That stupid son of a female dog!
- jochfr

Nice improvement out of him this year.
- mhp

Didn't he have a pretty good training camp too? I believe he was their captain this year as well which says something.

And how would we have done that? These trades are easy: "What's the most anyone will give me for player x?" Was GMTM supposed to jedi mind-trick someone into giving more? He is a 3rd line player. What he has done since we traded him is irrelevant.
- Slump Buster

He's definitely grown into a 2nd liner. Most 3rd liners don't have multiple 20 goal seasons. Since 11-12 he has 20, 11 in 47(lockout year), 19, 4 in 19(back surgery) and this year he has 21 so far.

And the argument against his stats is "he plays higher than he should/with good players" well I've got news for you, if you constantly play on the 1st and 2nd lines you're at least a 2nd line player.

But you're correct. He can't just Jedi mind trick other GM's; although one could argue he did to Sakic. The market will bear what the market will bear and in this case it was a conditional 3rd. We can argue it was or wasn't enough, but Murray obviously liked it enough to go through with it.

John Vogl ‏@BuffNewsVogl · 2m2 minutes ago

The Sabres have signed Eric Cornel, drafted in second round in 2014. Here are his numbers. http://www.hockeydb.com/i...s/pdisplay.php?pid=152379 …
- Stripes77

Love it. Could be a good center in Rochester for a year or two before either becoming trade bait or a solid actual point producing 3rd line center here.

Is Moulson top 3 worst contract in the NHL?
- CoHo_to_B-Lo

Not really even close.


Mike Smith $5.6M for another 3 years after this year.
Jonas Hiller $4.5M* UFA after this year I'll give this one an * because he's a UFA.
Alex Semin essentially a 6 year $42M(1 year at $7.0M and then another 5 at $7.0M) deal. $2.33M left on Carolina's books until 2021.
Marian Hossa $5.275M until 2021 when he'll be 42! He's no Jagr.
Brian Bickell $4.0M for another year and isn't even playing on the Hawks.
David Clarkson $5.25M until 2020.
Sergei Bobrovsky* $7.425 until 2019. *If he returns to Vezina form then no, not a bad contract.
Kari Lehtonen $5.9M until 2018.
Andrew MacDonald $5.0M until 2020. 16 total points in the 2 years since he signed.
Dan Girardi $5.5M until 2020.
Kovalchuk $83.5B until 2047.

I think that's probably enough. Not to mention to compliance buyouts for the likes of DiPietro, Bryzgalov, Brad Richards, Volchenkov.

I belive you get "assigned" a number coming in like he is. Next year he would have the opportunity to choose. I think.
- CoHo_to_B-Lo

Yeah, even Eichel didn't get to pick his number until he "made" the team.

Now just have to get

Vaclav Karabacek
and
Brycen Martin

done

Not sure how long we have the rights for

Possler or Olofsson

I believe that's extremely overstated
Please try to find a link where he's say anything close to that

To my knowledge, he said (ONCE btw, not even multiple times)...
That he prefers center, but will do whatever it takes for the team to win

That's the kind of guy I'd like to have around

His center for that playoff run? Filppula
His potential center here? Eichel

See the difference?

Also...
I see no reason Eichel couldn't slide to the wing either
Sam did
Ennius did
Girgensons did
And there's examples of guys all over the league that grew up playing center & moved to the wing

I get your concerns...
And maybe they're justified
None of us really know what Stamkos is thinking
We'll just have to see how it plays out
- jdfitz77

It's usually just to start their careers. The two that are excellent players, because that's what we're talking about -no offense to Ennis, but he's not on Stamkos' or Getzlaf's level, hell, he's not even on Kessler's level- jump out at me are Kessler and Getzlaf. They play on the wing to learn the game and then jump back to their natural center position where they're most effective.

Why can't Filppula move to the wing if it's so easy for players to just play anywhere? There's way more to it than Tampa is letting on.

Not really even close.


Mike Smith $5.6M for another 3 years after this year.
Jonas Hiller $4.5M* UFA after this year I'll give this one an * because he's a UFA.
Alex Semin essentially a 6 year $42M(1 year at $7.0M and then another 5 at $7.0M) deal. $2.33M left on Carolina's books until 2021.
Marian Hossa $5.275M until 2021 when he'll be 42! He's no Jagr.
Brian Bickell $4.0M for another year and isn't even playing on the Hawks.
David Clarkson $5.25M until 2020.
Sergei Bobrovsky* $7.425 until 2019. *If he returns to Vezina form then no, not a bad contract.
Kari Lehtonen $5.9M until 2018.
Andrew MacDonald $5.0M until 2020. 16 total points in the 2 years since he signed.
Dan Girardi $5.5M until 2020.
Kovalchuk $83.5B until 2047.

I think that's probably enough. Not to mention to compliance buyouts for the likes of DiPietro, Bryzgalov, Brad Richards, Volchenkov.
- Wetbandit1

I can't really say Moulson's is better than most of them. If we had a better team we probably would have waived him like the Hawks Bickell and Flyers MacDonald

I can't really say Moulson's is better than most of them. If we had a better team we probably would have waived him like the Hawks Bickell and Flyers MacDonald
- sbroads24

I'm not really either, just saying we're certainly not alone when it comes to awful contracts. You can't really rank them, they're all bad in their own way. And I only looked at up to the Stars(alphabetically) and just named a few of the other ones I could off the top of my head. So there are about 15 or 16 teams I didn't look at at all. Which I'm sure have a few more bad deals at least.

MacDonald is actually back with the Flyers, and has been on an assist literally every other game pace over the last 4 weeks.

Amerks on TWC vs St. Johns.

I'm not really either, just saying we're certainly not alone when it comes to awful contracts. You can't really rank them, they're all bad in their own way. And I only looked at up to the Stars(alphabetically) and just named a few of the other ones I could off the top of my head. So there are about 15 or 16 teams I didn't look at at all. Which I'm sure have a few more bad deals at least.

MacDonald is actually back with the Flyers, and has been on an assist literally every other game pace over the last 4 weeks.
- Wetbandit1

the Macdonald deal amazes me. He was so bad in NY, and just given this big long term deal for almost no reason

John Scott in the lineup.

the Macdonald deal amazes me. He was so bad in NY, and just given this big long term deal for almost no reason
- sbroads24

He and Clarkson are the reason almost every team has an analytics department now.

That stupid son of a female dog!
- jochfr

What is wrong with the signing? Have not followed the kid.

He and Clarkson are the reason almost every team has an analytics department now.
- Sabresfan-365

Philly seems to be turning the corner, but they make the most out of left field moves it seems

Philly seems to be turning the corner, but they make the most out of left field moves it seems
- sbroads24

Every time they do A they do B that same off-season and it usually sets them back a few years.

9 Evander Kane – 90 Ryan O'Reilly – 44 Nicolas Deslauriers
28 Zemgus Girgensons – 15 Jack Eichel – 23 Sam Reinhart
82 Marcus Foligno – 22 Johan Larsson – 12 Brian Gionta
26 Matt Moulson – 17 David Legwand – 52 Hudson Fasching

4 Josh Gorges – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
29 Jake McCabe – 47 Zach Bogosian
3 Mark Pysyk – 34 Casey Nelson

31 Chad Johnson
50 Nathan Lieuwen

Every time they do A they do B that same off-season and it usually sets them back a few years.
- Sabresfan-365

I think they have finally after years of having a poor blue line stocked the cupboards with quality players.

They have a #1 center and top line winger.

Ullmark has been awful. Truly, truly awful these last two games...

9 Evander Kane – 90 Ryan O'Reilly – 44 Nicolas Deslauriers
28 Zemgus Girgensons – 15 Jack Eichel – 23 Sam Reinhart
82 Marcus Foligno – 22 Johan Larsson – 12 Brian Gionta
26 Matt Moulson – 17 David Legwand – 52 Hudson Fasching

4 Josh Gorges – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
29 Jake McCabe – 47 Zach Bogosian
3 Mark Pysyk – 34 Casey Nelson

31 Chad Johnson
50 Nathan Lieuwen
- 22sabresQ

no comment

Ullmark has been awful. Truly, truly awful these last two games...
- bluengold12

He's a sieve tonight.

I just looked at the standings
Winnipeg ties us if they win
Toronto has a game in hand on us. If they win they're only 3pts back.
Vancouver & Edmonton only 3pts back.
Calgary & Columbus only 2pts back.
We go on a little losing streak & we could finish in a decent spot
- jdfitz77

Tomorrow is the key .. we need to lose tomorrow .... no ifs ands or butts. After tomorrow we have Toronto and Columbus at home ........... that's it. All of the road games are very losable.

A couple reasons and this isn't meant to bash Hanging Chad at all. He might command more in free agency than TM might be willing to pay. Second, I still get queasy watching this guy with his rebound control and tends to fight the puck at times. it's just what I see, especially earlier in the season.

He exceeded my expectations but he might want #1 money in free agency. I was impressed with Ullmark. His first season in NA, not familiar much with his surroundings and coming off double hip surgery, thought he did well. I think that he might be a decent back up for us next year but I also see the argument for keeping him in Roch to further his development.

Just a different spin imo.
- mhp

Johnson wants to be on a team that he can compete for the number one job ........ you can't blame him for that . I also believe he can find such a situation. The guy has been money for us ........ he deserves a chance to start somewhere.

Big if... The teams below us have a very tough remaining schedule. All though yesterday proves anything is possible. The fact that we have had a long time off between games mixed with fan excitement to see new kids play and add that to the fact that we dominated Winnipeg last game and they are coming in from the west coast to play at 1PM game. I'd say it's a long shot we don't at least pick up a point.
Johnson has been on fire lately too...
- bluengold12

Thanks BuzzKill .......