yave1964

@TropicalFruitGirl26 Sorry so late in here. I can see a case being made for both Florida teams being among the best in the East next year with Tampa as the clear favorite and Florida a solid dark horse. It should be fun in the sun for these two. At least for a few years until the Panthers move to Quebec which would be ironic, as Quebec left for Colorado and immediately won the cup in their first year. It would be kind of neat if in 2021-22 they play in Quebec and win a cup, lol.

As far as the inbreeding, he stated that if she wasn't his daughter he would be dating her, so...….

I would say that it is more akin to the fall of the Roman Empire after Constantine made the mistake of allowing a new religious sect to take over and start to impose morality on the people by putting fig leaves on the statues, Emperor Honorius caved to religious pressure to stop gladiator fighting and then a weak leader coudlnt get his mind around the attacks of outsiders such as the Huns and Visgoths among others. Probably not the place for this here, religion and politics and all just my two cents as I watch our country burn and Nero tweet.

Likely. If it keeps up the way it is going your folks are going to need to build a wall to keep us out, lol. @ruxpin and myself are probably going to be first in line.

Sickening. Not even quite an election year yet even.

I doubt Luukanen is quite ready but I like the Sabres offseason moves, I felt they paid a bit much for Skinner but you have to for goal scorers, it happens. Adding Montour around the deadline last year plus the additions of Miller and now Jokiharju really help define the defense, Johansson is a nice middle six winger on either side, Vesey is okay but a tad overrated but overall, tweaking the roster rather than going for the big splash was the right call. They are on the way up.

@ruxpin The Hawks had a strange defense last year, Keith and Seabrook are aging and while both were solid neither was a shut down, Gustafsson had a breakout year offensively but will never be a Norris candidate, Jokiharju kept getting thrown into that mix and being asked to be a shut down guy which is not his game. A right shot kid with offensive upside good puck skills, still learning nuance. I felt he was being set up to fail. I consider him to still be a damn good prospect it is not his fault that A) they came up with a better one in Boquist and b) they addressed their need for defensive D-men by adding De Haan and Maatta leaving no room for him. @Hockey Junkie Nylander is an immature kid who looks more like he should have been playing in the ECHL with his pathetic numbers at Rochester over the past several years. His digs at the Buffalo organization on the way out show him to be an entitled classless punk kid who hasn't earned anything yet who feels he deserves a shot because of his name and draft position.

The Hawks and Sabres have been aggressive this offseason. They sort of sparked up a boring week with a minor trade of former first round picks. Buffalo gave up on forward Alexander Nylander a former number 8 pick in the draft sending him West to Chicago for Henri Jokiharju a former first round pick himself who struggled last season to find a role in the Chicago back end. It makes sense for both teams really, Nylander has been passed by other prospects and has been slipping from the Sabres plans, Jokiharju is a real prospect looking for a role which he should be able to find in Buffalo. Chicago added De Haan and Maatta to shore up their blueline leaving Jokiharju on the outside looking in and will get a shot at a bottom pair role with Buffalo and is a player with upside. Conversely if Nylander can land a middle six job playing with Toews on the second line he might get things going. I rate this a win for the Sabres, I still believe in Jokiharju quite a lot

Johansson is a nice add.

@SpikeDDS Agreed, the 'yikes' wasn't quite the right word, shoulda been sigh. Yeah I know it is a process I am just frustrated, we saw this coming for years before bottoming out2nd round losses, first round cannon fodder followed by three years in the wilderness. I was hoping for more of a quick fix by Stevie but patience is the word of the day. I just look at two other original six teams, the Rangers and Hawks who recently fell and fell hard both now appear to be well on their way back towards the top and never hit the bottom we did. Of course that is Holland, not Yzerman so I get it. I just was hoping for an immediate turnaround but truth is, the brakes have been applied, we are no longer drifting towards oblivion and the turnaround has begun with the signing of Yzerman as the GM and allowing Hakan Andersson so much influence in the draft room again by Yzerman, Andersson is the one who discovered Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Jiri Fischer, so many more treasures. I remember reading a SI article about Andersson when he found Datsyuk he would travel to other cities in Russia and then sneak to watch Datsyuk because at least three other teams were sending their scouts to follow HIM to see who he was scouting. Our Euro-centric draft says a lot about the Wings direction and I am hopeful. So this year, yeah I dont expect a lot but I hope to see Larkin continue to turn into a star Athanasiou and Mantha develop into top flight goal scorers. Bertuzzi, see if he has more upside. Hronek, Cholo and possibly Seider on the back end, looking for signs of growth and development. Zadina develop into a top flight sniper. Rasmussen develop into a force on the power play. Berggrenn hopefully at Grand Rapids along with Veleno and a few young defensive prospects to see where they fit into the future. Filip Larsson our goalie of the future also at Grand Rapids in his first year as a pro. Hirose was a late season sensation, finding out if it was real. Bowey was a steal from Washington. Seeing if he develops. So lots of kids, lots of growing pains but lots of hope. The brakes have been applied, the bleeding has stopped and we are going the right way. Guys like Filppula, Nemeth and Pickard are symbols of this, all are pros pros, they know the score, they know they are here to tutor as much as anything and are all good signings. Not exactly signing Lehner, Panarin and Tyler Myers, lol but that is not what they were brought in for. It will be fun to see them talking to the kids on the bench and on the ice, hearing what the kids say about their mentorship in interviews. Yeah, there is a lot to look forward to. The worst is over.

The league took a collective sigh after a huge Canada day free agent frenzy, little if anything going on (unless you are a Carter Camper or Mark Letestu fan) but there is still plenty of talent still available which will be signing in the next few days. A quick look FORWARDS The best: QUITE A lot actually, Dzingel, Naroon, Justin Williams, Brassard, Ferland, Brian Boyle and Marcus Johansson all still sitting out there, all capable of helping about any teams middle six. DEFENSE The best: Jake Gardiner still sitting out there was probably the second best free agent defender behind Tyler Myers drawing a lot of interest. Ben Hutton, Petrovic, Phaneuf, Methot, Lovejoy and McQuaid all capable on a bottom pairing and will all have jobs soon. GOALTENDING Not much here, Cam Ward maybe if you are desperate or Scott Darling if you bumped your head. Slim pickings in net. Of the bunch I see Ferland, Williams, Gardiner as the big three with the forwards all capable of stepping in somewhere and contributing.

Yikes. First Canada Day for Yzerman, he stuck to his word, he stated he was going to go add a few minor pieces on short term deals while he assessed the kids in the organization, he would add a few veteran players to fill out the roster for this season. It sounds/looks as if he has decided to write off 2019-20 as a learning year for him and is preaching patience, here are the three signees PATRIK NEMETH What I know of him is he is a hard hitting stay at home guy, a great penalty killer and a big body impossible to move from his set position. Last year he laid Larkin out which led to Mantha and Nemeth in a fight where Mantha broke a finger so the first meeting between the two as Mates should be fun. It may signal that Kronwall has decided to hang them up. I went into a few boards to read about him from a fan perspective, Colorado fans almost universally LOVE the guy, they say he is a team first guy who sacrifices the body and will be missed. Okay signing. VAL fILPPULA Remember when we let him go to sign Stephen Weiss? I wish I didn't, lol, not because of missing Val but because Weiss was such a bad signing. Val is okay, soft, decent, in his Wing days I used to say that he went through 3 game cycles, one game he was okay, one he was bad and one he teased you by playing like Datsyuk. At 35 not a lot in the tank but he did score 17 goals with the Isles last year it signals two things 1) Athanasiou is moving permanently back to the wing and 2) young center Joe Veleno will not be rushed. Meh signing. CALVIN PICKARD big body goalie who I have actually seen quite a lot of in Cleveland with the Monsters over the years I think I have a fair and honest assessment of him from frist hand experience of watching him, he plays big meaning he spreads his body wide and dares you to shoot into him but he is glacially slow, skilled players eat him alive. He is in short an AHL starter, emergency NHL backup which is what he was signed to be. If he starts more than half a dozen NHL games for the Wings I would be shocked and appalled but with the Griffins he is a solid add as young Larssen who is a real prospect will be playing his first year pro in net and Pickard will be a good mentor/emergency NHL goalie. Okay add. So nothing to write home about but it is what Yzerman said he was doing this year, gotta love the honesty, none of these guys will be here when we get good but will all allow kids like Larssen and Veleno to develop properly and Athanasiou to play the wing. I am okay with all of that, looking at the big picture.

@J0e Th0rnton Look I am not saying that the Sharks are chum in the water (pun intended) but they did take a step back today. Pavelski, slowing and all, Nyquist and Donskoi scored 55 goals, that is a significant drop. Hertl and Couture are monsters, anyone who doesn't love them doesn't follow hockey, the Sharks make a habit of building from within and adding pieces aggressively to fit need and should be the envy of the league but over ahlf a goal per game has just dropped off the roster without a single return. There are a few pieces still out there, Brassard, Ferland, a few others the Sharks took a hit today, they need to find decent replacements for them plain and simple. If one of Hertl or Couture takes any type of step back either due to injury or puck luck it would be a hard pill to swallow. To me the window just closed a tad with the losses taken today. Not saying they are not a contender, any team with the core the Sharks have will contend but they slipped back a bit.

Wesley Snipes as your accountant Tammy Fae Baker as your makeup artist Karl Rove as your advisor Too early. That's al I got, lol

@TropicalFruitGirl26 Agreed the Devils had a Hell of an offseason, I am not a fan of Subban, I feel he is vastly overrated with massive holes in his game but the sucker can run a power play with anyone which they desperately need, I thought of listing them among the winners along with a couple of original six teams, the Rangers and especially the Hawks who added to their forward depth, picked up a couple of solid d-men and stole Lehner. The other team I considered for one of the three loser slots was the Jets, I felt they kind of flailed along, losing Myers and Trouba and Hayes without adding anything significant. @ruxpin I get it that Varly about every fifth game looks like a Vezina candidate but he has two medium games and two awful ones mixed in with no rhyme or reason for what to expect on a given night. A four year contract as well. Simply makes no sense. I know they have that Russian kid in net coming over next year and I think the hope is that Varly can mentor him but he is a head case. Varly as a mentor would be like going to Doctor Kevorkian for a bad cold.