GDT: Sabres @ Devils, 7 PM, MSG+

[Bleedred]

Not tendering Zacha would be dumb. Someone will give you something for him. Zacha's not hitting 40 pts unless he's given WAY more opportunity then he deserves. The guy cannot produce at 5v5 and isn't a great PP producer.

I often times wonder though, I’ve been thinking a lot about it the last few days.

Do we extend him first and then trade him? Do we trade his rights with one more year remaining before UFA eligibility? How will this happen? It’s an interesting dilemma. I can’t remember the last time we sent away a pending RFA that had just one more year till UFA.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Not tendering Zacha would be dumb. Someone will give you something for him. Zacha's not hitting 40 pts unless he's given WAY more opportunity then he deserves. The guy cannot produce at 5v5 and isn't a great PP producer.

He’s playing at a 40 point pace this season while spending more time on the second unit than first.

 

[Bleedred]

Zacha was actually good this game apart from that. And he put up 35 in 50 last season which is well over a 40 point pace and is playing at a 40 point pace this season. I think it’s time to move on but he definitely should and definitely will be tendered. It would be stupid and make no sense not to. Let’s trade if there’s a deal that makes sense. But he’s not useless and shouldn’t be thrown away.

Well you’re right, he probably would have hit 40 points maybe even twice, if not for shortened seasons or injuries that cost him a full season’s worth of games.

But other than that, nothing long term for him makes sense with us. It would be a terrible move to extend him for multiple years at even $3 million per.

 

[Bleedred]

Was there anything tricky about that? That looked like a muffin from before the blue line. No crazy speeds or bounces.

It's awful

Dano talked about a deflection, which happened probably somewhere around exit 4 /mile marker on the Parkway, on a shot from Cape May.

 

[Whaddagoal]

I don’t blame Ruff for not throwing Hammond under the bus. He’s probably just getting tired of it he’s had to already do it in two of his four games before tonight’s.

I’m very glad he threw Zacha under the bus and singled him out.

Just don’t tender him this off-season, I’ve f***in had it with him.

It’s gonna hurt though when we have to suffer through watching him have his first 40 point season with another team.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This Ruff presser makes me believe all the punches are coming out before the season ends. Makes me think he might be out for sure now, because he was never this cagey in the interviews all season, maybe except for 1 or 2 blowouts. Even in the blowouts he didn't do a lot of name calling in past.

He threw Zacha (deservedly, finally), for his weak stick plays on the puck (i'd say his biggest weakness this season), and he threw Bratt a dish about unable to finish the play, and Subban falling over. He sort of hesitated about Nico and Tatar but mentioned their missed opportunities. Hamilton also missed some but he didn't mention him.

Although I agree that PP miss was bad, i'm not sure if naming 70 point Bratter is worth it. There were so many other players to pick on tonight.

Hammond deserved some ire tonight from Ruff, but didn't get any. Hammond did got a bronx cheer after making a simple save after those shorties. Actually two bronx cheers, one on the dump in touching the puck (haha), and one for the save that followed a little later. Not sure he's made a lot of fans in the arena.

Given the 6-7 collapse in the Florida game, and now this one, and whatever other game he blew out the GAA. I don't think this is the right place for Hammond. I thought he turned a corner, but those 3-4 softies tonight. Even that go ahead goal where they slid it under his pads was super soft. I knew that shit would go in when the play went down the ice.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Well you’re right, he probably would have hit 40 points maybe even twice, if not for shortened seasons or injuries that cost him a full season’s worth of games.

But other than that, nothing long term for him makes sense with us. It would be a terrible move to extend him for multiple years at even $3 million per.

It really wouldn’t be. Even the analytics which have historically been low on him seem to suggest he’s worth more than 3M. If you just went based off production he’s worth that too. He’s not nearly as bad as some people are making him out to be. He shouldn’t be in the top 6. But having him as a 3rd line winger who can possibly put up 40+ points, fill in for top 6 guys during injuries and be a secondary pp guy would be fine. I do think it’s time to move on but if we can figure out a contract and keep him cheap enough I’d be fine with that.

 

[Hisch13r]

He’s playing at a 40 point pace this season while spending more time on the second unit than first.

Yes because he's given WAY more opportunity than he deserves. He is 4th among forwards in ice time at 16:41. Also he's 4th among forwards in average PP time at 2:11. He is 215th in AS P/60 and 262 in 5v5 P/60. If Zacha is used as the 3rd liner that he is rather than a 2nd liner who has split time between PP1 and PP2 then he doesn't sniff 40 pts.

 

[Bleedred]

This Ruff presser makes me believe all the punches are coming out before the season ends. Makes me think he might be out for sure now, because he was never this cagey in the interviews all season, maybe except for 1 or 2 blowouts. Even in the blowouts he didn't do a lot of name calling in past.

He threw Zacha (deservedly, finally), for his weak stick plays on the puck (i'd say his biggest weakness this season), and he threw Bratt a dish about unable to finish the play, and Subban falling over. He sort of hesitated about Nico and Tatar but mentioned their missed opportunities. Hamilton also missed some but he didn't mention him.

Although I agree that PP miss was bad, i'm not sure if naming 70 point Bratter is worth it. There were so many other players to pick on tonight.

Hammond deserved some ire tonight from Ruff, but didn't get any. Hammond did got a bronx cheer after making a simple save after those shorties. Actually two bronx cheers, one on the dump in touching the puck (haha), and one for the save that followed a little later. Not sure he's made a lot of fans in the arena.

Given the 6-7 collapse in the Florida game, and now this one, and whatever other game he blew out the GAA.

I’m just glad Daws is back in the AHL. This is what I remember saying a few weeks ago. That Daws will probably go back before the NHL season ends, but likely when there’s only about a week or so left in the season.

He did say Dougie by name, as well as Severson and Subban, but that was when talking about how O was our best defenseman and that we shouldn’t need to rely on him to be our best defenseman.

 

[Bleedred]

It really wouldn’t be. Even the analytics which have historically been low on him seem to suggest he’s worth more than 3M. If you just went based off production he’s worth that too. He’s not nearly as bad as some people are making him out to be. He shouldn’t be in the top 6. But having him as a 3rd line winger who can possibly put up 40+ points, fill in for top 6 guys during injuries and be a secondary pp guy would be fine. I do think it’s time to move on but if we can figure out a contract and keep him cheap enough I’d be fine with that.

He might be worth more than $3 million, but that’s poor usage of our cap if we’re the team giving it to him.

We need to just let him go, the same way Lou let guys like Gionta go (among others) when we had to worry about the cap.

Yeah, he’s not a terrible player, but he’s not someone that should be here long term. His time is up. The most I’d give him is his qualifying offer of $3 million for one year.

 

[Hisch13r]

He might be worth more than $3 million, but that’s poor usage of our cap if we’re the team giving it to him.

We need to just let him go, the same way Lou let guys like Gionta go (among others) when we had to worry about the cap.

Yeah, he’s not a terrible player, but he’s not someone that should be here long term. His time is up. The most I’d give him is his qualifying offer of $3 million for one year.

He's going to have some value to some team. Ship him out. Arizona is interested in Johnsson. Ship him out. Then bring someone in. Toss Nuke the bag

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Yes because he's given WAY more opportunity than he deserves. He is 4th among forwards in ice time at 16:41. Also he's 4th among forwards in average PP time at 2:11. He is 215th in AS P/60 and 262 in 5v5 P/60. If Zacha is used as the 3rd liner that he is rather than a 2nd liner who has split time between PP1 and PP2 then he doesn't sniff 40 pts.

He really isn’t used way more than he should be. He plays the 6th most at 5V5 which is fair enough when you look at the other names. The only guy behind him who should probably play a bit more than him is Tatar but it’s not like he’s been lighting things up this season or done a ton to earn it.
He plays more than Mercer and Sharangovich on the powerplay and that is reasonable enough because he is a skilled player, with a heavy shot who actually can actually be pretty good on the powerplay. He isn’t getting WAY more opportunity than he should. He also played at a 58 point pace last year. Suggesting he would never sniff 40 points and only has because he’s played to much is silly. He isn’t overly played that much and clearly can sniff 40.

 

[Bleedred]

We’re no stranger to letting players go in the cap era.

Some of them were good players (Gionta), but were not as important as Elias, Parise or Zajac. Some were players we should have kept. Rafalski I’d argue as one. Some of them were washed up anyway (Madden) but somehow still got overpaid by a Stanley Cup contender (and eventual winner) and that was something we had to deal with. I think we’re coming into that right now and I think Zacha is the first casualty of this new batch of guys.

He probably shouldn’t be a UFA this early, but if we’re gonna criticize Shero, that’s one thing that probably wasn’t handled correctly. He probably should have been returned to juniors for his 19 year old season and brought up the next year and I think he’d still have one more year to UFA. Instead he gets to become one at 26 and not the standard 27.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Yes because he's given WAY more opportunity than he deserves. He is 4th among forwards in ice time at 16:41. Also he's 4th among forwards in average PP time at 2:11. He is 215th in AS P/60 and 262 in 5v5 P/60. If Zacha is used as the 3rd liner that he is rather than a 2nd liner who has split time between PP1 and PP2 then he doesn't sniff 40 pts.

What i don't get about Zacha is.... There are moments when he turns on the juice and gets a fiesty in the board play, but then it disappears for the rest of the game, or games. Then he comes back and looks like he's caring, but then he'll show up horribly in the static standstill puck handling department and flub a pass to skates or to the middle for no damn reason.

He, like a few others on this team since December, have no shot accuracy. They can't pick a corner now to save their lives. Every shot goes chest or wide.

Guy certainly is an enigma player. That phrase used to be used a lot on HFBoards years ago, Zacha seems to be one (and he's not even russian where they used to slap it on every odd-ball Russian palyer!). I don't know why he can't take that next step. Earlier in season he was playing better, but not burying chances. Now he looks unable to elevate his game and still doesn't bury chances. In November/December, he was at least generating a lot of chances but hit a bazillion posts. Now he is more perimeter player only (oddly, for his size).

As others pointed out, today his overall game wasn't bad outside of that PP misplay, but it certainly was symbolic of a lot of his efforts throughout this season, so it just stands out as a replay of what people are complaining about on him.

 

[NJDevs26]

How was the team this bad at home against Buffalo after somehow going 3-1-1 on the road?!

 

[Whaddagoal]

How was the team this bad at home after somehow going 3-1-1 on the road?!

Drank too much in Vegas on the way out, or something.

 

[Hisch13r]

We’re no stranger to letting players go in the cap era.

Some of them were good players (Gionta), but were not as important as Elias, Parise or Zajac. Some were players we should have kept. Rafalski I’d argue as one. Some of them were washed up anyway (Madden) but somehow still got overpaid by a Stanley Cup contender (and eventual winner) and that was something we had to deal with. I think we’re coming into that right now and I think Zacha is the first casualty of this new batch of guys.

That's letting UFAs walk. There's no reason to let an RFA walk when teams are interested in him.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

He might be worth more than $3 million, but that’s poor usage of our cap if we’re the team giving it to him.

We need to just let him go, the same way Lou let guys like Gionta go (among others) when we had to worry about the cap.

Yeah, he’s not a terrible player, but he’s not someone that should be here long term. His time is up. The most I’d give him is his qualifying offer of $3 million for one year.

There’s no reason to just let him go. If he wants to stay here cheap long term there’s no reason not too. That’s probably not the case and it’s probably time for both parties to move on. And if he’s worth that much or more it isn’t poor usage of cap. That doesn’t really make sense.
We will probably end up finding a trade for him that makes sense this off-season.

 

[Guttersniped]

I will say Sabres fans are very nice and low key, sort of the mirror opposite of Isles fans who are are always trying to be as loud as possible and screaming their brains out over everything.

The Sabre fans waited until the very end of the game to start a “Let’s Go Buffalo” chant, in an very exceedingly polite manner.

They could have done it earlier, and the home crowd was so annoyed I don’t even know if they would have counter chanted that much. But they waited until a lot of Devils fans were gone or leaving.

Again Isles fans never shut the f*** up, they act like they’re in their home arena. Even this year, with their team out of the playoffs and therefore way fewer of their fans at Devils games, the Isles fans still acted the exact same way. They’re the worst. Seriously, Flyers fans are even better at this point.

 

[NJDevs26]

I often times wonder though, I’ve been thinking a lot about it the last few days.

Do we extend him first and then trade him? Do we trade his rights with one more year remaining before UFA eligibility? How will this happen? It’s an interesting dilemma. I can’t remember the last time we sent away a pending RFA that had just one more year till UFA.

They don’t have any reason financially to nontender him. They don’t have any reason hockeywise to keep him. People who were bitching we needed to trade Nico to change the culture, no you change the culture by kicking passengers like Zacha out

 

[Bleedred]

There’s no reason to just let him go. If he wants to stay here cheap long term there’s no reason not too. That’s probably not the case and it’s probably time for both parties to move on. And if he’s worth that much or more it isn’t poor usage of cap. That doesn’t really make sense.
We will probably end up finding a trade for him that makes sense this off-season.

What’s cheap? Like Miles Wood’s current deal? I don’t expect Zacha to play for that, that’s not fair to ask of him.

Just let him go. And I don’t mean for nothing when I say just let him go. I mean just move on from him. Take whatever for him.

 

[Whaddagoal]

EDIT. Something got messed up with reply

 

[Whaddagoal]

I will say Sabres fans are very nice and low key, sort of the mirror opposite of Isles fans who are are always trying to be as loud as possible and screaming their brains out over everything.

The Sabre fans waited until the very end of the game to start a “Let’s Go Buffalo” chant, in an very exceedingly polite manner.

They could have done it earlier, and the home crowd was so annoyed I don’t even know if they would have counter chanted that much. But they waited until a lot of Devils fans were gone or leaving.

Again Isles fans never shut the f*** up, they act like they’re in their home arena. Even this year, with their team out of the playoffs and therefore way fewer of their fans at Devils games, the Isles fans still acted the exact same way. They’re the worst. Seriously, Flyers fans are even better at this point.

Agreed. Isles are actually worse than Rangers fans in our arena, at least from my more recent experience.

There was one Buffalo guy in the beginning of the game (1st period), but he got muffled out quickly. I didn't hear a lot of Buafflo going, mostly Devils fans booing and complaining bout our shitty PP lol. But they weren't necessarily filling the arena at all. I think these two fanbases are so passive now, no one gives a hoot at the moment.

 

[Bleedred]

That's letting UFAs walk. There's no reason to let an RFA walk when teams are interested in him.

Don’t get me wrong. I know I said don’t tender him, but that’s not what I mean in the comparisons with letting him go like we let those guys go.

If he’s still here in a year from now, then yeah, let him go. That’s assuming he only gets a one year deal and makes it till the end of next year still being here.

If he gets more than a one year deal from us though, that’s probably the worst thing we’ve done regarding him since letting him play in the NHL at 19 and not just sending him back to the O for another year.

Which is the reason why he’s UFA eligible at 26 and not 27 in the first place.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

What’s cheap? Like Miles Wood’s current deal? I don’t expect Zacha to play for that, that’s not fair to ask of him.

Just let him go. And I don’t mean for nothing when I say just let him go. I mean just move on from him. Take whatever for him.

If Zacha wants to sign for 3-4 years at 3M that would make a lot of sense. He probably wants more than that and the more he asks for the less sense it makes. Which is probably why it’s will be time to move on from him. I’d imagine he’ll be pushing for 4+ million at least and has some decent backing with last years production.
I really hope we don’t just take whatever for him.

 

[Guttersniped]

I often times wonder though, I’ve been thinking a lot about it the last few days.

Do we extend him first and then trade him? Do we trade his rights with one more year remaining before UFA eligibility? How will this happen? It’s an interesting dilemma. I can’t remember the last time we sent away a pending RFA that had just one more year till UFA.

The rumor is he’s going to sign his Qualifying Offer for 3m so he can be a UFA in a year. That means he’ll make the decision himself unless he gets traded at the draft before that happens.