Jamie Benn please
- homiedclown

people in hell want ice water, can you help?

Jamie Benn please
- homiedclown

That would never happen if it did omg .. i would buy his jersey today

people in hell want ice water, can you help?
- SABRES 89

- homiedclown

Player Z

Talent Analysis:
Draws admiration and fierce loyalty from proud blue collar types. Likeable enough as a guy. Has great ability with facial hair.

L8



- homiedclown

hahaha, gotcha, I didn't take that picture as an answer, just random pic posting. Got it now.

hahaha, gotcha, I didn't take that picture as an answer, just random pic posting. Got it now.
- stashu

I thought you were ready.

Keep up.

I thought you were ready.

Keep up.
- Der Kaiser

To be fair, they only shared half a name, hence me skipping over it.

Edmonton Oilers @EdmontonOilers


"We'd be willing to make a deal to get a younger player a little further along than an 18-year-old." - MacT on #Oilers early draft picks

this should be fun ...

i will go ..

2016 first , Myers , Zadorov

I thought you were ready.

Keep up.
- Der Kaiser

To be fair, they only shared half a name, hence me skipping over it.
- stashu

get your calendar in the mail ?

Good read. I just pretty much said the very same thing the other day.
Murray has been put in an excellent position thanks to Darcy.
Let's see how good Murray is , shall we?
Because to this point, he has done nothing to earn my respect as a competent GM.
I hope he colors me impressed, but I am not holding my breath.






The Deck is Stacked in Murray’s Favor
JANUARY 19, 2015

by Chris Ostrander
Nearly a full month removed from their last victory, plenty is being said of the Sabres express trip to the NHL’s basement. The ethics and direction of Buffalo’s season bring about accusations and arguments over tanking, the skillset of the head coach and the ability of Tim Murray to move the Sabres from cellar dweller to contender.

At this point of the season the Sabres are nothing short of a roaring dumpster fire. The scalding hot play of Jhonas Enroth, Tyler Ennis, Zemgus Girgensons and Matt Moulson – the quartet that helped power their late November surge – has all but disappeared while the rest of the roster has been battered by injuries. With the roster limping around, the tactically feeble head coach has been unable to find a way to turn around Buffalo’s month-long slump and the team’s slow starts and weak finishes should bring about question surrounding his famous motivational skills.

The result of Buffalo’s 11-straight regulation losses is a spot in 30th place and an increasing probability that they’ll be the proud owners of the highest or second highest chance of drafting first overall. As is widely known, finishing 30th guarantees the Sabres the opportunity to draft Jack Eichel as a consolation if their 20% chance at winning the lottery doesn’t pan out.

While a grand debate has raged all year over the ethics and logic surrounding the push or hope for the first overall selection, it would seem that far too many individuals who follow the Sabres have ignored the arsenal that Tim Murray has at his disposal. While getting McDavid or Eichel remains up in the air, there is little doubt that the 2015 Draft will represent the point in which Murray puts the pedal to the floor on this rebuild.

Murray’s efforts at last year’s deadline and even the efforts of his predecessor, has provided the Sabres with a plethora of future and current assets for which to manipulate their roster with. In fact, you could form an entire roster based off the prospects Buffalo has in the AHL, major junior, Europe and the NCAA. You would actually need to make cuts because of the depth of the prospect pool.

Buffalo’s prospect pool, which is already at unparalleled heights compared to the rest of the league is set to grow even deeper as the Sabres are currently set to add five more players in the Draft’s first 60 selections; three of which would come in the first 31 picks if the Draft occurred today.

Not every NHL draft pick is a guarantee to make the NHL. There’s a strong possibility that some of Buffalo’s prospects, even those considered to be blue chips, will never don an NHL sweater but that’s the nature of talent development in the NHL. Buffalo’s advantage is the sheer numbers they have when it comes to their A-level prospects.

Depending how you count them, the Sabres have well over 30 prospects in the pipeline. Of those 30-plus bodies, 15 were picked in the first two rounds of the draft and you could make an easy argument that Nick Baptiste and Hudson Fasching have done quite a bit to push their stock close to that of a second round prospect. That means Murray will have 20 (or 22) first or second round prospects in the system if he keeps his picks this summer.

Those 22 bodies (counting Baptiste and Fashcing) are complimented by the likes of Zemgus Girgensons, Tyler Ennis and even Matt Moulson as some of the few players on the current Sabres roster who can be penciled long-term. That is a massive arsenal of assets that Murray will have in the organization and it will give him a great deal of flexibility down the road, specifically in trade talks.

There are going to be question marks around each and every player in the pipeline who hasn’t seen a minute of professional hockey, let alone an NHL game. While players like Mikhail Grigorenko and Joel Armia have made tremendous strides in Rochester this season, they’ll still need to make another adjustment if they’re in Buffalo next season. The same can be said of Justin Bailey, Baptiste, Fasching (should be be signed) and even Brendan Lemieux although he isn’t AHL eligible. Simply shouldering the expectation for a turnaround in 2015-16 on the shoulders of first and second year pros is foolish and massively shortsighted.

What is far less shortsighted is moving forward with the understanding that Murray have the ability to leverage the mountain of assets the team controls to bring about more immediate change for both the long and short term.

Despite Buffalo’s horrid record, Murray is perfectly positioned to utilize the blue chip talent within the organization to manufacture trades for difference makers. There is a ton of precedence of NHL teams utilizing NHL assets and highly valued picks and prospects to acquire impact players. It’s the core concept of the trade deadline and an ever growing trend of mid-summer trades.

For example, the Kings sacrificed Jack Johnson and a first round pick in order to acquire Jeff Carter. The Rangers gave up Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixon and a first round pick in order to bring Rick Nash into the fold. The Rangers also turned around and dealt Marian Gaborik and some spare change to bring in Derick Brassard, John Moore and two more pieces in a move that saw them recoup some of the quality depth they dealt to get Nash. In each case you see a team sacrificing a quality piece in order to bring in a bonafide difference maker.


Tim Murray is well positioned to execute the type of trade that brought Tyler Seguin to Dallas.

Obviously the primary difference here is that those were all contending teams trying to find that one last missing piece of the puzzle, the Sabres aren’t even in that same universe as they stand today. However, a move along those lines (think the Tyler Seguin trade) would immediately accelerate the rebuild effort.

Without diving too far off the deep end when it comes to hypothetical trades, it’s easy to look at Buffalo’s roster of current and future players and realize that Murray has more than enough to offer on the open market. If Tyler Myers is indeed on the block, it would be easy to pair him with Buffalo’s 2016 first round pick (or even the St. Louis or Islanders first) and a prospect to attempt to pry a young, proven scorer from another team.

The contention that simply drafting first will be all that’s required is a foolish sentiment. There’s far more that goes into the Chicago, Los Angeles or even the Pittsburgh model of building a champion and it’s something that’s been covered in this space before. One player won’t be enough to turn around the Sabres, even if his name rhymes with Schmcdavid. But when you factor in Buffalo’s prime draft position and the ability to leverage other assets for NHL talent, the turnaround can come about much quicker than it will take for every single organizational asset to be NHL ready.

The only true question mark surrounding this entire scenario is not which prospects will develop into better pros, but how savvy of a negotiator Murray is. One of Darcy Regier’s more respected strengths – from many I talk to – was his ability to make balanced trades that almost always addressed Buffalo’s organizational needs. So far Murray’s trades are all too fresh to identify as true wins or losses and he’s on the verge of needing to make a few more in the very near future. Is he capable of pushing the right buttons and maybe even making the right calculated risks on the trade market?

Everything I’ve seen from Murray when it comes to transactions tells me he makes calculated decisions and is never backed into a corner. There’s no way to say if he’d pull the trigger on a deal like the one that brought Tyler Seguin to Dallas, but you can’t deny he has the assets to make that kind of trade in order to kick his rebuild into high gear.

What I can say definitively is that Murray will be dealing from a position of power at the deadline, draft and beyond and it’s foolish to overlook the foundation that has been set for the Sabres’ future.

get your calendar in the mail ?
- cabin

Danke

Would you guys do Kassian and Sbisa for Cody and Stl 1st?

Would you guys do Kassian and Sbisa for Cody and Stl 1st?
- Linden_4_Capt

Good read. I just pretty much said the very same thing the other day.
Murray has been put in an excellent position thanks to Darcy.
Let's see how good Murray is , shall we?
Because to this point, he has done nothing earn my respect as a competent GM.
I hope he colors me impressed, but I am not holding my breath.






The Deck is Stacked in Murray’s Favor
JANUARY 19, 2015

by Chris Ostrander
Nearly a full month removed from their last victory, plenty is being said of the Sabres express trip to the NHL’s basement. The ethics and direction of Buffalo’s season bring about accusations and arguments over tanking, the skillset of the head coach and the ability of Tim Murray to move the Sabres from cellar dweller to contender.

At this point of the season the Sabres are nothing short of a roaring dumpster fire. The scalding hot play of Jhonas Enroth, Tyler Ennis, Zemgus Girgensons and Matt Moulson – the quartet that helped power their late November surge – has all but disappeared while the rest of the roster has been battered by injuries. With the roster limping around, the tactically feeble head coach has been unable to find a way to turn around Buffalo’s month-long slump and the team’s slow starts and weak finishes should bring about question surrounding his famous motivational skills.

The result of Buffalo’s 11-straight regulation losses is a spot in 30th place and an increasing probability that they’ll be the proud owners of the highest or second highest chance of drafting first overall. As is widely known, finishing 30th guarantees the Sabres the opportunity to draft Jack Eichel as a consolation if their 20% chance at winning the lottery doesn’t pan out.

While a grand debate has raged all year over the ethics and logic surrounding the push or hope for the first overall selection, it would seem that far too many individuals who follow the Sabres have ignored the arsenal that Tim Murray has at his disposal. While getting McDavid or Eichel remains up in the air, there is little doubt that the 2015 Draft will represent the point in which Murray puts the pedal to the floor on this rebuild.

Murray’s efforts at last year’s deadline and even the efforts of his predecessor, has provided the Sabres with a plethora of future and current assets for which to manipulate their roster with. In fact, you could form an entire roster based off the prospects Buffalo has in the AHL, major junior, Europe and the NCAA. You would actually need to make cuts because of the depth of the prospect pool.

Buffalo’s prospect pool, which is already at unparalleled heights compared to the rest of the league is set to grow even deeper as the Sabres are currently set to add five more players in the Draft’s first 60 selections; three of which would come in the first 31 picks if the Draft occurred today.

Not every NHL draft pick is a guarantee to make the NHL. There’s a strong possibility that some of Buffalo’s prospects, even those considered to be blue chips, will never don an NHL sweater but that’s the nature of talent development in the NHL. Buffalo’s advantage is the sheer numbers they have when it comes to their A-level prospects.

Depending how you count them, the Sabres have well over 30 prospects in the pipeline. Of those 30-plus bodies, 15 were picked in the first two rounds of the draft and you could make an easy argument that Nick Baptiste and Hudson Fasching have done quite a bit to push their stock close to that of a second round prospect. That means Murray will have 20 (or 22) first or second round prospects in the system if he keeps his picks this summer.

Those 22 bodies (counting Baptiste and Fashcing) are complimented by the likes of Zemgus Girgensons, Tyler Ennis and even Matt Moulson as some of the few players on the current Sabres roster who can be penciled long-term. That is a massive arsenal of assets that Murray will have in the organization and it will give him a great deal of flexibility down the road, specifically in trade talks.

There are going to be question marks around each and every player in the pipeline who hasn’t seen a minute of professional hockey, let alone an NHL game. While players like Mikhail Grigorenko and Joel Armia have made tremendous strides in Rochester this season, they’ll still need to make another adjustment if they’re in Buffalo next season. The same can be said of Justin Bailey, Baptiste, Fasching (should be be signed) and even Brendan Lemieux although he isn’t AHL eligible. Simply shouldering the expectation for a turnaround in 2015-16 on the shoulders of first and second year pros is foolish and massively shortsighted.

What is far less shortsighted is moving forward with the understanding that Murray have the ability to leverage the mountain of assets the team controls to bring about more immediate change for both the long and short term.

Despite Buffalo’s horrid record, Murray is perfectly positioned to utilize the blue chip talent within the organization to manufacture trades for difference makers. There is a ton of precedence of NHL teams utilizing NHL assets and highly valued picks and prospects to acquire impact players. It’s the core concept of the trade deadline and an ever growing trend of mid-summer trades.

For example, the Kings sacrificed Jack Johnson and a first round pick in order to acquire Jeff Carter. The Rangers gave up Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixon and a first round pick in order to bring Rick Nash into the fold. The Rangers also turned around and dealt Marian Gaborik and some spare change to bring in Derick Brassard, John Moore and two more pieces in a move that saw them recoup some of the quality depth they dealt to get Nash. In each case you see a team sacrificing a quality piece in order to bring in a bonafide difference maker.


Tim Murray is well positioned to execute the type of trade that brought Tyler Seguin to Dallas.

Obviously the primary difference here is that those were all contending teams trying to find that one last missing piece of the puzzle, the Sabres aren’t even in that same universe as they stand today. However, a move along those lines (think the Tyler Seguin trade) would immediately accelerate the rebuild effort.

Without diving too far off the deep end when it comes to hypothetical trades, it’s easy to look at Buffalo’s roster of current and future players and realize that Murray has more than enough to offer on the open market. If Tyler Myers is indeed on the block, it would be easy to pair him with Buffalo’s 2016 first round pick (or even the St. Louis or Islanders first) and a prospect to attempt to pry a young, proven scorer from another team.

The contention that simply drafting first will be all that’s required is a foolish sentiment. There’s far more that goes into the Chicago, Los Angeles or even the Pittsburgh model of building a champion and it’s something that’s been covered in this space before. One player won’t be enough to turn around the Sabres, even if his name rhymes with Schmcdavid. But when you factor in Buffalo’s prime draft position and the ability to leverage other assets for NHL talent, the turnaround can come about much quicker than it will take for every single organizational asset to be NHL ready.

The only true question mark surrounding this entire scenario is not which prospects will develop into better pros, but how savvy of a negotiator Murray is. One of Darcy Regier’s more respected strengths – from many I talk to – was his ability to make balanced trades that almost always addressed Buffalo’s organizational needs. So far Murray’s trades are all too fresh to identify as true wins or losses and he’s on the verge of needing to make a few more in the very near future. Is he capable of pushing the right buttons and maybe even making the right calculated risks on the trade market?

Everything I’ve seen from Murray when it comes to transactions tells me he makes calculated decisions and is never backed into a corner. There’s no way to say if he’d pull the trigger on a deal like the one that brought Tyler Seguin to Dallas, but you can’t deny he has the assets to make that kind of trade in order to kick his rebuild into high gear.

What I can say definitively is that Murray will be dealing from a position of power at the deadline, draft and beyond and it’s foolish to overlook the foundation that has been set for the Sabres’ future.
- BuffaloHardHat

I hope Chris didnt write this though tweets lol. Good write OZ

Good read. I just pretty much said the very same thing the other day.
Murray has been put in an excellent position thanks to Darcy.
Let's see how good Murray is , shall we?
Because to this point, he has done nothing earn my respect as a competent GM.
I hope he colors me impressed, but I am not holding my breath.



- BuffaloHardHat

I read (red) this more favorably to Murray that you did: it can be interpreted to say that both Murray and Darcy created the asset pool, and that Murray has shown that he isn't going to be backed into a corner.

However you interpret what the article says about the GM, it is very plain it what it says about the coach.

The tactically feeble head coach has been unable to find a way to turn around Buffalo’s month-long slump and the team’s slow starts and weak finishes should bring about question surrounding his famous motivational skills.

These are not kind words, and with all respect to Teddy's legend, I agree with them.

- homiedclown

Why? You get a young D and a young PF with grit to play on wing od McDavid. PLus you get rid of a 4.2 cap hit 4th line center?

I read (red) this more favorably to Murray that you did: it can be interpreted to say that both Murray and Darcy created the asset pool, and that Murray has shown that he isn't going to be backed into a corner.

However you interpret what the article says about the GM, it is very plain it what it says about the coach.

The tactically feeble head coach has been unable to find a way to turn around Buffalo’s month-long slump and the team’s slow starts and weak finishes should bring about question surrounding his famous motivational skills.

These are not kind words, and with all respect to Teddy's legend, I agree with them.
- Der Kaiser

That's his opinion of Teddy.

Everyone has one.

Good read. I just pretty much said the very same thing the other day.
Murray has been put in an excellent position thanks to Darcy.
Let's see how good Murray is , shall we?
Because to this point, he has done nothing earn my respect as a competent GM.
I hope he colors me impressed, but I am not holding my breath.



- BuffaloHardHat

he never drafted Corey Perry or ryan getzlaf or wanted erik karlsson

or Mika Zibanejad or Curtis Lazar or Marcus Hogberg or Cody Ceci

Matt Puempel or Shane Prince or Jared Cowen or Patrick Wiercioch

or up and coming star Mike Hoffman ...

he does nothing he is not a scouting junkie

he does nothing

That's his opinion of Teddy.

Everyone has one.
- BuffaloHardHat

I make a living persuading people that my opinion should prevail. Whether I am any good at it or not is open to question, but everybody who does what I do knows this for certain: you can't at one and the same time say-

1) "Pay attention to this guy because he knows what he is talking about."

and

2) "Don't pay any attention to this guy because everything he says is just his opinion."

Why? You get a young D and a young PF with grit to play on wing od McDavid. PLus you get rid of a 4.2 cap hit 4th line center?
- Linden_4_Capt

any future sabre moves will be for young players with top end upside, neither of the nuck players mentioned offered that, or will be 3 for 1 type trades where sabres get proven first line talent


imo

he never drafted Corey Perry or ryan getzlaf or wanted erik karlsson

or Mika Zibanejad or Curtis Lazar or Marcus Hogberg or Cody Ceci

Matt Puempel or Shane Prince or Jared Cowen or Patrick Wiercioch

or up and coming star Mike Hoffman ...

he does nothing he is not a scouting junkie

he does nothing
- gerbe75pts

He always had his Uncle with him.

I want to see him wear "his big boy pants" and pull some deals off on his own with no help nor consultation from his Uncle.

And I will need to see how these deals impact our Buffalo Sabres long term.
Then he will gain some respect from me but not until then.

any future sabre moves will be for young players with top end upside, neither of the nuck players mentioned offered that, or will be 3 for 1 type trades where sabres get proven first line talent


imo
- homiedclown

Virtanen

I make a living persuading people that my opinion should prevail. Whether I am any good at it or not is open to question, but everybody who does what I do knows this for certain: you can't at one and the same time say-

1) "Pay attention to this guy because he knows what he is talking about."

and

2) "Don't pay any attention to this guy because everything he says is just his opinion."
- Der Kaiser

Ummm...Ouch...

Bob McKenzie retweeted
Sarah McLellan ‏@azc_mclellan 15m15 minutes ago
Received update on Boedker: he injured spleen during WPG game and had surgery that night to remove it, GM Don Maloney confirmed.