Much to the shock of myself, the Sabres announced they parted ways with team president Ted Black and replacing him with current Buffalo Bills President Russ Brandon. Brandon now is the President of both Buffalo pro sports teams. Why not? Both are owned by Terry and Kim Pegula and they must have loved the job Brandon did with the Bills, running the business side of that team for 18 years.
I know many around dislike Brandon and the job he's done with the Bills as evidenced by their 15 year playoff drought. Now Russ might be responsible a little bit but he's not totally to blame for terrible ownership running this team into the ground in Ralph's last decade and a half as owner with all due respect to Mr. Wilson. All Brandon did was run the business Mr. Wilson wanted it be run and he made the team very profitable. He gets credit albeit a little too much credit for selling this franchise and selling tickets to a team that's terrible.
The reason I say too much credit is because this is Buffalo and fans are Bills crazy and sadly there's not much else to do in late fall early winter then go to or watch Bills football on Sunday. I think I can sell the team to this fan base too. Try selling a fan base to Jacksonville or Tampa or Miami or San Diego where there's beautiful weather all year and more to do.
If the Toronto series did make the team more profitable to buy and keep the team here then fine it was a success. I think we can all no longer talk about Toronto. Many don't like or trust him for the Toronto series and neither do I to a point. As long as he's not running the hockey department, like he's no longer running the football department of the Bills, and simply just running the team as a business we'll be fine.
I did not like the job he did as President of the Bills when he replaced Ralph Wilson on January 1, 2013. He hired Doug Marrone after an "extensive coaching search" all of five days and then made sure he signed here over Cleveland by putting in an opt clause where he can leave three days after the season ended in a season in which an ownership change occurred. Why does he get such a deal for being a .500 coach in Syracuse? Russ dropped the ball on that one but thankfully to a point he did or else we wouldn't have Rex Ryan so half-thank you Russ.
He also did a pretty poor job as the Bills GM in 2008-09, but was he really that much worse than our past GMs? Was he so much worse than Marv Levy or Buddy Nix or Tom Donahoe? He did just as good as them while yes Aaron Maybin and James Hardy were awful, really awful.
But he did get Eric Wood, Andy Levitre, Jairus Byrd, and Stevie Johnson in his two drafts. So it's a wash just like other GMs some good picks, some bad picks, some awful picks. He did also sign Terrell Owens too. As you know my feelings on GMs no one is better or worse at picking a player it's all a crap shoot and everyone is 50-50 except for those who have a franchise QB.
One thing he did not do which could have made or break his GM career and that's draft a Quarterback. Trent Edwards was already on the roster and he didn't do anything to draft or get a QB in the offseason. His tenure could have been spectacular had he gotten the right QB or Edwards became the guy or it could have been a disaster where Donahoe, Levy, and Nix's tenure was.
Finding the right QB can make any GM look good and you don't have to be a "football guy." Sometimes being a football guy is even worse because you think you know all this crap while the entire draft and QB is nothing but a crap shoot.
It's a gamble and a coin flip. Those who get the coin flip right will be a GM for life and missing the coin flip means you will be fired. He wasn't great but not terrible, he was about the same maybe even slightly better than the other GMs during this playoff drought. All that matters really is who is your QB and any GM is amazing or terrible based on how good or bad the QB is.
One thing reportedly the Pegulas do like about Brandon and that helped make him the President of the Sabres. That was after the season ended and Marrone left, Brandon and Doug Whaley contacted various head coaching candidates and setup interviews as quickly as possible. That impressed both Terry and Kim Pegula, especially getting Rex Ryan in for an interview and the rest is history.
I don't know the whole detail behind Black's departure nor will I pretend like I know. Black did a great job every week coming on WGR 550 and listening to fans call in and voice their satisfaction or displeasure. Black was also good at taking emails and getting back to as many fans as he could, which was a lot. He made sure he handled fan emails about what to do at the arena and improve the team with a lot of respect. He cared a lot about the opinions of the fans and how to make the team and arena better.
Black was really good at letting season ticket holders know what their plan on rebuilding was by sending them a letter that detailed how important getting first round picks, really highly drafted first round picks were to success of teams around the NHL.
He detailed how much percentage of goals are scored by players drafted in the first two rounds, then by how big of a percentage were scored simply by first round picks, and then how much of a large percentage of goals scored in the NHL by players picked in the top-3-5 picks and why it was so important that the Sabres get to where they finished to get high draft picks. He also outlined the success of teams with a great amount of top-3 picks. I liked Ted Black and wish him the best in his future endeavors but I guess it's time to move on.
The Sabres, Bills, and mostly the Pegulas show they aren't thinking the past or or going old guard like a lot of teams even here in the past (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/lou-lamoriello-shockingly-new-toronto.html). They are full of fresh, new ideas which is what this area needs.
Showing posts with label Tim Murray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Murray. Show all posts
Monday, July 27, 2015
Friday, July 24, 2015
Lou Lamoriello shockingly New Toronto GM; he's been great but I'm glad we have a younger progressive gm instead of a dinosaur
Yesterday it was shocking to announce that the Toronto Maple Leafs hired former longtime New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello as their new GM. Lamoriello had been the GM of the Devils since 1987, before stepping down this past May but remained team president before leaving to go to the Leafs.
Lamoriello is a hall of fame GM for building the Devils into a Cup contender for most of his 28 years on the job. They missed the playoffs only six times since he's been there (although four times have occurred in his last five seasons there) and have won the Stanley Cup three times while losing twice more in 2001 and 2012.
Lamoriello is a living legend if you will and his time in New Jersey should be celebrated minus the fact if you are like myself, you hated the Devils and their stupid Neutral Zone Trap which helped really ruin the game of hockey. Nevertheless, the Leafs are doing something teams especially a big market like Toronto tend to do and that's reach for the past.
Of course Buffalo teams were really good at that but thankfully under the Pegula ownership, both Bills and Sabres are no longer doing that (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/im-glad-sabres-no-longer-reaching-in.html). I am mush more happy we have a young more progressive GM in Tim Murray then the old guard who has great ideas from about 20-25 years ago but does not have a clue in this day in age.
Now Lamoriello is not a part of the Leafs organization ever, but his past success is still reaching for past success with another team I might add. It is said that he drafted current Leafs President Brendan Shanahan so they have a good relationship. He was successful with the Devils in the past, the key word is WAS. Lamoriello was very successful, maybe most successful GM prior to the 2004-05 lockout with all three of his Cups in his first 17 years as GM. Post 04-05 Lockout was not as successful. While the Devils won four division titles in the first five years post 04-05 lockout (ironically same amount of division titles in his first 17 years), the Devils failed to make it out of the second round each year with three times losing in the first round.
The last five years of his tenure saw the Devils miss the playoffs four times with one notable exception being that they made it all the way to the Cup Finals in 2012, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings. One of the biggest reasons for the decline was that Martin Brodeur was not the elite goalie (while still pretty good) as he was before the lockout. His numbers steadily declined as his save percentage kept going down each year and his playoff numbers and performances (minus the 2012 run to the finals) were bad, really bad as he was a shell of his former self.
Other reasons include Lamoriello's ability to be penny pinching, which worked for some time when they had really great talent on the blue line along with a hall of fame goalie in his prime. All that starts to catch up as they lost talented players such as Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, and Zach Parise as he let them walk and trading away other key veterans (such as Jamie Langenbrunner) or letting them walk in free agency.
Losing Parise was especially tough as he failed to get a deal done before he became an unrestricted free agent after the 2011-12 run to the finals. Actually, Parise was an unrestricted free agent in 2011, but signed a one-year deal to remain after he missed most of the season with a knee injury, but Lamoriello failed to lock him up long term and he's been doing great in Minnesota while New Jersey struggles to be competitive.
He did trade for Ilya Kovalcyuk in 2010 and managed to sign him to a 15-year, $100 million deal that saw him fight with the NHL which was eventually solved, but not without the NHL fining them and taking away a first round pick for circumventing the salary cap originally. Kovalchuk's deal hurt the Devils' cap space as in 2010-11, that along with injures forced them to dress as few as 15 players at one point in a game and management came under intense scrutiny for that.
Kovalchuk was very productive in New Jersey and I don't blame Lamoriello one bit for signing him because they were terrible offensively minus Parise during these years. Kovalchuk suddenly "retired" from the NHL in 2013 and went back to Russia to play in the KHL. That hurt the Devils even more. Kovalchuk might have cost them a chance at re-signing Parise or maybe they thought they would lose him, whatever.
I can't blame Lamoriello for these moves, maybe should have done a better job with Parise so he made some moves out of desperation. He's signed old, past-their-prime players such as Shanahan, Brian Rolston, Bobby Holik, Petr Sykora, and Henrik Tallinder during his final decade there. To help make up for the loss of both Parise and Kovalchuk in 2013, Lamoriello decided to trade a top-10 pick for goalie Cory Schneider.
Schneider is very good and has been very good for New Jersey. But they thought they can get back to the old glory days of finding an elite goalie to make up for a loss of offense, which does not happen in this day of age. You don't need a big time, big money goalie you need elite forwards. Schneider is in a seven-year deal with a $6 million a year cap hit. That's a recipe for disaster. I like Schneider a lot, he's one of my favorite goalies, but he's in no man's land with no elite players in front of him which won't lead to a ton of success.
That's just Lamoriello reaching for the past of defense and elite goaltending, which is not that game anymore. Lamoriello gets credit and rightfully so for winning, but he gets too much credit like many who are successful for a long period of time for developing a "culture of winning" and "building a winner." If you know me you know that I think that whole culture of winning is a crock. Well it's not but only if you get great players and win. Then and only then do you build a culture of winning. It's not something you go into a locker room or front office and just say you're going to do it and make up some phony things that lead to building a winning culture.
Perfect example a few years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs hired Scott Pioli from the New England Patriots to run their team. He was from a winning culture known as "the Patriot way." He tried to establish that same culture in Kansas City by doing such small and petty BS things like make sure trash is picked up by placing a candy bar wrapper and see if anyone cleans it up and throw a fit if no one does. If you think I am kidding, go Google it. How did that work out? He and his cronies were fired in less than four years with one of the worst teams in the NFL. What about that winning culture? It turned out they couldn't bring Tom Brady with them.
So how did Lamoriello build a winning culture? It wasn't because he placed trash and made sure people picked it up or cleaned the bathrooms. It was because he found great players, especially in the draft. He obviously hit on Brodeur and Patrik Elias in late first and second rounds, drafting Shanahan 2nd overall, and even signing or trading for star players that were drafted at the top of the draft for other teams like Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer.
Some of Lou's bizarre tactics such as firing coaches just before the regular season and even appointing himself as head coach, signing cheap veterans, and letting players go worked because they kept come of their best players and just fit the pieces around them. He kept the great players like Brodeur, Stevens, Niedermayer, and Elias while letting other replaceable players go. It's as simple as that.
Great players build a winning culture and the GMs, scouts, and coaches get ridiculous amounts of credit for star players. Chicago was terrible for a long, long time maybe because the culture in the locker room or bathroom or wherever was awful. People must not have been picking up their candy bar wrappers and now maybe finally someone has taken the initiative to clean up the mess. That or they were so bad and got a lot of great players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews at the top of the draft but believe whatever you want. The reason I laugh and take shots at takes like these is because it's total nonsense and BS.
Speaking of being terrible and finishing at the top of the draft for great players, the Devils really should have done that last season. Last season, they really should have went after McEichel by bottoming out. Instead, they finished with the sixth-worst record in the NHL and were 24 points behind the Sabres for 30th, yet finished 21 points out of the playoffs. That's even worse than the Flyers did (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/flyers-are-in-terrible-cap-situation.html) as both organizations are going nowhere fast.
People hate bottoming out but that's what you have to do if you want to get great players to contend and win the Stanley Cup, unless you're lucky and can get a big time free agent, but those days are no more. I for one am glad the Sabres decided to take the bottoming out role and getting Jack Eichel instead of middling it for years and years to come.
I am no way saying that Lamoriello doesn't deserve the credit for what he's done overall. However, it should be noted the last 5-10 years did not go too well and I don't expect him to come in a build a winner in Toronto. I like the way Toronto is doing their rebuild and if they want to be successful, hopefully they don't go the role of Lamoriello and how he build the Devils in recent years. He was successful, but I'm glad the Sabres are not reaching for the past in their organization or off other successful organizations.
Lamoriello is a hall of fame GM for building the Devils into a Cup contender for most of his 28 years on the job. They missed the playoffs only six times since he's been there (although four times have occurred in his last five seasons there) and have won the Stanley Cup three times while losing twice more in 2001 and 2012.
Lamoriello is a living legend if you will and his time in New Jersey should be celebrated minus the fact if you are like myself, you hated the Devils and their stupid Neutral Zone Trap which helped really ruin the game of hockey. Nevertheless, the Leafs are doing something teams especially a big market like Toronto tend to do and that's reach for the past.
Of course Buffalo teams were really good at that but thankfully under the Pegula ownership, both Bills and Sabres are no longer doing that (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/im-glad-sabres-no-longer-reaching-in.html). I am mush more happy we have a young more progressive GM in Tim Murray then the old guard who has great ideas from about 20-25 years ago but does not have a clue in this day in age.
Now Lamoriello is not a part of the Leafs organization ever, but his past success is still reaching for past success with another team I might add. It is said that he drafted current Leafs President Brendan Shanahan so they have a good relationship. He was successful with the Devils in the past, the key word is WAS. Lamoriello was very successful, maybe most successful GM prior to the 2004-05 lockout with all three of his Cups in his first 17 years as GM. Post 04-05 Lockout was not as successful. While the Devils won four division titles in the first five years post 04-05 lockout (ironically same amount of division titles in his first 17 years), the Devils failed to make it out of the second round each year with three times losing in the first round.
The last five years of his tenure saw the Devils miss the playoffs four times with one notable exception being that they made it all the way to the Cup Finals in 2012, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings. One of the biggest reasons for the decline was that Martin Brodeur was not the elite goalie (while still pretty good) as he was before the lockout. His numbers steadily declined as his save percentage kept going down each year and his playoff numbers and performances (minus the 2012 run to the finals) were bad, really bad as he was a shell of his former self.
Other reasons include Lamoriello's ability to be penny pinching, which worked for some time when they had really great talent on the blue line along with a hall of fame goalie in his prime. All that starts to catch up as they lost talented players such as Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, and Zach Parise as he let them walk and trading away other key veterans (such as Jamie Langenbrunner) or letting them walk in free agency.
Losing Parise was especially tough as he failed to get a deal done before he became an unrestricted free agent after the 2011-12 run to the finals. Actually, Parise was an unrestricted free agent in 2011, but signed a one-year deal to remain after he missed most of the season with a knee injury, but Lamoriello failed to lock him up long term and he's been doing great in Minnesota while New Jersey struggles to be competitive.
He did trade for Ilya Kovalcyuk in 2010 and managed to sign him to a 15-year, $100 million deal that saw him fight with the NHL which was eventually solved, but not without the NHL fining them and taking away a first round pick for circumventing the salary cap originally. Kovalchuk's deal hurt the Devils' cap space as in 2010-11, that along with injures forced them to dress as few as 15 players at one point in a game and management came under intense scrutiny for that.
Kovalchuk was very productive in New Jersey and I don't blame Lamoriello one bit for signing him because they were terrible offensively minus Parise during these years. Kovalchuk suddenly "retired" from the NHL in 2013 and went back to Russia to play in the KHL. That hurt the Devils even more. Kovalchuk might have cost them a chance at re-signing Parise or maybe they thought they would lose him, whatever.
I can't blame Lamoriello for these moves, maybe should have done a better job with Parise so he made some moves out of desperation. He's signed old, past-their-prime players such as Shanahan, Brian Rolston, Bobby Holik, Petr Sykora, and Henrik Tallinder during his final decade there. To help make up for the loss of both Parise and Kovalchuk in 2013, Lamoriello decided to trade a top-10 pick for goalie Cory Schneider.
Schneider is very good and has been very good for New Jersey. But they thought they can get back to the old glory days of finding an elite goalie to make up for a loss of offense, which does not happen in this day of age. You don't need a big time, big money goalie you need elite forwards. Schneider is in a seven-year deal with a $6 million a year cap hit. That's a recipe for disaster. I like Schneider a lot, he's one of my favorite goalies, but he's in no man's land with no elite players in front of him which won't lead to a ton of success.
That's just Lamoriello reaching for the past of defense and elite goaltending, which is not that game anymore. Lamoriello gets credit and rightfully so for winning, but he gets too much credit like many who are successful for a long period of time for developing a "culture of winning" and "building a winner." If you know me you know that I think that whole culture of winning is a crock. Well it's not but only if you get great players and win. Then and only then do you build a culture of winning. It's not something you go into a locker room or front office and just say you're going to do it and make up some phony things that lead to building a winning culture.
Perfect example a few years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs hired Scott Pioli from the New England Patriots to run their team. He was from a winning culture known as "the Patriot way." He tried to establish that same culture in Kansas City by doing such small and petty BS things like make sure trash is picked up by placing a candy bar wrapper and see if anyone cleans it up and throw a fit if no one does. If you think I am kidding, go Google it. How did that work out? He and his cronies were fired in less than four years with one of the worst teams in the NFL. What about that winning culture? It turned out they couldn't bring Tom Brady with them.
So how did Lamoriello build a winning culture? It wasn't because he placed trash and made sure people picked it up or cleaned the bathrooms. It was because he found great players, especially in the draft. He obviously hit on Brodeur and Patrik Elias in late first and second rounds, drafting Shanahan 2nd overall, and even signing or trading for star players that were drafted at the top of the draft for other teams like Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer.
Some of Lou's bizarre tactics such as firing coaches just before the regular season and even appointing himself as head coach, signing cheap veterans, and letting players go worked because they kept come of their best players and just fit the pieces around them. He kept the great players like Brodeur, Stevens, Niedermayer, and Elias while letting other replaceable players go. It's as simple as that.
Great players build a winning culture and the GMs, scouts, and coaches get ridiculous amounts of credit for star players. Chicago was terrible for a long, long time maybe because the culture in the locker room or bathroom or wherever was awful. People must not have been picking up their candy bar wrappers and now maybe finally someone has taken the initiative to clean up the mess. That or they were so bad and got a lot of great players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews at the top of the draft but believe whatever you want. The reason I laugh and take shots at takes like these is because it's total nonsense and BS.
Speaking of being terrible and finishing at the top of the draft for great players, the Devils really should have done that last season. Last season, they really should have went after McEichel by bottoming out. Instead, they finished with the sixth-worst record in the NHL and were 24 points behind the Sabres for 30th, yet finished 21 points out of the playoffs. That's even worse than the Flyers did (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/flyers-are-in-terrible-cap-situation.html) as both organizations are going nowhere fast.
People hate bottoming out but that's what you have to do if you want to get great players to contend and win the Stanley Cup, unless you're lucky and can get a big time free agent, but those days are no more. I for one am glad the Sabres decided to take the bottoming out role and getting Jack Eichel instead of middling it for years and years to come.
I am no way saying that Lamoriello doesn't deserve the credit for what he's done overall. However, it should be noted the last 5-10 years did not go too well and I don't expect him to come in a build a winner in Toronto. I like the way Toronto is doing their rebuild and if they want to be successful, hopefully they don't go the role of Lamoriello and how he build the Devils in recent years. He was successful, but I'm glad the Sabres are not reaching for the past in their organization or off other successful organizations.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Eichel officially signs with Us!! He's not going back to BU so Stop Worrying About him not Coming Back Here!! Other big time signings and trades today
Well any worries about Jack Eichel not signing with the Sabres and going back to BU are officially done. Today, he signed his 3-year entry level contract and hopefully three years from now, we will have him signed to a really long-term deal. July 1st for Sabres fans usually meant disappointment and heartbreak. Eight years ago today, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left via free agency after winning the President's Trophy. July 1st also seen the Sabres be snubbed by high profile free agents Brad Richards, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, and Shane Doan after Terry Pegula bought the team and wanted to spend top dollar. It also meant we got Ville Leino as well.
July 1st now means the official signing and berth of the Jack Eichel era in Buffalo, NY. We'll never have to think of that ever again. We are still waiting for the announcement of the extension of Ryan O'Reilly for seven to eight years for around $7-8 million a year. To help further keep him here, his brother Cal O'Reilly signed earlier for a two-year, one-way deal which means if he plays in the NHL or AHL he's still getting the same salary.
Some former Sabres were involved in trades or signings. Cody Hodgson, waived and bought out one day ago, was signed by Nashville to a one-year deal, not 12 years. I thought Arizona and Darcy Regier would sign him. Goalies Jhonas Enroth signed with the Los Angeles Kings while Michal Neuvirth signed with the Philadelphia Flyes and Anders Lindback with Arizona. So it means currently the Sabres are going with Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson as their goalies so far as they did not bring back any of their former goalies. Drew Stafford signed a two-year deal worth around $4.35 million a season yesterday to remain in Winnipeg.
Speaking of not bringing back any former Sabres, Andrej Sekera signed with Edmonton for six years which is a great move for the Oilers. I liked Sekera and wished he came back here but he moved on. He was very good in Carolina and was used very well unlike his time here with Lindy Ruff. Vancouver did not win the Hodgson trade either as they traded Zack Kassian, who was a disappointment, to Montreal for Brandon Prust and a fifth round pick.
The biggest move of the day was the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for Phil Kessel. The Penguins didn't give up much to get Kessel out of Toronto. Kessel is a very productive scorer (a point a game player) who doesn't always play hard or try hard (as evidenced by last season) and doesn't play great defense. Maybe getting him out of a horrible situation in Toronto and playing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will help him. Hopefully Crosby can keep him in line but he's the type of player they need badly. I think it's a great move for Pittsburgh unless they continue to go belly-up in the playoffs and he doesn't perform.
The St. Louis Blues are trying to move on from their core that's failed them in the playoffs the last few years. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is reportedly on the trade market and I would love for the Sabres to get him. The Blues let star forward Vladimir Tarasenko hit restricted free agency but they said they'll match any offer and rightfully so. They can't let him go and need to build around him. Dallas reportedly signed him to an offer sheet for 6 years, $45 million. I bet they'll match it and eventually part ways with players like David Backes and TJ Oshie.
The Chicago Blackhawks made a big move yesterday trading restricted free agent Brandon Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a shock because many thought the Blackhawks would have kept him as there were talks of them negotiating a long term deal. They dealt his rights to the Blue Jackets for Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano. GM Stan Bowman was worried that with the Hawks' cap trouble that teams would load up on an offer sheet for Saad.
One defenseman the Sabres would have liked, Paul Martin, signed a four-year deal with the San Jose Sharks. They also traded for and signed goalie Martin Jones. They did not resign Antii Niemi, who signed with Dallas. The Sharks sent a 2016 First Round pick and prospect Sean Kuraly to the Bruins for Jones as the Sharks immediately signed him to a 3-year deal.
Barrett Jackman's 13-year career with the Blues came to an end when he signed with Nashville. Detroit surprisingly signed Mike Green to a three-year deal while also signing Brad Richards to a one-year deal. Richards won a Cup with Chicago after signing a one-year deal one year after being bought out by the New York Rangers.
The buyouts from a day ago were very interesting. The Kings terminated Mike Richards' gigantic contract after he was stopped at the border with possession of Oxycontin. Others bought out not named Cody Hodgson were Alexander Semin and former Sabre Brad Boyes. I have no interest in any of them. I liked Semin a couple years ago when he signed with Carolina for one year and was very good. He was given a ridiculous longterm contract and never lived up close to it. And to think Jim Rutherford was fired from Carolina but hired in Pittsburgh. Go figure.
This was a very interesting first day of free agency with so much going on. More deals will be made in the coming days hopefully for Buffalo as well to get a defenseman and sign O'Reilly.
July 1st now means the official signing and berth of the Jack Eichel era in Buffalo, NY. We'll never have to think of that ever again. We are still waiting for the announcement of the extension of Ryan O'Reilly for seven to eight years for around $7-8 million a year. To help further keep him here, his brother Cal O'Reilly signed earlier for a two-year, one-way deal which means if he plays in the NHL or AHL he's still getting the same salary.
Some former Sabres were involved in trades or signings. Cody Hodgson, waived and bought out one day ago, was signed by Nashville to a one-year deal, not 12 years. I thought Arizona and Darcy Regier would sign him. Goalies Jhonas Enroth signed with the Los Angeles Kings while Michal Neuvirth signed with the Philadelphia Flyes and Anders Lindback with Arizona. So it means currently the Sabres are going with Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson as their goalies so far as they did not bring back any of their former goalies. Drew Stafford signed a two-year deal worth around $4.35 million a season yesterday to remain in Winnipeg.
Speaking of not bringing back any former Sabres, Andrej Sekera signed with Edmonton for six years which is a great move for the Oilers. I liked Sekera and wished he came back here but he moved on. He was very good in Carolina and was used very well unlike his time here with Lindy Ruff. Vancouver did not win the Hodgson trade either as they traded Zack Kassian, who was a disappointment, to Montreal for Brandon Prust and a fifth round pick.
The biggest move of the day was the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for Phil Kessel. The Penguins didn't give up much to get Kessel out of Toronto. Kessel is a very productive scorer (a point a game player) who doesn't always play hard or try hard (as evidenced by last season) and doesn't play great defense. Maybe getting him out of a horrible situation in Toronto and playing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will help him. Hopefully Crosby can keep him in line but he's the type of player they need badly. I think it's a great move for Pittsburgh unless they continue to go belly-up in the playoffs and he doesn't perform.
The St. Louis Blues are trying to move on from their core that's failed them in the playoffs the last few years. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is reportedly on the trade market and I would love for the Sabres to get him. The Blues let star forward Vladimir Tarasenko hit restricted free agency but they said they'll match any offer and rightfully so. They can't let him go and need to build around him. Dallas reportedly signed him to an offer sheet for 6 years, $45 million. I bet they'll match it and eventually part ways with players like David Backes and TJ Oshie.
The Chicago Blackhawks made a big move yesterday trading restricted free agent Brandon Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a shock because many thought the Blackhawks would have kept him as there were talks of them negotiating a long term deal. They dealt his rights to the Blue Jackets for Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano. GM Stan Bowman was worried that with the Hawks' cap trouble that teams would load up on an offer sheet for Saad.
One defenseman the Sabres would have liked, Paul Martin, signed a four-year deal with the San Jose Sharks. They also traded for and signed goalie Martin Jones. They did not resign Antii Niemi, who signed with Dallas. The Sharks sent a 2016 First Round pick and prospect Sean Kuraly to the Bruins for Jones as the Sharks immediately signed him to a 3-year deal.
Barrett Jackman's 13-year career with the Blues came to an end when he signed with Nashville. Detroit surprisingly signed Mike Green to a three-year deal while also signing Brad Richards to a one-year deal. Richards won a Cup with Chicago after signing a one-year deal one year after being bought out by the New York Rangers.
The buyouts from a day ago were very interesting. The Kings terminated Mike Richards' gigantic contract after he was stopped at the border with possession of Oxycontin. Others bought out not named Cody Hodgson were Alexander Semin and former Sabre Brad Boyes. I have no interest in any of them. I liked Semin a couple years ago when he signed with Carolina for one year and was very good. He was given a ridiculous longterm contract and never lived up close to it. And to think Jim Rutherford was fired from Carolina but hired in Pittsburgh. Go figure.
This was a very interesting first day of free agency with so much going on. More deals will be made in the coming days hopefully for Buffalo as well to get a defenseman and sign O'Reilly.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Cody Hodgson Put on Waivers; to be Bought Out!! Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish
Cody Hodgson has been waived and will be bought out by the Buffalo Sabres, ending what has been a very disappointing tenure since he came over here in a trade at the 2012 Trade Deadline. I'm glad we are getting rid of him as there is no place for him and his large salary. That large salary was in part of Darcy Regier always overvaluing players and giving him a six-year contract, rather than giving him a three or maybe even four-year deal at most.
As much of a disappointment he was here in Buffalo and Vancouver as well I will put myself on record saying I was for the trade when in it first happened. In the 2011-12 season, the Sabres had lousy center depth, one of the worst if not the worst. Ville Leino was a major bust of a signing as he was brought in to be a center despite never playing it in the NHL. As it turns out, he wasn't that good of a winger either here. More on Leino later don't miss that.
Luke Adam started that season as the "number one center" as he centered a line between Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville. Adam produced early on, but struggled and eventually was demoted until he was sent down to Rochester. Derek Roy came back from a serious quad injury he suffered the year before and struggled to come back from the injury, posting career-low numbers in any season in Buffalo for him. Tim Connolly left the team in free agency and things were so bad we could have used him. Heck, Paul Szczechura centered Vanek and Pominville for a while.
Injuries and the lack of a center which led to a lack of scoring and poor defense had the Sabres at the bottom of the league standings by the All-Star break. We were looking at a top-3 pick for hopefully that number one center. Mikhail Grigorenko's name was floating around there at the time as he was projected to be a top pick in that year's draft before he fell to the Sabres at number 12. The Sabres, however, got healthy and started to win. Tyler Ennis was hurt but came back and Lindy Ruff decided to try him at center when he should have done that earlier with their lack of depth at center.
Ennis played very well back from injury at center as his playmaking ability more fit the center position up the middle instead of on the wing. Ennis was very good the last two months of the season and the line of him, Drew Stafford, and Marcus Foligno were the best line on the team and one of the hottest in the NHL. They each averaged more than a point a game down the stretch and had incredibly high shooting percentages. We all knew they would start to come back down a bit from those ridiculous numbers but still thought that maybe the chemistry of them three together would give the Sabres a formidable line for years to come.
Then at the trade deadline, Regier first shipped out Paul Gaustad to Nashville for surprising a first round pick (which turned out to be Zemgus Girgensons). Then he brought Hodgson in from Vancouver for another disappointing prospect Zack Kassian, who failed to live up to the hype of the "legend of Zack Kassian." Hodgson had a falling out in Vancouver dating back to before the 2009-10 season when he had a back injury he suffered working out. He was initially cleared by team doctors and he failed to make the team and was sent back to juniors in the preseason.
Hodgson got a third opinion and had to have surgery, which led to a rift between himself and then-head coach Alain Vigneault, who claimed Hodgson had a procedure because he didn't make the team and blamed it on that. Their GM said there was no rift between themselves and Hodgson. He finally played for Vancouver in 2010-11 and appeared in 12 playoff games, registering a single point, as the Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Hodgson's first full season was 2011-12, where he had 16 points and 33 points in 63 games before being traded to the Sabres at the trade deadline. Hodgson didn't get a lot of playing time as he was the third line center behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler, but he put up a decent amount of points, which excited me. There was the potential for him to maybe become the number one center. Things did not start off well as he did not register a single point in 10 games and was a -5.
Things eventually changed as he centered a line between Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville and the final 10 games Hodgson had 3 goals and 8 points. Vanek and Pominville both were a point a game in the final 10 games as the offense looked a lot better. Hodgson was second to Vanek in 2012-13 with 15 goals and 34 points in the 48-game lockout shortened season.
After signing a ridiculous six-year deal before the 2013-14 season which he had yet totally prove himself, Hodgson led the team with 20 goals and 44 points in 72 games on the worst team in hockey that year. Hodgson was an effective scorer, but his defense was a huge problem and he was a huge liability in his own end. He was terrible at back-checking and turned the puck over a lot in his own end which led to a bunch of goals being scored while he was on the ice. At least he could score even if he's giving up goals, which isn't luck or by chance or by accident.
The "he could score" defense (no pun intended) came to a crashing end this past season as he had an awful 6 goals and 13 points in 78 games with an awful 4.7 shooting % and fallen out of favor with Ted Nolan. He went from a top-two center to a top-six winger to out of the top-six altogether. A lot has to do with his awful defensive game while his offense completely disappeared. He wasn't even getting power play time on the worst power play and offense in the NHL.
Another reason for the demotion was his awful possession game. He was a lousy 5-on-5 player as evidenced by his Corsi rankings listed below.
264th 2011-12 (49.4 career-high)
349th 2012-13 (46.5)
468th 2013-14 (42.5)
476th 2014-15 (38.7)
He was never a positive Corsi player in any of his NHL seasons and never ranked in the top-250 and just barely in the top-500 the past two seasons. His -65 as a Sabre further cemented his defensive liabilities and poor even strength play. He was a healthy scratch a few times this season for his awful play and the potential for him being a buyout grew further as the season wore on.
We all know 13 points in 78 games is awful, but just how awful was it? Ville Leino had zero goals in 58 games in 2013-14 which was awful and we make fun of that and rightfully so. But Leino had 15 assists and had two more points than Hodgson had IN 20 FEWER GAMES!!! That's not a misprint, Hodgson played 20 more games than Leino did last season and had two fewer points to a guy who didn't score a single goal in 3/4 of a season.
Hodgson looks like a complete joke when we look at how he scored fewer points than Ville Leino did the previous season. Leino was an awful signing and only had 10 goals in three seasons for the Sabres. Leino, however, was a significantly better possession player as his worst season here in Corsi was about as good as Hodgson's best here. Leino could definitely carry the puck in, but would not shoot the puck ever as evidenced by his low goal scoring totals and low shooting %.
Leino and Hodgson were both terrible additions by Regier and it makes me so happy they got Jack Eichel. These failures of Regier reaching for mediocre at best players and hoping they can turn into stars, which never happens, made me want the Sabres to finish 30th this past season for either Eichel and McDavid to find that franchise, elite number one center who will be the best player for years to come.
With the drafting of Eichel and the trade for Ryan O'Reilly among other additions, Hodgson had no role on this team. He was a winger at best on the third line even though they upgraded at coach in Dan Bylsma, who could help him with his possession game. But with a $4+ million cap hit, it didn't make much sense. One thing for Hodgson could have been give him more power play time, but that role was diminished with Eichel, O'Reilly, and Evander Kane among others getting power play time, which meant there was no room or place for Hodgson on this team.
One thing that bothered me about Hodgson was his lack of self awareness and his ability to be uncoachable. Throughout this awful season, Hodgson always thought he was very good and never listened to coaches always thinking he knew better than they did. I usually take what players say with a grain of salt because most of them are delusional. But Hodgson's comments about how good he is and how good his game is made even the most delusional athlete say "shut the bleep up." What a loser he was.
I definitely did not respect Hodgson's game and especially his commentary about himself. Even worse was I did not respect Darcy Regier to give him a six-year contract, putting us and himself in this giant mess. Typical Regier handed out big contracts to unproven players all the time, which always brought unbelievably high expectations which they could never live up. He ruined this team so much with his decision making. I have zero or less than zero respect for the job Regier did.
Thank God Tim Murray is not that. Regier would not give up on him waiting to see if he can live up to his potential, which they never would. Murray knows to make moves to better the team and if the player does do better elsewhere, great. Who cares? Usually those players aren't good and don't do better elsewhere. Even if they do, i don't care and neither does Murray. Good luck Cody I won't miss you or your awful two-way game.
As much of a disappointment he was here in Buffalo and Vancouver as well I will put myself on record saying I was for the trade when in it first happened. In the 2011-12 season, the Sabres had lousy center depth, one of the worst if not the worst. Ville Leino was a major bust of a signing as he was brought in to be a center despite never playing it in the NHL. As it turns out, he wasn't that good of a winger either here. More on Leino later don't miss that.
Luke Adam started that season as the "number one center" as he centered a line between Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville. Adam produced early on, but struggled and eventually was demoted until he was sent down to Rochester. Derek Roy came back from a serious quad injury he suffered the year before and struggled to come back from the injury, posting career-low numbers in any season in Buffalo for him. Tim Connolly left the team in free agency and things were so bad we could have used him. Heck, Paul Szczechura centered Vanek and Pominville for a while.
Injuries and the lack of a center which led to a lack of scoring and poor defense had the Sabres at the bottom of the league standings by the All-Star break. We were looking at a top-3 pick for hopefully that number one center. Mikhail Grigorenko's name was floating around there at the time as he was projected to be a top pick in that year's draft before he fell to the Sabres at number 12. The Sabres, however, got healthy and started to win. Tyler Ennis was hurt but came back and Lindy Ruff decided to try him at center when he should have done that earlier with their lack of depth at center.
Ennis played very well back from injury at center as his playmaking ability more fit the center position up the middle instead of on the wing. Ennis was very good the last two months of the season and the line of him, Drew Stafford, and Marcus Foligno were the best line on the team and one of the hottest in the NHL. They each averaged more than a point a game down the stretch and had incredibly high shooting percentages. We all knew they would start to come back down a bit from those ridiculous numbers but still thought that maybe the chemistry of them three together would give the Sabres a formidable line for years to come.
Then at the trade deadline, Regier first shipped out Paul Gaustad to Nashville for surprising a first round pick (which turned out to be Zemgus Girgensons). Then he brought Hodgson in from Vancouver for another disappointing prospect Zack Kassian, who failed to live up to the hype of the "legend of Zack Kassian." Hodgson had a falling out in Vancouver dating back to before the 2009-10 season when he had a back injury he suffered working out. He was initially cleared by team doctors and he failed to make the team and was sent back to juniors in the preseason.
Hodgson got a third opinion and had to have surgery, which led to a rift between himself and then-head coach Alain Vigneault, who claimed Hodgson had a procedure because he didn't make the team and blamed it on that. Their GM said there was no rift between themselves and Hodgson. He finally played for Vancouver in 2010-11 and appeared in 12 playoff games, registering a single point, as the Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Hodgson's first full season was 2011-12, where he had 16 points and 33 points in 63 games before being traded to the Sabres at the trade deadline. Hodgson didn't get a lot of playing time as he was the third line center behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler, but he put up a decent amount of points, which excited me. There was the potential for him to maybe become the number one center. Things did not start off well as he did not register a single point in 10 games and was a -5.
Things eventually changed as he centered a line between Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville and the final 10 games Hodgson had 3 goals and 8 points. Vanek and Pominville both were a point a game in the final 10 games as the offense looked a lot better. Hodgson was second to Vanek in 2012-13 with 15 goals and 34 points in the 48-game lockout shortened season.
After signing a ridiculous six-year deal before the 2013-14 season which he had yet totally prove himself, Hodgson led the team with 20 goals and 44 points in 72 games on the worst team in hockey that year. Hodgson was an effective scorer, but his defense was a huge problem and he was a huge liability in his own end. He was terrible at back-checking and turned the puck over a lot in his own end which led to a bunch of goals being scored while he was on the ice. At least he could score even if he's giving up goals, which isn't luck or by chance or by accident.
The "he could score" defense (no pun intended) came to a crashing end this past season as he had an awful 6 goals and 13 points in 78 games with an awful 4.7 shooting % and fallen out of favor with Ted Nolan. He went from a top-two center to a top-six winger to out of the top-six altogether. A lot has to do with his awful defensive game while his offense completely disappeared. He wasn't even getting power play time on the worst power play and offense in the NHL.
Another reason for the demotion was his awful possession game. He was a lousy 5-on-5 player as evidenced by his Corsi rankings listed below.
264th 2011-12 (49.4 career-high)
349th 2012-13 (46.5)
468th 2013-14 (42.5)
476th 2014-15 (38.7)
He was never a positive Corsi player in any of his NHL seasons and never ranked in the top-250 and just barely in the top-500 the past two seasons. His -65 as a Sabre further cemented his defensive liabilities and poor even strength play. He was a healthy scratch a few times this season for his awful play and the potential for him being a buyout grew further as the season wore on.
We all know 13 points in 78 games is awful, but just how awful was it? Ville Leino had zero goals in 58 games in 2013-14 which was awful and we make fun of that and rightfully so. But Leino had 15 assists and had two more points than Hodgson had IN 20 FEWER GAMES!!! That's not a misprint, Hodgson played 20 more games than Leino did last season and had two fewer points to a guy who didn't score a single goal in 3/4 of a season.
Hodgson looks like a complete joke when we look at how he scored fewer points than Ville Leino did the previous season. Leino was an awful signing and only had 10 goals in three seasons for the Sabres. Leino, however, was a significantly better possession player as his worst season here in Corsi was about as good as Hodgson's best here. Leino could definitely carry the puck in, but would not shoot the puck ever as evidenced by his low goal scoring totals and low shooting %.
Leino and Hodgson were both terrible additions by Regier and it makes me so happy they got Jack Eichel. These failures of Regier reaching for mediocre at best players and hoping they can turn into stars, which never happens, made me want the Sabres to finish 30th this past season for either Eichel and McDavid to find that franchise, elite number one center who will be the best player for years to come.
With the drafting of Eichel and the trade for Ryan O'Reilly among other additions, Hodgson had no role on this team. He was a winger at best on the third line even though they upgraded at coach in Dan Bylsma, who could help him with his possession game. But with a $4+ million cap hit, it didn't make much sense. One thing for Hodgson could have been give him more power play time, but that role was diminished with Eichel, O'Reilly, and Evander Kane among others getting power play time, which meant there was no room or place for Hodgson on this team.
One thing that bothered me about Hodgson was his lack of self awareness and his ability to be uncoachable. Throughout this awful season, Hodgson always thought he was very good and never listened to coaches always thinking he knew better than they did. I usually take what players say with a grain of salt because most of them are delusional. But Hodgson's comments about how good he is and how good his game is made even the most delusional athlete say "shut the bleep up." What a loser he was.
I definitely did not respect Hodgson's game and especially his commentary about himself. Even worse was I did not respect Darcy Regier to give him a six-year contract, putting us and himself in this giant mess. Typical Regier handed out big contracts to unproven players all the time, which always brought unbelievably high expectations which they could never live up. He ruined this team so much with his decision making. I have zero or less than zero respect for the job Regier did.
Thank God Tim Murray is not that. Regier would not give up on him waiting to see if he can live up to his potential, which they never would. Murray knows to make moves to better the team and if the player does do better elsewhere, great. Who cares? Usually those players aren't good and don't do better elsewhere. Even if they do, i don't care and neither does Murray. Good luck Cody I won't miss you or your awful two-way game.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
I'm Glad the Sabres No Longer Reaching in the Past Like Other Teams; They are a Completely Different Team than Last Season; a Complete 180
One thing I took real notice when I was watching the draft last night were the amount of teams that weren't very good that had former players from that franchise that were running their team as either a GM, President, head coach, or some sort of front office position. Three teams that really took notice to me were the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, and Colorado Avalanche.
The Bruins might be the worst position by trading Dougie Hamilton for a mid 1st round pick and parting ways with their number one defenseman. They brought in former players Cam Neely and Don Sweeney recently to be the President and General Manager respectively. So far they've done a horrible job and picked up where the last regimes left off.
In the last decade, the Bruins have traded Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel, Tyler Seguin, and now Hamilton. They also traded Ray Bourque 15 years ago but that was more to help Bourque get a Cup per his request so that doesn't count. Just because they won a Cup and been to another finals doesn't mean they've done things very well lately.
The moves they made remind of moves the Flyers used to make by getting rid of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards because "they partied" plus needed to free up cap space to give goalie Ilyz Bryzgalov a lucrative contract which blew up in their face. This wasn't the lone move that's made the Flyers a joke to the point where they're way too far away from being championship contenders but way too far away from the top picks of the draft to get elite players such as McDavid and Eichel and keeping them in the worst possible spot, "Hockey Purgatory."
They did get some decent pieces in the Carter and Richards trades that brought them in Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, and a first round pick that became Sean Couturier. Simmonds and especially Voracek have been great. Claude Giroux has also been very good as well. However, the Flyers lack secondary scoring outside their top players along with a terrible defense corps and lackluster goaltending.
Other moves that blew up in their face were giving up on former second overall pick James Van Riemsdyk, trading him to the Leafs for failed defenseman Luke Schenn, also giving up on future Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky after signing Bryzgalov, trading Scott Hartnell, and signing a past his prime Vincent LeCavalier. Despite those awful moves by Paul Holmgren, Holmgren, a former Flyers player, was promoted to team President and replaced by yet another former Flyer player, Ron Hextall as GM.
They recently fired former Flyer player Craig Berube and replaced him with the successful University of North Dakota head coach, a move I like that's different. This is the same franchise that kept Bobby Clarke as GM forever after he played for them and was their captain when they won two Stanley Cups in the 1970s. Clarke of course is still in the organization in the front office after making a lot of bonehead moves as a GM. This is a team, like the Bruins, who have to keep their former players in the organization and parade them out to the fans despite their failures.
In recent years, the Colorado Avalanche have hired former Stanley Cup winners goalie Patrick Roy as both head coach and vice president of hockey operations and former captain Joe Sakic as GM. Can they add Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote to the team as well? Maybe even Claude Lemieux? Their first year they went from the second-worst record to winning the division and a 100-point season in 2013-14 season. They lost in the first round as many analytics experts thought they were lucky and called for them to lose to the Minnesota Wild in the first round.
They called for a serious regression this season even though Roy and Sakic laughed at that. They "played the game" and knew more than "analytics nerds" know. They had the second-worst Corsi for (only behind the Sabres) this past season and missed the playoffs and finished with the 10th worst record this season. Once again, the analytics and advanced stats crowd called a regression much like they did a couple years ago with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The problem is that in any sport, not just hockey, bringing in players or coaches or whatever from the past glory days is usually a problem. Very teams had success when bringing in past glory because players don't usually make great coaches or GMs or front office personnel. Players with that same franchise usually don't bring a fresh perspective to a struggling team and try to relive the glory days. They also try to sell the past to fans which almost always never works out. You need a fresh perspective and a fresh set of eyes from outside the organization to tell what's really wrong with the organization.
Recently, the Edmonton Oilers had problems with former players Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish being the President and GM and even head coach and running that team into the ground. They were a joke for a long time as for some reason, the organization could not let go of the past. Now they seem to have done a better job at bringing in GM and head coach from outside the organization.
New Jersey has had Lou Lamoriello as GM forever and had success but recently, they've struggled as Lamoriello has failed to adapt to the newer NHL. Last year, they fired Peter DeBoar as head coach and brought in, get this, former Devil Scott Stevens along with another former Hall of Fame player Adam Oates (who failed as a head coach with his former team Washington how about that) to be the head coach.
If bringing in former franchise players are a problem, bringing in former longtime failure coaches and GMs to be coaches and GMs because they're buddy-buddy with other coaches and GMs to bring more stench of failure. New Jersey brought in former failed Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero as their new GM. Way to keep up with the times and evolve and grow. That's why the Devils aren't going anywhere for a long time. It's like when the Penguins replaced Shero last year with another former failure GM Jim Rutherford, who was fired by Carolina after he did a miserable job.
The Bills and Sabres used to have these problems for years, bringing in former players and coaches back to the team or bringing in failed coaches and GMs and scouts, etc. That is until now as both Bills and Sabres, thanks to Terry and Kim Pegula, have brought in fresh brand new ideas with people from outside the organization to bring in a fresh pair of eyes and perspective to build a winner. These are organizations both known for losing and to build a winner, you need to go away from the stench of failure that breeds among both teams.
I love the direction both the Bills and especially Sabres are heading into. It's great to see how the Sabres are almost nothing like the team a year ago. They're adding Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, and Ryan O'Reilly to the mix. This is a complete 180 from last year's mess.
The Bruins might be the worst position by trading Dougie Hamilton for a mid 1st round pick and parting ways with their number one defenseman. They brought in former players Cam Neely and Don Sweeney recently to be the President and General Manager respectively. So far they've done a horrible job and picked up where the last regimes left off.
In the last decade, the Bruins have traded Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel, Tyler Seguin, and now Hamilton. They also traded Ray Bourque 15 years ago but that was more to help Bourque get a Cup per his request so that doesn't count. Just because they won a Cup and been to another finals doesn't mean they've done things very well lately.
The moves they made remind of moves the Flyers used to make by getting rid of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards because "they partied" plus needed to free up cap space to give goalie Ilyz Bryzgalov a lucrative contract which blew up in their face. This wasn't the lone move that's made the Flyers a joke to the point where they're way too far away from being championship contenders but way too far away from the top picks of the draft to get elite players such as McDavid and Eichel and keeping them in the worst possible spot, "Hockey Purgatory."
They did get some decent pieces in the Carter and Richards trades that brought them in Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, and a first round pick that became Sean Couturier. Simmonds and especially Voracek have been great. Claude Giroux has also been very good as well. However, the Flyers lack secondary scoring outside their top players along with a terrible defense corps and lackluster goaltending.
Other moves that blew up in their face were giving up on former second overall pick James Van Riemsdyk, trading him to the Leafs for failed defenseman Luke Schenn, also giving up on future Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky after signing Bryzgalov, trading Scott Hartnell, and signing a past his prime Vincent LeCavalier. Despite those awful moves by Paul Holmgren, Holmgren, a former Flyers player, was promoted to team President and replaced by yet another former Flyer player, Ron Hextall as GM.
They recently fired former Flyer player Craig Berube and replaced him with the successful University of North Dakota head coach, a move I like that's different. This is the same franchise that kept Bobby Clarke as GM forever after he played for them and was their captain when they won two Stanley Cups in the 1970s. Clarke of course is still in the organization in the front office after making a lot of bonehead moves as a GM. This is a team, like the Bruins, who have to keep their former players in the organization and parade them out to the fans despite their failures.
In recent years, the Colorado Avalanche have hired former Stanley Cup winners goalie Patrick Roy as both head coach and vice president of hockey operations and former captain Joe Sakic as GM. Can they add Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote to the team as well? Maybe even Claude Lemieux? Their first year they went from the second-worst record to winning the division and a 100-point season in 2013-14 season. They lost in the first round as many analytics experts thought they were lucky and called for them to lose to the Minnesota Wild in the first round.
They called for a serious regression this season even though Roy and Sakic laughed at that. They "played the game" and knew more than "analytics nerds" know. They had the second-worst Corsi for (only behind the Sabres) this past season and missed the playoffs and finished with the 10th worst record this season. Once again, the analytics and advanced stats crowd called a regression much like they did a couple years ago with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The problem is that in any sport, not just hockey, bringing in players or coaches or whatever from the past glory days is usually a problem. Very teams had success when bringing in past glory because players don't usually make great coaches or GMs or front office personnel. Players with that same franchise usually don't bring a fresh perspective to a struggling team and try to relive the glory days. They also try to sell the past to fans which almost always never works out. You need a fresh perspective and a fresh set of eyes from outside the organization to tell what's really wrong with the organization.
Recently, the Edmonton Oilers had problems with former players Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish being the President and GM and even head coach and running that team into the ground. They were a joke for a long time as for some reason, the organization could not let go of the past. Now they seem to have done a better job at bringing in GM and head coach from outside the organization.
New Jersey has had Lou Lamoriello as GM forever and had success but recently, they've struggled as Lamoriello has failed to adapt to the newer NHL. Last year, they fired Peter DeBoar as head coach and brought in, get this, former Devil Scott Stevens along with another former Hall of Fame player Adam Oates (who failed as a head coach with his former team Washington how about that) to be the head coach.
If bringing in former franchise players are a problem, bringing in former longtime failure coaches and GMs to be coaches and GMs because they're buddy-buddy with other coaches and GMs to bring more stench of failure. New Jersey brought in former failed Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero as their new GM. Way to keep up with the times and evolve and grow. That's why the Devils aren't going anywhere for a long time. It's like when the Penguins replaced Shero last year with another former failure GM Jim Rutherford, who was fired by Carolina after he did a miserable job.
The Bills and Sabres used to have these problems for years, bringing in former players and coaches back to the team or bringing in failed coaches and GMs and scouts, etc. That is until now as both Bills and Sabres, thanks to Terry and Kim Pegula, have brought in fresh brand new ideas with people from outside the organization to bring in a fresh pair of eyes and perspective to build a winner. These are organizations both known for losing and to build a winner, you need to go away from the stench of failure that breeds among both teams.
I love the direction both the Bills and especially Sabres are heading into. It's great to see how the Sabres are almost nothing like the team a year ago. They're adding Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, and Ryan O'Reilly to the mix. This is a complete 180 from last year's mess.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Sabres Officially Draft Jack Eichel and Acquire O'Reiily on Busy and Exciting Draft Day
The future of the Buffalo Sabres starts tonight with the drafting of Jack Eichel (assuming he signs with us and doesn't go back to college which I believe he won't). He's our franchise player and it will be awesome to have a forward/ No. 1 center be our franchise elite player. It's been way too long since what LaFontaine or maybe even Perrault? Sure even Briere and Drury were very good for the short time they were here but this is an 18-year-old kid who will be here for a good 15 years or so helping leading this team to the promised land. Who doesn't love it when Tim Murray doesn't do the BS of thanking everyone just goes "Buffalo selects Jack Eichel" like he did last year with Sam Reinhart?
Eichel is considered to be one of the best prospects in the last what 15-20 years? Since then Eichel has been considered the number one pick in every draft in that time except the Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and of course the Connor McDavid years. Ovechkin and Crosby helped turn their teams around from miserable failures to success and McDavid should do the same with Edmonton. I've heard Eichel compared to fellow American Mike Modano (1988 #1 overall pick) and current stars Steven Stamkos and Jeff Carter.
As of that wasn't enough, they traded for a goalie early in the day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/sabres-acquire-goalie-robin-lehner-and.html) and right after selecting Eichel, the Sabres announced they traded for Ryan O'Reilly. They traded Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, JT Compher, and the 31st pick in this year's draft for O'Reilly and forward Jamie McGinn. O'Reilly gives them a legitimate number two center behind Eichel and gives the Sabres one of the best center depth in the NHL with Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart also on the roster.
Now O'Reilly has one year left on his deal that carries a $6 million cap hit which the Avalanche matched an offer sheet signed two years ago by the Calgary Flames and that basically ruined the relationship between the Avs and O'Reilly. We have to sign O'Reilly and it appears he wants a deal in the $8 million range which might be steep but also kind of worth it given his offensive production and amazing two-way, possession game. He's the complete opposite of Cody Hodgson as a two-way player. Murray said they are preparing to offer him a big contract or else why did they trade so much for him?
Murray got a lot of flack for making this deal especially trading Zadorov. Zadorov can be a very good defenseman and showed flashes of brilliance last season. But he also really struggled at times and got benched and suspended and had an attitude of entitlement. That doesn't mean he should be gone yet he became expendable to make a big trade. Like I wrote the other day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html), you have to be prepared to trade someone you might not want or be comfortable trading to improve your team and Zadorov (and maybe some who still had hope for Grigorenko) were the ones to go. Rasmus Ristolainen and Eichel are the only "untouchables" on this roster. We can fill another spot in free agency and one guy I'm very interested in is former Sabre Andrej Seker, who is a UFA. We don't have a guy on the defense for the power play and he's always been good at that and point producing even though a lot of people didn't like him here. I liked Sekera.
No surprise obviously McDavid went first overall with the Oilers. Arizona was not able to trade it's third overall pick (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/coyotes-looking-to-trade-pick-3-bruins.html) and instead took McDavid's Erie Otters' teammate Dylan Strome. Had the Sabres not picked in the top-2 for McDavid or Eichel, Strome would have been my top pick at number three. Toronto and Mike Babcock select center Mitch Marner, who finished a close second behind Strome for the OHL scoring title this past season which McDavid would have easily won had he not gotten hurt for six weeks of the season.
Carolina took Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifan and Carolina looks to get better on the blue line and they're a team I could see on the rise. Hanifan would make an excellent addition and partner for fellow defenseman Justin Faulk, who had a breakout season and franchise record-breaking season for most points by a defenseman. If they keep both Staals and maybe Jeff Skinner or get a great trade for him (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) they'll be on the rise no doubt. They're penalty kill (which dramatically) and possession numbers are both very great as first year head coach Bill Peters has done a great job and they finished the second half of the season really strong. They get a good goalie, they're a playoff team.
The team who hosted the draft, the Florida Panthers, took Lawson Crouse 11th overall. Crouse was talked as a possible top-5 pick as he was 5th in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings because of his size and scoring ability plus his play in the World Juniors this past season for Team Canada. He did not score a lot in juniors which is a red flag in my opinion as he was nowhere even close to the scoring leaders, but he did jump up significantly this past season from the season before as he went from 27 to 51 points. However, he still ranked 63rd in the OHL scoring race. 63rd!!! He just averaged under a point a game in a league where the best scorers averaged 2 points a game (or in McDavid's case close to 3 points a game). He has high bust potential but could be the next Milan Lucic or Todd Bertuzzi if it pans out, maybe even better. We shall see.
Ottawa took young American center prospect Colin White, who is considered one of the better prospects in this deep draft, 21st overall with the Sabres pick. White is considered to play for Boston College this upcoming season but who knows. The one and only goalie taken in the first round one pick after as the Washington Capitals took Ilya Samsonov 22nd overall as he was expected to go late in round one and if the Sabres still had pick 21, they'd probably take him.
One last thing is that the Boston Bruins continue to make mind numbing decision after decision. It didn't matter that Peter Chiarelli was fired for making mind numbing trades like Phil Kessel for two first round picks what turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton then trading Seguin for garbage and put them in the place they're currently in. I didn't even mention Joe Thornton going for practically nothing before Chiarelli was GM but they get credit because they won the Cup. Yes they did get lucky trading Kessel, who even though he produces points, he doesn't always show up and puts in terrible efforts night in night out and is awful defensively. Seguin and Hamilton should have taken your team to the Cup for many years to come. I don't know what's in the water in Boston but whoever the GM is, makes dumb decisions enough said.
Reports were they were interested in trading top defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Coyotes for the third pick in the draft to take Hanifan but instead, they trade him to Calgary for the 15th overall pick?!?! Huh? Don Sweeney is doing a great job let me tell you (smh). They also traded Milan Lucic to Los Angeles for the 13th overall pick and restricted free agent goalie Martin Jones combine the two picks with their own, they had the 13th, 14th, and 15th overall picks in the draft. Many thought they'd trade all 3 or 2 of the 3 along with either Jones or Tukka Rask to move up but did not.
Trading Lucic no big deal as he's on the decline. But trading Hamilton a #1 defenseman for many years to come for basically nothing is just pathetic and I will enjoy them being a bottom feeder for quite some time. They fired Chiarelli and should fired Sweeney as well along with President Cam Neely. They want to be a physical and tough team and I say fine, we'll just circle around you like we did 10 years ago after the lockout. I love how teams bring in former players to run their teams into the ground. I'll write more about that in the coming days.
Buffalo is a team on the rise and I for one can't wait for this season to start. Next year's draft will be held here in Buffalo even though more than likely next year's draft won't be as important as they should be on the way towards winning. Let's go Buffalo!!
Eichel is considered to be one of the best prospects in the last what 15-20 years? Since then Eichel has been considered the number one pick in every draft in that time except the Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and of course the Connor McDavid years. Ovechkin and Crosby helped turn their teams around from miserable failures to success and McDavid should do the same with Edmonton. I've heard Eichel compared to fellow American Mike Modano (1988 #1 overall pick) and current stars Steven Stamkos and Jeff Carter.
As of that wasn't enough, they traded for a goalie early in the day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/sabres-acquire-goalie-robin-lehner-and.html) and right after selecting Eichel, the Sabres announced they traded for Ryan O'Reilly. They traded Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, JT Compher, and the 31st pick in this year's draft for O'Reilly and forward Jamie McGinn. O'Reilly gives them a legitimate number two center behind Eichel and gives the Sabres one of the best center depth in the NHL with Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart also on the roster.
Now O'Reilly has one year left on his deal that carries a $6 million cap hit which the Avalanche matched an offer sheet signed two years ago by the Calgary Flames and that basically ruined the relationship between the Avs and O'Reilly. We have to sign O'Reilly and it appears he wants a deal in the $8 million range which might be steep but also kind of worth it given his offensive production and amazing two-way, possession game. He's the complete opposite of Cody Hodgson as a two-way player. Murray said they are preparing to offer him a big contract or else why did they trade so much for him?
Murray got a lot of flack for making this deal especially trading Zadorov. Zadorov can be a very good defenseman and showed flashes of brilliance last season. But he also really struggled at times and got benched and suspended and had an attitude of entitlement. That doesn't mean he should be gone yet he became expendable to make a big trade. Like I wrote the other day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html), you have to be prepared to trade someone you might not want or be comfortable trading to improve your team and Zadorov (and maybe some who still had hope for Grigorenko) were the ones to go. Rasmus Ristolainen and Eichel are the only "untouchables" on this roster. We can fill another spot in free agency and one guy I'm very interested in is former Sabre Andrej Seker, who is a UFA. We don't have a guy on the defense for the power play and he's always been good at that and point producing even though a lot of people didn't like him here. I liked Sekera.
No surprise obviously McDavid went first overall with the Oilers. Arizona was not able to trade it's third overall pick (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/coyotes-looking-to-trade-pick-3-bruins.html) and instead took McDavid's Erie Otters' teammate Dylan Strome. Had the Sabres not picked in the top-2 for McDavid or Eichel, Strome would have been my top pick at number three. Toronto and Mike Babcock select center Mitch Marner, who finished a close second behind Strome for the OHL scoring title this past season which McDavid would have easily won had he not gotten hurt for six weeks of the season.
Carolina took Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifan and Carolina looks to get better on the blue line and they're a team I could see on the rise. Hanifan would make an excellent addition and partner for fellow defenseman Justin Faulk, who had a breakout season and franchise record-breaking season for most points by a defenseman. If they keep both Staals and maybe Jeff Skinner or get a great trade for him (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) they'll be on the rise no doubt. They're penalty kill (which dramatically) and possession numbers are both very great as first year head coach Bill Peters has done a great job and they finished the second half of the season really strong. They get a good goalie, they're a playoff team.
The team who hosted the draft, the Florida Panthers, took Lawson Crouse 11th overall. Crouse was talked as a possible top-5 pick as he was 5th in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings because of his size and scoring ability plus his play in the World Juniors this past season for Team Canada. He did not score a lot in juniors which is a red flag in my opinion as he was nowhere even close to the scoring leaders, but he did jump up significantly this past season from the season before as he went from 27 to 51 points. However, he still ranked 63rd in the OHL scoring race. 63rd!!! He just averaged under a point a game in a league where the best scorers averaged 2 points a game (or in McDavid's case close to 3 points a game). He has high bust potential but could be the next Milan Lucic or Todd Bertuzzi if it pans out, maybe even better. We shall see.
Ottawa took young American center prospect Colin White, who is considered one of the better prospects in this deep draft, 21st overall with the Sabres pick. White is considered to play for Boston College this upcoming season but who knows. The one and only goalie taken in the first round one pick after as the Washington Capitals took Ilya Samsonov 22nd overall as he was expected to go late in round one and if the Sabres still had pick 21, they'd probably take him.
One last thing is that the Boston Bruins continue to make mind numbing decision after decision. It didn't matter that Peter Chiarelli was fired for making mind numbing trades like Phil Kessel for two first round picks what turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton then trading Seguin for garbage and put them in the place they're currently in. I didn't even mention Joe Thornton going for practically nothing before Chiarelli was GM but they get credit because they won the Cup. Yes they did get lucky trading Kessel, who even though he produces points, he doesn't always show up and puts in terrible efforts night in night out and is awful defensively. Seguin and Hamilton should have taken your team to the Cup for many years to come. I don't know what's in the water in Boston but whoever the GM is, makes dumb decisions enough said.
Reports were they were interested in trading top defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Coyotes for the third pick in the draft to take Hanifan but instead, they trade him to Calgary for the 15th overall pick?!?! Huh? Don Sweeney is doing a great job let me tell you (smh). They also traded Milan Lucic to Los Angeles for the 13th overall pick and restricted free agent goalie Martin Jones combine the two picks with their own, they had the 13th, 14th, and 15th overall picks in the draft. Many thought they'd trade all 3 or 2 of the 3 along with either Jones or Tukka Rask to move up but did not.
Trading Lucic no big deal as he's on the decline. But trading Hamilton a #1 defenseman for many years to come for basically nothing is just pathetic and I will enjoy them being a bottom feeder for quite some time. They fired Chiarelli and should fired Sweeney as well along with President Cam Neely. They want to be a physical and tough team and I say fine, we'll just circle around you like we did 10 years ago after the lockout. I love how teams bring in former players to run their teams into the ground. I'll write more about that in the coming days.
Buffalo is a team on the rise and I for one can't wait for this season to start. Next year's draft will be held here in Buffalo even though more than likely next year's draft won't be as important as they should be on the way towards winning. Let's go Buffalo!!
What Can the Sabres Do at 21? Get a Goalie? Or Get a Top-6 Forward Like Skinner, O'Reilly, or Okposo?
With all the hype of getting Jack Eichel, there is the question of what to do at pick #21? Do the Sabres get a goalie and/or a top-6 forward like Jeff Skinner, Ryan O'Reilly, or even Kyle Okposo? For goalie, the top guys to be traded are New York Rangers' backup Cam Talbot and Vancouver's backup Eddie Lack.
The Rangers reportedly want two first round picks but could just want pick #21 from the Sabres and a conditional pick, That pick might be too high for a goalie. Lack could go for a 2nd or even 3rd round pick and that could be a good price. There's also LA Kings' backup Martin Jones, who they could go after with an offer sheet as he's a restricted free agent.
The Hurricanes are looking to move Skinner (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) as they want to re-sign both Eric Staal and Cam Ward (I don't know why). The Hurricanes are in the position they are in because of giving Ward a big contract years ago in the first place. He's been mediocre at best and even great goalies who sign big contracts aren't worth that, it's even worse for a mediocre or worse goalie. I remember the game against them in the final week of the season last year where he was awful and cost them the game by allowing 4 goals and almost hurt our chances at McEichel.
O'Reilly (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html) is pretty much done in Colorado especially after they just gave Carl Soderberg a five-year deal nearly worth five million a year. I love how the Avalanche continue to fail and not use analytics to their advantage. Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic continue to thumb their nose at analytics because "they played the game."
Analytics called for a regression this past season after they miraculously won the division and had a 100-point season in 2013-14 after finishing with the second-worst record in 2012-13. Many analytics experts felt they were lucky to win the division and called for them to lose in the first round (which they did) and expected them to fail, which they did as they had the 10th worst record this past season.
Islanders' GM Garth Snow said he wasn't going to trade Okposo but take that with a grain of salt. Okposo is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Okposo is a solid player who would be a good fit for the Sabres perhaps for the 21st overall pick. He's had 18 or more goals in three of the last four seasons (the only one he didn't was the lockout-shortened season) and has had 27 goals two seasons ago. He had 18 in only 60 games as he missed 22 with injury, which would put him around his career-high if he played the full season.
Patrick Sharp is also available but unlikely for the Sabres because of the steep asking price of the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks reportedly want a first round pick, a top prospect, AND a top six forward on an entry level contract. I expect the asking price to drop because Chicago needs to ,over some salaries because they're in cap trouble with the upcoming raises of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. I like Sharp but not at that price.
Whatever happens later today will be very interesting. Don't expect Tim Murray to not just take Eichel as he will do whatever to improve this team as quickly as possible. For those who think this is a five-year project will be in for a rude awakening.
The Rangers reportedly want two first round picks but could just want pick #21 from the Sabres and a conditional pick, That pick might be too high for a goalie. Lack could go for a 2nd or even 3rd round pick and that could be a good price. There's also LA Kings' backup Martin Jones, who they could go after with an offer sheet as he's a restricted free agent.
The Hurricanes are looking to move Skinner (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) as they want to re-sign both Eric Staal and Cam Ward (I don't know why). The Hurricanes are in the position they are in because of giving Ward a big contract years ago in the first place. He's been mediocre at best and even great goalies who sign big contracts aren't worth that, it's even worse for a mediocre or worse goalie. I remember the game against them in the final week of the season last year where he was awful and cost them the game by allowing 4 goals and almost hurt our chances at McEichel.
O'Reilly (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html) is pretty much done in Colorado especially after they just gave Carl Soderberg a five-year deal nearly worth five million a year. I love how the Avalanche continue to fail and not use analytics to their advantage. Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic continue to thumb their nose at analytics because "they played the game."
Analytics called for a regression this past season after they miraculously won the division and had a 100-point season in 2013-14 after finishing with the second-worst record in 2012-13. Many analytics experts felt they were lucky to win the division and called for them to lose in the first round (which they did) and expected them to fail, which they did as they had the 10th worst record this past season.
Islanders' GM Garth Snow said he wasn't going to trade Okposo but take that with a grain of salt. Okposo is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Okposo is a solid player who would be a good fit for the Sabres perhaps for the 21st overall pick. He's had 18 or more goals in three of the last four seasons (the only one he didn't was the lockout-shortened season) and has had 27 goals two seasons ago. He had 18 in only 60 games as he missed 22 with injury, which would put him around his career-high if he played the full season.
Patrick Sharp is also available but unlikely for the Sabres because of the steep asking price of the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks reportedly want a first round pick, a top prospect, AND a top six forward on an entry level contract. I expect the asking price to drop because Chicago needs to ,over some salaries because they're in cap trouble with the upcoming raises of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. I like Sharp but not at that price.
Whatever happens later today will be very interesting. Don't expect Tim Murray to not just take Eichel as he will do whatever to improve this team as quickly as possible. For those who think this is a five-year project will be in for a rude awakening.
Happy Eichel Day!!! This Will Be Our Best (Non Goalie) Player Since LaFontaine? Perrault?
"Today is the Greatest Day Ever!" - Smashing Pumpkins
This is great!! Tonight in about 12 hours or so the Sabres make it official they're drafting Jack Eichel second overall!! This has to be the most excited anyone has ever been over the second overall pick in the NHL or any draft for that matter maybe ever?! We've been talking about Eichel for over a year more like a year and a half when we started hearing about how he was going to challenge Connor McDavid for the top spot in the 2015 NHL Draft.
It felt like June 26, 2015 would never come but it's here finally!!! All our patience and sacrifice and suffering have finally paid off. Waiting and watching the team lose and getting into arguments with each other about whether or not we want the Sabres to win or lose for "McEichel" are all done. Thank God!!
This is the best offensive player since what? LaFontaine or even Perrault? I wasn't old enough to see Gilbert Perrault as he retired when i was about 4 or 5 years old. I definitely don't know the feeling it was when the Sabres drafted him as their first ever draft pick as I am sure no one really knew as the information isn't like it was today. I'm sure most felt he was the best player in the draft and the Sabres thankfully won the spinning of the wheel to get him so there might be some excitement. But I am sure no one followed this guy's career and even life for about two years.
I was only about 10 years old when LaFontaine was traded here and I wasn't quite following hockey yet. A couple of years later is when I really started to follow hockey and the Sabres so LaFontaine (and Mogilny) were already here kicking ass. I'm sure most know he was a star with the Islanders when he was traded here and most were very excited to get him. But he wasn't a draft pick of ours and this isn't the same as it is today.
Both LaFontaine and Perrault are Hall of Famers and we should expect Jack Eichel to be in that group maybe even better (no pressure). I expect him to be the best player in franchise history not just forward but even better than Dominik Hasek. I definitely want the greatest player in franchise history to be a scoring forward and not a goalie. I'm sick and tired of our better players in recent history to be a goalie and constantly be bailed out by a goalie every night.
This is a new day and a new era!! The draft can't come soon enough.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Jeff Skinner might be Available I'd go For Him; Maybe Eric or Jordan Staal Are Available Too
Jeff Skinner appears to now be on the trade market as well. Carolina is rebuilding picking in 5th in tomorrow night's draft. They are trying to get another high pick next year as well as possibly re-sign Eric Staal or else move him and brother Jordan and continue to rebuild. I'd take either Skinner or either Staal or take Skinner and maybe even Eric in a salary dump and let him play out one year before he becomes a UFA.
Skinner is a very talented and productive offensive player. He's only 22 soon to be 23 years old so he's just beginning his career really despite being in the league for five seasons already. Skinner was the 2011 Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year, playing all 82 games and scoring 31 goals at just 18 years old. He's the first player to win the award entirely as an 18 year old since Buffalo's Tom Barrasso did it in 1983-84.
Skinner has had injury problems especially with concussions as he only appeared in 64 games the following season but scoring 20 goals. He had 13 goals in the lockout shortened season in 2012-13 which would have amounted to about 25 goals in a full season. Skinner had a career-high 33 goals in 2013-14 after playing in 71 games after missing games because of a concussion. He regressed to 18 goals, 31 points in 77 games on a terrible Hurricanes team.
I'm sure Carolina would want a lot for Skinner and if I were them, I'd ask for next year's first round pick because if the Sabres miss the playoffs which is likely, they can get a chance at a top-3 pick next year in the lottery. I'm sure they're going to want one of our defenseman either Zadorov or Pysyk and maybe one of our top young forwards. If the Sabres are interested in winning which I think they are, they can't worry about next year's pick or any prospects, which I don't think Tim Murray will.
Skinner is a very talented and productive offensive player. He's only 22 soon to be 23 years old so he's just beginning his career really despite being in the league for five seasons already. Skinner was the 2011 Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year, playing all 82 games and scoring 31 goals at just 18 years old. He's the first player to win the award entirely as an 18 year old since Buffalo's Tom Barrasso did it in 1983-84.
Skinner has had injury problems especially with concussions as he only appeared in 64 games the following season but scoring 20 goals. He had 13 goals in the lockout shortened season in 2012-13 which would have amounted to about 25 goals in a full season. Skinner had a career-high 33 goals in 2013-14 after playing in 71 games after missing games because of a concussion. He regressed to 18 goals, 31 points in 77 games on a terrible Hurricanes team.
I'm sure Carolina would want a lot for Skinner and if I were them, I'd ask for next year's first round pick because if the Sabres miss the playoffs which is likely, they can get a chance at a top-3 pick next year in the lottery. I'm sure they're going to want one of our defenseman either Zadorov or Pysyk and maybe one of our top young forwards. If the Sabres are interested in winning which I think they are, they can't worry about next year's pick or any prospects, which I don't think Tim Murray will.
This is a Deep Draft But Will it Rival the 2003 Draft?
Tomorrow's NHL draft is considered to be a very deep, talent rich draft, especially in the first round. It's not just Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, which are the top prizes, but the top-5, 10, maybe even the entire first round has potential great talent. It's supposed to be the deepest draft since the 2003 NHL Draft. The question is will be be as deep as 2003? (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-draft-can-this-year-s-class-rival-2003-1.3126035) Here's an old article from five years ago (http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/nhl/further-proof-that-the-2003-nhl-entry-draft-was-the-best-of-all-time).
NHL drafts usually don't produce a ton except for the top three-to-five picks. It's really a crap shoot when you get out of the top-5, top-10. The 2003 NHL Draft however did not just produce talent at the top. No way, the vast majority of the first round picks turned out to have very productive careers in the NHL. Not only was the first round very successful, the second produced a decent amount of talent as did the rest of the rounds in that draft.
This is probably the best draft in NHL history, some say even better than the 1979 NHL draft that featured a total of five hall of famers including Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, and Mike Gartner with three of the hall of famers selected in the first round (Messier was taken the 3rd round). Technically there's six hall of famers from that draft if you count Dino Ciccarelli, who went undrafted.
12 of the 21 first round picks that year were selected to at least one All-Star game, 19 of the 21 picks played in at least 450 NHL games and every one of the 21 picks played in at least 200 games. 82% of the total picks played in at least NHL game. This might still be the best of all time depending on how many of the players from the 2003 draft make it to the Hall of Fame. The 1979 draft could be even greater if then 18-year-old Wayne Gretzky entered the draft, but his rights were retained by the Edmonton Oilers after they had him in the WHA before they moved to the NHL.
Anyways back to 2003, every one of the 30 picks in the first round went on to play at least one game in the NHL with 28 of those playing in at least 200 games. 14 of those 30 made it to at least one All-Star game, 12 have representer their country in the Olympics, and nine have won the Stanley Cup. Five players in the draft (including second round pick Patrice Bergeron) played significant playing time in their rookie seasons and every player drafted in the top-10 played in at least nine games by the end of the 2005-06 season.
The first overall pick of that year's draft was Marc-Andre Fleury. This is second time ever and hasn't happened since that the #1 overall pick was used on a goalie (Rick DiPietro in 2000 was the other). Roberto Luongo was the previous highest at #4 in 1997 and Kari Lehtonen was second in 2002. Drafting goalies in round 1 is never really a good idea (unless its at the bottom of round 1 and you have depth everywhere else) because you can find goalies anywhere in the draft. Many of the best goalies in NHL history were taken outside the first round.
Both #1 overall pick goalies have been busts, DiPietro more so because of his 15-year contract but he was pretty good until then until injuries and inconsistent play along with having to live up to that gigantic contract. Fleury was actually very good early in Pittsburgh, winning a Stanley Cup in 2009 after being in the finals the year before. He was very good in those two playoff runs and gave the Penguins hope for a long term goalie. Since then however, his performances have been laughable in the postseason with sub-.900 save percentages from 2010-15 playoffs and usually losing in the first or second rounds to lesser teams because of his awful play.
It makes you think he was only good because of the teams he had early on with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and other veterans they'd acquire at the trade deadlines. Fleury's postseason performances post-Cup have gotten current Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma fired from Pittsburgh. Fleury has looked like a bust since 2009 and does not look like anything worth the number one overall pick, which is why I would never use a top-3, top-5, top-10, pretty much almost any first round pick on a goalie. He was the first of four consecutive top-2 picks in the draft followed by Crosby, Malkin, and Staal.
The Penguins could have been better served with the number two overall pick, center Eric Staal, who went to Carolina and helped them win the Cup in 2006. Third went to Florida, who took winger Nathan Horton, who has had a very good career but injuries prevented what could have been an even better career. He did help Boston win the Stanley Cup in 2011 and to the finals again in 2013. He had six consecutive 20-goal seasons and had 17 and 13 after playing in 46 and 43 games in 2012 and 2013 respectively. A back injury has pretty much ended his career now. Interestingly, Florida held the number one overall pick as they won the draft lottery for the second year in a row. But for the second year in a row, they traded the pick to move down to #3. In 2002, they passed on a chance to take Rick Nash 1st overall to move down to take defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.
Nikolay Zherdev went fourth with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had a couple of productive 27 and 26 goal seasons with Columbus before being traded to the New York Rangers in 2008. He had 23 goals and 58 points with the Rangers before leaving to go to the KHL in a messy contract dispute. He since bounced around between teams in the KHL and one year in Philadelphia and has since become somewhat of a bust.
Buffalo took Thomas Vanek fifth overall in what was a great pick and never had fewer than 20 goals in any season in the NHL. Twice he's had 40 goal seasons along two other 30+ goal seasons with the Sabres. His 20 goals in 2012-13 came in only 38 games as it was a lockout-shortened season and it would have projected to 43 over a full 82-game season, which would tie his career high. The Sabres drafted Vanek shortly after he led the Minnesota Golden Gophers to the 2003 NCAA National Championship and was named Frozen Four Tournament MVP in Buffalo nonetheless.
The rest of the top-10 Milan Michalek, Ryan Suter, Brayden Coburn, Dion Phaneuf, and Andrei Kostitsyn. All have been pretty good except Coburn, who started strong but has fallen off, and Kostitsyn, who had three 20+ goal seasons before injuries and going to the KHL ended his time in the NHL. Phaneuf had a 20-goal season his rookie season and was a force in his first few seasons with Calgary before he regressed both offensively and defensively and was traded to Toronto, and has never lived up to his early years.
Other great players in the first round include: Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Brent Burns, Ryan Kessler, Mike Richards, and Anaheim got two players who helped them win a Cup in 2007 and have been one of the better teams in the NHL post-2004 Lockout in Ryan Getzlaf (19th overall) and Corey Perry (who went 28th overall). Tim Murray was working in Anaheim at that time under his uncle and then-Ducks' GM Bryan Murray.
The first round wasn't the only round to produce All-Star talent. The second round produced such talent as Loui Eriksson, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Carle, Shea Weber, Corey Crawford, David Backes, and Jimmy Howard. After a couple of so-so rounds 3 and 4, which saw the Sabres take Clarke MacArthur in the 3rd round, the talent picks back up again with Western New York's own Lee Stempniak being picked in round 5. Joe Pavelski was taken in the 7th round. Defensemen Tobias Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien were taken in the 8th round (the NHL Draft is only 7 rounds long now). The ninth and final round produced current Sabre Matt Moulson and goalies Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott (who was the next-to-last pick of the draft).
That's an amazing amount talent in one entire draft. It's tough to say whether this draft will produce anything close to that. It will be a deep draft no doubt. Will it be like 2003? Only time will tell. One thing for sure though is the top two picks this year will definitely be better than 2003. The Sabres will get their franchise guy no doubt.
NHL drafts usually don't produce a ton except for the top three-to-five picks. It's really a crap shoot when you get out of the top-5, top-10. The 2003 NHL Draft however did not just produce talent at the top. No way, the vast majority of the first round picks turned out to have very productive careers in the NHL. Not only was the first round very successful, the second produced a decent amount of talent as did the rest of the rounds in that draft.
This is probably the best draft in NHL history, some say even better than the 1979 NHL draft that featured a total of five hall of famers including Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, and Mike Gartner with three of the hall of famers selected in the first round (Messier was taken the 3rd round). Technically there's six hall of famers from that draft if you count Dino Ciccarelli, who went undrafted.
12 of the 21 first round picks that year were selected to at least one All-Star game, 19 of the 21 picks played in at least 450 NHL games and every one of the 21 picks played in at least 200 games. 82% of the total picks played in at least NHL game. This might still be the best of all time depending on how many of the players from the 2003 draft make it to the Hall of Fame. The 1979 draft could be even greater if then 18-year-old Wayne Gretzky entered the draft, but his rights were retained by the Edmonton Oilers after they had him in the WHA before they moved to the NHL.
Anyways back to 2003, every one of the 30 picks in the first round went on to play at least one game in the NHL with 28 of those playing in at least 200 games. 14 of those 30 made it to at least one All-Star game, 12 have representer their country in the Olympics, and nine have won the Stanley Cup. Five players in the draft (including second round pick Patrice Bergeron) played significant playing time in their rookie seasons and every player drafted in the top-10 played in at least nine games by the end of the 2005-06 season.
The first overall pick of that year's draft was Marc-Andre Fleury. This is second time ever and hasn't happened since that the #1 overall pick was used on a goalie (Rick DiPietro in 2000 was the other). Roberto Luongo was the previous highest at #4 in 1997 and Kari Lehtonen was second in 2002. Drafting goalies in round 1 is never really a good idea (unless its at the bottom of round 1 and you have depth everywhere else) because you can find goalies anywhere in the draft. Many of the best goalies in NHL history were taken outside the first round.
Both #1 overall pick goalies have been busts, DiPietro more so because of his 15-year contract but he was pretty good until then until injuries and inconsistent play along with having to live up to that gigantic contract. Fleury was actually very good early in Pittsburgh, winning a Stanley Cup in 2009 after being in the finals the year before. He was very good in those two playoff runs and gave the Penguins hope for a long term goalie. Since then however, his performances have been laughable in the postseason with sub-.900 save percentages from 2010-15 playoffs and usually losing in the first or second rounds to lesser teams because of his awful play.
It makes you think he was only good because of the teams he had early on with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and other veterans they'd acquire at the trade deadlines. Fleury's postseason performances post-Cup have gotten current Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma fired from Pittsburgh. Fleury has looked like a bust since 2009 and does not look like anything worth the number one overall pick, which is why I would never use a top-3, top-5, top-10, pretty much almost any first round pick on a goalie. He was the first of four consecutive top-2 picks in the draft followed by Crosby, Malkin, and Staal.
The Penguins could have been better served with the number two overall pick, center Eric Staal, who went to Carolina and helped them win the Cup in 2006. Third went to Florida, who took winger Nathan Horton, who has had a very good career but injuries prevented what could have been an even better career. He did help Boston win the Stanley Cup in 2011 and to the finals again in 2013. He had six consecutive 20-goal seasons and had 17 and 13 after playing in 46 and 43 games in 2012 and 2013 respectively. A back injury has pretty much ended his career now. Interestingly, Florida held the number one overall pick as they won the draft lottery for the second year in a row. But for the second year in a row, they traded the pick to move down to #3. In 2002, they passed on a chance to take Rick Nash 1st overall to move down to take defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.
Nikolay Zherdev went fourth with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had a couple of productive 27 and 26 goal seasons with Columbus before being traded to the New York Rangers in 2008. He had 23 goals and 58 points with the Rangers before leaving to go to the KHL in a messy contract dispute. He since bounced around between teams in the KHL and one year in Philadelphia and has since become somewhat of a bust.
Buffalo took Thomas Vanek fifth overall in what was a great pick and never had fewer than 20 goals in any season in the NHL. Twice he's had 40 goal seasons along two other 30+ goal seasons with the Sabres. His 20 goals in 2012-13 came in only 38 games as it was a lockout-shortened season and it would have projected to 43 over a full 82-game season, which would tie his career high. The Sabres drafted Vanek shortly after he led the Minnesota Golden Gophers to the 2003 NCAA National Championship and was named Frozen Four Tournament MVP in Buffalo nonetheless.
The rest of the top-10 Milan Michalek, Ryan Suter, Brayden Coburn, Dion Phaneuf, and Andrei Kostitsyn. All have been pretty good except Coburn, who started strong but has fallen off, and Kostitsyn, who had three 20+ goal seasons before injuries and going to the KHL ended his time in the NHL. Phaneuf had a 20-goal season his rookie season and was a force in his first few seasons with Calgary before he regressed both offensively and defensively and was traded to Toronto, and has never lived up to his early years.
Other great players in the first round include: Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Brent Burns, Ryan Kessler, Mike Richards, and Anaheim got two players who helped them win a Cup in 2007 and have been one of the better teams in the NHL post-2004 Lockout in Ryan Getzlaf (19th overall) and Corey Perry (who went 28th overall). Tim Murray was working in Anaheim at that time under his uncle and then-Ducks' GM Bryan Murray.
The first round wasn't the only round to produce All-Star talent. The second round produced such talent as Loui Eriksson, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Carle, Shea Weber, Corey Crawford, David Backes, and Jimmy Howard. After a couple of so-so rounds 3 and 4, which saw the Sabres take Clarke MacArthur in the 3rd round, the talent picks back up again with Western New York's own Lee Stempniak being picked in round 5. Joe Pavelski was taken in the 7th round. Defensemen Tobias Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien were taken in the 8th round (the NHL Draft is only 7 rounds long now). The ninth and final round produced current Sabre Matt Moulson and goalies Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott (who was the next-to-last pick of the draft).
That's an amazing amount talent in one entire draft. It's tough to say whether this draft will produce anything close to that. It will be a deep draft no doubt. Will it be like 2003? Only time will tell. One thing for sure though is the top two picks this year will definitely be better than 2003. The Sabres will get their franchise guy no doubt.
Carey Price Cleans Up NHL Awards; Montreal Needs to Build a Better Team; I Would Hate to be the Canadiens
Last night Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price cleaned up the NHL Awards by winning both the Hart and Vezina Trophies, the first goalie to do that since Jose Theodore did it for the Canadiens in 2002 which is surprising. Dominik Hasek did it for us in 1997 and 1998. Price also won the Ted Lindsay Award for MVP voted on by the players of the NHL (first goalie to win the Lindsay since Hasek) and the William Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed during the regular season (189). Price clearly is the MVP of the league because he carries the Canadiens and carried them to the division title and 50 wins and 110 points.
Price has led the Canadiens to back-to-back 100 point seasons and three in a row if the lockout shortened 2012-13 season went 82 games as they had 63 points in 48 games (107 points over 82 games) and won two division titles in those three seasons. Problem has not been the regular season as Price has been a huge part of their success the past three seasons. The problem has been in the playoffs where they lost in the second round this past season to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who I thought were much better than Montreal despite finishing behind them in the standings.
I thought Tampa was the best team in the East this season because of all their young star players that they drafted at the top of the draft (along with a few select players found elsewhere in the draft). Hopefully the Sabres will emulate that success with their top draft picks, namely Jack Eichel. Ok, Montreal did lose in six games to the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014, but the Rangers, who as great if not better goalie, had much better skilled players than Montreal and beat them. The Canadiens were upset in the first round to the seventh seeded Ottawa Senators in 2013.
The problem with the Canadiens is that they lack a lot of skilled forwards that can score on a consistent basis and need a couple of top-3 draft pick forwards that can be stars (as do a lot of teams). That's what wins in the NHL, top-3 picks. Max Pacioretty is their best forward as he scored 37 goals and 67 points. Tomas Plekanec is pretty good as is Brendan Gallagher. Alex Galchenyuk has not lived up to the hype since being drafted 3rd overall three years ago. He did have his first 20-goal season of his career, but has been moved from center to wing as he has not yet shown he can be a center. Their other source of offense comes from P.K. Subban, who scored 60 points and is usually up there with Erik Karlsson for most points scored by a defenseman.
Despite allowing the fewest goals (thanks to Price and Subban), the Canadiens were only 18th in goals scored and even worse, they were just 23rd in Corsi. You don't win Stanley Cups with that bad of a Corsi rating as teams that win the Cup rank near or at the top. They don't have enough skilled players to have a great Corsi nor maybe they're coach isn't good at it or maybe they rely way too much on Price and Subban. I think the answer is all of the above. Another reason I thought the Canadiens weren't that great of a team was because they struggled to beat bad teams, namely the Buffalo Sabres. The 30th place Sabres went 3-0-1 against them this season. That's awful.
The Canadiens really need to build a better team in front of Price. Sadly, they are in no position to be able to tank and finish near or at the bottom of the league and get high picks as they are usually very good in the regular season. Problem is they won't ever win the Cup nor contend for it in their current model. Yes they'll have 100-point seasons. Yes they'll have division titles. Yes they'll even win a playoff series or even get to a conference finals on the strength of Price. But they'll never win the Cup or even seriously contend in this form.
This is why I would hate to be the Canadiens right now because they're in no man's land. Boston, Philadelphia, and New Jersey are probably worse off than Montreal because Montreal will have great regular seasons. But the Canadiens are nowhere close to getting elite level forwards that you need to win the Cup or contend on a regular basis. They have the elite goalie and elite defenseman to win the Cup but not the forwards which is what you need to win the Cup as Cup winners have several top-3 picks in the draft.
Montreal is probably never going to tank or bottom out anytime soon and will continue to rely on Price to win them and bail them out of games. They'll have their great regular seasons but nothing to show for it. This reminds me of the Sabres teams from a few years ago with Ryan Miller where they won the division and made the playoffs but lost in the first round because they didn't have elite forwards. That's something I never want to be in ever again where we build around a goalie and can't win without that guy in net. I don't ever want that nor do I wish that on my enemies.
Thankfully, the Sabres won't have to rely on elite goalies as their best player is not a goalie. Yes we need a goalie but I want the elite level forwards and find the goalie instead of the other way around. One team that knows from experience how that never works is the Buffalo Sabres.
Price has led the Canadiens to back-to-back 100 point seasons and three in a row if the lockout shortened 2012-13 season went 82 games as they had 63 points in 48 games (107 points over 82 games) and won two division titles in those three seasons. Problem has not been the regular season as Price has been a huge part of their success the past three seasons. The problem has been in the playoffs where they lost in the second round this past season to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who I thought were much better than Montreal despite finishing behind them in the standings.
I thought Tampa was the best team in the East this season because of all their young star players that they drafted at the top of the draft (along with a few select players found elsewhere in the draft). Hopefully the Sabres will emulate that success with their top draft picks, namely Jack Eichel. Ok, Montreal did lose in six games to the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014, but the Rangers, who as great if not better goalie, had much better skilled players than Montreal and beat them. The Canadiens were upset in the first round to the seventh seeded Ottawa Senators in 2013.
The problem with the Canadiens is that they lack a lot of skilled forwards that can score on a consistent basis and need a couple of top-3 draft pick forwards that can be stars (as do a lot of teams). That's what wins in the NHL, top-3 picks. Max Pacioretty is their best forward as he scored 37 goals and 67 points. Tomas Plekanec is pretty good as is Brendan Gallagher. Alex Galchenyuk has not lived up to the hype since being drafted 3rd overall three years ago. He did have his first 20-goal season of his career, but has been moved from center to wing as he has not yet shown he can be a center. Their other source of offense comes from P.K. Subban, who scored 60 points and is usually up there with Erik Karlsson for most points scored by a defenseman.
Despite allowing the fewest goals (thanks to Price and Subban), the Canadiens were only 18th in goals scored and even worse, they were just 23rd in Corsi. You don't win Stanley Cups with that bad of a Corsi rating as teams that win the Cup rank near or at the top. They don't have enough skilled players to have a great Corsi nor maybe they're coach isn't good at it or maybe they rely way too much on Price and Subban. I think the answer is all of the above. Another reason I thought the Canadiens weren't that great of a team was because they struggled to beat bad teams, namely the Buffalo Sabres. The 30th place Sabres went 3-0-1 against them this season. That's awful.
The Canadiens really need to build a better team in front of Price. Sadly, they are in no position to be able to tank and finish near or at the bottom of the league and get high picks as they are usually very good in the regular season. Problem is they won't ever win the Cup nor contend for it in their current model. Yes they'll have 100-point seasons. Yes they'll have division titles. Yes they'll even win a playoff series or even get to a conference finals on the strength of Price. But they'll never win the Cup or even seriously contend in this form.
This is why I would hate to be the Canadiens right now because they're in no man's land. Boston, Philadelphia, and New Jersey are probably worse off than Montreal because Montreal will have great regular seasons. But the Canadiens are nowhere close to getting elite level forwards that you need to win the Cup or contend on a regular basis. They have the elite goalie and elite defenseman to win the Cup but not the forwards which is what you need to win the Cup as Cup winners have several top-3 picks in the draft.
Montreal is probably never going to tank or bottom out anytime soon and will continue to rely on Price to win them and bail them out of games. They'll have their great regular seasons but nothing to show for it. This reminds me of the Sabres teams from a few years ago with Ryan Miller where they won the division and made the playoffs but lost in the first round because they didn't have elite forwards. That's something I never want to be in ever again where we build around a goalie and can't win without that guy in net. I don't ever want that nor do I wish that on my enemies.
Thankfully, the Sabres won't have to rely on elite goalies as their best player is not a goalie. Yes we need a goalie but I want the elite level forwards and find the goalie instead of the other way around. One team that knows from experience how that never works is the Buffalo Sabres.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
I want the Islanders to Give the Sabres Their 2015 1st Round Pick
I've been thinking about the up-coming 2014 NHL Draft where it appears that the Sabres will more than likely be drafting either 1st or 2nd in the draft. They have a 99% chance according to sportsclubstats.com they be drafting 1st or 2nd with a 94% chance they finish with the worst record in the league. The Sabres have a 25% chance of winning the Draft Lottery (which is easily the best odds of winning) if they finish last. If they lose the lottery, they draft 2nd, still a great chance at a great pick and player. I'll write more in a different entry about how great it is to draft in the top-2-3 picks as the NHL Draft pretty much always produces really good to great players in the top-2 or 3 spots.
They traded unrestricted free agent-to-be, 30-40-goal scorer Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders for forward and fellow 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson, a 2014 1st round pick, and a 2015 2nd round pick. Now the Islanders can keep the 1st round pick this year if they draft in top-10 and then they can defer it and give us their 1st round pick for next year. The Islanders have struggled badly as they are 22-30-8 with only 52 points. Right now they'd be drafting 5th if the season were to end, or 6th if a team behind them wins the lottery or they could be drafting 1st if they win the lottery. Barring a ridiculous post-Olympic run, the Islanders will be no doubt drafting in the top-10, maybe top-5.
So I know many of you want their 2014 1st round pick because the Sabres could have two top-5 picks in this year's NHL Draft. But if I had my choice, I'd want their 2015 1st round pick. I know many of you are like "why would you risk a sure top-5, 10 pick on what could very well be a lower pick?" Good question and yes it could be a risk drafting lower than the top-5. But they could remain the same next year or be even worse. Now I don't have a crystal ball to predict the future but I don't see the Islanders getting better next year, I see them being the same if not worse next year, especially with Thomas Vanek being gone and probably won't return next year. If they again miss the playoffs and especially draft in the top-5, hopefully 2 or 3 so it increases our chances at hopefully getting the #1 overall pick and the top prospect in the 2015 Draft in Connor McDavid.
Supposedly next year's draft, led by top prospect McDavid, who is supposedly the enxt Sidney Crosby, is better than this year's class. Of course we'll never know for sure until they play the game and of course its all speculation. This year's draft with top prospects Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Leon Draisaitl aren't McDavid or Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin or Malkin or Kane or Stamkos; but they can be very good players as players drafted at the top of the NHL Draft usually are such as John Tavares, Matt Duchene, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog or even Nathan MacKinnon. Who wouldn't want one of those?
I don't expect the Sabres to be good again next year so they'll be in the McDavid sweepstakes next year and hopefully with the Islanders pick will double their chances. Plus I heard Tim Murray wants mostly 2015 first round draft picks if he unloads Ryan Miller, Matt Moulson, and Steve Ott. The more the merrier for me!! You can't have enough great players and you get them at the top of the draft. Imagine we get one of the top-2 picks this year, McDavid and maybe even another top-5 pick next year? Who wouldn't get excited? Plus we might be able to get a big free agent or two such as Kane.
Like I said I don't think the Islanders will be better next year, I think they'll be the same or hopefully worse so we can get another pick towards the McDavid sweepstakes. The Islanders have a terrible defense and their goaltending is really bad as they allowed the most goals of any team. I don't see them fixing their defense/goaltending issues in one off season. I think GM Garth Snow is in win now mode and really can't afford to wait another bad year or else he'll be out of a job. He's been there for eight years and produced just two playoff appearances. If they are in the top-5 they might have to just take the pick and hope for the best even if the class isnt as good as next year's. Tim Murray has the luxury of waiting a draft or two to fix this mess.
The Islanders just came off a playoff appearance in which they gave the top-seeded Penguins all they could handle in six games last year and hopes were very high for this once downtrodden franchise. They started a mediocre 4-4-3 when they traded for Vanek. Unfortunately, the Vanek deal has not brought a ton of success as the losses began to pile up. They've lost 31 of their last 49 games (26 of the losses were in regulation). Their 22 wins and 52 points in 60 games are two fewer wins and three fewer points than they had all last season in just 48 lockout-shortened games when they made the playoffs. They are moving to Brooklyn after next season and will need some marquee players in addition to Vanek to show they belong in the big city instead of the island. So they would be wise to wait till 2015 for McDavid but it's hard to predict whether they'll be as bad or worse next year.
They only have one good line which is John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Vanek. Not much scoring outside of that line. Plus I think Vanek is gone, he'll probably be traded before the trade deadline as he recently turned down a 7-year, $50 million contract (which is the same contract he signed 7 years ago) extension from the Islanders as he wants to test the open market. Who can blame him? He's 30 years old, he will have maybe one big chance to make big money on the open market as he's averaged over 30 goals a season for his first 8 years in the league (which will bring big bucks to a team that needs goal scoring), and he's never had a chance to go to any or all teams to see what he's really worth and who really wants him. He's been in Buffalo all his career until last October when he was traded to the Islanders.
He's never had a chance to test the open market. 7 years ago when he was a restricted free agent, the Sabres matched the offer by the Edmonton Oilers which kept him here another 7 years. the Sabres just lost Briere and Drury for nothing and needed to keep a guy who just scored 43 goals and 84 points instead of taking Edmonton's 4 first round picks. Who knows, maybe Vanek wanted to leave and maybe he was upset that the sabres matched it and didn't allow him to leave for Edmonton or maybe somewhere else. Plus he was wondering if the Sabres really wanted him, why did they let him go to possibly be signed by another team and why didn't they give him an offer before? The Sabres, notable Darcy Regier really dropped the ball on that one.
So yea, I'm not only in 2014 NHL Draft mode, I'm also in 2015 NHL Draft mode because I expect the Sabres to be closer to the lottery than the playoffs for Connor McDavid. I hate to root for them to be bad, but I can't help but want a couple of high draft picks for potential great players. This franchise hasn't had generationally great superstars in a long time. Even for those of you who don't want to lose for the top pick in the 2015 Draft, that's why I want the Islanders to give us the 2015 pick and hope they are really bad so we get the top pick or win the lottery. Could you imagine being an Islanders fan and you give away what could be Connor McDavid? The fans would riot. But I hope the Sabres end up with him,
They traded unrestricted free agent-to-be, 30-40-goal scorer Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders for forward and fellow 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson, a 2014 1st round pick, and a 2015 2nd round pick. Now the Islanders can keep the 1st round pick this year if they draft in top-10 and then they can defer it and give us their 1st round pick for next year. The Islanders have struggled badly as they are 22-30-8 with only 52 points. Right now they'd be drafting 5th if the season were to end, or 6th if a team behind them wins the lottery or they could be drafting 1st if they win the lottery. Barring a ridiculous post-Olympic run, the Islanders will be no doubt drafting in the top-10, maybe top-5.
So I know many of you want their 2014 1st round pick because the Sabres could have two top-5 picks in this year's NHL Draft. But if I had my choice, I'd want their 2015 1st round pick. I know many of you are like "why would you risk a sure top-5, 10 pick on what could very well be a lower pick?" Good question and yes it could be a risk drafting lower than the top-5. But they could remain the same next year or be even worse. Now I don't have a crystal ball to predict the future but I don't see the Islanders getting better next year, I see them being the same if not worse next year, especially with Thomas Vanek being gone and probably won't return next year. If they again miss the playoffs and especially draft in the top-5, hopefully 2 or 3 so it increases our chances at hopefully getting the #1 overall pick and the top prospect in the 2015 Draft in Connor McDavid.
Supposedly next year's draft, led by top prospect McDavid, who is supposedly the enxt Sidney Crosby, is better than this year's class. Of course we'll never know for sure until they play the game and of course its all speculation. This year's draft with top prospects Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Leon Draisaitl aren't McDavid or Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin or Malkin or Kane or Stamkos; but they can be very good players as players drafted at the top of the NHL Draft usually are such as John Tavares, Matt Duchene, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog or even Nathan MacKinnon. Who wouldn't want one of those?
I don't expect the Sabres to be good again next year so they'll be in the McDavid sweepstakes next year and hopefully with the Islanders pick will double their chances. Plus I heard Tim Murray wants mostly 2015 first round draft picks if he unloads Ryan Miller, Matt Moulson, and Steve Ott. The more the merrier for me!! You can't have enough great players and you get them at the top of the draft. Imagine we get one of the top-2 picks this year, McDavid and maybe even another top-5 pick next year? Who wouldn't get excited? Plus we might be able to get a big free agent or two such as Kane.
Like I said I don't think the Islanders will be better next year, I think they'll be the same or hopefully worse so we can get another pick towards the McDavid sweepstakes. The Islanders have a terrible defense and their goaltending is really bad as they allowed the most goals of any team. I don't see them fixing their defense/goaltending issues in one off season. I think GM Garth Snow is in win now mode and really can't afford to wait another bad year or else he'll be out of a job. He's been there for eight years and produced just two playoff appearances. If they are in the top-5 they might have to just take the pick and hope for the best even if the class isnt as good as next year's. Tim Murray has the luxury of waiting a draft or two to fix this mess.
The Islanders just came off a playoff appearance in which they gave the top-seeded Penguins all they could handle in six games last year and hopes were very high for this once downtrodden franchise. They started a mediocre 4-4-3 when they traded for Vanek. Unfortunately, the Vanek deal has not brought a ton of success as the losses began to pile up. They've lost 31 of their last 49 games (26 of the losses were in regulation). Their 22 wins and 52 points in 60 games are two fewer wins and three fewer points than they had all last season in just 48 lockout-shortened games when they made the playoffs. They are moving to Brooklyn after next season and will need some marquee players in addition to Vanek to show they belong in the big city instead of the island. So they would be wise to wait till 2015 for McDavid but it's hard to predict whether they'll be as bad or worse next year.
They only have one good line which is John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Vanek. Not much scoring outside of that line. Plus I think Vanek is gone, he'll probably be traded before the trade deadline as he recently turned down a 7-year, $50 million contract (which is the same contract he signed 7 years ago) extension from the Islanders as he wants to test the open market. Who can blame him? He's 30 years old, he will have maybe one big chance to make big money on the open market as he's averaged over 30 goals a season for his first 8 years in the league (which will bring big bucks to a team that needs goal scoring), and he's never had a chance to go to any or all teams to see what he's really worth and who really wants him. He's been in Buffalo all his career until last October when he was traded to the Islanders.
He's never had a chance to test the open market. 7 years ago when he was a restricted free agent, the Sabres matched the offer by the Edmonton Oilers which kept him here another 7 years. the Sabres just lost Briere and Drury for nothing and needed to keep a guy who just scored 43 goals and 84 points instead of taking Edmonton's 4 first round picks. Who knows, maybe Vanek wanted to leave and maybe he was upset that the sabres matched it and didn't allow him to leave for Edmonton or maybe somewhere else. Plus he was wondering if the Sabres really wanted him, why did they let him go to possibly be signed by another team and why didn't they give him an offer before? The Sabres, notable Darcy Regier really dropped the ball on that one.
So yea, I'm not only in 2014 NHL Draft mode, I'm also in 2015 NHL Draft mode because I expect the Sabres to be closer to the lottery than the playoffs for Connor McDavid. I hate to root for them to be bad, but I can't help but want a couple of high draft picks for potential great players. This franchise hasn't had generationally great superstars in a long time. Even for those of you who don't want to lose for the top pick in the 2015 Draft, that's why I want the Islanders to give us the 2015 pick and hope they are really bad so we get the top pick or win the lottery. Could you imagine being an Islanders fan and you give away what could be Connor McDavid? The fans would riot. But I hope the Sabres end up with him,
Monday, February 10, 2014
Trade Miller, Build a Better Team, Don't Waste Big $$$ on a Goalie
I believe that trading Ryan Miller makes the most sense for this team if they want to rebuild and hopefully build a future winner. It makes no sense 1.) keeping a goalie who is 33 and will be 34 next season and 2.) keeping a goalie who is set to be an unrestricted free agent who doesn't seem to want to be here or else he'd sign already and they are in last place by a mile. Everyone is upset and panicking what will they do without Miller. Um hello, they are in last place, they aren't winning anything with him playing as well as he is.
If you say they'd be even worse, I think you're wrong I don't think they can really be that much worse. They have the fewest goals scored with 110 and they're 25 behind the team with the next fewest. They're 15 wins are the least and they are 5 wins behind the next team which is Edmonton with 20 and their 38 points are nine fewer than Edmonton, who is the second-worst team in the NHL. It can't get much worse than that. What they win 3-5 fewer games and have 10 fewer points? Big whoop. The Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, and New York Islanders are really, really bad but they are miles ahead of the Sabres. For me I like it because it means they have a really strong shot at the #1 overall pick in this June's draft and this team needs as many great players as possible and you get them at the top of the draft.
If you're gonna be upset that they'd trade Miller rather than re-sign him, would you rather risk losing him for nothing instead of hopefully getting a 1st round pick and maybe even a prospect? I don't think he's re-signing here and I don't think GM Tim Murray is interested in giving a long-term deal. So because of foolish pride, you'd risk losing him in free agency rather than getting something for him? I can understand if this team was say 7th, 8th, or even 9th place and are trying to get into the playoffs and don't want to lose him for the playoff run, but this team is in last place!!! It should be even easier to let him go and get over it.
This isn't like when we lost Briere and Drury after the 2007 season for nothing as they both signed deals with other teams as unrestricted free agents. The team came off a President's Trophy season and came off back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals appearances and were Stanley Cup contenders. I don't care what anyone thinks, the Sabres are still struggling to replace both those men as they will miss the playoffs for the 5th time in 7 years. It's also not like losing Dominik Hasek, yea we traded him but got nothing no where near what we should have in return because he didn't want Detroit to give up too much so he can win the Stanley Cup. Hasek took us to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 1998 and all the way to Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 and even lost in the 2nd round in overtime in Game Seven against Pittsburgh before he left. The team was very competitive and fell apart. But in this case, they are the worst team in hockey and it ain't even close.
I want to say I like Miller a lot and I hate to see him go. I appreciate all he has done here for the Sabres, for WNY, and for USA Hockey. I'll root for him of course in the Olympics and I'll even root for him if he leaves because I want him to succeed. I know what many of you are thinking: "if you like him and think he's so good, why do you want him traded? This team needs great players and why get rid of our best?" That is a great question and here is the answer. Because a goalie, even a really good one like Miller, really can't do much by himself on a terrible team.
Many of you are thinking "but if we build a better team, then it would help him out." True so why not just build a better team then? In the NHL, it's important to find a good goalie but you don't need a top-notch goalie to win. Teams have won post 2004-05 Lockout with decent, OK goalies but with better talent in forwards and defense. Notice I didn't say terrible goalie but if you can find a mediocre to slightly mediocre one and put him on a great team, they'll win no matter what. The goalies are pretty much similar as there are only a couple of elite and only a couple of really bad ones, everyone else is pretty much the same. So my question is if goalies are pretty much the same, then why pay big bucks for one when you can put money into much better forwards and defensemen and win with an average goalie?
It's about goal scoring and how do you score? With great puck possession numbers!! I looked at the top-8 teams in the NHL in terms of points (Chicago, Anaheim, St. Louis, Boston, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Colorado, and Tampa Bay) and all 8 of those teams are in the top-12 in goals scored and all are in the top-9 in puck possession. Guess where the Sabres rank? You guess it!! Dead last. Last year they were second-to-last only to the analytics nightmare known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. If you spend more time in your end than in the other team's end, then you will not score many goals and have more goals scored on you. So what would be the point of having a great, high-priced goalie who gets all these shots and goals scored on? It's not just stop the puck, there's all these bounces and deflections that go in all the time that you can't stop if you are in your own end. Conversely, if you are in the other team's end, then you'll get all the bounces and deflections. This team needs to be better possessing the puck. If a Miller trade can help enable that, then I'm all for it.
Miller is in the last year of his current deal which is worth $6.25 million a season, currently the 5th highest paid goalie in the NHL. To re-sign him you probably have to pay him in the $7-8 million a year range to keep him here as it appears he might want to move closer to his wife. Then you gotta give him 5-7 years so he'd be in his 40s by the time the contract is done. I don't want to do that. I looked up the goalie salaries and seven of the top-10 goalies are either barely in the playoffs, on the outside looking in, or completely out of the playoffs. That doesn't even include Henrik Lunqvist, whose $7.5 million a year deal doesn't kick in until next season, making him the highest-paid goalie in the NHL. I just don't get it, I'd never give a goalie that kind of money. Lundqvist and Jonathan Quick are the two best but teams paying goalies in the $2-3 million range are winning and are near or at the top of the league.
Players such as Ben Scrivens, Ben Bishop, Josh Harding, Cory Schneider, Frederik Andersen, Brian Elliott, and Jaroslav Halak are among the leaders in save percentage and goals against average and outperforming their much higher-paid counterparts. It shows if you have a great team, you can win with almost any goalie. Quick is having a great season, but was injured early in the year and Scrivens did well in his place and even third-string goalie Maritn Jones has played very well which led the Kings to trade Scrivens to Edmonton once Quick was healthy. Scrivens is doing well on a terrible Oilers team with no defense. Last year, Ray Emery, who was a big disappointment in the NHL, went 17-1-0 with a .922 save % and a 1.94 goals against average. Is it because Emery is good or the Blackhawks are great? Well it's because the Blackhawks are great. Emery is struggling on a worse Flyers team. Would you rather have Emery on a great Blackhawks team or Miller on a terrible Sabres team? I'd hope you'd answer Emery, but I can't control what you think or believe.
I want this organization and the fans to think they can win without Miller because it's probably gonna happen. That's what I hated about this organization under Darcy Regier is that they thought they can't dare win without Miller or they were doomed. The fans were conditioned to think the same. He's good but you can win without him. Miller as good as he is couldn't help this team from missing the playoffs five out of the last seven years including this year. The team was bad. When the Sabres were awesome in 2005-06 and 2006-07, they won with Miller and Martin Biron, in fact I believe Biron had something like a 12-game unbeaten streak one point. Even when the Sabres made the playoffs in 2011, Jhonas Enroth played very well in relief of Miller down the stretch run as he went 9-2-2 and an 8-game unbeaten streak which helped them make the playoffs I don't care what anybody says. Enroth's numbers are very similar to Miller's and can't do much more without a competant offense and team in front of him more than Miller can and he makes about 1/5 of the money Miller makes. We can win with Enroth (I'm not saying he's better than Miller but he's not worse) or any kid down in Rochester or anyone floating around the NHL.
I hate to say it, but it's time fans to move on from Miller and start over with a brand new identity that focuses on scoring and puck possession while the goalie is what he is supposed to be, the last line of defense. But go Miller and Team USA!!! Let's win the Gold!!
If you say they'd be even worse, I think you're wrong I don't think they can really be that much worse. They have the fewest goals scored with 110 and they're 25 behind the team with the next fewest. They're 15 wins are the least and they are 5 wins behind the next team which is Edmonton with 20 and their 38 points are nine fewer than Edmonton, who is the second-worst team in the NHL. It can't get much worse than that. What they win 3-5 fewer games and have 10 fewer points? Big whoop. The Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, and New York Islanders are really, really bad but they are miles ahead of the Sabres. For me I like it because it means they have a really strong shot at the #1 overall pick in this June's draft and this team needs as many great players as possible and you get them at the top of the draft.
If you're gonna be upset that they'd trade Miller rather than re-sign him, would you rather risk losing him for nothing instead of hopefully getting a 1st round pick and maybe even a prospect? I don't think he's re-signing here and I don't think GM Tim Murray is interested in giving a long-term deal. So because of foolish pride, you'd risk losing him in free agency rather than getting something for him? I can understand if this team was say 7th, 8th, or even 9th place and are trying to get into the playoffs and don't want to lose him for the playoff run, but this team is in last place!!! It should be even easier to let him go and get over it.
This isn't like when we lost Briere and Drury after the 2007 season for nothing as they both signed deals with other teams as unrestricted free agents. The team came off a President's Trophy season and came off back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals appearances and were Stanley Cup contenders. I don't care what anyone thinks, the Sabres are still struggling to replace both those men as they will miss the playoffs for the 5th time in 7 years. It's also not like losing Dominik Hasek, yea we traded him but got nothing no where near what we should have in return because he didn't want Detroit to give up too much so he can win the Stanley Cup. Hasek took us to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 1998 and all the way to Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 and even lost in the 2nd round in overtime in Game Seven against Pittsburgh before he left. The team was very competitive and fell apart. But in this case, they are the worst team in hockey and it ain't even close.
I want to say I like Miller a lot and I hate to see him go. I appreciate all he has done here for the Sabres, for WNY, and for USA Hockey. I'll root for him of course in the Olympics and I'll even root for him if he leaves because I want him to succeed. I know what many of you are thinking: "if you like him and think he's so good, why do you want him traded? This team needs great players and why get rid of our best?" That is a great question and here is the answer. Because a goalie, even a really good one like Miller, really can't do much by himself on a terrible team.
Many of you are thinking "but if we build a better team, then it would help him out." True so why not just build a better team then? In the NHL, it's important to find a good goalie but you don't need a top-notch goalie to win. Teams have won post 2004-05 Lockout with decent, OK goalies but with better talent in forwards and defense. Notice I didn't say terrible goalie but if you can find a mediocre to slightly mediocre one and put him on a great team, they'll win no matter what. The goalies are pretty much similar as there are only a couple of elite and only a couple of really bad ones, everyone else is pretty much the same. So my question is if goalies are pretty much the same, then why pay big bucks for one when you can put money into much better forwards and defensemen and win with an average goalie?
It's about goal scoring and how do you score? With great puck possession numbers!! I looked at the top-8 teams in the NHL in terms of points (Chicago, Anaheim, St. Louis, Boston, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Colorado, and Tampa Bay) and all 8 of those teams are in the top-12 in goals scored and all are in the top-9 in puck possession. Guess where the Sabres rank? You guess it!! Dead last. Last year they were second-to-last only to the analytics nightmare known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. If you spend more time in your end than in the other team's end, then you will not score many goals and have more goals scored on you. So what would be the point of having a great, high-priced goalie who gets all these shots and goals scored on? It's not just stop the puck, there's all these bounces and deflections that go in all the time that you can't stop if you are in your own end. Conversely, if you are in the other team's end, then you'll get all the bounces and deflections. This team needs to be better possessing the puck. If a Miller trade can help enable that, then I'm all for it.
Miller is in the last year of his current deal which is worth $6.25 million a season, currently the 5th highest paid goalie in the NHL. To re-sign him you probably have to pay him in the $7-8 million a year range to keep him here as it appears he might want to move closer to his wife. Then you gotta give him 5-7 years so he'd be in his 40s by the time the contract is done. I don't want to do that. I looked up the goalie salaries and seven of the top-10 goalies are either barely in the playoffs, on the outside looking in, or completely out of the playoffs. That doesn't even include Henrik Lunqvist, whose $7.5 million a year deal doesn't kick in until next season, making him the highest-paid goalie in the NHL. I just don't get it, I'd never give a goalie that kind of money. Lundqvist and Jonathan Quick are the two best but teams paying goalies in the $2-3 million range are winning and are near or at the top of the league.
Players such as Ben Scrivens, Ben Bishop, Josh Harding, Cory Schneider, Frederik Andersen, Brian Elliott, and Jaroslav Halak are among the leaders in save percentage and goals against average and outperforming their much higher-paid counterparts. It shows if you have a great team, you can win with almost any goalie. Quick is having a great season, but was injured early in the year and Scrivens did well in his place and even third-string goalie Maritn Jones has played very well which led the Kings to trade Scrivens to Edmonton once Quick was healthy. Scrivens is doing well on a terrible Oilers team with no defense. Last year, Ray Emery, who was a big disappointment in the NHL, went 17-1-0 with a .922 save % and a 1.94 goals against average. Is it because Emery is good or the Blackhawks are great? Well it's because the Blackhawks are great. Emery is struggling on a worse Flyers team. Would you rather have Emery on a great Blackhawks team or Miller on a terrible Sabres team? I'd hope you'd answer Emery, but I can't control what you think or believe.
I want this organization and the fans to think they can win without Miller because it's probably gonna happen. That's what I hated about this organization under Darcy Regier is that they thought they can't dare win without Miller or they were doomed. The fans were conditioned to think the same. He's good but you can win without him. Miller as good as he is couldn't help this team from missing the playoffs five out of the last seven years including this year. The team was bad. When the Sabres were awesome in 2005-06 and 2006-07, they won with Miller and Martin Biron, in fact I believe Biron had something like a 12-game unbeaten streak one point. Even when the Sabres made the playoffs in 2011, Jhonas Enroth played very well in relief of Miller down the stretch run as he went 9-2-2 and an 8-game unbeaten streak which helped them make the playoffs I don't care what anybody says. Enroth's numbers are very similar to Miller's and can't do much more without a competant offense and team in front of him more than Miller can and he makes about 1/5 of the money Miller makes. We can win with Enroth (I'm not saying he's better than Miller but he's not worse) or any kid down in Rochester or anyone floating around the NHL.
I hate to say it, but it's time fans to move on from Miller and start over with a brand new identity that focuses on scoring and puck possession while the goalie is what he is supposed to be, the last line of defense. But go Miller and Team USA!!! Let's win the Gold!!
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