Lots of interesting back and forth about what would the Sabres look like if Murray hadn't made certain trades/any trades and held on for 1 or 2 more years. One missing thing that none of us will ever know - maybe T Pegs told Murray to speed up the rebuild and make poop happen? Pegula seems to have a passive/aggressive side to him. He is "hands off" when it comes to dealing with the media but then he apparently gets involved in day to day decisions as to how his teams run. Look at the way he's running the Bills. I think it's weird that the head coach reports directly into the owner.

No but thats cuz i already knew what that chart would look like.

Here's an interesting one.

https://public.tableau.co...RCC3RC?:display_count=yes
- Sabresfan-365

Ekblad's looks very funky.

Leon on dominant.

This is tough though, again, two of these guys get McDavid and Eichel to play with.

Obviously in order as of today its Leon, Sam, Sam b in terms of how they've panned out
- sbroads24

I thought Leon was more of a shooter then this appears to display.

Lots of interesting back and forth about what would the Sabres look like if Murray hadn't made certain trades/any trades and held on for 1 or 2 more years. One missing thing that none of us will ever know - maybe T Pegs told Murray to speed up the rebuild and make poop happen? Pegula seems to have a passive/aggressive side to him. He is "hands off" when it comes to dealing with the media but then he apparently gets involved in day to day decisions as to how his teams run. Look at the way he's running the Bills. I think it's weird that the head coach reports directly into the owner.
- SabreWest

Patty LaLa beat up 3 male prostitutes at Bada Bing

I know it just seems like a weird thing for your bro to bring up
- Sabresfan-365

Because he's a kumquat and ikes pushing my buttons which works

Patty LaLa beat up 3 male prostitutes at Bada Bing
- jochfr

They clearly fired him being an amateur if it was only 3.

Exactly.

This would also be totally different if the Sabres were a playoff team and ROR was contributing to meaningful wins NOW, while guys like Compher, Greer, Zadorov develop for COL.
- sbroads24

youre missing cam morrison from that list as well

Ekblad's looks very funky.
- kingcong39

Its been that kind of career for him

I think Stash took the easy way out and just stopped coming here to read (reed) this garbage.
- jochfr

Thats a big part of it.
Join us....its not groundhog day at that other place.

Patty LaLa beat up 3 male prostitutes at Bada Bing
- jochfr

Did he slap their pee-pee's? How much did that cost?

Did he slap their pee-pee's? How much did that cost?
- sbroads24

After the shower of gold....

Go stars

Just to continue this thread...



If moves were made....

Kane-Eichel-Okposo
Nash-ROR-Reinhart
Ennis-Grigs/Erod-Haglin(or this type of player)
Dlo-Erod/Grigs-Gio
If a fourth line of Dlo-Grigs-Gio keep you out of the playoffs, much more is wrong with the team, fourth line usually only plays 7-9 mins a game.
I agree that I'd like to see Gionta move on, but he's hardly holding the team back.
- Sabres1523


I like the top 3, but there aren't any PK guys in that bottom 6. Larsson is probably our best guy in the bottom six right now. Girgs isn't that guy, and he's not the guy 5-on-5, and he's not the guy on the PP. I don't see any value in him. As for Dlo, i just really don't believe you can have a playoff team with a guy that gets 2 assists a year. I'd also rather have foligno than Gio, but i can see an argument for both.
- jcragcrumple

I think it's certainly possible to get Nash, and it probably won't cost us much
NyR needs to trade him for Cap room,
but also for expansion draft purposes so they don't lose a young forward they'd wanna protect

As for the rest of it...
I don't see us getting a "Hagalin" type forward as well, for a couple reasons
1) salary cap- we need to devote that $$$ to defense
2) young guys coming up- we have Bailey who looks ready & Nylander at some point too, plus Baptiste, Fasching & Carrier all weren't mentioned- and would cost us much less against the Cap
3) Getting rid of guys- Foligno & Larsson are easily done, but they've been productive for us. Idk if they're good enough to help us get back a defenseman that we'd need though... so if we're just getting 2nd or 3rds for them, might as well keep them around... and I won't believe we can get rid of Moulson until I see it actually happen

IF we can pull a trade for Nash,
I'd like the forwards to look like this to start the season

Nash-Eichel-Bailey
Ennis-O'Reilly-Okposo
Kane-Reinhart-Foligno
Moulson-Larson-Girgensons
-Deslauriers
*Carrier to Vegas, but if we can get them to take Moulson I'd re-sign Gionta for 1yr. He's played well, & obviously wants to be here (I think that matters)

I think it's certainly possible to get Nash, and it probably won't cost us much
NyR needs to trade him for Cap room,
but also for expansion draft purposes so they don't lose a young forward they'd wanna protect

As for the rest of it...
I don't see us getting a "Hagalin" type forward as well, for a couple reasons
1) salary cap- we need to devote that $$$ to defense
2) young guys coming up- we have Bailey who looks ready & Nylander at some point too, plus Baptiste, Fasching & Carrier all weren't mentioned- and would cost us much less against the Cap
3) Getting rid of guys- Foligno & Larsson are easily done, but they've been productive for us. Idk if they're good enough to help us get back a defenseman that we'd need though... so if we're just getting 2nd or 3rds for them, might as well keep them around... and I won't believe we can get rid of Moulson until I see it actually happen

IF we can pull a trade for Nash,
I'd like the forwards to look like this to start the season

Nash-Eichel-Bailey
Ennis-O'Reilly-Okposo
Kane-Reinhart-Foligno
Moulson-Larson-Girgensons
-Deslauriers
*Carrier to Vegas, but if we can get them to take Moulson I'd re-sign Gionta for 1yr. He's played well, & obviously wants to be here (I think that matters)
- jdfitz77

Interesting above scenario but IMO 1 of Ennis or Moulson have to be gone, along with Bogo. Too much cap tied up in those 3 plus the remaining term. Plus I am thinking that Kane is the piece that lands us that top level d-man we are desperate for.

Go stars
- GERBE!!!75PTS

Go Tampa!
And go Boston!
Yuck, can't believe I said that, but F the Leafs!
Hahaha
If Toronto does make it,
I want them to be the last team in so they can get swept by the Caps!

Florida...


- jochfr

Hey, the geese up can be downright nasty. And I don't mean that in the Gerbe way. Although on my first shot off the carpet with my new 2 iron hybrid a few years ago I drilled a goose right in the wing and to my surprise it didn't try and murder me, it just hopped a few feet away and went about his business eating grubs or whatever it is geese do. But I gifted him the ball. I figured it was the least I could do.

Who would you compare him to style wise?
- Matthews_Auston

Pysyk.

Interesting above scenario but IMO 1 of Ennis or Moulson have to be gone, along with Bogo. Too much cap tied up in those 3 plus the remaining term. Plus I am thinking that Kane is the piece that lands us that top level d-man we are desperate for.
- SabreWest

I hear ya, but...

I don't think Kane gets us a "top pair" defenseman
Hall ONLY got Larsson
Plus, these teams in trouble in the expansion draft (Minny, Ducks, etc), need to get player back they won't have to protect
So maybe Reinhart... but if he doesn't get us a "Lindholm" then I shop something like Fasching + to get a solid 2nd pair guy like a "Manson"

Also...
Those Cap hit so u wanna get rid of are probably gonna be tough
Might have to live with them on the roster for another year
Buy out Moulson after next season, hope Ennis & Bogo can be productive enough to eventually trade.
We could probably move Ennis now, but likely a very small return.
So unless we are desperate for the Cap space (we shouldn't be),
I'd just keep him for now & see what happens

Not sure if you missed the entire season this year but We are pretty much awful right now

Dont really want to go down this road but...

You are forgetting the fact that if we never made those trades we would likely have one of: Matthews, Laine, Tkachuk, Pujaarvi, Ect. in addition to Zadorov and Myers

And its easy to write of Armia if you haven't been paying attention to him, but hes turning into a semi promising player for the Jets
- MCGUIZZY

We are nowhere near as bad as a couple seasons ago. Remember D'Agostini and Konopka?

You are forgetting the fact that if we don't trade for an injured Kane, there's a good chance we are looking at Strome right now. Also, if we don't hit the lotto in 2015, we could just be trading Nylander for Juolevi or Dubois...Do you want Strome and Dubois (plus the draft picks like White/Roslovic) or Jack and Nylander?

Armia has 18 pts. I can trade Kane away for a 1st and a couple Armia's. Myers is Vegas bait at this point. Compher, Lemeiux, Morrison...where are these amazing players we don't have anymore?

We are nowhere near as bad as a couple seasons ago. Remember D'Agostini and Konopka?

You are forgetting the fact that if we don't trade for an injured Kane, there's a good chance we are looking at Strome right now. Also, if we don't hit the lotto in 2015, we could just be trading Nylander for Juolevi or Dubois...Do you want Strome and Dubois (plus the draft picks like White/Roslovic) or Jack and Nylander?

Armia has 18 pts. I can trade Kane away for a 1st and a couple Armia's. Myers is Vegas bait at this point. Compher, Lemeiux, Morrison...where are these amazing players we don't have anymore?
- RhinoFan

Nah. Kane would barely net a late first

We are nowhere near as bad as a couple seasons ago. Remember D'Agostini and Konopka?

You are forgetting the fact that if we don't trade for an injured Kane, there's a good chance we are looking at Strome right now. Also, if we don't hit the lotto in 2015, we could just be trading Nylander for Juolevi or Dubois...Do you want Strome and Dubois (plus the draft picks like White/Roslovic) or Jack and Nylander?

Armia has 18 pts. I can trade Kane away for a 1st and a couple Armia's. Myers is Vegas bait at this point. Compher, Lemeiux, Morrison...where are these amazing players we don't have anymore?
- RhinoFan

Also...
this team has talent!

We are 2 solid defensemen away from making a leap
Ppl say we're awful still...
but they'd have said the same thing last year about Columbus & Toronto,
and there's a few others who made a nice surprising leap this year

I don't think we are as far away as it seems some nights

It's taken me up until now,
But I also think a different coach will do wonders as well
Bylsma is a good coach...
But for whatever reason, he just isn't the RIGHT coach for us NOW

Kane would be on the same line Armia is on if he were still a Jet.

He isn't getting time over Ehlers, Wheeler, Laine, Perrault, Little and Scheifele

Nah. Kane would barely net a late first
- sbroads24

Boyle get's a prospect and a 2nd at the TDL and Kane can only get a return of a mid 20's first? Think that's a stretch at best personally.

Also...
this team has talent!

We are 2 solid defensemen away from making a leap
Ppl say we're awful still...
but they'd have said the same thing last year about Columbus & Toronto,
and there's a few others who made a nice surprising leap this year

I don't think we are as far away as it seems some nights

It's taken me up until now,
But I also think a different coach will do wonders as well
Bylsma is a good coach...
But for whatever reason, he just isn't the RIGHT coach for us NOW
- jdfitz77

Forward group is pretty set. Defense needs work, you're right. Coaching change could help. Simply being a year older could help. Lot's of positives from this year but because we're the same in the standings, we're obviously just getting worse.

Hope with Eichel/RoR/Samson they can put their money where their mouths are. If it sucks so bad, then let's fix it. They need to do the heavy lifting and no matter what additions are made this summer, Sam's right we won't be some dominant team. It will take them being consistently better night in and night out. Good blog by MP as per usual.

If KO is in the NICU is it fair to assume it's a stroke or aneurysm at this point? My father just got out of the one at BGH and I thought that was all they really were dealing with were those or serious brain traumas that ultimately resulted in bleeds. I'm worried.
- RhinoFan

He's got Benjamin Button disease?

Neuro covers a lot of stuff. Hell it could be MS, ALS, a tumor, stroke or bleed doesn't really fit with the time it's taken. Could be an infection in his brain, viral, bacterial, fungal...