Iron Crotch

I think we were under the gun to get a deal done prior to midnight. Had the $7.5 million bonus not been there, we could have shopped for better deals with teams that missed on in free agency (e.g., the Isles).

My thought is we must be slotting him in on one of the wings. Either that or he starts the year at center in Rochester.

Tage when he learned he was being traded to Buffalo...

I'm not ordering NHL CenterIce this season. I stopped watching halfway through last season. I figure this season will be more of the same. If a miracle happens and we don't suck, I can always order at the midway mark of the season for a discounted rate.

I hate the trade, but all of my bitching aside, Berglund actually is (or at least was) a pretty good player.

:lol: We're the salary cap dump of the NHL. Minnesota wanted to dump Pommer's salary - JBotts took him. The Pens wanted to dump salary - Hundwick and Sheary to Buffalo. The Blues wanted to shed Berglund and Sobotka's contracts. …c'mon, we'll put you on the ice in Buffalo!

Yep. And, Colorado had just drafted MacKinnon and was absolutely loaded at Center and wanted to play an up-tempo speed game (which isn't O'Reilly's MO obviously).

Good post - well said.

I don't think the issue is that people were in love with O'Reilly. It's that we thought we'd get something more than the Blues' 9th, 10th, and 19th scorers from last season in return. Names like Parayko were being thrown around pre-trade. ...maybe Tage Thompson will blossom with a new team.

My post was poorly worded - I'm saying we'd still have a first round pick.

The only thing I like from this trade (actually, to be fair, I don't dislike Berglund as a player) is the first-round pick. A good GM would use that pick to offer sheet Nylander up in Toronto. ....but I doubt JBotts has the stones for such a thing.

This is exactly the problem. The fan base at this point is tired of "be patient" as the organization's strategy. They're not doing anything to sell hope to us.

From my perspective, JBot doesn't have a clue. His strategy is Trump-like in that he appears to be simply trying to undo the moves of his predecessor. Murray's big acquisitions were O'Reilly and Evander Kane. JBots jettisons them for a pile of garbage and more picks. At what point do we actually try to field a winning team? Every year it is "wait until next year".... We got the Blues' 9th, 10th and 18th leading scorers from last season, two of whom are over 30, for one of the best two-way centers in the league in his prime. The optics aren't good on this one. At all.

They're partying late night in Zagreb!

This game would have been over had Modric not biffed the PK in the second OT session. Woah. Crazy PK shootout. Croatia was probably the better team, so I think the final outcome is just.

Strange to me that two clubs have already said "no thanks" to Duclair and he is only 22 years old. Must be some issues there (?).

You can really hold a grudge, I see. :P

The only big name signings thus far (other than Jordan and maybe Trevor Ariza) are guys who stayed put. The big splash should come later today/tomorrow. I'm thinking LeBron will end up with the Lakers, but we shall see. BTW - I'm fascinated by how differently NBA and NHL free agency work. In the NHL most guys sign within hours of free agency starting. In the NBA, guys take days or even weeks to make a decision. It's strange to me how different it is.

Yeah, I always look at it two ways: Obviously you want to improve you team if you can, but I also think the marketing/PR perspective is important. You are selling hope to fans by signing a free agent or two. We've been so bad for so long that I think the marketing/PR perspective is particularly important for the Sabres.

Most of the big free agents have yet to move… LeBron is the big one. I'm hoping the Pelicans can bring back Boogie Cousins, but he has a house in LA so he might head to the Lakers.

Some folks on twitter are calling for the Sabres to offer sheet Toronto's Nylander since the Leaves are in a tight cap spot. Gotta admit, I kind of like that idea.

You quoted my post, which wasn't about the Leafs. ;) (In all seriousness, most threads around here go off topic - it's just sort of the way of the board; I've found that posting a strong opinion directly related to the topic is one way to get it back on topic)

DeAndre Jordan to the Dallas Mavericks. It's NBA free agency too!

Toronto is a playoff team and we've been dead last in the NHL 3 of the past 5 seasons. I can't badmouth their player personnel moves when our haven't gotten us anywhere. The best players we "added" were high draft picks that we acquired from sucking so badly. Any of us on this board could have made those draft picks. I'm looking for a bit more from my GM. Thus far I see Darcy Regier 2.0. Very harsh, but I'm of the opinion that Botterill still needs to prove himself. *end of rant*

He's Wang Chung-ing