Marvin

Best part of that nickname: Cecil "Tiny" Thompson was 5'10".

Just saw a tweet from Lance Lysowski. No rentals, no overpayments, no rushing things. If GMKA does anything, it will be a hockey trade.

They want all of your Buffalo stuff for Chychrun alone. And Mittlestadt probably needs to be swapped out for Kulich to get Chychrun. And you need 2 young, excellent pieces, like Quinn and Peterka, for Crouse.

I used to go to TheFourthPeriod.com until I realised that it was Eklund-like with its rumours. The HFBoards trade page is more reliable and has better thought-out speculation, for Heaven's sake.

Thankfully.

Even over Ken Dryden of the 1975-8 Canadiens. Wow.

Thank you. First things first: if possible, sign Cozens long-term to a Tage-style contract plus inflation; call it 8 years x $8M. Yes, I think he's that valuable. Okposo, Girgensons, Asplund, Jost, and Clague will get a maximum total of $10M between them. I would hope to add a medium-term top-4 defenceman. Call that $4M. I come up with about $46M for Thompson, Skinner, Tuch, Mittlestadt, Olofsson, Quinn, Peterka, Krebs, Lyubushkin, Bryson, Jokiharu, Power, Samuelsson, and Dahlin. Add about $5M for goalkeepers in Comrie and Pekka-Luukkonen. So next season will probably still be far below the Cap with a max of $73M. We will need to give Power a big contract and Dahlin a bigger contract the year after. My estimate is that, with no changes, the salary for the current team in that season will pass $85M. Then Quinn, Peterka, Krebs, and the goaltenders get paid. Thus, we will need turnover at the bottom of the roster if the top 6 forwards and top 4 defencemen stay the same throughout. So conservative spending next year looks likely. It looks like 2024-5 is when the Sabres' salary will explode.

Could someone save me a trip to CapFriendly and post the salaries and contract statuses of players on the team now? Who needs a new contract next season and the season after? I would prefer not to bridge Power or Cozens. When do we need to pay Tuch? What about Peterka, Quinn, Krebs, and Asplund?

IMHO, we need upgrades on both lines. On offense, that will free up Knox. On defence, without Von Miller, we are not very effective at either pressuring the QB or stopping the RB.

If both are back next year, as I expect, this is why. Guys who play with them become better players afterward. What more can you ask of your grizzled veterans?

Welcome back!

Go over to twobillsdrive.com and check the thread on parenting lessons learnt from 4 Super Bowl losses.

Let's take a look.

Did you play this James Bond style, where you were turned sideways to the TV and then had to pivot to fire?

Just unbelievable. And the problem with that team is roster construction, not coaching. The GM also handed out some questionable contracts to boot. This is blaming the wrong person.

Eichel will be fine.

Remember when Miller was left off the 2006 USA Olympic team? Maybe Dahlin goes on a similar run.

Welcome back!

Oh, heck. My memory failed me too.

You forget that in 2006 that there were a LOT of pundits and hockey people who said that the enforcement of the rules in the playoffs would revert to Dead Puck Era levels because you could not have, as one Toronto-based pundit put it, "the pond hockey pansies devaluing playoff hockey." Recall that said moniker referred to the Buffalo Sabres. So why buy when the roster as constructed would have needed to have been shredded had these guys been right?

I am still surprised that the Braves did not draft Buffalo Bob.

Vancouver fans on hfboards disabused me of the notion that Horvat is good defencively. Based on their descriptions, I like Cozens better on the defencive side of the centre red line. FYI: Horvat already turned down a long term contract with an AAV greater than Tage Thompson's. Plus the cost of his acquisition is Eichel-like. And then his shooting percentage this season is well above his career highs, let alone norms. In the words of Charles Anderson Worsley,the Second Earl of Yarborough, as dealer, Pass.

He and Asplund were insurance against injuries and problems that Peterka and Quinn might have had. Without either of those happening, I guess this was inevitable. Good luck to him.

Agreed. Based on what I see, it appears that the attitude is that you can teach defence at any age, but offence needs to be done when the players are young. And with a boatload of rookies and sophomores on the roster, the offence is really getting pushed. IMHO, Granato needs to find a better balance between O and D.

IMHO, the team's biggest weakness all season has been defencive zone coverage. People are not coming down the slot wide open anymore, but players are still finding themselves wide open near the goal, ready for a pass. IMHO, this is Granato deciding that players play without fear and be more aggressive getting up ice. Defence is taught, but clearly it is not emphasised as much in practice. It points to a development year with a lot of exciting play, but with the ups and downs that come with that approach. The question becomes when does the coaching staff think that players have developed enough that it then becomes time to work on defencive play more extensively. I also imagine the current lack of practice matters too.