Neutral-Zone Crap: Doug Armstrong was right about Tage Thompson

The play of the Sabres' young star has evened out what was once a lopsided trade...Plus, what will come of the Ryans involved in that deal, Nick Bollettieri and hockey, and Situational Scoring

Tage Thompson hasn’t even started earning his big money yet, but he’s a big-money player for the Sabres.

The St. Louis Blues were celebrating their first Stanley Cup in franchise history the night of June 12, 2019 at the TD Garden in Boston when Blues GM Doug Armstrong noticed hockey writer Mike Harrington, who was covering the final in his capacity as the hockey columnist for the Buffalo News.

You might recall that almost 11 months prior to that, Armstrong had made a deal with former Sabres GM Jason Botterill to acquire the rights to Ryan O’Reilly, who had just won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP and exactly one week later would pick up the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward. At that time, the trade was looking like one of the most one-sided deals in NHL history. And it was one of the reasons Botterill ultimately lost his job.