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CuyahogaKid

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Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 30, 2023 at 6:43 p.m.
Forum: Armchair-GMApr. 19, 2021 at 12:36 a.m.
Thread: Offseason 1
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Tjm220</b></div><div>You’ve blown up several lines that have shown to be effective together. Realistically Buffalo has several pieces that are working together now, and they don’t need as much as people think.
These 2 units should stay together at the least:

Apslund-Mittelstadt-Thompson
Routsalainen/Olofsson-Cozens-Bjork

When Eichel gets back healthy again he’s still #1, and Reinhart and Skinner take his wings. The only line that needs any upgrading is the 4th line. Maybe Coleman fits there, but you’d never pay a 4th liner $3 or $4 million if you can help it.</div></div>

It’s been a SMALL sample size....
and no one knows if the good play from the kids will even continue for this season, let alone translate to next season

It’s a bit early to anoint those lines as all set for next season
Forum: Armchair-GMFeb. 8, 2021 at 3:58 p.m.
Thread: 21-22
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>DickFoligno</b></div><div>Whats going on with Skinner is that he's not that good defensively and he's a second line LW in the mold of a Jason Zucker, and he's a career second line left wing, who got over paid because the team wanted to keep Jack Eichel happy, eventhough his production and scoring fell off drastically after the second hald of 2018-19. His market value was more likely around 5.5-6.5 million and he cashed in.

Having a player like Eichel,a blessing and a curse......personally I did not want to give Skinner that contract, I wanted the Sabres to trade him because he was not worth that contract, but I took a lot of heat for suggesting they trade him at the deadline. Bottom line, I don't even say Kreuger is the problem with Skinner, the problem is Skinner...he is not a 9 million dollar hockey player. Skinner has been a 20-30 goal, 50pt forward his entire career, he is not a difference maker, possession driver that Taylor Hall is. He is also horrible defensively and he is not a fit for Ralph Kreuger's system. Hall is the guy you give that kind of money to, not Skinner.

The problem here goes to one thing, Jason Botterill or the Pegulas. Now Botterill has made some good and bad moves for the Sabres, he has a really hit miss track record as former GM, but the misses are bad. But what i'm not sure about is how much of it was him, and how much of it was the Pegulas? The Pegula's likely wanted Ryan O'Reily traded. To be fair, the people and fans of Buffalo are responsible for that as well because half of the town was convinced that O'Reilly was a cancer because he expressed how tough it was losing. Was Skinner's contract influenced by the Pegula's? It doesn't seem like a move a former cap guy would be in favor of, and im sure you can look at Skinner's track record of inconsistency? And Botterill also swung and missed hard on Casey Mittelstadt.

What the team needs, they need to let the hockey people make the hockey decisions, and Terry Pegula hopefully has learned he cant run the team like a fan, and they need to just accept that they are stuck with Skinner's contract for years unless they eat some salary.</div></div>

Excellent reply worthy of dissertation on my part. I was surprised when Skinner was given such a big contract and you are correct defensively he is not a stalwart. Jason Botterill. It takes time to be a good GM. Julien Brisebois was taken under the wing of Bob gainey and then Yzerman. Marc bergevin made some bad trades and drafts from 2012 to 2016. Since 2017 he has a much better tract record. So was Jason going to get better in time? perhaps! who knows. I do know from first hand knowledge the the owners wife interferes a lot.

The only area I will disagree with you is about Ryan O'Reilly. I know his grandmother, parents, older brother well. The only one I do not know well is the sister. Ryan stayed at my house and I coached him twice. I have known him since he was sixteen years old. Snook (his childhood nickname) is absolute gold. Hundreds of times he asked me after practice to feed him fifty to 75 pucks to he could work on his one timer, his release, backhand. He wanted out of Buffalo, because he had no idea who was in charge and where the boat was going. Again, I preface the owner and his wife. If he was a "cancer" as you say, why did St Louis name him captain? In the summer I used to have a very large dryland training program with 400 athletes. Players from Manitoba to Newfoundland and Americans attended. My wife who loves to cook, would arrange all the meals along with some of her friends, that we allowed their sons to be in the camps for free in exchange for their help in the kitchen. My wife said Ryan O'Reilly was always very polite and respectful. So, I know that I know Ryan is not a "cancer". TEAM Canada would not keep calling him if he was one!

but the rest of the post, you have some excellent points.
Forum: Armchair-GMOct. 12, 2020 at 1:52 a.m.
Forum: Armchair-GMJul. 4, 2020 at 11:57 a.m.