 F prospect. Rasmus the First for 4C and a solid mid-pair D prospect. That would give me 4 NHL-capable defence pairings and 5 NHL-level forward lines before we even try to add FAs or trade anyone. It pushes Bjork to 5W and Eakin to 6C on the depth chart. Add two decent goaltenders and you are built more like this year's playoff teams.

Programming Python and Linux System Administration. In IT, I don't seem to have time to read for pleasure.

My hero!

Maybe the whole "cancer" thing should be left to the experts at RPCI.

A few of the early Bond movies improved on some of the implausibility of the books. Goldfinger, in particular, is far better than the book.

No one should think this. Everyone on this board should be more aware.

Leadership is a lot easier with talent. During some crucial games, Guy Lafleur sometimes had sex during intermission.

Question: Can this team be built now with two lines of youth getting protection while veterans take the harder minutes? And can you make them so that the veterans are effective enough to allow the youth to feast on the bottoms of most rosters? This looks like a way to actually threaten the playoffs -- beat the opposition with will and depth. IMHO, it is much easier to land the other team's current #2/3C in an Eichel or Reinhart trade because he becomes an overpriced #3/4C after the trade. As the team is now, you would have Girgensons - #3C - Okposo and Skinner - #2C - Olofsson getting harder minutes while Asplund-Mittlestadt-Thompson and Ruotsalainen-Cozens-Bjork get mostly offencive starts. (I personally would try to trade excess skill for excess will, but that's my bias.) Your next 3 up would be the prospects and depth players that come in the Eichel and Reinhart packages. (This presumes none of them are as useless as Sobotka, Eakin, et al.) That seems like an eminently reasonable way of slotting the forwards next year. Then, as the youth grows up, you increase their ice time and defencive responsibilities.

Slight digression, but did anyone else catch the implication that we could be sending one of Jack and Sam to LA and the other to Anaheim? I would find that royally amusing. Pun intended.

Who on their current roster should we be looking to add? We could use a centre to insulate our youngsters and a veteran defencemen to help nurture our youth.

I completely agree with this. Him trying to rush things just seems really impetuous.

Although that was the last almost-passable team the Sabres had, they were not good. I think that, at best, they were a marginal playoff pretender. The goaltending was solid to slightly above average -- except in shoot-outs. The top 3 forward lines were solid if ill-fitting. The 4th line was almost useless all season. After Gorges and the injured Kulikov, that defence had zero hockey sense. After those two plus Ristolainen and Bogosian, the defencemen were dreadful. They lacked NHL-calibre depth. As a team, they were often sloppy or mistake-prone. That team was poorly constructed on the ice. Off the ice, they might have been worse.

Skinner - Eichel Trade - Cozens Olofsson - Reinhart Trade - Ruotsalainen Asplund - Mittlestadt - Thompson Girgensons - Eichel Trade - Okposo Bjork - Reinhart Trade - Quinn Dahlin - Ristolainen Trade Eichel Trade - Jokiharu Bryson - Borgen Samuelsson - Fitzgerald Ullmark Pekka-Lukkonen

This is really well thought-out. Thanks, @pi2000

You are correct. That puzzles me. I thought he did fairly well with a young, so-so squad and made it kind of terrifying to play against.

I thought it meant David Quinn, formerly of the Rangers.

I saw this movie before and opposed it then. You need some "now" players as well.