Marvin

Who among our AHL vets and AHL-NHL hybrids will other franchises target for the NHL? I have already seen Lawrence Pilut turn up on an LA Kings blog.

Tonight's game still at 7:30?

Fans of Winnipeg and Calgary think DeMelo and Hanifin respectively are available. Both team are looking for up-and-coming talent with term and some futures. I imagine that include Jokiharu. Addendum: would Adams be willing to add two defencemen at that level? That would make the defence pretty formidable.

IMHO, regardless of what the fans wanted, Pegula is to blame for OK-ing the plan. I am still baffled that he got convinced that tanking was a good idea. However, I am convinced that if WGR does not rally the tankers among the fans, then Pegula never OKs Operation McEichel. So I blame those fans who wanted to tank. I give blame to those who cheered for losses for 2 straight seasons because they are part of the reason that we have become a laughingstock and the NHL team building example of Carson's Consolation. ("No experiment is ever a complete failure because it can always be used as a bad example.")

Welcome back!

FYI: there is debate over Saros's availability. The majority of fans and pundits think not. However, there is no question that he was available at the deadline. The question is if he was only available because of Nashville's view of the playoff picture. On the other hand, we know anyone with 1 or 2 years left on their contracts are available from Winnipeg and probably Calgary.

I want to be clear about my stance: I think Hellebuyck and Saros get the Sabres 1 round deeper in the playoffs. I would give up #13, UPL, and an OK prospect for Hellebuyck. I would give up a much better prospect for Saros and maybe a 2nd rounder as well because of the extra year. Why does the extra year matter? Because that gives Buffalo 1 extra season for Levi to grow. I thought that was obvious. It seems clear that the long-term commitment is to Levi, so we need to evaluate goalkeeping acquisitions against that backdrop.

To be fair, what I am seeing fans on this board speculating the price to be is consistent with national pundits.

IMHO, the end of discussions about the tank were never going to end until the Sabres made the playoffs. I stand by it.

Two points: 1. The Sabres' and fans' desire to install a losing culture and to make losing acceptable for the franchise for the last 12 years resulted in a team stripped beyond the level of all but the worst expansion teams for 2013-5. The 2021-2 team was more like a normal expansion team, albeit a higher-end one. But tearing the Ruff team down to that level does not guarantee McEichel. 2. Las Vegas and Seattle had better GMs than Murray and Botterill and better coaches than Bylsma, Housley, and Krueger. Don't get mad at the NHL, the teams, or their fans. Get mad at your fellow Sabres fans who wanted to tank plus the Sabres organisation for being stupid enough to listen to them. Repeat after me: Tanking is for losers. Encouraging tanking is crass stupidity. Let us hope the tankers have finally learned their lesson. IMHO, they deserve a long, painful, 5 year rebuild starting 2021-2.

This could come down to who is available when the Sabres are on the clock. They might have a trade queued up if, say, the top 3 D are all gone by #13.

It is hard to be fair because he has no chemistry with anyone in the line-up. He had greater problems than his teammates coping with Heshey's game. His offencive instincts look off the charts.

Aside from the deals that the owners made to get such ridiculous expansion fees, I think the league was spooked by the failure of Atlanta and the continuing problems in Columbus. Thus, they wanted Las Vegas and Seattle to be competitive right out of the gate. No one expected Las Vegas to be this good this fast. For some historical perspective, teams with good GMs who did not get embarrassingly unfavourable expansion rules made it to the playoffs before too long. The Atlanta Flames made the playoffs in their 2nd season. The Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, and Minnesota Wild made the playoffs in their 3rd season. The Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks, and Tampa Bay Lightning all made it in their 4th season. Moreover, most of these teams were not 1 season wonders. In the cases of the Flames, Sabres, and Islanders, their first playoff teams were strong teams in the upper half of the league. To quote Paul Weiland with 43 seconds left in the "Thank you, Sabres" game, "...I think we have the beginnings here in Buffalo, of a real, bona fide Stanley Cup contender. In fact, they were this year; they are this year, no matter what happens in the next 43 seconds. They are one of the best clubs in the National Hockey League..." 88 points in 78 games, 8th out of 16 in the league, and 61 points in 39 home games buttress his claims.

Let's do it again, guys!

I would rather see anyone from Rochester up here than Kane. JMO.

There is smoke out of Winnipeg about Hellebuyck to Buffalo, so I would not discount it. Can we put together a package for Saros? I would certainly feel better about the packages being kicked around on the Winnipeg boards for Hellebuyck bring used on Saros instead because of the extra year.

Yes.

FYI: DeMelo is also available, so any talks with Winnipeg could involve him instead or even both him and Hellebuyck. There are two problems with getting Hellebuyck as far as I can see it. 1. The acquisition cost will be #13 and potentially a couple of "play now" top prospects because, apparently, Winnipeg wants to be competing for a playoff spot immediately. Which top prospects can be in the NHL next year and can be effective? Rosen and Rousek? For 1 guaranteed year? 2. If we keep Hellebuyck, what kind of contract will we need to sign him to? I can't see him taking less than 5 yrs @ $7M with a complete NMC. IMHO, everyone who thinks we could sign him for 2-3 years at a team-friendly contract is at best wish-casting and at worst needing a permanent room at Arkham.

I thought Jobst dove, but figured that turnabout is fair play.

Rochester were good in the first period again. They have not been good in the second for the 4th straight game.

That's Denver in the NBA Finals.

You have to knock out Winnipeg's 1st and add to Buffalo's side. New Jersey, among others, can and will offer slightly lesser packages for Hellebuyck alone. DeMelo is worth a second or two on his own. At the very least, you need the equivalent of all 3 of Buffalo's 1st and 2nd round picks this year plus Pekka-Luukkonen and future considerations (extra piece if Hellebuyck resigns) for Hellebuyck and DeMelo. And you might need the 2024 1st to swap in for one other piece. The keys for the price are whether the Jets will try and move Hellebuyck et al. by the draft and if they want to do a full rebuild or not. If they want a "compete now" rebuild, then you will need more solid prospects than picks; if they want to do a full rebuild, then you need more picks.

Just wondering: was the start date of the Final set ages ago? I saw a schedule earlier today from the end of the regular season that had Saturday as the unconditional date for Game 1.

This is my analysis of Dubas. He had 7 years to build up the defence.

This is the Gambler's Fallacy. 😉 In theory, it is not. But somehow, it seems that way. I know this is a misuse of conditional probability, but...