thesportsbuff

Doan has always been a highly respected player and leader, this is not a "new" thing. Granted, you're hearing about him now because he's the premier UFA left, so to that extent yes, the media is drumming him up a little bit, but it's not like this past spring was the first time Mr. Pegula had ever heard of Doan. Oh, and those two series wins to his name (with a bankrupt team in a non traditional hockey market)? More than Buffalo has accomplished since the last player with an ounce of leadership left town. As for the bolded: WTF? Not that I'd blame you if you haven't, but if you've been following ANYTHING this off-season, you'd know just how "in demand" Doan really is, and that yes, the reason he is still available is 100% because the Coyotes future is up in the air. You seem to be implying that the reason he's still available is because nobody wants him, yet here we are arguing whether or not he is worth the 4yr/$30+ mil offer confirmed to be on the table from the Sabres. If he's not waiting for Phoenix, and nobody else wants him, don't you think he'd take the ridiculous payday and tough it out in Buffalo?

Well, in that case, allow me to gush! Circa Survive is the name of the band, Anthony Green being the frontman and lyricist. Anthony Green is probably my favorite musician of all time. Any piece of music he touches is incredible, and although some dislike it, his voice is one of the most amazing voices in all of music nowadays (imo). It can be beautiful, melodic, and haunting all at the same time. His solo stuff is a lot different from his Circa Survive stuff, and his Circa Survive stuff is a lot different from the NUMEROUS other musical projects he's been apart of... alas, he is my hero. He sings from his heart and soul, and is a hell of a performer. His stage presence is impeccable. You can just feel the energy in their performance... it's amazing. But first and foremost, the combination of his lyrics and the music produced by the rest of the band just speak to me in ways that music never has before. I'll never be able to explain it, but just listening to their music has helped me get through and understand so many hard times in life and I feel like I owe them the world for it. Unfortunately, they are a band I listen to mostly in private -- most of my friends are in to hip hop or mainstream radio music, and I just don't think they'd understand my connection, so I don't bother. A cool tidbit, they are releasing their 4th studio album on the 28th of August (though it's already leaked), and it's entirely self-produced. After working with Atlantic Records for their previous album, they ditched the big label and decide to go with their own vision and do things their own way. Their sound has certainly evolved since their first album, but they haven't released a single song that I haven't learned to love. Here's an article from Rolling Stones, including the option to stream their ENTIRE new album for free, although I have to admit it was their FIRST album, titled "Juturna," that really sucked me in back in 2004. Not sure if I ever would have found appreciation for their music if their albums released in a different order: http://www.rollingst...-waves-20120822 I hope someone checks them out and enjoys it. But if you don't like and think I'm a ###### for listening to it, that's cool too. ;)

I like a lot of different kinds of music, but I guess the bulk of my favorites would be considered "classic rock." The Beatles, Tom Petty, Floyd, Neil Young, Clapton, Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, etc. I also like some more 'modern' rock (for lack of a better term, I'm not always good with classifying music into specific genres) music like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, At The Drive In, Nirvana, Sublime. For the younger crowd that grew up around the same time I did, these are some bands I LOVED growing up... I don't exactly listen to them every day anymore (that would be embarrassing), but all of these bands had a profound impact on me growing up and just out of nostalgia I can listen to them occasionally and enjoy it: Blink 182, Sum 41, Simple Plan, Green Day... then on to bands like Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Matchbox 20, Anberlin, Saosin... There is one specific band I can call my favorite but 99-100% of posters here will have never heard of them, and probably won't like them. I love acoustic music, and took up playing the acoustic guitar several years ago. I still haven't gotten very great, but I've written a few simple songs and can play a lot of songs I like, so I guess I'm okay with where I'm at. I don't plan on writing music for a career or anything (especially since I can't sing!) but it would be nice to get good enough to be able to play in a band environment or do a couple gigs at local bars, maybe even put out a cheap little demo or something to share with my friends.

It's not about saying anything, it's about making sure the UFA chooses your team. As or the rest, like I said, his production doesn't really matter, I just don't think it's out of the realm of possibility or him to have an above-average year coming to a deeper offensive team. If he doesn't, oh well. He played with such intensity in the playoffs, knowing that it could be his last shot. If not for Quick and Brown, Smith and Doan would have been the story of the playoffs.

I'm in the Doan is worth it camp. For all the reasons mentioned. I also don't necessarily think 50 points is his maximum -- maybe more like 60. Not that that's a huge difference, but I would consider the Sabres allotment of forwards more talented than Phoenix in terms of "skill," so I think it's reasonable to assume he'll pick up a few more points if he did, in fact, play with Hodgson and Vanek. But regardless of whether he has a career high or a career low in points, he'll be worth it for what he brings in other areas. If Buffalo has to overpay to get a big name UFA to sign here, so be it.

Actually (since you brought it up :P ) with a lockout looming, Buffalo may have a decent shot to land MacKinnon regardless. Following the 2004-05 lockout, the NHL Draft Order was determined by a weighted lottery with teams receiving either 1, 2, or 3 balls based on their playoff appearances and first overall draft picks from the past three years. As we all know, Buffalo was one of four teams with three balls that year and had one of the best shots of winning the right to draft Sidney Crosby. Should the league lockout and follow a similar format for next year's draft lottery, Edmonton would have to be a one-ball team given they've had the last three first overall picks. Buffalo, I imagine, would be a two ball team under that formula, unfortunately as a result of the late-season rally in 2010-11 that led to a playoff birth -- otherwise we could push for three! Three-ball teams would have to Toronto, Long Island, Columbus, Calgary, Dallas, and, yikes, Minnesota? Just food for thought!

:worthy: " pleeease moderator, don't destroy our home world!"" :worthy: :worthy:

Sweet. Perfect time for me to link my blog about why that move makes no sense. http://www.thesportsbuff.com/?p=1538

... which is a very real possibility, with Mr. Pegula in town! But I agree, Jr. Sabres is lame.

I would attend OHL games in Buffalo. Never been to a Bandits game. Went to one Bisons game. And went to two Medaille College hockey games, which hardly count.

A european city led the OHL in attendance? Blasphemy! :P jokes^

Thanks for the responses guys. I had thought the injury was only recently-discovered. OK, new topic that probably doesn't belong in this thread but isn't important enough for it's own: Does Corey Tropp make the roster next season? I loved the way Tropp played in his few opportunities with the big club, and his brawl with Zac Rinaldo was just the icing on the cake. I was beginning to think the delay in signing Kaleta meant they planned on replacing him with Tropp, but now that Patty is signed, is there room for both? A Kaleta-Ott-Tropp line has me drooling,,, McCormick not so much.

True that he may be dealing with lingering effects from the surgery all season, but I'm no doctor and can't begin to put a timeframe on when he'll be 100%. This injury clearly hampered him last year, so you would think that post-surgery, it can't be any worse than it was. In any event, it just seems like we are locked into the situation we're in. Trading Stafford + the world for Bobby Ryan brings us a better player, but is it necessarily going to have a profound impact if Ryan scores the same 30 goals that Stafford was going to alongside Ennis? I was going to say how I'd rather have traded Roy for an impact player (Ryan or otherwise), and then dealt picks + spare parts for Ott, but as I was typing it hit me that the whole hockey world was probably aware of Roy's (current) injury, thus why Darcy was unable to bring in a better return. I was under the presumption that Roy's injury was discovered post-trade, but how likely is it that Darcy & the Sabres knew of the injury, were straight-forward with other teams about it, and Dallas was the only takers willing to part with a reasonable player for a chance at having a healthy Roy come December. Anyway, I'm not arguing or even complaining, just bored this morning and posting whatever comes to my head. I like where the Sabres are at now, I just wish we could add another 30 goals without losing anything. :P

It's not "unrealistic," but it's not a sure thing, either. How do you go about replacing a productive centerman like Roy without losing one of our established Top 6 (and thus, their production) in the trade? Now, granted, this is all based on statistics, which admittedly don't tell the full story. On a more balanced offensive squad, Roy's 30g & 70p can be replaced by the whole group -- if we have 6 or 7 twenty-goal scorers instead of 2 thirty-goal scorers, 2 twenty-goal scorers and a couple 5-10 goal scorers, then I guess his production has been replaced. But that all remains to be seen, so all we have to work with are on-paper statistics.

Derek Roy was injured last season, too, but nobody gave him a free pass. :P I think the Sabres are out of luck if we can't find a way to replace Roy's production. I know he's part of a failed core, had a bad season, and is putting forth a questionable effort in the opinion of many, but he's still a 25 goal, 70 point forward, and he cannot be effectively replaced by Steve Ott. I'll stop short of saying the Sabres made a "mistake," because I do like the addition of Ott and I do think he brings adds a lot of valuable things that this team has been missing, but I think it's only going to matter if another 20-25 goal scorer is brought in. We're only going to see the full "Steve Ott Effect" if we have players who can capitalize when Ott draws a penalty, wins a fight, delivers a big hit, gets the other team off their game -- anything he can do to sway the momentum our way will only matter if we actually capitalize on that momentum. Prior to the Ott trade, the Sabres were looking at entering next season like this: Vanek - Hodgson - Pommer, Ennis - Stafford - Foligno, Gerbe - Roy - Leino, Tropp McCormick Kaleta --- Maybe not those exact lines, but my point is we could be rolling three (okay, two and a half cause of Leino) scoring lines for the first time since 06-07. It's not exactly Crosby/Malkin/Staal, but the pieces are there to arrange three dangerous lines, giving Ruff an advantage in match-ups, ability to spread out ice time more, etc. Maybe if Vanek doesn't have to play top line minutes every night, he's not busted and broken when the playoffs roll around for once? Yes, it just so happens that Roy needs surgery and will miss the start of the season, so in that aspect, it's a good thing we traded him, but upon his return Dallas will get a good, healthy, goal-scoring centerman for more than 3/4s of the season. Buffalo, on the other hand, is down one center, and barring any additional moves is banking on three big-time risks: Stafford producing at 30g/50p level with Ennis as his center, Leino finding his game and producing at a level somewhere a little closer to his salary, and Foligno stepping in and having a 82-game season go as well as his short stint here last season. And that's not even including Ennis having a good year at center, or the possibility of a rookie (Grig) making the lineup and having a productive season, which aren't exactly sure things either. Bobby Ryan would be great, but we would be trading goals for goals, losing a 30 goal guy to get a 30 goal guy. If they'd have kept Roy, they'd already have the extra 25-30 goal scorer. At the very least it would make me more comfortable about trading Stafford.

I know I defended hockeyyinsiderr upthread, but like I said, some of his stuff is probably legit, and some he just completely makes up for views. The Vanek+1st+prospect for Ryan falls in the latter category. Absolutely no way this was the offer the Ducks gave Buffalo. Vanek is the better player no matter how you slice it. It would be the Ducks throwing in a pick or prospect if a Ryan/Vanek trade actually went down... but it won't. Yes, Bobby Ryan is a few years younger, and a little cheaper, but Vanek is only 28 -- not exactly on the verge of retirement or falling apart -- and Ryan is going to be getting a raise when his contract is up anyway. The best part? After falling on his face with this "rumor" and getting called out by myself and a couple others who realize how lopsided that deal was, he immediately changed his tune with a "Well, my PERSONAL opinion, based on common sense (you mean based on what Buffalo fans are tweeting), is that Buffalo won't give up that much for Ryan." Sounds to me like this guy seriously undervalued Vanek.

I understand if you're all about seeing the other sports and whatever, but if they're gonna hype this whole Phelps vs Lochte thing all winter long, they should at least make room in their schedule to show it live. Swimming doesn't interest me either but along with the Women's soccer team those are easily the two most marketable American athletes at the Olympics, and some of our best chances to bring home Gold medals. Show the table tennis on tape delay, my god.

No, 5am was qualifying. The finals were on at 2:30 PM and were not shown live on TV.. they will be shown at 8PM tonight. Guess what? Lochte wins. Phelps gets fourth. Have fun watching!

I never knew I could be this mad over the Olympics, but I can't believe NBC didn't air the Men's 400 IM w/ Phelps & Lochte live. I think they still go head-to-head in more events, but still something I would have liked to watch... definitely not going to tune in to the tape delay at 8PM when I already know who won :rolleyes:

I guess I'm not seeing what he was wrong about. Yeah, Semin didn't sign with the Pens -- he never said he was going to, just that he wanted to. Who wouldn't want to play w/ Crosby and Malkin? He said he didn't like the $$, which makes sense considering Carolina had to offer $7 mil to get him for a year. The truth is we'll never know what is or isn't true. I'm sure the guy has sources, but he probably throws out some BS rumors too to get more viewers, too. But as I said, he has a much higher success rate than an Eklund. This is a great point. People act like only stuff from TSN guys can be treated as rumors. Guess what? You will NEVER get a "rumor" from TSN guys... you are getting information, combined with their own personal speculation which is then interpreted as a rumor. I think Buffalo can & will beat that offer. :beer:

Just my two cents though. I'm not going to post any of his rumors on here because I know you guys hate them. But personally, the guy has done enough to prove to me that he has sources, so I'll continue to follow him on twitter.

The Nash trade is probably the biggest. If you asked any TSN insider who was going back to Columbus if the Rangers got Nash, I don't think anyone would have responded with Dubinsky & Anisimov. I heard McDonaugh, Kreider, Miller, etc. HockeyInsider was the only one to actually put forth the offer CBJ submitted, and had it correct with the exception of Del Zotto being replaced by Erixon, which to me, was obviously a result of negotiations.

Roy/Ott trade Semin signing Voracek extension Weber offer sheet Nash trade (*Had Del Zotto in original offer instead of Erixon) Those are just a few. And don't say he was late on them, I've been trolling twitter all day long throughout July, he had them hours if not days/weeks ahead of mainstream TSN guys. Not everything he says pans out, but I'll tell you this much, he has gotten more right this summer than Eklund has for his entire existence.

If he's a man of his word, he's staying in Phoenix. Isn't that he said? If the team stays, I stay?

Well I had a really long post typed up and my browser crashed, so to paraphrase: I hope it's the Sabres who offered the contract. In terms of value, he's probably not worth that kind of money, but he's the type of guy I want on the team, and if that's what it takes to get him out of phoenix, I'm all for it. We have a lot of young talent coming up the pipeline. From Grigorenko, Girgensons, Armia, Adam, Tropp, Foligno, McNabb, Pysyk, the list goes on -- I think it's safe to expect at least a handful of these guys will make the roster within the next 2 or 3 years, meaning they'll be on very cheap (some entry level) contracts for most of Doan's tenure here. Then you have free agents. Vanek and Miller are up for contract renewals, but I think both of them will be cheaper than their previous contracts. Outside of Miller's 09/10 season, neither have really done anything to warrant a raise. If they go to UFA, they could get more, but maybe they'll take less for a chance to win? Maybe Vanek feels he owes the organization after the Edmonton offer sheet ordeal? Anyway, I expect we save some more money there. Other guys like Regehr and Leopold might not be re-signed at all -- that's Doan's money right there. Basically, what I'm saying is although we would be drastically overpaying for his services, his salary isn't really going to handicap us as much as some might think. It's a 4-year commitment that we can't back out of, but there are enough moving pieces elsewhere to make it work.