The Sabres still need a No. 1 center. Cody Hodgson could be a top-line center someday, but he hasn't shown me enough speed and skill to convince me he's there yet. He's a second- or third-line center at this stage.
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I'm calling every team for centers, but specifically I want to know what it would take to acquire Stastny from Colorado.
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Hey, guess what? The Avalanche don't have a first-round pick this weekend.
The Avs already have restricted free agents in Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly ahead of Stastny and both make considerably less money. They don't need to pay a third-line center $6.6 million, which means Stastny is expendable.
OK, how about a first-round pick and Roy or Sekera? Not good enough? How about a first-round pick and Roy and Sekera? It's almost too good for the Avalanche to pass up, which is by design. My goal is creating enough cap room for Stastny. Roy and Sekera count for $6.75 million against the cap.
Sekera will make $3.25 million this season and played well during the world championships. But, really, they can have him. Tyler Myers, Christian Ehrhoff, Jordan Leopold, Brayden McNabb, Alexander Sulzer, Robyn Regehr and Mike Weber provide a sound blend of skill and toughness along the blue line.
Nevermind that Stastny was as bad or worse than Roy for much of the season. I know, let's give them Roy, and Sekera, and a 1st rounder!! Just awful.
He then suggests a straight up deal: Ryan Miller for Ryan Malone. Seriously.
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Malone for Miller in an even swap would be tempting.
Tempting if you want to be in on the Nathan MacKinnon Sweepstakes. Somehow I don't think that's what he's saying.
Alternatively, Ryan Miller + 1st for Ryan Malone and Anders Lindback. Ignoring the fact that Miller has more value than Malone, we then give up either the 12th or 21st pick for a goaltender that just got traded for two 2nd's. Moron.
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Sending Miller and offering the other first-round pick for Malone and the 6-foot-6 Lindback is intriguing to say the least. If Lindback is good enough for Stevie Y, he's good enough for me. Stevie Y, are you interested?
Another year of Dwayne Roloson was good enough for Stevie Y, too, you ****tard.
A final Malone possibility. Not quite as terrible, but bad nonetheless.
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If not, keeping Miller and offering the other first-round draft pick plus top prospects such as Luke Adam and Corey Tropp might be enough for Malone. Stevie Y, let's make a deal.
I particularly enjoyed this gem, as well:
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But by adding Malone, my new coach could consider these possible line combinations: Thomas Vanek-Stastny-Jason Pominville; Marcus Foligno-Tyler Ennis-Drew Stafford; Ville Leino-Cody Hodgson-Malone; Nathan Gerbe-Cody McCormick-Patrick Kaleta. Not bad.
He clearly doesn't know how these players are used. Gerbe and Kaleta start a ton in the defensive zone against the other teams' best players. And you're going to trust Cody McCormick to center that line. Go to hell, you moron.
Tampa Bay needed a goaltender and added former Nashville backup Anders Lindback. GM Steve Yzerman served his apprenticeship in Detroit, which is notorious for not shelling out big money for goalies.
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Malone for Miller in an even swap would be tempting. Sending Miller and offering the other first-round pick for Malone and the 6-foot-6 Lindback is intriguing to say the least. If Lindback is good enough for Stevie Y, he's good enough for me. Stevie Y, are you interested?
Nice job making an argument and immediately contradicting it, Bucky.
He then continues on about the "Detroit model" for goalies, and how they seem to come out of nowhere.
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Jonathan Quick was superb all year en route to the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe trophies while making $1.8 million. Mike Smith had a great year in Phoenix and made $2 million. Brian Elliott was terrific while making $600,000 and sharing the net with Jaroslav Halak in St. Louis.
Quick was excellent, sure. But a guy doesn't get a GAA under 2 without serious defensive help.
Smith? System.
Elliott? System.
Did Bucky forget how awful Smith and Elliott were elsewhere?
Not one of Bucky's stronger works. Or maybe it was, hard to tell with him.
Since the arguments are generally awful I'll stick with the concepts he covers.
Not opposed to a new coach but I think it's too late to make a move for this season, IMO. I doubt Bucky had ever heard of Jon Cooper before about February so he's not qualified to tell me how much of an up-and-comer he thinks Cooper is.
Not opposed to seeing what market there is for Miller. Tampa Bay made sense before the Lindback trade, now those offers look insane to me.
I think Sekera is a great trade chip if they want to use it and Bucky doesn't seem to acknowledge how strong Sekera's season was by only mentioning his World Championships play.
Stastny and Malone are both reasonable trade targets but, IMO, both can be had for less than what Bucky offers for them.
5 GM for a Day columns? I only remember the first and I'll probably forget this one soon.
He's good and young and cheap enough to be a valuable trade chip with our glut of young defensemen and the need for centers and/or top 6 forwards.
Unfortunately, Bucky never acknowledges this. TBN has had this weird campaign against Hecht and Sekera for years. It's borderline creepy at this point.
Unfortunately, Bucky never acknowledges this. TBN has had this weird campaign against Hecht and Sekera for years. It's borderline creepy at this point.
Is it because they're not good hard-nosed North American boys ?
Can anyone go back and post links to all the previous Bucky GM for a day columns. Now THAT would be good stuff for laugh.
But anyway, I just got done reading and shook my head the whole way through. He's such a petulant whiner all season long, full of BS that he thinks passes for educated commentary, and these annual columns just go to prove what a clueless non-hockey fan he really is. Even if R&R should be replaced, it's no wonder they ignore this @#$-clown.
FWIW, I think Stastny could possibly re-emerge as a top flight center, but complaining about Roy as an under-achieving center and then proposing a lopsided trade for another one with an even bigger cap is just instant proof of his cluelessness. Not that I really needed to explain any of that to people here.
Nice to wake up to more "pearls of wisdom" from Bucky's vault:
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The price to acquire him will be high along with the contract needed to keep him.
The total cost for Stastny, 26, will be less.
So, he's worried about the likely $5M - 6M contract that a 23 year old center with size and better defensive skills may get but has no problem paying a smaller, older and less defensively-aware player the same contract?
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Thank goodness. Hecht should have been gone years ago, which you might have read somewhere
Keep beating that senseless drum, Bucky
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I liked Leino last year, too, as a left winger making $3 million per season. They paid him $4.5 million and tried turning him into a center. I still think he can help.
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Regier has become too attached, too smitten with his own people, to see what changes are necessary. It's a good thing you have me.
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My problem with Miller is his contract. His reputation as one of the NHL's top goaltenders is only warranted when he's right. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2010 and led the Sabres' charge last season. But in recent years, he hasn't been consistent enough to justify his $6.25 million salary.
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But by adding Malone, my new coach could consider these possible line combinations: Thomas Vanek-Stastny-Jason Pominville; Marcus Foligno-Tyler Ennis-Drew Stafford; Ville Leino-Cody Hodgson-Malone; Nathan Gerbe-Cody McCormick-Patrick Kaleta. Not bad.
Yet another hypocritical, contradictory argument - he's unhappy with Miller's salary relative to performance yet is willing to trade for a 32-year old winger with 3 more years of a $4.5M cap hit who's been injury prone the past 4 years, only to insert him onto the 3rd line? Maybe Bucky craves a thematic "underachiever line" by pairing Malone with Leino.
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I would rather have proven players, such as Stastny and Malone, for them than take the risk of the unknown.
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Sending Miller and offering the other first-round pick for Malone and the 6-foot-6 Lindback is intriguing to say the least
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Plus, you never know which goalies will emerge. Jonathan Quick was superb all year en route to the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe trophies while making $1.8 million. Mike Smith had a great year in Phoenix and made $2 million. Brian Elliott was terrific while making $600,000 and sharing the net with Jaroslav Halak in St. Louis.
He says he wants "proven players" yet then lobbies to bring in any of the goalies listed that more or less have just one season of brilliance to show for their abilities? And Lindback doesn't even have that yet. Bucky is willing to adopt the risk that Yzerman is presently taking by anointing him as the Sabres' starter? Adding insult to injury, throwing away a first pick on top of it is even more illogical.
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If I'm wrong, Pegula can fire me. Hopefully, they'll hire me back at The News.
Don't worry, Bucky - I'm sure that you could find a job working alongside Larry Brooks at the NY Post, Bruce Garrioch at the Ottawa Sun or on Eklund's website, writing this kind of inane, irrational nonsense. They'll worship your words as genius!
NOT reading these "GM For 45 Minute While I Wrote This While Eating Three Dozen Donuts' columns really has helped my sanity.
I just read it for the entertainment value.
It takes an indescribable amount of ignorance to come up with so many asinine opinions about a subject after supposedly following it so closely. Bucky has it down to a science.
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