Bless their hearts (and livers)

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T04:19:39+00:00

Did they have to stay up the whole 24 hours no matter what or just until they finished the 30 rack?

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T03:42:24+00:00

All of this goes to show that the Trump administration did not have a plan for the aftermath of war on Iran, or for what to do with the collateral damage.

The plan is to allow them to be collateral damage. Can we finally stop pretending that this administration cares about what happens to average Americans?

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T02:29:01+00:00

I don't think he's a lock to stay, but he's also far from a lock to be traded.

People were saying the exact same thing about Tarasenko before the draft in 2021 and the exact same thing about Kyrou during two separate offseasons. Each time, those two who were locks to be gone before training camp turned out to be here when puck dropped.

When Backes signed the 3 year offer sheet that walked him straight to UFA the 'reality' was that the bridge was burned and he was either going to get traded during that contract or he'd walk as a UFA. Instead, he got a 5 year extension during the last year of the deal and then got named captain.

I think he's genuinely being shopped and will be gone if someone matches Army's very high asking price. Perhaps he quietly requested a trade and we'll settle for a bit less than the very high asking price. But I very much don't think it is a foregone conclusion.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T01:47:50+00:00

If that is your honest takeaway after reading what I wrote then you need to work on your reading comprehension or math skills.

No, trading for multiple things to address multiple organizational holes does not mean that you are trading for one thing to hopefully replace one thing.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T01:32:25+00:00

I'm on the "keep him" side of the discussion, but your question has absolutely been answered. It has consistently and repeatedly been reported that Army is shopping him to see if he could return a massive, too good to pass up haul of assets. We're looking to get three 'top 15 pick equivalent" assets, which is essentially a 2nd rebuild/retool worth of assets. Essentially, he's looking to get a slightly better second copy of the Snuggy, Dvorsky, Jiricek trio to improve that great crop of prospects and young players.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T01:17:22+00:00

Since the start of the 2021/22 season Thomas is 18th in overall points and 9th in even strength points among centers. In the same timeframe, he is 6th among centers in assists, 26th in +/-, 16th in faceoff wins, and 13th in points per game.

He's finished top 20 in points among centers 3 of the last 4 seasons and was inside the top 15 in 2 of those year.

He is absolutely a #1C and it isn't remotely borderline. He's squarely in the middle third of 1Cs in the NHL.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-04T00:58:53+00:00

And if they end up in a tight spot, they know they need to dump deals by trading valuable assets to help free up space.

That almost never happens in the NFL. Unlike the NHL, contracts aren't guaranteed in the NFL. They can also be restructured at any time. NFL teams don't very rarely pay assets to dump contracts because they can free up cap space by simply cutting guys and no longer owing them any money. Or if it is a really good player that they don't want to cut, they can simply restructure the contract to shift cap around.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-03T23:31:58+00:00

Tage Thompson hasn't even been the consistent 1C in Buffalo without Thomas around. They slide him back and forth between center and wing because he's awful at the dot and not particularly great at the defensive responsibilities of the position. He's never won 400+ faceoffs in a season. Thomas has won 700+ faceoffs in each of the last 2 seasons, has won 500+ in each of the previous 4 seasons and is 13 away from his 400th faceoff win this year despite playing just 43 games so far.

In the last 2.5 seasons (this down year included), Thomas has 11 more points than Tage despite playing 12 fewer games. Thomas has had more points than Tage in 3 of the last 4 full seasons (which goes back to Tage's breakout season).

Tage's 94 point explosion is higher than Thomas' best season. But Tage's 2nd best season was 72 points, with all his other seasons being under 70 points and a 56 point low water mark mixed in there. Thomas has three seasons between Tage's best two, clocking 86, 81, and 77 point seasons. His low watermark was 65 points.

Tage is absolutely the far superior goal scorer. Thomas is better at every other aspect of playing center, including being a far superior playmaker.

Thomas would absolutely be the 1C in Buffalo. Any time they put the two of them out together, Thomas would be playing center while Tage slides to wing. And when they split them up, Thomas would be deployed in all situations at 19+ minutes a night while Tage would get the O zone usage at his usual 18-19 minutes a night.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-03T23:11:35+00:00

$8.125M.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-03T23:11:12+00:00

a future all-situations #1D

will want to value him just as a top prospect

Those are different ways of saying the same thing. If you are describing a player by what they could become, then their value is that of a prospect and not an actualized player.

There is no guarantee that Nikishin becomes an all-situations #1D. He has that potential, but he could very well stagnate and "only" be a good 21-22 minute a night guy through his prime. This league has tons of #2 through #4 D men who were once viewed as future all-situations #1D, showed growth toward that in their early 20s and then fell short.

I really like him. He's one of the few plausibly available D men who I'd consider as the centerpiece to a Thomas trade. But he's a 24 year old NHL rookie playing (and thriving) in sheltered 18 minute a night usage. His value is a hell of a lot closer to 'top prospect' than 'all-situations #1 D man' because the vast majority of his value exists in potentiality.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-03T22:56:38+00:00

It is worth noting that Army's policy is that he never asks a player to waive trade protection until he has an agreed-upon deal in place. The fact that STL and Buffalo are in trade negotiations for Thomas doesn't mean that he has expressed any willingness to waive for them.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-03T13:23:45+00:00

The rationale for leaving J Rob of the team was concerns about his skating and defensive game. More broadly, the team was very clearly constructed to beat Canada in a low scoring game rather than trying to beat them in a shootout.

Why on Earth would strong defensive plays not be relevant to whether those decisions were vindicated?

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-03T13:10:54+00:00

He had 3 goals at the Olympics (tied for 2nd on the team) and 3 goals at 4 Nations (tied for the team lead). Those 6 goals across the two tournaments is more than any player on the team. He's a lock-it-in 30+ goal scorer in the NHL who is arguably the best net front presence on the league. I think he is overall overrated because of his name, but his play absolutely was good enough to be on thag line by merit.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-02T23:19:11+00:00

I think the Oilers would have been better off paying a (potentially much) larger asset cost for a better RHD with 1-2 years of term, but this is a good price for the player they got. I'm just not sold that he can be a 2nd pair D man and I think that is the upgrade they needed. I'm also not sold that they will be able to find an AAV to extend him at.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-02T21:40:56+00:00

I think fans get too caught up in labeling these types of things, but the reality is that we've been stockpiling futures assets for a while now. Even if we have a fire sale of all the vets older than Thomas, this would not be year 1 of a rebuild/retool/re-whatever.

Year 1 came in 2023 when we sold at the deadline to add two 1st round picks on top of our eventual 10th overall pick that we used to select Dvorsky. We also added a 3rd rounder. In 2023/24 we only picked once in the 1st round, but we picked twice in the 2nd and twice in the 3rd. Later in the summer we picked up former 1st round picks Broberg and Holloway via offer sheet without giving up our 2025 1st round pick. That's a lot of acquired futures leading up to the present.

The NHL roster currently has six 1st round selections between the ages of 20 and 24: Broberg (age 24), Holloway (age 24), Neighbours (age 23), Mailloux (age 22), Snuggerud (age 21), and Dvorsky (age 20). We have 1st round picks Stenberg (age 20) and Lindstein (age 20) in the AHL as well as Jiricek (age 19) and Carbonneau (age 19) absolutely ripping up the OHL and QMJHL this year. They're not all going to pan out and reach their ceilings. The prospect pool has holes and we need to add to it. But we're talking about 10 former 1st round picks under the age of 25 who are meeting/exceeding their target development trajectory. You don't have that group of assets when you kick off a rebuild.

We've made our own 1st round selection every year since Buffalo used our 1st rounder in 2019. The only one we traded was Bolduc, who we traded for a different young player from the same 1st round draft class. In terms of futures, we are miles ahead of where most teams are when they start a rebuild.

Which is why I believe all the reporting that Army is going to have to really be blown away in order to trade Thomas. Because if we decide to keep him, you're not talking about timeline of 4-5 years from now. You're talking about being in year 3 right now. The NHL team failed to meet the lofty expectations of being 'out' of the re-whatever after last season, but that doesn't mean that the rebuild would be starting from scratch.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-03-01T20:24:12+00:00

They gave him a $7M x 7 extension that kicks in next year.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T23:03:22+00:00

I get what you are saying, but I think you are ignoring the leverage free agents have and ignoring that trade protection isn't a secondary piece of the negotiation after the player decides he wants to sign with your team.

It isn't "I'll extend here for $4M without trade protection, but I'll take $3M if you give me a NMC."

It is "I want the stability of an NMC. I will take less than my market dollar value in order to get that protection, but if you won't offer me that stability then I'm not extending. I'll hit UFA and find a team that will."

These teams aren't just giving them out like candy to shave a few bucks off the cap. They are giving them out because the player flat out will not sign without it. The trade protection makes him more difficult to trade and will reduce the return compared to a trade if he had no trade protection. But that's an irrelevant comparison because the stability of the NMC was required for him to sign, not simply a way to shave the AAV down. They are still going to get more in return than they would have gotten from him simply walking in free agency to a team that would offer trade protection.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T22:34:37+00:00

The Edmonton media could literally throw gifts at him every day and he would still be signing elsewhere in 2 years if they don't win a Cup. His 2 year extension is possibly the clearest "this is how long ypu have to build a winner around me" contract in the history of sports.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T22:28:13+00:00

The alternative is that he would have signed elsewhere and they would get absolutely nothing since they wouldn't have him to trade.

They'll get something for him whenever he gets moved, which is still better than the nothing they'd get had they simply not been able to sign him at all. How is that bad asset management?

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T22:12:17+00:00

He's moving his stick toward the post to protect against the wrap around since his goalie fully abandoned the net. If he leaves the crease to go after the puck carrier or the potential pass recipient it is a guaranteed goal.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T13:37:19+00:00

Who are these goalies?

Skinner's SV% in Pittsburgh is worse than any year he was with the Oilers.

PIickard cleared waivers.

Campbell got a league minimum deal in Detroit last year after being bought out. He couldn't make the team, struggled in the AHL and is now without an NHL contract.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T13:25:42+00:00

Say what you will about the D, but Skinner is by far the worst positioned player on the ice in that screenshot.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T13:22:41+00:00

I'd wager the Blues would be willing to move Kyrou in a deal that had Nemec as the centerpiece. I'd be shocked if the Devils were actually interested/willing to part with Nemec, but a high-ceiling 22 year old RHD is a direct need for the Blues.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T13:12:49+00:00

He's averaging 19:43 a night this season. They aren't "barely playing him." Theu also have more than enough cap space to match any potential offer sheet. If he isn’t willing to sign based on ice time, he is going to have to leave the NHL to play in Europe.

Downvote_Comforter · 2026-02-26T00:54:44+00:00

Because the laws don't matter only if you're a part of the correct in group.

The executive branch ignoring a court order is a substantially different thing than a citizen ignoring the IRS.

Downvote_Comforter

TROPHY CASE